Elite Marketing Alliance Review: Not quite Joy To Live

elite-marketing-alliance-logoElite Marketing Alliance launched in 2010 and operate in the health and wellness MLM niche.

On the management side of things, the Elite Marketing Alliance website identifies Robert (Bob) Yukes is identified as President of the company.

Bob Yukes is a multi-level marketing veteran having worked eight years as a CFO in the industry prior to joining EMA.

As CFO at his previous endeavor, he was instrumental in raising $1 million dollars of additional financing to aid their expansion into international markets.

Elite Marketing Alliance is cited as a parent company on the Joy To Live website. For those unfamiliar with the opportunity, Joy To Live heavily focuses on affiliate recruitment at the expense of retail.

robert-bob-yukes-president-elite-marketing-allianceJoy To Live also launched in 2010 and is headed up by Founder and CEO, Gerald Ricks. Ricks is also presumed to own Elite Marketing Alliance.

Late last year Ricks launched Magic 10 Marketing, a recruitment scheme marketing bottles of silver.

Back in 2013 Bob Yukes (right) was serving as President of Joy To Live, however today he is credited as CFO.

Despite claims Yukes “worked for 8 years in the industry”, I was unable to find any information on his MLM career prior to EMA and Joy To Live.

Read on for a full review of the Elite Marketing Alliance MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]


Andorra International Review: Pay to play supplements

andorra-international-logoAndorra International launched in late 2015 and operate in the nutritional supplement MLM niche. The company is based out of California in the US.

A page on the Andorra International website is titled “Message From the Chairman”, however it fails to identify who Andorra International’s Chairman is.

Rather the page is used to provide a generic marketing spiel for the company.

james-hu-ceo-andorra-internationalDespite the odd anonymous Chairman’s message, Andorra International do identify James Hu as their CEO.

It is unclear whether or not Hu (right) also serves as Chairman. And if not, whether the anonymous Chairman is higher up than Hu in Andorra International’s executive hierarchy.

As per Hu’s Andorra International executive bio;

Prior to Andorra, Mr. Hu was Senior Director of Legal Affairs for Focus Diagnostics (sold to Quest Diagnostics), Associate General Counsel and Business Development for Martek Biosciences Corp (sold to DSM), and Vice President of Corporate Development and General Counsel for OriGene Technologies.

From the sounds of it, Andorra International is Hu’s first MLM venture as an executive. There is a James Hu in Organo Gold however I don’t believe they are the same person.

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


Social Cash Robot Review: $49 Ponzi investment shares

social-cash-robotThere is no information on the Social Cash Robot indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Social Cash Robot website domain (“socialcashrobot.com”) was registered on February 26th 2016, however the domain registration is set to private.

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…]


E-Dinar Review: EDR unit Ponzi points cryptocurrency

e-dinar-logoThere is no information on the E-Dinar website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The E-Dinar website domain (“e-dinar.io”) was registered on the 7th of October 2015, with “Insider Mine” of “LP Edinar-group” as the owner. An address in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is also provided.

“Mass media” articles provided on the E-Dinar website are little more than spam the owner(s) of E-Dinar have uploaded to various press-release websites.

The marketing videos on the website were made on the cheap, using the services of Fivver seller “Ivannicholo”.

Alexa currently estimate that 26.4% of all traffic to the E-Dinar website originates out of the US. Russia and Ukraine aren’t far behind, providing 19.4% and 16.6% respectively.

There’s a distinct lack of information available on Insider Mine and LP Edinar-group. My thinking is that these are likely just shell companies set up in Malaysia.

Between Russia and the US, I’m leaning towards the admins of E-Dinar being based in Europe.

This is based on the abundance of E-Dinar marketing material in Russian, as well as use of the Slovakian file locker to host the E-Dinar website (albeit the link was broken at the time of publication).

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…]



Criminal charge filed against Zeek payment processor

zeekrewardsIn yet another blow to merchants who facilitate the operation of MLM Ponzi schemes, a criminal charge has been filed against the owner of one of Zeek Rewards’ payment processors. [Continue reading…]


Leased Ad Space Review: 8×7 matrix cash gifting

leased-ad-space-logoThere is no information on the Leased Ad Space website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Leased Ad Space website domain (“leasedadspace.com”) was registered on the 1st of September 2015, with Richard Weberg listed as the owner. An address in the US state of Minnesota is also provided.

richard-weberg-admin-leased-ad-spaceWeberg (right) first appeared on BehindMLM’s radar as a co-founder of Green Label Network. Despite prominently featuring in Green Label Network marketing videos, Weberg later disowned the company (see update on our review).

Under the guise of reselling WordPress (a free blogging platform), Green Label Network saw affiliates gift eachother $25 a month. Launched in 2013, the scheme never really took off.

Weberg is a GVO affiliate, with marketing material on the internet linking him to GotBackup? and Pure Leverage. Leased Ad Space’s website domain is also registered through GVO.

Last year Weberg launched Your Eight Steps, a $14.95 a month feeder into Weberg’s Pure Leverage downline.

Read on for a full review of the Leased Ad Space MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]


AdGainBucks Review: $5 to $20 ad-credit Ponzi investment

adgainbucks-logoAdGainBucks recently launched and operate in the ad-credit MLM niche.

The company provides no contact details on its website, however it does name Gennaro Avitabile as a major shareholder, Director and CEO.

Gennaro-Avitabile-ceo-director-adgainbucksAvitabile (right) claims to be originally from Italy, but has “lived several years in United Kingdom”. The UK is presumably where AdGainBucks is being operated from.

Possibly due to language barriers, I was unable to source an MLM history on Avitabile.

Avitabile does mention however that he didn’t want AdGainBucks to be ‘a cheap copycat like most of the revenue share company out there‘. This suggests some familiarity with the MLM revenue sharing niche, which is typically populated with Ponzi schemes.

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



Reddit reacts to “bullshit scam” OneCoin

onecoin-logoThe Reddit Bitcoin subreddit has 173,813 subscribers. It’s a hub of activity for all things bitcoin, with ten or more topics published every hour.

Up for discussion is of course bitcoin, along with the technology behind it.

/r/bitcoin is a subreddit devoted to new information and discussion about Bitcoin and its ecosystem.

What I’m getting at is it’s not unreasonable to suggest that collectively, the Bitcoin subreddit subscriber base knows a thing or two about cryptocurrencies.

Prompted by recruitment pitches from friends, yesterday a member of the BitCoin subreddit community started a discussion about OneCoin.

Here’s how the members of Reddit reacted to it… [Continue reading…]


Free Mart Review: Kooky products, medical claims & no retail

free-mart-logoFree Mart operate in the supplement MLM niche. The company does not provide corporate address details on its website.

The Free Mart website domain registration lists a residential address in the US state of Utah, which is likely where Free Mart is being operated from.

david-crookston-john-austin-cofounders-free-martListed as co-founders of Free Mart on their website are David Crookston and John Austin (left and right respectively).

As per their respective Free Mart corporate bios;

David was introduced to network marketing at the age of 17.

After 40 years of working programs that do not work for most people, he decided to start his own company based upon the principles of honesty and integrity.

John began his network marketing career in 1964 at the age of 14.  During his 51 years in the industry he has been Master Distributor of two companies and top money earner and recruiter in others.

He was co-owner of a company in the mid-nineties and has been a Consultant to the industry for the past 16 years.

For someone who claims to have “worked programs for 40 years”, there is a remarkable lack of information about Crookston’s MLM history available.

A Google search for “David Crookston mlm” returns seven results.

One of the result returned lists Crookston as a “leadership member” of Engage Global. Engage Global launched in 2014 and market a “Military Micronutrient Formula” supplement they claim “provides proven benefits”.

On his LinkedIn profile John Austin claims to be a “certified nutritionist, health researcher and author”.

MLM companies John Austin has been an affiliate of include Joy to Live (caterpillar corpse coffee) and Global Currency Reserve (failed cryptocurrency).

On the Free Mart website, David Crookston laments that after

having earned top positions in different companies, he learned that most compensation plans are not distributor friendly.

Whether or not he’s referring to Engage Global is unclear.

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


TeamVinh consent to judgement in SEC Ponzi case

team-vinh-logoLast December the SEC filed a complaint against TeamVinh, alleging it was a $3 million dollar Ponzi scheme.

Also named in the complaint as a defendant was owner Vu H. Le (aka Vinh H. Le), who along with TeamVinh initially failed to respond to the SEC’s lawsuit.

That saw the SEC file a motion for default judgement on January 8th. Default judgement was granted on January 11th, however it was later vacated following the appearance of a lawyer for Vinh and Le on February 1st.

TeamVinh and Le claimed that [Continue reading…]