In 2013 Timothy Baggett and Kimball Parker launched Changed Worldwide. Initially a revenue-sharing Ponzi scheme, in 2014 the company name changed to Changes Trading.

Through Changes Trading, Baggett and Parker marketed a trading system pegged to an MLM compensation plan.

An investigation by the CFTC found that Baggett and Parker (right) marketed Changes Trading via

fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions designed to mislead customers and prospective customers into believing that the trading system was profitable and effective.

Upon being interviewed by the CFTC, Parker

admitted that the results on the spreadsheets-and indeed all of the trading results touted in Defendants’ promotional materials-were hypothetical and simulated.

The CFTC filed legal action against Baggett and Parker last October. As per a consent order filed on May 19th, the matter has reached a conclusion. [Continue reading…]

Sener Trader claim they were ‘founded on February 2007 in the United States‘ and are ‘now one of the world’s leading index futures investment and asset management company‘ [sic].

A corporate address in New York is provided on the Sener Trader website. Research reveals this address actually belongs to Servcorp, who sell virtual office space.

One would also assume a legal “investment and asset management company” would be registered with the SEC, yet a search of the Edgar database turns up nothing for “Sener” or any company name derivatives.

Meanwhile the Sener Trader website domain (“sntrader.com”) was initially registered on December 19th, 2006, however no record of a live website exists until early January, 2017.

This coincides with a domain registration update on January 15th, 2017. Alexa traffic estimates for the Sener Trader website also only show an uptick in measurable traffic since late February.

Two things are immediately clear: Sener Trader wasn’t founded in 2007, nor are they based in the US.

Sener Trader cite “Spenser Brown” as founder and CEO of the company, complete with a stock image of a man in suit.

Naturally there’s no information about Brown prior to 2017, in connection with Sener Trader or anything else.

Someone has gone to a bit of effort to create the illusion he exists though, with the same stock photo slapped onto an ebook cover:

The Amazon listing above was recently created on March 20th and cites “Sener” as the publisher. The listing has been picked up by various Amazon aggregators on other platforms too (eBay, other book shop sites etc.).

There’s also a few spammy press-releases (also published in March), claiming Sener Trader has won this or that.

Any attempt to verify Spenser Brown exists however leads to a dead-end, casting a question mark over whether the individual actually exists.

At the time of publication Alexa estimate that 80% of traffic to the Sener Trader website originates out of Japan. India is the second largest source of traffic, coming in at 18%.

Considering these two countries provide 98% of traffic to the Sener Trader website, it’s a good bet that whoever is actually running the company is based out of Japan or India.

Of note is the website design for Sener Trader is identical to that of Eagle Gates Group.

Both sites run on the same WordPress theme, with the admin account of the Sener Trader website revealed as “Eaglegates”.

This is the same admin account used to publish content on the Eagle Gates Group website.

Whoever is actually running both companies simply copy and pasted the WordPress directory of Eagle Gates Group onto Sener Gates’ hosting account.

Eagle Gates Group was a Ponzi scheme launched late last year. After briefly hitting it off in Thailand, the scam collapsed in late February – around the same time Sener Trader website traffic picked up.

Eagle Gates Group’s front-man was Eddie McClough. Like Spenser Brown, the only information available on McClough coincided with the late 2016 launch of the company.

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…]

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

The ReferABit website domain (“referabit.com”) was privately registered on May 20th, 2017.

Copy on the ReferABit website is copy and pasted from Bitcoin Banking, with both websites also sharing the same design template:

The Bitcoin Banking website domain (“bitcoinbanking.us”) was registered with bogus details on March 23rd, 2017.

Bitcoin Banking solicit bitcoin investment and offer daily ROIs of up to 10% for 90 days.

New affiliate investment is the only verifiable source of revenue entering Bitcoin Banking, which strongly suggests it is a Ponzi scheme.

The Bitcoin Banking website domain was registered through an Indian domain registrar. The site is hosted in Singapore (cloud), however Alexa estimate that 100% of traffic to the Bitcoin Banking website originates out of India.

It follows that whoever is running ReferABit and Bitcoin Banking is also based India.

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 addition to the $200 million dollar fine Herbalife copped for running a pyramid scheme last year, the company was given ten months to introduce a new compensation plan.

Among other things, Herbalife’s new plan must accurately track genuine retail sales activity and cease paying affiliates solely on recruitment of new affiliates who purchase Herbalife products.

The settlement order was signed on July 15th, 2016. Ten months onward was a week ago on May 15th. [Continue reading…]

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

According to the company’s Polish Wikipedia page, FM World is a Polish company that began as “FM Group”.

FM Group was founded in 2004 by Artura Trawińskiego (Artur Trawinski).

Trawinski (right) is the listed owner of the FM World website domain (“fmworld.com”), first registered in December, 2002.

Why this information is not provided on the FM World website is unclear.

Possibly due to language-barriers (most of the literature available on Trawinskiego is in Polish), I was unable to ascertain Trawinskiego’s MLM history prior to founding FM Group.

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

Last December the My Advertising Pays sued payment processor VX Gateway for $59.6 million dollars.

The Ponzi scheme alleged VX Gateway was wrongfully withholding investor funds and sought recovery.

VX Gateway opposed legal action in Texas and sought to the have the lawsuit dismissed in favor of arbitration in Panama.

A decision was made on the dismissal  motion on May 15th, with ruling made in favor of VX Gateway. [Continue reading…]

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

The BitPayProfits website domain (“bitpayprofits.com”) was registered on February 1st, 2017. Byron McCorriston is listed as the owner, with a residential address in the US state of Hawaii also provided.

Recently McCorriston (right) was promoting the Billion Coin Ponzi scheme (non-MLM). Late last year McCorriston was promoting the Easy 1up gifting scheme and in 2015 he was an affiliate of the TVC Matrix pyramid scheme.

Whether McCorriston still owns BitPayProfits is unclear. The domain registration hasn’t been updated since it was created in February.

Less than a week ago, serial MLM underbelly admin Johnny Ganoza was trying to sell BitPayProfits:

Ganoza has launched and been attached to a number of suspect schemes over the years, the latest of which BehindMLM reviewed was Hustle With Us.

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

Nine years after it launched in 2009, Malaysia’s top financial regulator has finally taken action against MBI International.

Bank Negara Malaysia is pretty much Malaysia’s SEC equivalent and regulates the country’s financial sector.

On May 22nd, the bank added MBI International and M Face International to its consumer alert list. [Continue reading…]

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

The TriumphFX website domain (“tfxi.com”) was first registered on January 12th, 2008. The domain registration details were last updated on April 24th, 2016.

Unfortunately the TriumphFX domain registration is private and provides no information about company ownership.

Alexa currently estimate that 76% of traffic to the TriumphFX website originates out of Malaysia. In addition to revealing where the company is primarily marketed, this also suggests whoever is running TriumphFX is also based out of Malaysia.

A Vanuatu Financial Services Commission certificate is provided on the TriumphFX website, however this appears to be irrelevant as TriumphFX has no operations in Vanuatu.

Update 23rd July 2021 – Scattered breadcrumbs have tied TriumphFX operation and ownership to Leong Koon Wah (right).

Wah, who also goes by Hermes Leong, is a Singaporean scammer.

He was arrested in 2018 on charges related to the Singliworld pyramid scheme. /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…]

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

The EmpowerCoin website domain (“empowercoin.com”) was privately registered on April 19th, 2017.

A number of marketing websites are hosted on the private server that hosts the EmpowerCoin website. These websites are all in German, suggesting whoever owns the server is either based in Germany, speaks German or both.

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…]