In a desperate bid to legitimize his CMDX Ponzi scheme, owner Tom McMurrain has been talking up public trading on the OpenLedger exchange.

Those negotiations seem to have gotten as far as OpenLedger allowing deposits in CMDX, but as far as I can tell no actual public trading took place.

Now OpenLedger has announced it’s pulling the plug on CMDX support. [Continue reading…]

A new report from the Daily Mail has confirmed John Barksdale remains in custody while authorities investigate.

Barksdale was arrested in connection with his Ormeus Global Ponzi scheme. [Continue reading…]

Credit Star Funding is owned and operated by CEO Riccardo Ferrari, who claims to be based out of California in the US.

Credit Star Funding’s business model is simple; the company pitches a promise to get its affiliates funded.

Once funded, Credit Star Funding affiliates are expected to plough their loan into “non-collateral funding and Artificial Intelligence income systems.”

And by that Credit Star Funding is referring to Ponzi schemes. More on that later. [Continue reading…]

A report covering deportation of criminals from Ghana has revealed QNet “employees” are among those deported. [Continue reading…]

Authorities in Thailand have arrested serial scammer John Barksdale.

Barksdale is primarily known as the owner of the collapsed Ormeus Global Ponzi scheme.

Barksdale was arrested in Bo Put, Samui District, on a Bangkok warrant back on July 8th. [Continue reading…]

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

Wssavior’s website domain (“wssavior.com”) was  registered on April 5th, 2018.

Eva Kozma is listed as the owner, through an address in the UK shared with multiple businesses.

No connection between Eva Kozma and Wssavior exists outside of the domain registration.

Given this, it’s highly likely that Kozma doesn’t exist.

On their website Wssavior provide a UK incorporation number that corresponds with WSSH LTD.

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

Furthermore there doesn’t appear to be any verifiable connection between Wssavior and WSSH LTD.

On its website Wssavior also claims to have “started” in September 2014.

This is bogus, as the company’s website domain was only registered in April 2018.

Wssavior’s official Twitter account went live in July 2018, which is likely around the time the company actually launched.

WSSH LTD’s UK corporate filings date back to August 2014, which appears to be the basis of the “start” date on Wssavior’s website.

It’s highly likely that Wssavior has just using the details of a an existing unrelated UK company.

The UK is notorious for failing to regulate its corporate records.

At the time of publication Alexa ranks Argentina (19%), Russia (13%) and Iran (12%) as the top three sources of traffic to Wssavior’s website.

Based on Wssavior having an active Russian language VK social media account, it’s highly likely that whoever owns Wssavior is from Russia itself.

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…]

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

NovaTech’s website domain (“novatechfx.io”) was registered on June 17th, 2019.

NovaTech LTD is listed as the owner, through what appears to be a bogus incomplete address (Vatican City).

On its website NovaTech claims to be “registered in the USA, British Virgin Islands and Estonia”.

No specific details are provided which, when combined with the bogus domain, leads me to believe these claims are false.

Update 11th July 2021 – NovaTech has abandoned their .io domain, it now redirects to “novatechfx.com”.

A page on that website has the slug “from the CEO”. On the page Cynthia Petion, styling herself as a reverend, speaks about NovaTech in the possessive.

When we developed NovaTech, Ltd., we decided on two things:

First, we resolved that our program would be affordable to join and available to anyone who wanted to participate.

Second, we committed to providing people with the tools and skills training they need to be successful.

Cynthia and her husband Eddy Petion are known to BehindMLM as top earners in the AWS Mining Ponzi scheme.

BehindMLM reviewed AWS Mining in September 2018. Eddy Petion showed up in the review comments to defend the Ponzi scheme.

AWS Mining collapsed in April 2019. NovaTech popped up on our radar a few months later.

It seems the Petion’s launched NovaTech as a reboot Ponzi. Rather than just be top net-winners though, through NovaTech they keep more money as company owners.

Leaning into religion, Cynthia Petion is marketing herself as “The Reverend CEO”.

Eddy Petion, who served as AWS Mining’s executive President, cites himself as NovaTech’s Chief Operating Officer.

The Petions are believed to operate out of New York in the US. /end update

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 a hearing held on August 2nd, MOBE case proceedings have been stayed for 90 days.

The request for a stay was made last week, amid ongoing settlement negotiations between MOBE owner Matt Lloyd McPhee and the FTC. [Continue reading…]

Following the collapse of its original gifting model, Abundance Network is set to relaunch as a pyramid scheme. [Continue reading…]

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

The company does have an “about us” section on their website, but instead of providing corporate information it’s used as a marketing pitch.

I noticed the SSL certificate used by Optavia belongs to Medifast. That lead me to this article, which revealed up until July 2017 Optavia was known as Take Shape For Life.

Take Shape for Life was launched as an MLM subsidiary of Medifast back in 2002.

Medifast was founded by William Vitale in 1980 as Vitamin Specialties Corp.

Today the weight loss focused company is based out of Maryland in the US.

As of October 2016 Daniel Chard (right) is CEO of both Medifast and Optavia.

As per another article from the Baltimore Sun;

Chard has more than 25 years of direct selling and consumer products experience.

Before his time at PartyLite, Chard held various jobs over 17 years at Nu Skin Enterprises Inc., including executive vice president of distributor success and president of global sales & operations.

Previously, he had marketing roles at PUR Recovery Engineering and The Pillsbury Co.

Why this basic information isn’t provided on Optavia’s website is unclear.

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