Percentages.

It’s math that for most of was introduced in late elementary school. Percentages of this, percentages of that… useful for practicing division and multiplication,  and invariably leading onto fractions.

So how is it that Herbalife just keeping getting basic math wrong? [Continue reading…]

As part of her court-appointed Receivership duties, Kristina Freitag has filed an eighth interim report.

The report spans the Receivership’s activities during the fourth quarter of 2015.

Some of the developments such as the settlement with Phil Ming Xu’s family BehindMLM has already covered, but there’s also some new stuff we haven’t seen too. [Continue reading…]

The Passive Wealth Booster website domain (“passivewealthbooster.com”) was registered on the 8th of May 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

On their website however Passive Wealth Booster’s FAQ states:

Who Are the Owners?

Alex Robinson Online Network Marketer and Daniel Edwin SEO Expert are the owners. Bridget Fabian is Head Of support And FB Moderation.

Edwin and Robinson are purportedly based out of the US, Fabian is in the UK.

Daniel Edwin’s Facebook profile suggests he is a webmaster. It is highly likely that Edwin designed and maintains operation of the Passive Wealth Booster website.

Promotional material for Traffic Monsoon appears on Alex Robinson’s Facebook page.

Traffic Monsoon was a HYIP Ponzi scheme that collapsed a few months ago. Under the ruse of Paypal freezing millions of dollars, Traffic Monsoon investors continue to be strung along with promises of access to frozen funds at a later date.

As of February 2016, Bridget Fabian was promoting Empower Network on her Facebook page. Whether she is still actively promoting the opportunity is unclear.

In 2015 promotional material for Traffic Monsoon also appears on Fabian’s Facebook page.

Suggesting familiarity with the MLM underbelly, a few hours ago Fabian published the following to the official Passive Wealth Booster Facebook page:

If you are a member of X100k and other revshare/cycler websites, you will be seeing our mass promotion campaigns all over. This will give you an idea of how big we want Passive Wealth Booster to be.

X100K is a matrix-based pyramid scheme launched in 2015. Alexa statistics to the X100K website reveal a sharp decline from January 2016, likely driving the scheme towards collapse.

Whether Fabian, Edwin or Robinson were active in X100K is unclear.

Read on for a full review of the Passive Wealth Booster MLM opportunity.

[Continue reading…]

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

The Adstraordinary website domain (“adstraordinary.com”) was registered on the 24th of March 2016, with Sherm Mason listed as the owner. An address in the US state of Arkansas is also provided.

Sherm Mason (aka Optimus Dale) first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar as the admin of Magnetic Builder.

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

Last year was a busy one for Mason (right), with at least five known dubious schemes launched throughout:

• 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 has already launched Elite Pay Alliance, a matrix-based cash gifting scheme and 5 Dolla Money Lines, a pass-up chain-recruitment scheme.

Alexa traffic statitics for the 5 Dolla Money Lines website domain suggest that, despite only being launched in late January, the scheme has already collapsed.

Adstraordinary marks Mason’s third MLM launch for 2016.

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

As first uncovered by BehindMLM reader OzDelphi, on the 16th of April 2015 One Network Services Ltd. filed a US trademark application for “onecoin”.

One Network Services Ltd., believed to be OneCoin’s parent company, sought to trademark the OneCoin name ‘without claim to any particular font, style, size, or color‘.

Irina Dilkinska was the name on the application, cited as One Network Services Ltd.’s “Head of Legal and Compliance Department”.

On July 24th, 2015, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), responded to OneCoin’s application with a notice of potential conflict.

At the time a pending trademark application existed for “One World One Coin”. The USPTO wrote to OneCoin informing them that should One World One Coin be granted as a trademark, OneCoin application was likely to be refused because of ‘a likelihood of confusion between the two marks‘.

OneCoin was given 6 months to respond to the USPTO’s concerns, however as of February 2016 they had failed to do so.

Here’s where things get murky… [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the VIP Promoters Club website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The VIP Promoters Club website domain (“vippromotersclub.com”) was registered on the 12th of 2016, with Robert McAtamney listed as the owner. An address in Queensland, Australia is also provided.

McAtamney first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar in 2015 as the admin of the One Time Infinity Ponzi scheme. In 2014 McAtamney launched Cash Money Bucket, a four-tier matrix Ponzi scheme.

Two months ago McAtamney launched 3to600, a six-tier matrix cycler Ponzi scheme.

At the time of publication the One Time Infinity website hosting has been suspended. Cash Money Bucket appears to have been renamed “VIP Club” and costs $1000 to join.

Alexa statistics for the 3to600 website suggest the scheme has collapsed, which has likely prompted the launch of VIP Promoters Club.

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

Air5 Networks is currently scheduled to launch in June, 2016.

There is no information about the company on its website, with it only displaying a “site maintenance” message.

The Air5 Network lists Matthew Davis as the owner. An address in the US state of Florida is also provided.

Further research reveals Davis listed as a “Manager” of Air5 Networks Holdings, an LLC incorporated in Florida last year.

George Burton and Charles R. Glenn are also listed as Managers of Air5 Networks Holdings. Specific management roles with in the company however are not disclosed.

Despite the lack of publicly available information provided, Air5 Network “founders” are actively promoting the opportunity.

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…]

Roscoe Ortega Umali was indicted back in October 2015 for scamming over 400 victims out of $3.8 million dollars.

Umali was indicted with four California-based cohorts, with media reports citing Umali as the “ringleader” of the group.

I initially wasn’t sure this was the same Umali heading up uBox as CEO and President. uBox is based out California but I hadn’t seen Umali cited with his middle name in connection with uBox.

A now deleted webpage promoting uBox however confirms it’s the same Umali:

Ruhroh… [Continue reading…]

Following up on a threat made to the TaraTalks blog earlier this year, the Ponzi scheme My Advertising Pays filed a lawsuit against the blog on April 6th.

My Advertising Pays’ lawsuit lists the company and owner Michael Deese as plaintiffs and was filed in a District Court of Illinois.

As they stated they would back in February, My Advertising Pays filed the lawsuit based on diversity jurisdiction.

As per Wikipedia;

In order for diversity jurisdiction to apply, complete diversity is required, where none of the plaintiffs can be from the same state as any of the defendants.

In BehindMLM’s coverage of the lawsuit, I observed;

Unless I’m missing something, My Advertising Pays citing diversity jurisdiction, when they acknowledge they don’t know where the author of Tara Talks resides, makes little sense.

Guess how the Judge assigned the case ruled on the matter… [Continue reading…]

A brief update from TelexFree Trustee Stephen Darr today, regarding the status of the victims claim portal.

As per a filing by Darr on April 11th, he and his legal team have been working on the portal and electronic proof of claim (ePOC) with BMC Group since late January. [Continue reading…]