A reader recently tipped me off to an update to Daxio’s MLM offering.

Daxio, as reviewed on BehindMLM in May 2020, is the fourth reboot of the Global Game Arena Ponzi scheme.

Six months or thereabouts after that review was published, Daxio added “SportsBot” to its unregistered securities offering. [Continue reading…]

PandaTron provides no information on its website about who owns or runs the company.

PandaTron’s website domain (“pandatron.io”), was privately registered on November 5th, 2021.

As I write this, PandaTron’s website is a barebones launch counter:

Promotion of PandaTron is primarily taking place over Telegram.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

Zeonis provides no information on its website about who owns or runs the company.

Zeonis’ website domain (“zeonis.io”), was privately registered on August 13th, 2021.

Zeonis’ official white paper is both titled in Russian and was written by a Russian author:

The author’s name, Дмитрий Заруцкий, translates to Dmitry Zarutsky.

A search for Zaursky’s name in both Russian or English fails to turn up any connection to Zeonis.

Still, from this and Russian being present on Zeonis’ website…

…and Zeonis soliciting investment in rubles…

…and the Bank of Russia issuing a Zeonis pyramid scheme warning on November 12th, we can surmise whoever is behind Zeonis has ties to Russia.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, Zeonis provides shell company incorporation details in Australia.

Not only is this information meaningless, it’s also bogus.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

BitPlam provides no information on its website about who owns or runs the company.

BitPlam’s website domain (“bitplam.com”), was privately registered on August 30th, 2021.

Based on BitPlam’s Twitter profile, the company launched on September 17th.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, BitPlam provides a UK incorporation certificate for Bit Plam LTD on its website.

An MLM company operating or claiming to operate out of the UK is a red flag.

UK incorporation is dirt cheap and effectively unregulated. On top of that the FCA, the UK’s top financial regulator, do not actively regulate MLM related securities fraud.

As a result the UK is a favored jurisdiction for scammers looking to incorporate, operate and promote fraudulent companies.

For the purpose of MLM due-diligence, incorporation in the UK or registration with the FCA is meaningless.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

Was it ignorance, a false sense of security, stupidity, or a case of all three?

There has been a lot of speculation why Konstantin Ignatov, then CEO of OneCoin, travelled to the US in March 2019.

The ill fated trip culminated in Ignatov’s arrest at Los Angeles International Airport.

Today BehindMLM can reveal Ignatov confidentally travelled to the US, under the pretense OneCoin and the DealShaker expo he attended was legal. [Continue reading…]

The same day BehindMLM published its Mido Finance review, authorities in New Zealand issued a securities fraud warning. [Continue reading…]

Mido Finance provides no information on its website about who owns or runs the company.

Mido Finance’s website domain (“mido-finance.com”) was initially registered on January 24th, 2021.

The private registration was last updated on March 17th.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, Mido Finance provides UAE and New Zealand incorporation certificated on its website.

The UAE incorporation is for “Mido Group LTD”. The New Zealand incorporation is for Mido Finance Limited.

For the purpose of MLM due-diligence, basic incorporation in any jurisdiction is meaningless.

Update 12th November 2021 – New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority has issued a Mido Finance securities fraud warning. /end update

Mido Finance’s UAE incorporation corresponds with a provided corporate PO Box address in Dubai.

Any MLM company with ties to Dubai is likely a scam. The UAE is a safe-haven for scammers with no regulation to speak of.

The sole executive featured in Mido Finance’s marketing videos is CMO Lionel Von Berne.

Von Berne speaks with a European accent but I wasn’t able to place it (not the usual Russian/Ukrainian).

Lionel Von Berne doesn’t exist outside of Mido Finance. This is a strong indication it’s an alias, or he’s being played by an actor.

Mido Finance claims Von Berne is based out of Dubai.

Alexa currently ranks top sources of traffic to Mido Finance’s website as Vietnam (15%), Egypt (13%) and Russia (8%).

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

Upistic provides no information on their website about who owns or runs the company.

Upistic’s website domain (“upistic.com”) was privately registered on August 3rd, 2021.

A corporate address in Estonia is provided on Upistic’s website. This address doesn’t appear to have anything to do with Uptistic.

Alexa currently ranks top sources of traffic to Upistic’s website as Australia (22%), the US (19%) and Canada (19%).

If you click through to the “webinars” section of Upistic’s website, the most recent October 19th webinar was held in Vietnamese.

The three earlier available webinars, held on October 7th, September 9th and 16th respectively, are all in Chinese.

Although promotion of Upistic is now predominant in western countries, this strongly suggests Upistic has roots in south-east Asia.

Less definitive then Chinese webinars but supportive of Upistic being run from a non-English speaking country, is this grammar mistake on the webinar page:

This is likely why there’s no English voice work on any of Upistic’s marketing videos.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

Ghana’s youth are sick of QNet scammers targeting them for recruitment.

Pulse reports earlier this week a group of “angry youth”, armed with machetes, stick and clubs, attacked a local QNet office. [Continue reading…]

As part of its Ponzi scheme ruse, Profit Connect claimed to “proprietary Ai and Machine Learning Algorithms”.

None of that existed.

Profit Connect also represented to investors that it mined cryptocurrency. As part of those efforts, Profit Connect told investors it had “been mining for years and were very successful”.

Turns out Profit Connect only started mining on or around June 2021, about a week before the SEC shut it down. [Continue reading…]