The Johnson class-action case against Paparazzi has been dismissed.

The Utah case, originally filed in North Carolina in 2022, stems from findings of toxic metal contamination in Paparazzi’s jewelry that same year.

As of March 2025 there are twenty-two Plaintiffs in the Johnson case; [Continue reading…]

Robot Quantization fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Robot Quantization’s website domain (“usdttron.com”), was first registered in 2019. The private registration was last updated on March 19th, 2025.

Robot Quantization has already attracted the attention of financial regulators. The Central Bank of Russia issued a Robot Quantization pyramid fraud warning on April 4th, 2025.

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…]

Recently I’ve had a few requests to revisit Talk Fusion. For those of you unfamiliar with the company, Talk Fusion is an MLM opportunity tied to video communication.

It was outdated when BehindMLM first reviewed Talk Fusion in 2014…

Back in 2007, when Bob Reina launched Talk Fusion, YouTube was making a name for itself, having only just recently been bought out by Google in 2006.

Today YouTube is a household name and the third-most visited website on the internet.

Before we go any further, I’m just going to go ahead and say it: paid video communication services today are entirely redundant.

…and remains even more so today.

That said I was able to match reader requests with marketing presenting Talk Fusion as a “reimagined” MLM opportunity for 2025.

The screenshot above is from a February 25th Talk Fusion marketing video from Tony Berry. Berry appears to market Talk Fusion as part of “Plan B Profit System”.

I have to say Berry’s claim Talk Fusion doing $100 million in retail sales in 2024 sounds pretty misleading.

Talk Fusion as an MLM company is dead and has been for some time. This is reflected in Talk Fusion’s website getting just ~3200 monthly visits as of February 2025 (SimilarWeb).

Such to the extent Talk Fusion might have done $100 million in retail sales in 2024, I don’t think it had anything to do with its MLM opportunity.

Supporting this is Talk Fusion’s last provided Income Disclosure Statement for 2024 (click to enlarge):

As above, 59.16% of Talk Fusion affiliates didn’t earn anything in 2024. 98.22% of affiliates earned less than $2500 annually.

In any event and in light of its 2025 “reimagining”, today BehindMLM revisits Talk Fusion for an updated review. [Continue reading…]

Apertum and owner Josip Heit are set to square off against the Texas State Securities Board on April 8th.

The scheduled hearing follows a TSSB securities fraud enforcement order issued last month, and subsequent request from Apertum and Heit for a hearing. [Continue reading…]

AGI AI fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

AGI AI’s website domain (“agi-ai.net”), was privately registered on February 24th, 2025.

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…]

Salus Global fails to provide verifiable ownership or executive information on its website.

Supposedly Salus Global is headed up by CEO “Anton Schmid”, aka Anton Maximilian Emanuel Schmid.

Schmid and Andreas Wituschinski don’t exist outside of Salus Global’s own marketing.

Manuel Leidel and Jimmy Larsen are former Karatbars International promoters:

Karatbars International was a German gold-ruse MLM pyramid scheme turned failed crypto Ponzi run by Harald Seiz.

Laura Catrini married Claudio Catrini in 2019. Claudio Catrini is a former OneCoin Ponzi promoter. In 2022 Catrini emerged as the CEO of the collapsed Gym Network Ponzi scheme.

Of note is Salus Global’s website having an “imprint” section. This is a legal requirement for websites tied to companies in Germany and Austria.

This ties into Salus Global marketing presentations being hosted by individuals with German accents.

Curiously, Salus Global’s imprint website page provides details for Salus Global LTD in Bulgaria. This appears to be a shell company.

Salus Global’s shell company ties to Bulgaria could have something to do with Claudio and Laura Catrini emigrating there in 2021.

While I’m not 100% on Salus Global being a Boris CEO scheme, Schmid not having an executive digital footprint and a Bulgarian shell company are major red flags.

Salus Global’s website domain (“salusglobal.club”), was privately registered on June 18th, 2024. Marketing appears to have kicked off in or around July 2024.

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…]

Serial fraudster Ciprian Ciceu has rebooted his collapsed Mainet Ponzi scheme as Mainet Funded.

Mainet Funded, based out of Dubai, pitches investors on “funded” trading accounts of up to $1 million.

Attached to this is a single-level affiliate compensation plan, paying out up to 20% on recruitment:

Seeing as Mainet Funded isn’t an MLM scam BehindMLM isn’t publishing a formal review. Mainet did get big enough though to note Ciceu rebooting the scam.

Ciceu began his Ponzi scamming with Be Trader, an MLM crypto trading ruse Ponzi pitching 20% to 40% monthly returns.

BeTrader launched in or around July 2019 and collapsed in October 2019.

After BeTrader Ciceu launched BeTrader Academy, a shitcoin Ponzi scheme. BeTrader Academy’s collapse prompted the launch of Mainet in 2022.

Mainet was more of the same from Ciceu, pitching consumers on a 0.75% daily ROI. Through local promoters, Mainet found an audience of gullible investors in France and Côte d’Ivoire.

France’s AMF blacklisted Mainet for fraud in May 2023. That same month Mainet disabled investor withdrawals and collapsed.

Mainet Funded’s website domain was privately registered through a Romanian address in November 2023.

Originally from Romania, Ciceu’s Ponzi scamming saw him relocate to Dubai at some point.

Due to the proliferation of scams and failure to enforce securities fraud regulation, BehindMLM ranks Dubai as the MLM crime capital of the world.

BehindMLM’s guidelines for Dubai are:

1. If someone lives in Dubai and approaches you about an MLM opportunity, they’re trying to scam you.
2. If an MLM company is based out of or represents it has ties to Dubai, it’s a scam.

Enel Green Power Bot has no website, it operates through a Telegram bot “@EnelGreenPowerbot”

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…]

Monaxa fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website. Additionally, Monaxa marketing videos feature AI-generated avatars.

Monaxa’s official Facebook page is managed from Indonesia and Malaysia:

As of February 2025, SimilarWeb tracked top sources of Monaxa website traffic as Malaysia (42%), Singapore (24%) and Japan (14%).

This suggests whoever is running Monaxa is based out of Indonesia and Malaysia (weighed in favor of Malaysia).

Instead of being honest about its Asian origins, Monaxa provides shell company for the tax-havens Anguilla and Mauritius.

Due to the ease with which scammers are able to incorporate shell companies with bogus details, especially in dodgy jurisdictions, for the purpose of MLM due-diligence shell companies are meaningless.

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…]

Grenada’s National Cyber Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT), has issued a “list of verified scams” warning.

The warning, published back on January 16th, names several MLM companies being promoted locally. [Continue reading…]