Take a breath, you haven’t accidentally left your incognito window on the ‘Hub open.

Today we’re reviewing KOK Play, a cryptocurrency MLM company that represents it is based out of South Korea.

“KOK” stands for Keystone of Opportunity & Knowledge. The abbreviation is pronounced exactly as it looks.

Probably one of those instances you should have run the name by a native English speaker, but I digress.

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

KOK Play’s website domain (“kok-play.io”) was first registered in August 2019.

The registration was last updated in on August 21st, 2021. “TheMedium” through an incomplete address in Seoul, South Korea is listed as the owner.

Further research reveals KOK Play marketing crediting Jiwon Kang as CEO of the company.

Kang was appointed on or around January 2021.

In addition to running KOK Play, Kang appears to own SuperAcid.

SuperAcid is a failed gaming company that first attempted to jump on the crypto bandwagon in 2018:

Davinci Coin was dumped on public exchanges in late 2019. Apart from a few brief pump and dump spikes nothing much happened.

I also found KOK Play marketing citing Kang as CEO of WeredSoft, another failed gaming company.

It seems Jiwon Kang is determined to be a crypto bro, and so now we have KOK Play with its own KOK token.

Read on for a full review of KOK Play’s MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

IAM Worldwide operates in the nutritional supplement MLM niche.

The company is based out of the Philippines and was launched in or around 2016.

Heading up IAM Worldwide are co-founders Aika Lorraine Uy (Vice-President) and Allen Marvin Eder (President).

In 2008 Allen Eder co-founded The Filipino Dream (TFD).

TFD was some kind of franchise MLM mashup:

The company collapsed in 2015.

IAM Worldwide co-founder Aika Uy was a TFD affiliate:

Note that while IAM Worldwide operates and is primarily marketing in the Philippines, the company does have a limited global presence:

Read on for a full review of IAM Worldwide’s MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

The hearing to decide official classify Mirror Trading International as a pyramid scheme has been delayed.

What was a relatively straight-forward case, albeit slow-moving, has since devolved into a circus. [Continue reading…]

Three top Finiko promoters have been arrested in Kazan, Russia.

In local media coverage, Ilgiz Shakirov (right) is cited as a Finiko Vice President.

In BehindMLM’s May 2020 Finiko review, the affiliate rank Vice President didn’t exist. It appears to have been added as a higher rank sometime after. [Continue reading…]

BlackOxygen Organics operates in the nutritional supplement MLM niche.

The company is based out of Canada and headed up by founder and CEO, Marc Saint Onge.

Note that a US corporate address in Wyoming is provided on BlackOxygen Organics’ website.

This address belongs to Registered Agents Inc., who sell shell company incorporation services.

BlackOxygen Organics has its roots in Golden Moor, a mud company Saint Onge started in 1986.

As Saint Onge claims on his LinkedIn profile;

For 26 years, I built this business into a mutlit national [sic] export company selling mud all over the world.

I brought this company public in 2010 and sold it 2 years later.

BlackOxygen Organics was launched in June 2012.

I created this innovative delivery system in a tube for our famous blackoxygen drink containing our propriatery [sic] fulvic acid formula.

I believe the MLM side of the business was launched on or around 2015.

Read on for a full review of BlackOxygen Organics’ MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Alcor Trade owner Aleksey Zhirovkin has announced the launch of ANTd token.

Zhirovkin made the announcement in a September 7th video. [Continue reading…]

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

Other than marking Telepreneur Corp’s purported ninth anniversary in business, there isn’t much information on anything provided.

Featured on Telepreneur Corp’s website is a rotating carousel of marketing videos.

As above, the current prominent video features Sajiron R. Dayao, Telepreneur Corp’s Vice President for Sales and Marketing.

What those videos do lead to is Telepreneur Corp’s official YouTube channel. There various marketing videos reveal the company’s full executive lineup:

As above, heading up Telepreneurs Corp is owner, CEO and President Lorenzo B. Rellosa.

In addition to Telepreneurs Corp, Rellosa also owns and runs Leur Lauren International.

Leur Lauren International is a personal care MLM company.

Lueur Lauren International Corp. (LLIC) is a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM), Direct Selling Company founded on September 8, 2019 that focuses on giving our customers high quality health and beauty products that offer satisfying results and nurtures one’s self-esteem.

Rellosa’s stated goal with Luer Lauren International and Telepreneur Corp is to provide

a stable source of income while spreading beauty and love all over the country.

Rellosa runs both companies from the Philippines.

Read on for a full review of Telepreneur Corp’s MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

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

In fact as I write this, AntUSDT’s website is nothing more than an affiliate registration and login form. Links to unofficial apps are also provided.

Perusal of AntUSDT’s website source-code reveals Chinese text.

This strongly suggests a Chinese admin or at the very least someone fluent in Chinese is running AntUSDT.

This is further supported by early AntUSDT marketing videos, which are narrated in Chinese.

Two videos depict advertising billboards in random places in Taiwan.

We could also have Russian scammers utilizing a Chinese/Taiwanese dev team.

On June 27th AntUSDT uploaded a video to its official YouTube channel titled “ANTUSDT Cryptocurrency Mixer Awarded a prize of US $200,000 by the headquarter in London, UK”.

The video is your typical Boris CEO affair, featuring the usual cast of characters with eastern European accents.

The video does appear to be shot in the UK, likely because on July 19th the UK opened up as per its “Freedom Day” policy.

The closest I got to a pinpoint location was when the actors were in a small conference room. A sign reading “Y4 Office Space” can be seen through the window in certain shots.

I wasn’t able to progress any further than that.

Update 7th September 2021 – A reader has provided business details for Y4 rented offices in Kiev, Ukraine.

The building adjacent to Y4 Office Space, where AntUSDT shot their video, is the business “Hub 4.0”.

Hub 4.0 also sells office space, with meeting rooms starting at 300 Hryvnia (UAH) an hour (~$11 USD).

Here’s the gate outside the Hub 4.0 building, as seen on Google Maps (2019):

Here’s the same gate, as used in AntUSDT’s marketing video but shot from the other side (2021):

Note that Y4 Office Space hasn’t moved into the building across the road, it’s still boarded up in the Google Maps screenshot.

A complete floor plan of Hub 4.0 is available, however it also predates Y4 Office Space moving in.

I went looking for the exact room AntUSDT used on the first or second floor and couldn’t find it. I then went up to some windows and noted the same pre Y4 Office Space boarded up building.

The dining footage in AntUSDT’s video was shot next door to Hub 4.0 at “Italian from Beirut”.

Here’s a shot inside from the restaurant’s TripAdvisor page (Nov 2018):

Here’s the same seating in AntUSDT’s marketing video, shot from the opposite angle (2021):

The only difference is the indoor tree has been moved towards the window, and the chairs in front of the couch have been pushed back against the tree.

Together these shots provide conclusive evidence that AntUSDT’s marketing video was shot in Kiev, Ukraine.

The take-away from this is Ukranian scammers are behind AntUSDT. The link to Taiwan remains unclear.

Note that neither Hub 4.0 or Italian from Beirut are implicated. They are third-party businesses that have nothing to do with AntUSDT. /end update

AntUSDT’s Boris CEO is “Andy”, played by this guy:

I wasn’t able to pin down a name but “Andy” is a prolific stock photo model with a very obvious Russian accent.

Here he is playing a pilot, a guy in a taxi and a family man:

At the time of publication Alexa ranks top sources of traffic to AntUSDT’s website as Russia (33%), Ukraine (11%) and Sri Lanka (7%).

Russia and the Ukraine contributing 44% of AntUSDT website traffic supports the Russians working Asian devs theory.

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…]

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

Areons’ website domain (“areons.io”) was privately registered on June 16th, 2021.

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…]

Paparazzi held a ten year anniversary celebration in Las Vegas last month.

Unofficial tracking on social media suggests it might have been a COVID-19 super-spreader event.

The verified attendee death tally currently sits at eleven. [Continue reading…]