In what is either the mother of all coincidences, or proof Sanderley Rodrigues was running the scheme, the iFreeX website went offline within days of Rodrigues’ arrest for visa fraud.

Over a year since the iFreeX website went offline, authorities in Brazil have now acted on four search warrants connected to an investigation into the scheme. [Continue reading…]

According to the OneCoin website, the company pitches its transparency as a major selling point.

We are open and honest in our dealings.

OneCoin wants to make cryptocurrency transparent, and part of our financial culture and everyday life. By working proactively with governments and policymakers, OneCoin will help the industry achieve better regulation.

As more and more top investors are realizing however, OneCoin’s depiction of its own transparency is far from the truth. [Continue reading…]

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

The Travelor website domain (“travelor.me”) was registered on the 3rd of May 2015, with Yossi Cohen of “V. TRAVELOR LTD” listed as the owner.

The address provided in the Travelor domain registration belongs to DSIT Solutions. The same address is provided on the Travelor website.

On their website, DSIT Solutions claim to ‘develop and produce sonar and acoustic-based systems for the commercial, energy, defense, and homeland security markets.‘

Alexa currently estimate that 75.8% of traffic to the Travelor website originates out of Israel.

Furthermore, the Travelor Terms and Conditions state:

Arbitration shall be made by the Arbitrator at the place he sees fit, provided that it is no farther than 20 km from the city of Tel-Aviv.

Travelor affiliate marketing material identifies Yossi Cohen (right) as the owner and founder of the company. In his Facebook profile, Cohen cites himself as Travelor’s CEO and owner.

Possibly due to language barriers, I was unable to put together an MLM history on Cohen. His Facebook profile does identify him as CEO and owner of MBK, which appears to be a web development company.

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

Last month saw the collapse of Fort Ad Pays, a Ponzi scheme launched by Pedro Fort in 2014.

Now an investigation into Pedro Fort by El Pais has, among other things, uncovered Fort owns a $1.2 million dollar Miami mansion. [Continue reading…]

BNG International rose to prominence in early 2015, following the collapse of the Wish Club Ponzi scheme.

Modeled on the $1.8 billion dollar Ponzi scheme TelexFree, Wish Club itself was a reboot of the notorious Brazilian pyramid scheme, Blackdever.

By the time Brazilian authorities moved to shut Blackdever, only R$200,000 ($57,472) out of an estimated R$36.4 million ($10.4 million USD) pumped into the scheme was recovered.

Needless to say the overwhelming majority of Blackdever affiliates lost money in the scheme. [Continue reading…]

Before we get started, I have to clarify that MBI International the MLM opportunity do not operate from “mbiinternational.com”. This appears to be an unrelated entity.

MBI International the MLM opportunity operate from “mbiv2u.com” and are the subject of this review.

MBI International launched in 2009 and is headed up by Tedy Teow (right).

As per Teow’s MBI International corporate bio;

More than 30 years of marketing experience. Lightened up his life, and everyone else too.

He was unwilling to be ordinary that makes him dare to face any new challenges and set up MBI International Group in 2009.

Possibly due to language barriers (MBI International are based out of Malaysia), I was unable to put together an MLM history on Teow.

Earlier this year it appears $2.3 million USD of MBI International funds was seized in Thailand.

Authorities seized foreign currencies worth more than 83 million baht from a leading foreign company in Songkhla’s Sadao district during a crackdown on foreign mafia gangs yesterday.

A combined team of authorities yesterday raided MBI Group, in tambon Samnaktham of Sadao district, said the Special Task Force’s chief Col Paisan Nusung who led the crackdown yesterday.

An initial investigation also found the MBI Group has many subsidiary companies and was suspected of carrying out money laundering activities, police said.

The company has run six hotels, nine apartments, two resorts and several tourist spots including animal farms in Sadao district, with an investment value of 2 billion baht, according to police.

An article in Thai from MRG Online has some additional information and photos.

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

Unlike OneCoin affiliates, I wasn’t expecting much to be announced at their London CoinRush event.

My thinking was if they had the merchants (100,000 “ready to go” or otherwise), they’d have gone live with them back in May as originally promised.

So, what did happen at the CoinRush event? [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the World Gold Coin website indicating who owns or runs the business.

On the “legal” section of their website, World Gold Coin do provide what appears to be an incorporation certificate issued by the Hong Kong Registrar of Companies.

Additionally, the World Gold Coin compensation plan documentation provided what a corporate address in Admiralty, Hong Kong.

Further research reveals the provided address actually belongs to Bridges, who provide “virtual office packages” starting at HK$1,400 a month ($180 USD).

The World Gold Coin website domain (“worldgoldcoin.biz”) was registered on the 26th of April 2016, however the domain registration is set to private.

Alexa statistics reveal that an estimated 56.9% of traffic to the World Gold Coin domain originates out of India.

If I had to guess, I’d say the company is probably being run by Indians. Bridges advertise a “Hong Kong Company Formation Package” for HK$7900 ($1017 USD), so they’ve probably used that to set up World Gold Coin as a shell 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…]

The streambox MLM niche appears to have dissipated as quickly as it appeared.

The first one I reviewed was vStream TV back in March, 2015. Over the rest of 2015 another five MLM streambox opportunities were launched and reviewed.

So far in 2016? Only two.

Most of the controversy around the various piracy box opportunities focuses on the legality of selling access to piracy. Affiliates of such schemes often evoke the strawman argument that watching streamed pirated content is legal.

This obviously doesn’t address the profiting from piracy issue.

Following two separate crackdowns by British police (June 2015 and March 2016), the Canadian Federal court has issued an injunction prohibiting the sale of piracy-friendly streamboxes. [Continue reading…]

Patrick Chan (also goes by “Patric Chan”) joined Jeunesse in May, 2015.

Operating out of Malaysia, Chan refers to his Jeunesse downline as the “Passive Wealth Group”.

As per a Facebook post dated June 7th, 2016, here’s how Chan claims his Passive Wealth Group is going:

We started the Passive Wealth Group 1 1/2 years ago. When I first started, some say it’s just a “temporary thing” I was doing. Probably all of my partners get the same remark too.

Some said it’s IMPOSSIBLE to do it because I do not have experience in this amazing industry. Some competitors EVEN said that because I’m not doing internet marketing anymore (where they are COMPLETELY CLUELESS because my internet marketing business has actually grown better than ever and in fact, I am making money online on auto-pilot nowadays…)

Making money on “auto-pilot”? If you’re selling Jeunesse products to retail customers and encouraging your downline to do the same, how is that even possible?

Read on to find out… [Continue reading…]