New year, new guidance from the FTC on MLM pyramid schemes.

Sort of…

In a January 4th “offer of business guidance concerning multi-level marketing”, the FTC has attempted to clarify common questions and concerns related to MLM and pyramid schemes. [Continue reading…]

Last October Chris Principe filed a motion requesting a harassment order against defendant Timothy Curry.

Principe argued that Curry was harassing him and requested the court prohibit him from doing so.

Specifically, Principe wanted to

enjoin Curry from “[c]ontacting [Principe], either directly or indirectly, by any means, including but not limited to, by telephone, mail, email, social media, or other electronic means”; from “[p]ublishing [Principe’s] name in any media whatsoever”; and from “[c]ontacting any of [Principe’s] known business associates concerning [Principe] in any manner or with respect to any topic concerning [Principe].”

The length of the injunction sought was five years.

Upon consideration of Principe’s motion, Curry’s opposition, Principe’s response and oral arguments from both parties, on January 3rd Principe’s motion was denied. [Continue reading…]

Predating the launch of their BTC package Ponzi scheme, David Frost was a prominent fixture in USI-Tech marketing.

Often appearing alongside Master Distributors Dan & Patti Hunt, Frost appeared in USI-Tech marketing videos and co-hosted company events.

Here’s the thing though – in addition to being high up the USI-Tech investor chain, David Frost is also Associate Professor of Business at Bethany College.

And word on the street is Frost isn’t above recruiting students into USI-Tech. [Continue reading…]

Chrysos Coin provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The Chrysos Coin website domain (“chrysoscoin.com”) was privately registered on December 14th, 2017.

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…]

Appi Travels launched in 2016 and combined travel booking with pyramid recruitment.

The company is still headed up by Danny Gauthier, who previously launched the Ultamex and Wealth Podium pyramid schemes.

Sometime in the second half of 2017 Appi Travels modified their compensation plan.

A BehindMLM reader recently noted the change, prompting a new Appi Travels review. [Continue reading…]

HextraCoin is one of the earlier ICO lending Ponzi schemes to launch in 2017.

Almost to the day their initial ROI maturity period would have ended, HextraCoin has suspended ROI payments. [Continue reading…]

BitGlare provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

BitGlare claim to have been “found in Oct 2016 by a group of experts in volatility trading software”, however the company website (“bitglare.com”) was only registered on November 30th, 2017.

The BitGlare domain was registered privately and provides no information about company ownership.

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…]

Ecovill Nature claims it “started as a young company founded in the UK in 2009”.

Ecovill Nature provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The Ecovill Nature website domain (“eco-vill.ltd”) was privately registered on November 11th, 2017.

Ecovill Nature Limited was incorporated in the UK on November 14th, 2017.

Despite the claim on their website, there is no evidence that Ecovill Limited existed prior to November, 2017.

Of note is the address used to incorporate Ecovill Nature Limited is the same used by Cryptonion Limited.

Cryptonion offers a 1.55% daily return on USD investments. The company is not registered to offer securities in either the UK or US and in all likelihood operates as a Ponzi scheme.

Ecovill Nature meanwhile is probably operated by someone of Russian or Ukrainian descent, either from within Russia, the Ukraine or somewhere else in Europe.

Supporting this is offered languages on the Ecovill Nature website being Russian and English. Official news bulletins on the Ecovill Nature website are exclusively published in Russian.

Alexa currently estimates that Russia (15%) and the Ukraine (6%) are the largest sources of traffic to the Ecovill Nature website.

Ecovill Nature also maintain a Russian-language social media presence on VKontakte, Russia’s largest social media platform.

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…]

According to the BCH Revolution website, the company is run by “Dr. Yusran S.”

Yusran claims to based out of Indonesia and states he works in a hospital as an “Internal Medicine Specialist”.

Yusran does appear to be a real person, going by the handle @Yusran on Twitter.

The account is protected however, so no tweets are available.

On the BCH Revolution website Yusran (right), identifies himself as someone who

struggled for years, who got others involved in programs that seemed initially to be what we where looking for just to find a month or two down the road it failed or slowed down to where your time and effort was not rewarded any more.

Even worse, programs where you got friends and family involved in and now you had to look them in the eye and explain things beyond your control.

It seems that after losing money and recruiting people he knows into scam after scam, Yusran has decided to launch his own company.

Of note is the BCH Revolution website domain is registered to “Mustakim Landang”.

Landang also owns the domain “bchinvestments.co”, which provides name-servers for the BCH Revolution domain.

I wasn’t able to establish Mustakim Landang’s relationship or role within BCH Revolution.

Read on for a full review of the BCH Revolution MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Voltage Partners launched roughly two years ago.

The company’s business model was to come up with and develop “high value” apps, however that never really took off.

With seemingly nothing much else going on inside the company, a few weeks ago a partnership with Vitaxel was announced. [Continue reading…]