Stampin’ Up was founded in 1988 by sisters Shelli Gardner and LaVonne Crosby.

The company is based out of Utah in the US and operates in the arts and crafts MLM niche.

So the story goes;

When sisters Shelli Gardner and LaVonne Crosby were young, their family moved from California to Kanab, UT, on the Arizona border.

Both sisters eventually married, and their husbands, who knew each other, decided they should all move to Las Vegas
and operate a custom home building business in the booming real estate market.

Both sisters had children and led busy lives as homemakers, while earning a little extra cash as independent contractors for Tupperware and other multi-level marketing companies.

When they were introduced to rubber stamping, they immediately became intrigued with the craft, since neither
of them felt artistic enough to draw freehand, and using stamps with ink was creative and fun.

They discovered stamping was popular with women, mainly housewives, who like to design their own greeting cards, tags and gift wrap, decorate walls and lampshades, and keep family scrapbooks.

In 1988, with no experience in operating a company, the sisters invested their family’s nest egg to launch Stampin’ Up!

Their business plan was fairly simple:

They studied the business models of Tupperware, Discovery Toys, and Mary Kay, and developed their own approach for a direct sales company that reflected their own methods and techniques.

Today Stampin’ Up claims to have “tens of thousands” of affiliates across the US, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Japan.

LaVonne Crosby stepped down as CEO and left Stampin’ Up in 1998. Shelli Gardner was appointed CEO and held the position until 2016.

In early 2015 Shelli Gardner announced she would be stepping down to pursue ‘a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints‘.

In March, 2016 Sara Douglass, Shelli Gardner’s daughter, was appointed Stampin’ Up’s new CEO.

According to the Stampin’ Up website, Gardner ‘continues her involvement with the company, playing a vital role as Board Chair‘.

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

With a 144% ROI every 12 days on offer, Laser Online was inevitably destined to collapse sooner rather than later.

That collapse appears to be on the horizon, with management launching two desperate bids to fend it off. [Continue reading…]

Mail Out Ad provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The Mail Out Ad website domain (“mailoutad.com”) was registered on November 21st, 2017. Details used to register the Mail Out Ad domain are bogus (no registrant name, incomplete address).

Provided on the Mail Out Ad website are incorporation documents for Seychelles, the Dominican Republic, the UK and the US (Delaware).

I was able to verify the UK and US incorporation documents are fake (no such incorporated company).

Given this, it’s highly likely that the Seychelles and Dominican Republic documents are also fake.

A UK-based corporate address provided on the Mail Out Ad website actually belongs to Level 39.

According to their website, Level 39 provide workspace to “fast-growth tech companies”.

Use of Level 39’s facilities is restricted to members only, with there being no indication whoever is running Mail Out Ad is a member.

There’s also nothing about a forwarded mailing address on the Level 39 website, suggesting the Mail Out Ad admin has just copy and pasted the address.

At the time of publication Alexa estimate that the US is the largest source of traffic to the Mail Out Ad website (54%).

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

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…]

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

The company website does have an “About BitCentrix” page, however it provides only generic marketing copy and stock images.

The BitCentrix website domain (“bitcentrix.biz”) was first registered on September 2nd, 2016. The domain registration was recently updated on September 12th, 2017.

Farhan Khan is listed as the owner of the domain, through an address in Punjab, Pakistan.

Other domains owned by Khan include “dailymining.biz” and “miningprofit.biz”, both of which have a HYIP ring to their name.

Outside of the domain registrations detailed above, I wasn’t able to find any additional information on Khan.

I have noted that Farhan Khan is the name of a well-known Indian actor and model, so there’s a chance whoever is running BitCentrix is using it as a pseudonym.

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…]

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

On their website BitWaves claims to be “a UK registered company”. This corresponds with BitWaves Financial Limited, incoporated in the UK on October 3rd, 2017.

Morgan Stevenson is listed as the sole Director of the company, through an address in Bedfordshire, England.

Outside of BitWaves incorporation documents, Morgan Stevenson doesn’t appear to exist.

UK incorporation is pretty cheap and a favorite of MLM underbelly scammers.

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…]

Wakaya Perfection’s lawsuit against Youngevity was filed in an attempt to

 address Youngevity’s breaches of contract, as well as the individual defendants’ independently tortious behavior.

Blake Graham (through Total Nutrition INC.), Andre Vaugh, Dave Pitcock and Barb Pitcock, all Wakaya Perfection affiliates, claimed

without justification, Youngevity terminated (their) distributorships.

As a result, businesses have been damaged and their livelihoods threatened.

Youngevity’s distributor agreement, specifically the “binding arbitration” clause.

The lawsuit has been playing out since it was filed in April, 2016.

Youngevity had filed a Motion to Dismiss citing the binding arbitration clause. A decision on the motion was made on November 7th. [Continue reading…]

Ed Ludbrook joined OneCoin as Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, Chief Leadership Officer and Asia Ambassador in November, 2015.

At the time Ludbrook described OneCoin as ‘a multi-trillion dollar opportunity that any fool will recognise once educated with the facts‘. [Continue reading…]

 GTI-Net launched in late 2015/early 2016 and had all but collapsed.

In June 2017 however the company was brought back from life support by a flurry of activity in Belgium.

Alexa today estimate that Belgium is the largest source of traffic to the GTI-Net website (73%).

This has caught the attention of Belgium’s Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), who on November 14th issued an investor warning against the company. [Continue reading…]

Since BehindMLM published an article covering Nano Club’s launch just over a year ago, investors have been desperate to convince us that the third reboot of Crypto 888 Club would succeed.

To date the article has garnered over 750 comments, mostly back and forth between the “this time…” and “history will repeat itself…” crowds.

Turns out history won, with Nano Club officially collapsing sometime over the past week. [Continue reading…]

Bit Club Invest provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The Bit Club Invest website domain (“bitclubinv.com”) was registered on October 19th, 2017.

Despite only existing for less than a month, Bit Club Invest claims it “entered the international investment market” in 2016.

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…]