Back in May AdvoCare announced it was terminating its MLM opportunity.

According to the company, the decision was made following “confidential talks with the FTC”.

Today the FTC finally revealed that AdvoCare had been investigated and found to be a pyramid scheme. [Continue reading…]

The Zeek Rewards Receiver’s contempt motion against VictoriaBank has been denied. [Continue reading…]

Pwan Group came across my desk as Pwan Homes.

Trouble is while while Pwan Homes talked about home ownership, there didn’t appear to be an actual MLM opportunity attach.

Research lead me to Pwan Group, which seems to be the actual MLM opportunity.

Although it’s likely that interest in Pwan Homes is non-existent outside of Pwan Group, why exactly the company exists is unclear.

Both Pwan Homes and Pwan Group are based out of Nigeria.

Here’s their respective marketing spiels:

Our company is PWAN HOMES LIMITED and is an acronym for Property world African Network, Home Ownership Made Easy Scheme.

PWAN GROUP PROPERTY ACCESS CLUB (PGPAC) is an umbrella body of the Pwan Group which is saddled with the responsibilities of planning, recruiting and training of potential marketers using our network marketing model to create an income generating means.

Neither company provides ownership or management information.

Of the two, Pwan Homes appears to be intended as a public facing site.

Although Pwan Homes has a website, poking around reveals website development is incomplete (stock photos and template text, dummy email addresses etc.).

Pwan Homes’ website domain (“pwanhomes.com”) was first registered in 2012.

The registration was last updated on August 2019 and lists Marc Austine as the owner.

Austine (right) is also the listed owner for Pwan Group’s website domain.

On LinkedIn Austine goes my Marc Austine Onwumere. Onwumere cites himself as the Group Chairman of Pwan Group and Pwan Homes.

In an associated ZoomInfo profile, Austine goes by Augustine Ozioma Onwumere.

The ZoomInfo profile reveals Pwan Plus, which appears to be another irrelevant real-estate angle.

At PWAN PLUS, nothing gets in the way of your needs. When you’re looking to buy land in the 5th largest city in Africa, Lagos state, Nigeria, whether residential or commercial, we will always treat you as our top priority.

I wasn’t able to put together an MLM history on Onwumere, but a July 2018 puff-piece in eTimes cites him as ‘C.E.O of Buzy internet enterprises, Washaholic drycleaner, Oj Marc clothing‘.

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

A short update note on the Digital Altitude Receiver’s website informs visitors that the Receivership is due to wind down soon.

Victims of the $54 million dollar scam have also been advised they are mostly screwed. [Continue reading…]

The DOJ has requested permission to present several witnesses at Mark S. Scott’s trial via CCTV.

Attached to the filing is a special agent declaration, which reveals insight into evidence the DOJ will present against Scott. [Continue reading…]

Dreams Digger operates in the cryptocurrency MLM niche and is based out of Salvador, Brazil.

Heading up Dreams Digger is CEO Leonardo Araujo.

I did find evidence of a Leonardo Araujo involved in network marketing dating back to 2015, but I was unable to verify if it was Dreams Digger’s Araujo.

Consequently, and possibly due to language barriers, I was unable to track Leonardo Araujo’s MLM history.

For their part Dreams Digger fails to provide any information about Araujo on their website.

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…]

After his arrest on suspicion of helping OneCoin launder hundreds of millions of dollars, Mark S. Scott sat down with FBI agents for an interview.

Scott alleges he was denied an attorney during the interview. He’s subsequently asked the court to suppress anything he said during it as evidence.

On September 27th the DOJ clapped back, inadvertently revealing the real reason behind Scott’s desperate filing. [Continue reading…]

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

Lyfcoin’s website domain (“lyfcoin.club”) was first registered in October 2017. The registration was last updated with incomplete details in April 2019.

This is likely when the Lyfcoin’s current owners took possession of the domain.

An incomplete address in Estonia is provided on Lyfcoin’s website, suggesting the company is being operated out of Europe.

Supporting this is Lyfcoin’s terms and conditions, which state they are “governed by the laws in force in United Kingdom [sic]”.

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…]

YouXWallet provides no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

YouXWallet’s website domain (“youxwallet.io”) was privately registered on May 10th, 2019.

In their marketing material, YouXWallet represent they are based out of Estonia, with an administrative office in Portugal.

Despite offering a language selector tool on their website, YouXWallet’s website language is currently locked to Portuguese. This is represented by a Brazilian flag.

Additionally, Alexa currently estimates that 88% of traffic to YouXWallet’s website originates out of Brazil.

This strongly suggests that whoever is running YouXWallet is actually based out of Brazil, or at a minimum is from Brazil but living elsewhere.

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…]

Following an investigation into Herbalife’s Chinese operations, the SEC has determined the company uses it’s global compensation plan across the country.

As Herbalife reveals in its own SEC filings, ‘[i]n China, while direct selling is permitted, multi-level marketing is not.‘ [Continue reading…]