To understand how Jim Merrill became ensnared in this mess, one must understand Jim Merrill, the human being.

James Merill’s March 17th sentencing memorandum reads like a list of things someone who heads up a Ponzi scheme stands to lose if they’re caught.

What should be a deterrent to other Ponzi fraudsters is instead presented as compelling reasoning for Merrill to be given a feather-weight sentence. [Continue reading…]

1 Big Bitcoin Team provide no information on its website about who owns or runs the business.

A marketing video on the 1 Bit Bitcoin Team website is hosted on a YouTube channel bearing the name “opitimusX”. OptimusX is an alias of Sherm Mason.

Sherm Mason first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar as the admin of Magnetic Builder.

Magnetic Builder was a $29.95 recruitment scheme launched in 2011.

In 2015 Mason (right), launched at least five dubious schemes:

• Paradise Payments (February 2015) – a $2 to $1000 cash gifting scheme
• Magnetic Gratitude (April 2015) – a $580 matrix-based Ponzi scheme
• Summer Fun Matrix (July 2015) – a $22 three-tier Ponzi scheme and
• 3×9 Millionaire Machine (September 2015) – a $3 in, $435 million dollars out Ponzi scheme
• Instant Pay Christmas (November 2015) – a $5 to $800 cash gifting scheme

In 2016 Mason doubled down on his efforts and launched Elite Pay Alliance (matrix-based cash gifting), 5 Dolla Money Lines (pass-up chain-recruitment), Adstraordinary (matrix-based cash gifting) and Cash Rally GPS (Ponzi cycler).

This year Mason has already launched two gifting scams, Easy Odds and Just Got Bitcoin.

Despite only launching last month, Just Got Bitcoin appears to have gained little interest and already stalled.

This has likely prompted Mason to launch 1 Big Bitcoin Team, which evidently runs on the same backend script as Just Got Bitcoin.

Read on for a full review of the 1 Big Bitcoin Team MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Daily Net Traffic provide no information on their website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Daily Net Traffic website domain (“dailynettraffic.com”) was registered on July 4th, 2015. John Kielec is listed as the owner, with an address in Ontario, Canada also provided.

John Kielec (right) is the owner of F5M Millionaires Club, which has been running in one incarnation or another since at least 2008.

Under the F5M Millionaires Club brand, Kielec launches various MLM opportunities, the latest of which is Daily Net Traffic.

Other opportunities mentioned on the F5M Millionaires Club website include Daily Net Pay and Revenue From Advertising.

Further research reveals Daily Net Pay to be an advertising based recruitment scheme. Revenue From Advertising appears to be an adcredit Ponzi scheme.

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

Late last week OneCoin published a press-release claiming Swedish police had closed their investigation into OneLife. ‘

Citing an unsourced “police statement”, OneCoin claimed police had “indicated”

there was no basis upon which to continue the investigation as there was no reason to believe that an offense had been committed.

The Police confirmed its decision to the Gaming Authority on March 1st 2017.

Ignoring OneCoin’s Ponzi business model, the recent regulatory ban in Italy, monthly bank account closures throughout 2016 and regulatory warnings from over a dozen countries, OneCoin affiliates were quick to cite the closure of the investigation as proof of legitimacy.

Ted Nuyten dutifully reprinted the OneCoin press-release (no coverage about the regulatory warnings or Italy ban though), and OneCoin or its affiliates have since paid the usual press-release spammers to flood the internet with news of the closure.

With nothing to go on other than OneCoin’s own March 16th press-release, I chose to wait for something official to surface before publishing anything.

Turns out that was the right decision, because now it appears Swedish police have reopened the investigation. [Continue reading…]

Platinum World Team Build provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The Platinum World Team Build website domain (“platinumworldteambuild.com”) was registered on December 8th, 2016.

Ramon Escalera is listed as the owner, with an address in the US state of North Carolina also provided.

Ramon Escalera (right) first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar last year, as admin of the 25 Dollar Legacy pyramid scheme.

25 Dollar Legacy is still around today, although Alexa traffic estimates suggest recruitment flatlined in late 2016.

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

The BTC Avalanche website identifies Simon Huppertz and Tom Kent as owners of the company.

According to their respective BTC Avalanche corporate bios, Simon Huppertz is an ‘online marketer living in Germany‘. Tom Kent meanwhile has ‘a lot of experience in Facebook Marketing, email, Instagram and traffic!‘

Kent (right) is based out of Australia and first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar as the admin of Entrepreneur Future Shares.

Prior to that Kent ran Flipping Money (also known as “Flip The Seed” and “Tom’s Flipping Service”), a bank wire HYIP that promised investors a 1000% ROI in 5 to 8 weeks.

Flipping Money collapsed shortly after launch and there are a number of videos on YouTube featuring affiliates claiming to have lost money.

Entrepreneur Future Shares launched in mid 2016 and, using the adcredit Ponzi model, advertised ROIs of up to 150%.  A visit to the company’s website today reveals it has since collapsed.

Both Kent and Huppertz were promoting “Make 10 BTC Now” throughout 2016. Make 10 BTC Now appears to be a marketing funnel for  the My BTC Life bitcoin cash gifting scheme.

BTC Flood is another recent bitcoin gifting schemes promoted by Kent. On the Ponzi side of things Kent has also been promoting Crypto Wealth Fund and My Paying Crypto Ads (HYIP).

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

In order for owners and early investors of Ponzi schemes to withdraw money, they have to convince those below them to reinvest.

Also referred to as “compounding” or “building”, in a nutshell non-existent money is recycled into more non-existent money, all the while real money is being pulled out by admins and early investors.

Everybody winks and thinks they’re getting rich because balances in their backoffices continue to grow. When the time comes to withdraw though, it all falls apart.

In TelexFree, currently the largest MLM Ponzi scheme of all time, things were no different. [Continue reading…]

Bitcoin Earning School name two CEOs on their website, Mikey Robertson and Morris Melara. Of the two, Robertson is credited as the sole owner of the company.

Michael Robertson is based out of Queensland, Australia and appears to be knee-deep in MLM underbelly fraud.

Scams Robertson has been promoting over the last few months include Elite Earners Club (weekly ROI Ponzi), Trade Coin Club, My Paying Crypto Ads (HYIP Ponzi), ZarFund, LaraWithMe and Easy 1Up.

Prior to scamming people, Robertson appears to have fancied himself as a gaming streamer. Video view counts over 2015 to 2016 suggest that didn’t work out.

Drew Burton of My24HourIncome notoriety might also be involved in Bitcoin Earning School on some level. In a 17th March Facebook post, Robertson thanked Burton personally for “recording a (Bitcoin Earning School) webinar”. Footage of the webinar reveals Burton hosted it.

My24HourIncome recently suspended affiliate withdrawals. Why Burton is busy promoting other opportunities when his own Ponzi scheme has all but collapsed is unclear.

Worth noting is a 14th March Facebook post showing a Bitcoin Earning School ASIC registration certificate.

A search on the ASIC website reveals neither Bitcoin Earning School as a company name or the shown ACN (617844130) are actually registered.

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

Bitcoin Penny Auction identify Ton van Houten as founder and CEO of the company.

This matches up with the Bitcoin Penny Auction website domain (“bitcoinpennyauction.com”) registration, which lists van Houten as the owner.

Van Houten is based out of Gouda in the Netherlands. As per his Bitcoin Penny Auction corporate bio;

Through the years he has developed himself into a specialist regarding Internet and has followed several courses, which led to his extensive online experience.

In the past Ton has held several positions, among as a director for a Dutch based search engine.

Possibly due to language barriers, I was unable to put together an MLM history on van Houten.

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

When I first reviewed Ultimate Business World late last year, it struck me as odd that the company’s public Chairman, Paal Aschjem, had no MLM history.

Surely he wasn’t working alone, however the question of who was really behind Ultimate Business World went unanswered.

Following an investigation by Norwegian and Estonian journalists, turns out UBW was conceived by a notorious Norwegian scammer. [Continue reading…]