Velimon provides no information on its website about who owns or runs the business.

The Velimon website domain (“velimon.racing”) was privately registered on March 25th, 2018.

A marketing video on the Velimon website features a man with a distinct African accent, suggesting whoever is behind Velimon likely also has ties to Africa.

At the time of publication, Alexa estimates that the US is the largest source of traffic to the Velimon website (30%).

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…]

BehindMLM first reported on an FBI investigation into BitConnect back in March, following confirmation from top-investor Trevon James.

Following the disappearance of BitConnect Director John Bigatton’s wife, authorities have confirmed the FBI investigation is ongoing. [Continue reading…]

The first thing visitors to the Taurise website are presented with is a poorly dubbed marketing video featuring “Robert Mackay” and “Rachel Davis”.

As this example shows, these are obviously actors with the set rented office space in who knows where.

The Taurise website domain was privately registered on February 26th, 2018.

Taurise do provide an incorporation certificate for “Taurise Limited”.

Taurise Limited was incorporated in the UK on February 27th, 2018.

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

For some reason Taurise also provide a patent certificate for some sort of cryptocurrency hardware miner.

The certificate appears to be bogus, with the actual 8,759,864 patent awarded in 2014 for an organic light-emitting element.

At the time of publication Alexa estimate Russia is the largest source of traffic to the Taurise website (14%).

Turkey is another possibility, with the Turkish word for “standard” appearing on the Taurise website in place of its English equivalent (“standart”).

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…]

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

The Community Collect website domain (“community-collect.com”) was initially registered in December 2017.

The registration details were recently updated on May 8th, which is likely when the current owners took possession of the domain.

This is supported by Alexa reporting a traffic increase to the Community Collect website starting earlier this month.

In the footer of the Community Collect website is the following copyright text;

© 2015 – 2018 CFI Euro S.L.

CFI Euro S.L. is incorporated in Barcelona, Spain.

It is the same shell company used to operate the Crowdfunding International gifting scheme.

Further supporting this is a “sublicense” document hosted on the Community Collect domain, which references the commonly used “CFI” abbreviation;

Crowdfunding International was a gifting scheme launched in late 2015.

As per our original Crowdfunding International review from 2016, it appears Crowdfunding International is being run by a group of scammers operating out of the Netherlands.

First time visitors to the Community Collect website are shown a message that suggests Crowdfunding International was having banking issues;

Welcome to the all new Community Collect!

Dear Project Manager,

As you know we’re always working on improving and restricting our platform.

During the last year our advisors, lawyers, legislators, Project Managers and the courts advised us and we kept on communicating on what maybe could be bettered or should be more customer friendly.

All these aspects resulted in a new concept: Community Collect.

Community Collect will make it easier for the company to find partners, like Payment Service Providers, because over the last years the name crowdfunding got a bad image.

While banking issues for a scam aren’t unheard of, Alexa traffic statistics for the Crowdfunding International website show a steady decline in traffic from July 2017.

It is far more likely that Crowdfunding International’s pending collapse is the reason it was rebooted.

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

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

The Unifii website domain (“unifii.io”) was privately registered on May 5th, 2018.

Further research reveals Unifii affiliates naming Ron Montaruli as CEO of the company.

Circa 2012 Montaruli (right) was Director of International Sales are FreeLife International.

More recently, Montaruli served as Chief Operating Officer for 3T Networks.

3T Networks emerged earlier this year. The company’s business model was a combination of securities fraud and pyramid recruitment.

Alexa traffic estimates for the 3T Networks website show a steady decline since April.

This suggests 3T Networks has or is on the way to collapsing.

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

For the past few months Mintage Mining and their affiliates have heavily marketing their passive mining ROI opportunity as being SEC compliant.

Then there was the whole Jones Day SEC lawyers nonsense, despite the SEC using in-house counsel in its regulatory lawsuits.

As good a sign as any the SEC is asleep at the wheel when it comes to MLM cryptocurrency fraud, to date the regulator hasn’t addressed Mintage Mining’s claims.

The two of which we referenced above are just the tip of the iceberg…

In a conscious effort to distance themselves from similar MLM cryptocurrency investment opportunities served cease and desists over the past six months, Mintage Mining’s affiliates are making all sorts of marketing claims.

Today we take a look at how one prominent affiliate investor has recently been pitching the company. [Continue reading…]

It seems WorldVentures has finally exhausted the “access to travel discounts” pyramid model – with the company looking to expand into nutrition.

According to a recently filed lawsuit, mid last year WorldVentures executed a mutual confidentiality agreement with Abboud Barakat and his distribution company, Advanced Wellness Solutions.

WorldVentures claims this agreement saw Barakat receive ‘confidential and proprietary information and trade secrets‘.

As defined in the agreement, this included WorldVentures’ customers, suppliers, third parties, products, services, supplier information, and
business, marketing, development and sales and other commercial strategies.

The agreement stipulated Barakat and Advanced Wellness Solutions would not use the received information and secrets.

Ultimately the deal fell through. And in a lawsuit filed on June 4th, WorldVentures allege Barakat used its confidential information to benefit Ariix and the launch of MaVie. [Continue reading…]

In a message provided to affiliates in their backoffice, Bitqyck has confirmed it is under federal regulatory investigation.

The company doesn’t name which regulator is investigating it. Based on Bitqyck’s unregistered securities business model however, it’s safe to say it’s probably the SEC. [Continue reading…]

Thomas Dluca is one of four named defendants in a March 2018 FTC filed lawsuit.

The lawsuit specifically alleges Dluca is the founder of the Bitcoin Funding Team gifting scam. He is also accused of promoting the My7Network pyramid scheme.

Despite the granting of a TRO and preliminary injunction, to date Dluca has failed to comply with either.

Subsequently, the FTC has now filed a motion requesting Dluca be held in contempt. [Continue reading…]

MaVie operate in the e-commerce, nutrition and travel MLM niches.

The company launched earlier this year and is headed up by Founder and CEO, Abboud Barakat.

As per Barakat’s MaVie corporate bio, his background is mostly in distribution and manufacturing of wellness and personal care products.

It also lead to the beginning of a ground breaking opportunity in the field of human DNA wellness tests.

This opportunity was based on wellness reports that measured an individual’s nutritional needs based on their personal genetic makeup.

Amazed with this scientific breakthrough that gave the ability to identify the wellness needs of any human being based on their DNA, About immediately pursued the commercial opportunity this presented.

MaVie was born from a partnership with a scientific team, dedicated to the provision of personalized wellness solutions.

Possibly due to his working behind the scenes in distribution, I was unable to independently verify these claims. Nor was I able to establish exactly which MLM companies Barakat (right) has worked with and when.

The MaVie compensation plan cites “Advanced Wellness Solutions PTE Ltd” as a parent company.

Advanced Wellness Solutions appears to be a Singapore corporation, however an address in Hong Kong is provided in the MaVie compensation plan.

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