Another day, another European regulator warns about OneCoin without actually doing anything about it.

The latest regulatory warning against OneCoin is another from the Central Bank of Hungary.

An advisory on the risk of cryptocurrencies dated December 20th singles out OneCoin as a pyramid scheme. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the ZID Ads website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The ZID Ads website domain (“zidads.com”) was privately registered on November 26th, 2016.

A Facebook account bearing the name “Ryan Walker” created the official ZID Ads Facebook Group on December 8th.

There is no content on the Ryan Walker account and it appears to be bogus.

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…]

There is no information on the Take Fund website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Take Fund website domain (“take.fund”) was privately registered on the 3rd of October, 2016.

Take Fund itself appears to have only launched in early December, with the official Take Fund Facebook page going live on December 12th.

Alexa currently estimate that Poland (36.5%) and Ireland (28.8%) are the top sources of traffic to the Take Fund website.

This suggests that whoever is running Take Fund is also likely based out of one of these two countries.

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…]

PTCHits4u launched in 2011 as a simple $1 in, $1.50 out Ponzi scheme. The original business model finally collapsed earlier this year around May.

A relaunch has since been announced, so today we’re taking a look at and reviewing PTCHits4u’s new compensation plan. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the MMM BTC website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The MMM BTC website domain (“mmmbtc.online”) was privately registered on November 27th, 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…]

Despite being completely dismantled and its owner heading to jail, litigation as a result of the Zeek Rewards fallout continues.

Back in 2014 Bids That Give (BTG180), a Zeek Rewards Ponzi clone, sued Robert Craddock over a promotional contract dispute.

In a nutshell, Craddock, through his company Fun Club USA, was hired to funnel Zeek Rewards victims into Bids That Give.

Bids That Give paid Craddock $50,000 in advance, he failed to deliver. [Continue reading…]

Vasayo are based out of Utah and headed up by Dallin and Karree Larsen.

Dallin Larsen first popped up on most people’s radar as Usana’s President of Sales in the 1990s. Larsen held several executive positions in Usana before his appointment as President.

In 2001 Larsen was appointed Vice President of Sales at Dynamic Essentials. Dynamic Essentials ran into regulatory problems with the FDA in 2003, with Larsen leaving the company that same year.

In 2005 Larsen (right, with Karree) founded and launched Monavie, which today is what he’s best known for in the MLM industry.

Monavie marketed a blended acai berry juice and initially was pretty successful within the MLM sphere.

By 2014 things at Monavie weren’t looking good, prompting Larsen to leave the company.

Rather than shy away from his past, as is often the case, in a Vasayo marketing video Larsen is refreshingly candid about his departure from Monavie.

[0:33] Two years ago, after it became apparent that we had lost control of the outcome of Monavie for several reasons, including a significant philosophical disagreement with our private equity investors, as to the company’s culture and who should lead the company, we decided to step away in July of 2014 and agreed to stay out of the industry for two years.

We have honored that agreement.

[1:30] When we resigned from Monavie we shared a video message stating that we didn’t know for sure what our future was going to look like.

Now, two years later, we have clarity.

That clarity brought about the launch of Vasayo.

As for Monavie, it plunged into $182 million dollars in debt and was sold off to Jeunesse. Jeunesse promptly set about dismantling what was left of Monavie and integrating it into their own business.

Larsen appears determined not to make the same mistakes he felt he made with Monavie again;

[3:35] We have every intention of leading this company until our last breath. This will be the final journey of our lifetimes.

In addition, we have no intention of every selling this company. We’re not starting with an exit-strategy in mind but instead, to build and leave a legacy.

And unlike Monavie we will maintain more than fifty percent ownership in the company, so that we can steer the ship and culture in a direction we believe to be in the best interests of our distributors.

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

Retail sales requirements within an MLM opportunity is perhaps the most decisive issue facing the industry today.

Proponents of pyramid schemes argue that affiliate purchases of product should count as retail sales. I myself argue that to permit as much would open door for product-based pyramid schemes to operate freely.

This stance is strongly rooted in the definition of an MLM pyramid scheme which, regardless of the company, has commonality with respect to a lack of retail sales.

If you start trying to change the definition of a retail sale instead of encouraging retail sales activity itself, you’re just trying to make excuses for pyramid schemes.

I’ve held this opinion for years here at BehindMLM and it forms the base of pretty much every MLM review I’ve written.

On December 15th the FTC published an article that all but confirms retail sales are indeed only sales to non-affiliates. [Continue reading…]

News of a potential settlement between the FTC and Vemma first surfaced back in September.

The FTC were willing to take the case to trial but Vemma and defendants BK Boreyko and Tom Alkazin wanted to settle.

Last month the FTC requested additional time to go over the proposed settlement, with a unanimous 3-0 decision reached yesterday. [Continue reading…]

The latest Zukul webinar aired earlier today. In it, owner Jeremy Rush addresses what he refers to as a number a number of issues.

Perhaps the most interesting of which is criticism on Facebook, which Rush claims he’s ready to sue over. [Continue reading…]