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

EtherConnect’s website domain (“etherconnect.co”) was privately registered on January 12th, 2021.

From its company logo to its marketing material, EtherConnect represents itself as a reboot of the notorious BitConnect Ponzi scheme.

The following is from EtherConnect’s official marketing presentation;

As everyone knows that Bitconnect limited closed it operation around the world due to Government Regulation in 2018, But now Bitconnect is back with complete legal registration in Estonia & United Kingdom with its strong community.

Bitconnect is launching its new updated platform Etherconnect.

Although it’s likely that whoever is behind EtherConnect was involved in BitConnect, I’m doubtful its the same owners.

BitConnect was an MLM crypto Ponzi scheme launched in 2016.

In early 2018 BitConnect attracted the attention of US regulators in Texas and North Carolina, prompting its top US promoter Glenn Arcaro to flee.

Arcaro, who is believed to have stolen millions through BitConnect, remains in hiding.

A week after Arcaro fled, BitConnect collapsed.

Over the coming months Trevon James, one of Arcaro’s accomplices, confirmed an FBI investigation into BitConnect.

Craig Grant, another of Arcaro’s accomplices, later confirmed the SEC were also investigating.

In late 2018 a report out of India suggested US authorities were looking to recover $5.6 billion from Indian nationals Satish Kumbhani and Divyesh Darji.

Kumbhani and Darji are believed to be the architects of BitConnect.

Darji was arrested by Indian authorities in August 2018. Satish Kumbhani was arrested in June 2019.

Reports out of India revealed the FBI had sent agents to interrogate Kumbhani following his arrest.

In February 2019 the FBI directly reached out to BitConnect victims.

Since 2019 there have been no significant public developments from US authorities with respect to BitConnect.

The current status of any ongoing US investigations into BitConnect is unknown.

Given this, I’m highly doubtful any of the BitConnect OG crew are behind EtherConnect.

They already stole billions. It makes no sense to return with a clone scam.

At the time of publication Alexa ranks the US as the primary source of traffic to EtherConnect’s website (85%).

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

Within an hour or so of our NRGY smart-contract Ponzi review going live, Duane Noble showed up in the comments below to aggressively defend it.

This seemed kind of odd, as Duane seemed to take NRGY being correctly identified as a Ponzi scheme personally.

Anyway, courtesy of Chris Hawk Jones, mystery solved. [Continue reading…]

Go9Tro provides no information on its website about who owns or runs the company.

Go9Tro’s website domain (“go9tro.io”) was first registered in August 2019. The private registration was last updated on September 10th, 2020.

In the about section of its official YouTube channel, Go9Tro provides an address in Japan.

Further research reveals this address belongs to WeWork. WeWork is an unrelated co-working location provider.

The first video uploaded to Go9Tro features a Chinese video description:

Without reading too much into this, it suggests whoever is behind Go9Tro is from south-east Asia.

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…]

OneCoin CEO Konstantin Ignatov is scheduled to be sentenced on May 14th, 2021.

In the meantime, a January 28th filed appearance bond reveals Ignatov has been released on a $500,000 surety. [Continue reading…]

With the MLM niche being the cesspool that it is, you’ll typically have a hard time getting to the bottom of who’s behind what.

“Decentralized” has become a term scamming admins hide behind so as not to reveal themselves.

NRGY token, another smart-contract Ponzi scheme, is no different. [Continue reading…]

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

BitcoLoan’s website domain (“bitcoloan.com”) was first registered on July 4th, 2020. The private domain registration was last updated on October 28th, 2020.

Alexa currently ranks the top two sources of traffic to BitcoLoan’s website as India (20%) and the US (17%).

BitcoLoan’s official Twitter account places the company in Sydney, Australia.

None of these countries are likely candidates for where BitcoLoan is being operated from.

The first video uploaded to BitcoLoan’s official YouTube channel was on January 28th, 2021.

It’s a testimonial video from “Wendy”, who has a distinctly European accent.

Wendy is sitting in a left-hand drive car, so that rules out Australia and India.

Have a listen to “Craig”, “Melanie” and an official BitcoLoan tutorial video.

Update 22nd July 2021 – I had linked to several BitcoLoan vidoes hosted on their official YouTube channel above.

Sometime in the past 24 hours these videos have been marked private, so I’ve had to remove the links.

The company’s website is still up but I’m noting BitcoLoan’s official Facebook page has also been wiped. /end update

In case it wasn’t obvious, BitcoLoan is most likely being operated from Russia or the Ukraine.

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…]

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

As I write this, iHub Global’s website is little more than a marketing video and affiliate login button.

Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions and Disclaimer links at the bottom of the website are disabled.

iHub Global’s website domain (“ihub.global”) was privately registered on December 3rd, 2020.

Further research reveals iHub Global has an official Vimeo channel. This channel isn’t linked on iHub Global’s website.

Marketing videos on iHub Global’s Vimeo channel are hosted by Chuck Hanson (right).

Hanson refers to iHub Global in the possessive but doesn’t disclose his official position within the company.

Another name I recognized in iHub Global’s marketing presentations was Rick Cotton (aka Richard Cotton).

Cotton (right) first appeared on BehindMLM as the co-founder and CEO of eXfuze.

This was back in 2013. In 2019 eXfuze rebranded as KZ1. By this stage Cotton was no longer CEO but retained a controlling interest in the company.

In response to BehindMLM’s published KZ1 review, Cotton appeared in the comments to discredit our research.

You pretty much missed the mark on 50% of your findings.

At one time I would come to your site and it was reputable but honestly I do not believe that to be the case anymore.

After addressing the points Cotton made with evidence, Cotton only returned to spit the dummy.

In his comments (circa 2019), Cotton claimed he was “still actively involved” in KZ1. Whether that’s still the case is unclear.

In iHub Global Cotton seems to be in charge of creating marketing funnels. As with Chuck Hanson, Cotton’s specific role within the company isn’t disclosed.

The only executive disclosed in iHub Global’s marketing material is COO Randall Pires.

Pires doesn’t have an MLM history but is a co-founder of Emrit. Emrit appears to be iHub Global’s hardware supplier.

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

A motion filed by the Trustee reveals around 29,000 TelexFree victims have still failed to provide payment information. [Continue reading…]

New Brunswick’s Financial and Consumer Services Commissions has issued a securities fraud warning against CashFX Group. [Continue reading…]

Roughly two weeks prior to its collapse, New Brunswick’s Financial and Consumer Services Commission issued a securities fraud warning against Beurax.

Unfortunately this one slipped under the radar until I came across it today. [Continue reading…]