If you’re an Arbonne distributor you might want to keep an eye on your financial statements over the next few months.

In an exhibit attached to a data breach notification letter filed with the Office of the Attorney General of California, Arbonne has disclosed a data breach. [Continue reading…]

Strongbox250 launched a few weeks ago and provides a corporate address in London, UK on its website.

Further research reveals this is a virtual address provided by The London Office.

In their compensation plan material, Strongbox250 provides also provides a UK incorporation number.

This corresponds with Strongbox250 Limited, which was incorporated in February 2020.

UK incorporation is dirt cheap and effectively unregulated. It is a favored jurisdiction for scammers looking to incorporate dodgy companies.

Heading up Strongbox250 is CEO Mario Aparicio Gomez (right).

According to Gomez’s personal Facebook profile he’s based out of Granada, Spain. Thus it follows Strongbox250 is operated from Spain as opposed to the UK.

To that end Strongbox250 do provide a “commercial department” address in Spain in their compensation plan. Not really sure why they’re bothering with the UK facade.

Mario Gomez appears to have made a name for himself promoting gold themed pyramid schemes.

The two I was able to peg Gomez to are SwissGolden (2015) and SwissGold Market (2017).

By 2019 Gomez had ditched gold for cryptocurrency fraud and was promoting the MiningVIP Ponzi scheme.

MiningVIP appears to have collapsed around mid 2019, bringing us to the launch of Strongbox250 earlier this year.

Read on for a full review of Strongbox250’s MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Renao Global operates in the travel, tech and nutritional supplement MLM niches.

Despite not existing up until a few months ago, Renao Global claims it has “a proven track record spanning almost 2 decades”.

We opened our doors initially in 2002 with an unbelievable story against all odds as there are with any network marketing company that wants to open.

No specific information is provided.

Heading up Renao Global is co-founder Mel Gill and CEO and President Raymond Medeiros.

As per Gill’s Renao Global corporate bio, he has

30 years experience in Direct Sales as a Multi Million Dollar Producer (and is) considered the top 1% across the globe.

From what I’ve been able to piece together Gill and his wife Amie launched their first MLM company, Team Effort International, in 2002.

In an undated interview with NPros, Gill described Team Effort International’s business model as “consumer savings marketed under one umbrella”.

In 2004 Gill and his wife launched My Video Talk, a “communications platform” MLM company.

Circa 2011/2012, Team Effort Network was launched as “the newest division of Team Effort International”.

One day in late 2010, one of our customers came to us with a technology idea: liquid vitamins in a spray delivery system. Or simply, spray vitamins!

Raymond Medeiros’ tie to the MLM industry is through Freedom Leaf, who now go by GL Brands.

In August 2018 Freedom Leaf acquired Tierra Science Global. A press-release announcing the acquisition was authored by Medeiros.

Tierra Science Global appears to have collapsed on or around April 2019.

As far as I can tell none of the Team Effort companies are still operating today.

Based on Renao Global referencing an opening in 2002, it appears the company is the latest iteration of the same group of Team Effort companies.

Mid last year Mel and Amie Gill launched Wow Nutrition Technology, primarily targeting India. The company appears to have lasted a few months before collapsing.

For all intents and purposes Renao Global is a reboot of Wow Nutrition Technology, this time targeting the US.

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

TelexFree Brazil co-owners Carlos Wanzeler and Carlos Costa have been sentenced to twelve and a half years in prison.

The pair have also been fined R$1 million ($183,698 USD) each. [Continue reading…]

A report from Morning News Direct Sales alleges that Jeunesse products worth 1.5 billion yuan were seized on May 19th.

The haul equates to $210 million dollars in seized inventory, and is the second largest seizure of Jeunesse products to date. [Continue reading…]

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

In fact as I write this, Suponic Global’s website is just an affiliate login form.

Languages offered on Suponic Global’s website are English, Korean, Japanese and Chinese, suggesting a focus on Asia.

Appearances can be deceiving however, with further research revealing Suponic Global is run by US residents.

At the time of publication Alexa pegs the US as the largest source of traffic to Suponic Global’s website (72%).

One official Suponic Global marketing video is marketed by “Francis from Southern California”. And here’s a list of names provided in scripts Suponic Global provides to affiliates:

Jay was too broad a name for me to pin down. As per a video uploaded recently by serial scam promoter Ryan Conley, “Jacques” and “AC” refers to Jacques Johnson and AC Green.

AC Green is a retired basketball player. Jacques Johnson is credited as Suponic Global’s CEO.

“Elmer” refers to Elmer Dugaduga, who hosts Suponic Global webinars. “Robert” is supposedly Robert Horry, another retired athlete. I wasn’t able to turn up anything concrete on the other names.

Finally, Suponic Global is also using a Bank of America account to solicit investment through (see review conclusion for more info).

Prior to its current iteration, Suponic Global operated simply as “Suponic”. Marketing videos on the company’s website date back to January 2019.

One video depicts a Suponic presentation somewhere in Asia. This explains the company’s apparent Asian roots.

It also suggests the first iteration of Suponic failed, prompting the Suponic Global reboot we’re reviewing today.

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…]

Antares Trade operates in the cryptocurrency MLM niche.

The company represents it is founded and run by “Alex Richter”:

Richter is a good candidate for a Boris CEO, meaning he’s played by an actor. This is primarily based on Richter not having a digital footprint until Antares Trade’s launch a few months ago.

Richter also appears in multiple Antares Trade marketing videos, which as per the example above, give off a typical rented office vibe.

A tell-tale sign of this is the same props used in videos featuring Richter, despite them being shot weeks apart.

Supposedly Antares Trade is based out of Mexico, however the company provides a corporate address in Hong Kong on its website.

A search on Antares Trade’s Hong Kong address reveals it belongs to a hotel.

This is of course all very suspicious, but unfortunately par for the course of MLM cryptocurrency companies.

Antares Trade’s website domain’s current registration was done on December 10th 2018. The registration was last updated on March 27th, 2020.

A visit to the Wayback Machine confirms that as of December 22nd 2018, the “antares.trade” domain was for sale.

This suggests the current owners purchased the domain on or around March this year, then repurposed it to launch Antares from.

This matches up with the first video uploaded to Antares Trade’s official YouTube channel on March 6th, 2020.

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…]

Fun5 Exchange operates in the cryptocurrency MLM niche.

The company does provide an executive team on their website, however none of these people appear to actually exist.

Someone also forgot to create fake LinkedIn profiles for them and/or disable the feature from Fun5 Exchange’s website theme.

Fun5 Exchange’s website domain (“fun5exchange.com”) was privately registered on February 24th, 2020.

In an attempt to appear legitimate, Fun5 Exchange provides a UK incorporation certificate.

The certificate corresponds to Fun5Exchange Limited, which was incorporated on February 26th, 2020.

UK incorporation is dirt cheap and effectively unregulated. It is a favored jurisdiction for scammers looking to incorporate dodgy companies.

Official Fun5 Exchange marketing videos are narrated by someone with a distinctly European accent.

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…]

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

Billion Money website domain (“billionmoney.live”) was privately registered on February 24th, 2020.

At the time of publication Alexa pegs India as the only notable source of traffic to Billion Money’s website (62%).

This suggests that whoever is running Billion Money is likely based out of India.

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…]

Fund My Home’s advertised website at “fundmyhome.org” fails to provide information on company ownership or management.

I spotted a different URL in Fund My Home’s marketing materials (“realestatemortgagegrants.com”). Although hosted on a different domain, this website is Fund My Home branded and fills in the gaps.

Fund My Home is run by owner and President and Carlos Burattini. No information about him is provided on either of Fund My Home’s websites.

Possibly due to language-barriers, I was unable to find anything MLM related on Burattini.

His Facebook profile is for all intents and purposes blank but does reveal he’s based out of Florida.

That lead me to the Florida Real Estate Commission, who revoked Burattini’s real-estate license in 2010.

Burattini’s license appears to have been revoked due to public complaints. I wasn’t able to get specifics on any complaints.

Considering Fund My Home operates in the real-estate MLM niche, this is not a good look.

Read on for a full review of Fund My Home’s MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]