Initially targeted at South America and Europe, the D9 Clube Ponzi scheme has since spread to west Africa.

In a move to stem propagation of the scam across Rwanda, the National Bank today banned D9 Club.

According to the National Bank of Rwanda, D9 Clube is [Continue reading…]

Market America are headquartered in North Carolina and operate in the e-commerce MLM niche.

The company was founded in 1992 by husband and wife James Howard and Loren Ridinger.

James Ridinger, more commonly known as JR Ridinger, serves as Market America’s Chairman and CEO.

Loren Ridinger serves as Executive Vice President.

Prior to founding Market America Ridinger was a top Amway affiliate.

In addition to the US, today Market America operates in Canada, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Philippines, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Singapore, Spain and Malaysia.

Market America was initially launched as a publicly traded company.

In 1999 the SEC filed a complaint against Ridinger, alleging he

violated the antifraud and other provisions of the federal securities laws in connection with an unregistered distribution of Market America stock and other activities.

Ridinger settled the matter and paid $2 million in disgorgement, interest and civil penalties.

Two years after the SEC charges and settlement, Ridinger purchased all outstanding shares and took Market America off the public market.

Over the years Ridinger has developed somewhat of an oddball reputation within the MLM industry.

As part of an episode on multilevel marketing, John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight aired footage of Ridinger shouting at a mock grave onstage at an undated Market America event.

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

David Wood has always come across as a bit of an oddball.

Used to the best of his ability to promote Empower Network, it’s resulted in a string of hit and miss marketing attempts over the years.

We last checked in on Wood and Empower Network earlier last year. Coming of the back of several personal and relationship issues, Wood appeared to be embracing religion.

Appearing on camera in a Facebook video, Wood revealed he’d “hated David Sharpe’s guts for two years”, but was now ready to let it go.

David Sharpe is co-founder of Empower Network. He left the company in 2014.

At the time of his departure, Sharpe claimed ‘Dave Wood and CEO Jonathan Cronstedt are fully capable of leading this company into the next phase of growth.’

Cronstedt left Empower Network a year and a half later in 2015.

With Wood working alone at the helm, Empower Network has continued to plunge into decline.

Wood at times himself seems uninterested in the business, retreating into daily kung fu training for months at a time.

In a recent development, a Facebook livestream from Wood has raised questions about the current state of Empower Network and what’s to come. [Continue reading…]

Ormeus Global recently went into prelaunch so specific details about the company, its business model and compensation plan are sketchy.

When Ormeus Global intends to launch and whether or not they’ll disclose basic information about the company is unclear, however at this time they are taking sign ups.

That means it’s time for an Ormeus Global prelaunch review… [Continue reading…]

The MLM underbelly doubler business model is nothing new. Affiliates sign up and invest, with a 200% ROI offered either via a set timetable or open-ended.

The only source of revenue to pay the ROI is subsequently invested funds, making every doubler a Ponzi scheme.

HYIP scams have been using it with fiat currency for years, however recently there’s been a surge in cryptocurrency doublers.

To the best of my knowledge, the first scheme to combine cryptocurrency with the doubler model was GladiaCoin. [Continue reading…]

With twenty-four OneCoin affiliates already behind bars, Indian authorities are closing in on top Indian OneCoin affiliates.

The latest out of India is reports that the Economic Offenses Wing are “hunting” four Indian nationals and Mary Beyance and Ereena Andreva. [Continue reading…]

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

The Cointherum website domain (“cointherum.com”) was privately registered on May 27th, 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…]

For his part in aiding and abetting William Apostelos to run a $70 million dollar Ponzi scheme, attorney Steven Scudder was criminally charged early last year.

Scudder plead guilty to one count of wire fraud in January and was up for sentencing this week. [Continue reading…]

BullionVault is owned by Galmarley Limited, who in turn are a subsidiary of BullionVault LTD.

All three are UK corporations with a physical address in London, UK.

BullionVault was founded in 2005 and is headed up by Chairman Paul Tustain (right).

As per Tustain’s BullionVault corporate bio reveals he was working in the banking sector before getting into gold.

Sensing that more people would soon be looking to buy gold (Tustain) started planning BullionVault in 2002.

Development of BullionVault, which he funded, started in late 2003, and the BullionVault service was launched in spring 2005 supported by investment from 30 friends, family and business angels.

He was CEO from launch until 2016, during which time the business grew to become the world’s biggest online investment bullion service.

In addition to running BullionVault, Tustain also co-founded WhiskyInvestDirect in 2015.

WhiskyInvestDirect is a non-MLM company that offers a whisky investment service. Of the two companies, BullionVault definitely appears to be the stronger.

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

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

The Pacific Ads website domain (“pacads.com”) was privately registered on April 4th, 2017.

The official Pacific Ads Facebook group has one admin, Shakeel Babar.

On his personal Facebook page, Babar has been promoting the Pacific Ads admin account referral link.

Shakeel Babar is based out of Malaysia and initially appears to have envisioned his company as another MLM altcoin pump and dump scam:

Why Babar scrapped his plans for PCoin is unclear.

Babar began promoting Pacific Ads back in April. Prior to that he was promoting The Ads Team, 10 Ads Pay, Ads Crypto, Elite Earner’s Club, BTC Quake, Adz Firm, My Ads Family, RevCoin, Creative Adz Group, Ad Crump, Green Day Pay, Ultimate Revshare, BeOnPush, and Traffic Hubb Ponzi schemes.

Babar was also an affiliate in the Bit Wins, Crypto 24×7, Passive Crypto, Viral Crypto, Crypto Orbis, Adz Firm, 2×4 Club, Crypto Adz, Paid Rocket bitcoin gifting schemes.

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