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

The Osmium Center website domain (“osmium.center”) was privately registered on November 17th, 2017.

There is an official Osmium Center Facebook group, created by David Mandison on December 10th.

The David Mandison Facebook profile appears to be fake. The profile was created on December 10th and features a profile photo of Ukranian lawyer Sergei Pokrovsky:

In an attempt to feign legitimacy, Osmium Center have incorporated themselves in the UK as Osmium LTD on November 21st.

The non-existent David Mandison is listed as Osmium LTD’s sole Director.

UK incorporation is dirt cheap and for the most part unregulated. They are a favorite for scammers looking to incorporate dodgy companies.

When I first visited the Osmium Center website, I was hit with a strong sense of deja vu:

The Osmium Center website source-code differs to that of the Laser Online and Receiving Online Ponzi schemes, but the design is otherwise mostly the same.

Pokrovsky being a Ukranian lawyer is also unlikely to be a coincidence, with those running Laser Online having ties to the Ukraine.

Either Osmium Center is a desperate attempt to resurrect Laser Online by the same group of scammers, or someone playing funny buggers with misdirection.

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…]

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

The Hit Coin Trade website domain (“hitcoin.trade”) was privately registered on November 21st, 2017.

Hit Coin Trade claims to be a “European trading company based in the United Kingdom.”

This is supported by a UK incorporation of Hit Coin Trade Limited.

Hit Coin Trade Limited was incorporated in the UK on December 1st, through a residential address in London.

Ellis Davidson is listed as the sole Director of the company. No information about Ellis outside of the Hit Coin Trade Limited incorporation exists, casting doubt on whether this person exists.

UK incorporation is dirt cheap and for the most part unregulated. They are a favorite for scammers looking to incorporate dodgy companies.

Whoever is actually running Hit Coin Trade is likely Russian and/or based out of Russia.

Supporting this is the Hit Coin Trade website defaulting to Russian and native use of rubles. Russian Hit Coin Trade social media profiles and a Telegram chat group are additionally provided.

Alexa also identify Russia as the largest source of traffic to the Hit Coin Trade website (36%).

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…]

On November 29th the Traffic Monsoon Receiver filed her Third Stats Report.

In it the Receiver revealed over $4.3 million has been recovered from Allied Wallet. [Continue reading…]

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

The BTC Wait website domain (“btcwait.com”) was privately registered on November 7th, 2017.

BTC Wait claim to be incorporated in the UK through BTCWait Limited.

BTCWait Limited was incorporated on November 17th, 2017.

The address used to incorporate BTCWait Limited belongs to Registered Office, who provide virtual office services.

Zachary Simpson is listed as the sole Director of the company. Given the lack of external information available however, Simpson likely doesn’t exist.

UK incorporation is dirt cheap and for the most part unregulated. They are a favorite for scammers looking to incorporate dodgy companies.

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…]

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

The Coinifica website domain (“coinifica.com”) was registered on March 1st, 2017.

Mario Cappellery is listed as the owner, through what appears to be a bogus address in the UK.

Coinifica is tied to Coinifica LTD, which was incorporated in the UK on March 10th.

Mario Cappelleri is listed as the sole Director of the company, through the same bogus UK address.

UK incorporation is cheap and for the most part unregulated. In MLM they are mostly used by dodgy company owners.

No information on Cappelleri outside of the Coinifica domain registration exists, casting doubt on whether he’s an actual person.

Offered languages on the Coinifica website include English and Russian, suggesting the company is likely being run elsewhere in Europe.

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…]

Pure Light Technologies operate in the energy MLM niche and are based out of Idaho in the US.

Heading up Pure Light Technologies is CEO and President Roger K. Young.

According to the company website, Pure Light Technologies initially launched in 2014 as Total Solar Super Green.

The name was changed from Total Solar Super Green to Pure-Light Technologies, Inc. in October of 2015.

PURE-LIGHT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.  is a subsidiary of Total Solar Technologies, LLC with manufacturing facilities located in Rigby, Idaho.

Roger Young (right) is also the CEO of Total Solar Technologies.

The only MLM history I was able to track down on Young was Free Food 2 Go, a “food storage” MLM company launched in 2011.

Total Solar Technologies meanwhile appears to be a fully fledged solar unit retailer, with an emphasis on “off the grid living”.

On the Total Solar Technologies website Roger Young claims to have been

heavily involved in prepping for 25 years and solar energy for 20 years, even living off grid completely for 7 years in the mountains of Montana raising their kids. (Yes, most of the kids were home schooled.)

Read on for a full review of the Pure Light Technologies MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

QNet was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Hong Kong.

As far as I can tell though, other than existing there in name, QNet has no business operations in Hong Kong itself.

The company was founded by Vijay Eswaran (right), who is based out of Malaysia. For all intents and purposes, QNet operates as a Malaysian company.

So the story goes;

In the mid-90s, Vijay Eswaran and Joseph ‘Japa’ Bismark, two young men from drastically different backgrounds came together in business and friendship.

Having found reasonable success in network marketing with an American company that was doing extremely well in the Philippines, the two joined forces and their group called the V Team consisting of bright, motivated and talented men and women, soon became the largest revenue earner for the American company.

At one point they realised that the Company was being dishonest with them and after all efforts to rectify the situation failed, the V Team and a few of their leaders sat around Vijay’s kitchen table to discuss the next steps.

About 1,500 people who had believed in the V Team leaders had joined the team. What were they going to tell them?

The easy way out was to tell them what the company owners did and wash their hands off any culpability.

However, they did not choose the easy way out.

With the fate of thousands of their team members at stake, and a liability in excess of USD 250,000, the two young men along with their core team members made a bold and crazy decision to start their own company, with the sole purpose of looking after the interests of the people who had trusted them and put their life’s savings into their hands.

On that fateful day in September 1998 in the Philippine Stock Exchange Centre (formerly Tektite Towers) in Manila, Philippines, the company today known as QNET was born.

QNet originally started out as QuestNet and promoted gold and silver coins.

In addition to GoldQuest and QI Limited, QNet has spawned at least 76 related shell companies.

QNet itself is a subsidiary of QI Group, which oversees the company’s operations globally.

The reason for this appears to be mitigation of corporate liability.

QNet sets up shop in a country under a different name. With QNet headquartered in Hong Kong, the company has been very careful not to conduct business in either Hong Kong or China.

Why, you ask?

Aside from Malaysia, QNet has run into regulatory trouble in pretty much every country it’s established a significant presence in.

• the Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry issued QuestNet a cease and desist (2003)
• the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan conducted an investigation into GoldQuest and found it to be a pyramid scheme (2003)
• the Nepalese Home Ministry banned GoldQuest from operating in Nepal (2003)
• the Sri Lankan government banned GoldQuest (2005)
• the Iranian government banned GoldQuest (2005)
• An Interpol alert resulting from a Philippine investigation saw Vijay Eswaran and several GoldQuest officials arrested in Indonesia, they were released and the charges dismissed after three weeks (2007)
• Afghanistan withdrew QuestNet’s license to conduct business (2006)
• Rwanda’s Ministry of Finance banned QuestNet after the National bank of Rwanda declared it a pyramid scheme (2008)
• Sudan banned QuestNet (2009)
• Syria’s Ministry of Economics shut down QuestNet for violation of commercial registration laws and operating a pyramid scheme (2009)
• Turkey issued a warning against QNet, after an investigation revealed it was simply a rebranding of the QuestNet pyramid scheme (2011)
• Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, the Egyptian government’s educational institute, issued a fatwa declaring QNet’s business model haram (2010)
• Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry banned QNet amid accusations of theft, falsification and failure to register (2010)
• India’s EOW froze several bank accounts tied to QNet as part of a major bust (2013)
• the Philippines’s SEC revoked QNet’s license to conduct business in the Philippines (2014)
• the Chairman of the Fatwa Commission of the Indonesian Ulema Council concluded the business model was not haram (it contained “elements of fraud”) and issued a fatwa (2014)
• India’s EOW prohibited QNet and its Indian subsidiary Vihaan from holding workshops and training sessions in Mumbai (2014)
• Central Police in Azerbaijan opened a criminal case into QuestNet, to investigate claims of fraudulent appropriation of money (2014)
• India’s EOW (Delhi) filed a First Information Report against Qnet and Vihaan Direct, alleging the companies were engaged in cheating and fraudulently operating an MLM scheme (2016)
• Authorities in Burkina Faso labelled QNet “a network of crooks” (2016)

As a result of QNet’s fraudulent global business operations, its management and affiliates have been arrested in India, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, Burkino Faso, Nepal and Algeria.

QNet founder Vijay Eswaran is currently a wanted fugitive in India.

Marketing copy on the QNet website also appears to be somewhat antiquated.

QNet claims to be one of “Asia’s leading direct selling companies”, however the scheme today appears to be predominantly promoted in Africa.

Alexa estimate the top sources of traffic to the QNet website are Cameroon (8.2%), Morocco (7.5%), India (6.4%), Tanzania (5.5%) and Algeria (5.4%).

With the exception of India, QNet appears to be all but collapsed across Asia.

As above, African authorities have only recently began cracking down on QNet. QNet’s operations in India are in turmoil, following multiple arrests and asset seizures across the country.

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

Good news for victims of the USFIA Ponzi scheme, a claim portal is likely to be opened sometime in the first quarter of 2018.

That prediction is based off the USFIA Receiver’s Ninth Interim Report, which states: [Continue reading…]

Kingsley Ezeude and Chukwuka Obi respectively invested $2216 and $2238 into the Traffic Monsoon Ponzi scheme.

Back in May the pair sued PayPal, alleging PayPal

as aware that Traffic Monsoon was operating a Ponzi/pyramid scheme and that Traffic Monsoon was commingling investor money and paying existing investors with new investors’ money, in obvious Ponzi/pyramid scheme fashion.

In response to the lawsuit PayPal filed both a Motion to Dismiss and Motion to Stay.

On  November 15th Judge Koh ruled to stay the case, effectively stopping it in its tracks. [Continue reading…]

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

The Vista Network website domain (“vista.network”) was privately registered on May 29th, 2017.

At the time of publication Alexa estimate that the US is the largest source of traffic to the Visa Network website.

This suggests that whoever is running Vista Network is also likely based out of the US.

Update 8th January 2018 – In a company web conference held on January 6th, in response to the recent regulatory crackdown on USI-Tech and BitConnect, the CEO of Vista Network is revealed to be Armen Temurian.

According to his Facebook profile, Temuian is based out of California in the US.

Other MLM opportunities Temuian has been involved in include Amway, Enagic, Epic (Master Distributor) and Organo Gold (Crown Diamond).

Why this information isn’t provided on the Vista Network website is unclear. /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…]