The OxyHelper website identifies Minga Garcia as owner of the company. Garcia purportedly is from the US.

A Facebook profile bearing the name Minga Garcia was created on two days ago on January 8th. Numerous photos of a woman have been batch uploaded, but otherwise there is no content on the profile.

The “about us” page of the OxyHelper website contains a message purportedly written by Garcia:

The word “stokvel” stood out because there are no stokvels in the US, it’s an African concept. I ran a search on the copy and discovered it was copy and pasted from ZarFund:

ZarFund is a bitcoin cash gifting scheme launched last August. Whether ZarFund is directly connected to OxyHelper is unclear.

What is clear however is that “Minga Garcia”, as represented on the OxyHelper website, probably doesn’t exist.

Other members of OxyHelper’s management contain stolen profile photos.

The most obvious is Steven L. Lowe, who is credited as a member of OxyHelper’s Support Team. The photo used to represent Lowe is actually that of musician David Gilmour.

A marketing video on the OxyHelper website is hosted on a YouTube account bearing the name “Oxy Helper”.

The account has three OxyHelper marketing videos uploaded to it, in Russian, Urdu and Hindi.

This strongly suggests whoever is running OxyHelper is of Russian or Indian origin.

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 a public notice published yesterday, the Nigerian SEC has issued a warning against cryptocurrencies and pyramid schemes.

OneCoin, SwissCoin and Bitcoin are specifically singled out, with the SEC extending the warning to “such other virtual or digital currencies”. [Continue reading…]

The AdvClix website identifies a “Mr. Duffy” as CEO of the company.

Duffy is represented by an accounting themed stock cartoon image. His corporate bio meanwhile reads like it was written by someone who learnt English as a second language:

His devotion to his field of interest brings world’s all time greatest platform to change your life, to make it better, more luxurious and more comfortable, by doing very smart and easy work.

There’s a high probability that “Mr. Duffy” doesn’t actually exist.

The AdvClix website domain (“advclix.com”) was privately registered on June 30th, 2016.

With the exception of India, Alexa estimate four of the top five sources of traffic to the AdvClix website are in Africa.

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 BitLuna website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The BitLuna website domain (“bitluna.org”) was privately registered on November 14th, 2016.

The anonymous owners of BitLuna also operate LunaWallet and MiteFX. LunaWallet is used to store LunaCoins mined through BitLuna and MiteFX is an internal exchange.

The LunaWallet and MiteFX domain registrations are both set to private.

A voiceover on the BitLuna website claims the company is registered in the UK.

The Terms and Conditions of LunaWallet state:

LunaWallet is an online payment processor, registered and domiciled in the country of Seychelles, and are bound by the legal requirements of Seychelles.

It is extremely likely these are both shell company registrations.

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…]

Mid last year victims of William Apostelos’ Ponzi scheme filed a lawsuit against PNC Bank.

By processing Ponzi payments, victims claim PNC Bank ‘played an “indispensable role” in the success of’ Apostelos’ scheme.

The Aposteloses “deposited virtually all of the money” that they raised into one primary PNC business account (referred to as the “8143 Account”) and paid “monthly interest payments” to investors from that account.

Throughout the life of his Ponzi scheme, Apostelos opened eight accounts with PNC Bank.

His victims argue that PNC Bank should have cottoned on to Apostelos’ fraud and are therefore liable for $30 million in damages. [Continue reading…]

Most people who have signed up with LCF Coin appear to have a “what if…” attitude.

There’s nothing particular harmful about it alone, but if you have to dismiss ample evidence that points to LCF Coin being completely bogus, that’s when the problems start. [Continue reading…]

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

The MavWealth website domain (“mavwealth.com”) was first registered on December 2nd, 2015. The registration details were recently updated a few days ago on January 7th.

An address in the UK is provided on the MavWealth website. Further research however reveals this address actually belongs to British Monomarks.

British Monomarks claim to be “London’s premier post box address provider”. As such it appears MavWealth exists in the UK in name only.

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…]

Before we go any further I need to clarify that there are two UR Coin companies out there.

The one reviewed here operates from “urnetworkteam.com” and “ur-coin.com” and is an MLM opportunity.

The other company operates from “ur.technology”, is based out of the US and as far as I can tell is not an MLM opportunity.

There doesn’t appear to be a link between the two companies. From here on out “UR Coin” in this review references the first company only.

There is no information on the UR Network Team website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The UR Network Team website domain (“urnetworkteam.com”) was registered on August 3rd, 2016. The UrCoin website domain (“ur-coin.com”) was registered on July 24th, 2016.

Ioannis Ioannou of UR Network Services is listed as the owner of both domains, with an incomplete address in the UAE also provided.

A PO Box address in the UAE is provided on the Ur Network Team website.

A corporate address in Dubai is provided on the UrCoin website, however further research reveals this to be a virtual address provided by eOffice.

The only independent information I’ve been able to source on Ioannou is that UR Network Team appears to be operated of Cyprus:

Whether Ioannou is based out of Cyprus is unclear.

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…]

The CoinSpace website domain is registered to Danjel Pawl through an address in Malta. The CoinSpace website lists a different corporate address, also in Malta.

Whether Pawl actually exists is unknown, but CoinSpace’s attempts to represent the company is run out of Malta has caught the attention of Maltese authorities. [Continue reading…]

One of the more frustrating aspects of covering MLM regulation and litigation is a tendency for people to ignore what’s currently happening, in favor of past legal opinions and decisions from the past.

Some of these opinions and decisions are decades old but people still cling to them as gospel.

One of the more common citations I run across is a 2004 staff advisory issued by the FTC. Yes that’s 2004, some thirteen years ago. [Continue reading…]