Avalon Life started out in 2016 as an AVLX altcoin investment scheme.

AVLX didn’t go anywhere and was abandoned about a month after launch.

In mid 2017 Avalon Life rebooted as a Dash mining opportunity.

A few months later Dash was abandoned in favor of mining Pura Vida Coin.

By all appearances, Pura Vida Coin appeared to be Avalon Life’s second attempt to launch an altcoin.

By late 2017 Avalon Life appears to have quietly abandoned Pure Vida Coin.

Marketing material for a “Bitsurge token” first appeared on Avalon Life’s YouTube channel on December 11th, 2017.

This appears to coincide with CEO Tom Koller being replaced by Thomas Graf.

Avalon Life also switched its website domain to an .io variant, on which Graf is credited as the company’s founder and CEO. [Continue reading…]

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

The Westland Storage website domain (“westlandstorage.com”) was first registered in 2005.

The registration was last updated on May 9th, 2018 but provides no information about the domain’s owners.

A visit to the Wayback Machine confirms the current version of the Westland Storage website went live on or around April 27th, 2018.

Prior to that the Westland Storage domain redirected to an unrelated storage business in Michigan.

This coincides with Alexa reporting an uptick in traffic to the Westland Storage domain from early May.

Despite existing for less than a month, on its website Westland Storage claims to have generated $33.5 million in annual profit for over 8000 investors.

In an attempt to feign legitimacy, Westland Storage provides an incorporation certificate for “Westland Storage LTD”.

Westland Storage LTD was incorporated in the UK on February 1st, 2018.

UK incorporation is dirt cheap and for the most part unregulated. It is 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…]

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

The Bitworld Center website domain (“bitworldcenter.company”) was privately registered on April 2nd, 2018.

Further research reveals multiple affiliates claiming Bitworld Center is a “Brazilian company” operated by Macio Silver.

Possibly due to language barriers, I was unable to find anything further on Silver.

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…]

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

The CryptoRound website domain (“cryptoround.biz”) was privately registered on May 20th, 2018.

CryptoRound provide a bogus UK incorporation certificate for “CryptoRound Investment Pvt. Ltd.” on their website.

Legitimate UK incorporation certificates are bad enough. Fake UK incorporation certificates all but confirm the fraudulent nature of an MLM business.

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…]

DD Futures provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the company.

The DD Futures website domain (“ddfutures.com”) was first registered in 2016.

The registration was recently updated on February 14th, 2018, suggesting this is when the current anonymous owners took possession of it.

This corresponds with an uptick of traffic to the DD Futures website.

A visit to the Wayback Machine confirms the current incarnation of the DD Futures website went live sometime in February.

Despite this, DD Futures fraudulently claim the company has been running for 515 days (as of May 28th, 2018).

DD Futures provide a UK incorporation certificate for “DDFutures Trading Limited” on their website.

DDFutures Trading Limited was incorporated on December 22nd, 2017.

UK incorporation is dirt cheap and for the most part unregulated. It is 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…]

In response to South Africa’s Hawks investigating links between Bitcaw Trading and BTC Global Team, the company’s lawyers have threatened to sue the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI). [Continue reading…]

We’ve been covering the Chinese investigation into OneCoin since April, 2016.

Owing to Ruja Ignatova’s roots with BigCoin, a similar Ponzi points scheme that primarily targeted Asia, China initially emerged as a primary source of OneCoin investment.

Along with all but a few third-world countries, investor recruitment in China died early last year after OneCoin suspended ROI payments.

Last week Chinese regulatory action against OneCoin and its promoters concluded, following prosecution of the remaining four suspects. [Continue reading…]

The Travel Party is the third reboot of the twice failed iTravel Party scheme.

iTravel Party first surfaced in 2015 and is owned and operated by CEO Daniel Butts.

Butts first appeared on BehindMLM as the co-founder of Rocket Cash Cycler, a Ponzi scheme launched in 2013.

Rocket Cash Cycler saw investors deposit $315 and get paid a $5300 ROI once enough subsequent positions had been invested in.

Prior to RocketCashCycler Butts launched EZ Wealth Formula, which saw affiliates charged $84 to join and paid to recruit new affiliates.

Read on for a full review of The Travel Party MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

GroceryBit operate in the e-commerce MLM niche and provide a suite address in Arizona on their website.

A Google search reveals a number of businesses operating out of the same address, suggesting it might be virtual in nature.

Three executives are named on the GroceryBit website; Steve Gewecke (Chief Marketing Officer), Jason Olson (President) and Frederick Weih (Grocery Industry Disrupter).

Frederick Weih founded My Freedom Grocer in early 2015. The company appears to have collapsed before the end of the year.

One My Freedom Grocer review suggests rebates ceased in the months leading up to the collapse;

And yes … I’m getting my 10% cash back every month.

[Update: I was getting cash backs for many months. The check below was a real check. But they have fallen several months behind on checks since then.

I hope for all involved that they are able to catch back up and make the most of this.]

Prior to working at GroceryBit, Jason Olson was promoting Direct Cellars and Youngevity.

When we last saw Steve Gewecke in 2015, he was Marketing Director for the Savian Ponzi scheme.

Gewecke first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar back in 2012, as a VIP Founder of US Utility Direct.

Who owned US Utility Direct was never disclosed, with the company failing to launch on its advertised June 30th, 2012 launch date.

In August 2014 Gewecke resurfaced as the President of MyNyloxin.

MyNyloxin saw affiliates pay between $300 and $1500 for affiliate membership, with commissions paid out when they recruited new affiliates.

Today the MyNyloxin website domain is unresponsive.

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

Nerium Skincare’s lawsuit against Nerium International dates back to 2016.

Based on an agreement, Nerium International is supposed to only market and sell products developed by Nerium Skincare.

In their lawsuit, Nerium Skincare allege Nerium International stopped honoring the agreement in 2014.

Tracking the case has proven difficult, mostly due to the majority of filings being made under seal.

To also give you some idea of the scope of the case, it’s at 496 filings as of May 25th, 2018.

Earlier on in the case the court appointed a Special Master to make reports and recommendations on filed motions.

Through these unsealed orders (which are difficult to track because the docket contains no information about what an order is being made on), we get glimpses into the progress of the case.

One such Special Master order was made on March 26th, pertaining to Nerium Skincare’s and Nerium International’s respective Motions for Summary Judgment. [Continue reading…]