Got Backup launched about a year ago and falls under Joel Therien’s Global Virtual Opportunities (GVO) umbrella.

GVO was launched back in 2009, with BehindMLM reviewing their HostThenProfit opportunity back in 2011. A few months later we looked at 7 Minute Workout, a fitness orientated GVO offering.

The latest GVO-branded opportunity we reviewed was Pure Leverage back in 2013.

Pure Leverage rebranded GVO’s marketing tools and a blogging platform, and combined it with a “100% commissions” compensation plan.

The Pure Leverage website is still up today, but Alexa traffic statistics suggest a sharp decline in activity over the past twelve months.

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

Good news for Zhunrize victims, with news that a claims process has been approved.

This means that those who lost funds in Zhunrize can now file claims for processing. [Continue reading…]

Since the news broke late last week that the ACCC’s pyramid scheme case against Lyoness had been dismissed, we’ve tried to piece together what we can from subsequent statements by Justice Flick and the ACCC.

Lyoness for the most part have been busy flooding the internet with hundreds of spammy press-releases celebrating the victory.

Personally my take is that the AU investment scheme wasn’t as important as it should have been in the case, which may have been in part due to a lack of evidence submitted by the ACCC.

Without the published judgement however, Justice Flick’s decision was difficult to make sense of.

The decision has now been made public, with how the ACCC lost an exercise in regulatory disappointment. [Continue reading…]

Xooma Worldwide launched in 2005 and co-founded by Dan Putnam, who initially served as President.

Putnam was publicly the head of Xooma until about 2012, went he launched EPX Body (weight loss).

In 2014 EPX Body got a reboot as One80, with Putnam launching The Elite Networker earlier this month.

Whereas EPX Body had a true retail offering, One80 and The Elite Networker have marked a disappointing focus shift to recruitment over retail sales.

Today Xooma Worldwide is headed up by President and CEO, Ron Howell (right).

With over 30 years of diversified leadership experience, Ron Howell is Owner and Chief Executive Officer of Xooma Worldwide with its global headquarters in Hampton, Virginia.

Howell is mentioned in connection with Xooma dating back to 2005, so I believe he was the other co-founder of the company.

He seems to have taken a more public role within the company around the time Putnam launched EPX Body.

(Howell) has distinguished himself in various businesses and held executive positions in various industries including real estate, distribution, national and international sales, wholesale and retail marketing, financial services and has also held Senior VP, President and CEO positions in national and international direct selling companies.

In the early 2000s, Howell was Senior Vice-President at New Vision, who marketed ‘products that improve pH‘.

In addition to be slapped by the FTC in 1998 for making unsubstantiated claims, New Vision was later involved in a legal battle with Xango.

Here’s Rod Cook’s (MLM Watchdog) take on the matter from 2005:

In its May 16, 2005 statement, New Vision suggests that the Patent Office has completed the reexamination of XanGo’s patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,730,333) and that XanGo’s patent is no longer valid. This is reckless and incorrect.

New Vision is promoting misinformation about what is actually in its own mangosteen product. New Vision and Vemma, both owned and operated by Benson Boreyko, sell the same product under different names. On the label for its drink, New Vision claims:

“This . . . formula is made in a base of whole fruit mangosteen juice and pericarp [and] whole leaf aloe vera juice . . .”

In contrast, in court documents filed by New Vision in the patent infringement lawsuit, New Vision claims:

•“New Vision USA’s mangosteen product does not include as an ingredient any juice of any kind much less juice from fruit of a Garcinia mangostana L. tree . . .”

•“Aloe vera juice is not an ingredient of New Vision’s mangosteen product.”

•“Defendants do not know, and therefore deny, that New Vision USA’s mangosteen product
contains as an ingredient any pericarp, much less pericarp processed or ground from whole fruit pericarp.”

•“Defendants believe, but do not know, that the fruit from which the powder compound is extracted comes from the species of Garcinia mangostana L.”

New Vision is saying one thing in court and another on its product label. How can New Vision claim that its product is superior when it apparently does not know the product’s ingredients?

In addition to presenting inaccurate information in its statement, New Vision also fails to disclose the present circumstances of its own business.

Just three weeks ago in open court, New Vision’s attorney stated that Mr. Boreyko had to funnel $3 million of his own money into the business last year.

This fact is in contrast to Boreyko’s recent public statements about his past business success.

Based on the most recent Dunn & Bradstreet reports, the 10-year-old New Vision company has lost 90 percent of its sales over the last eight years and continues to trend down.

New Vision’s attempt at a mangosteen drink was in response to XanGo’s category creation success.

Faced with such formidable competition, New Vision has resorted to its unfortunate campaign of misinformation.

Boreyko folded New Vision into Vemma later that year, with Howell going on to co-found Xooma Worldwide with Dan Putnam.

Today there is no mention of Putnam on the Xooma Worldwide website. Whether he is still involved in Xooma’s daily operations, and if so to what extent, is unclear.

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

There is no information on The Hunger Game Matrix website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Hunger Game Matrix website domain (“hungergamerz.com”) was registered on the 11th of January 2015, 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…]

WeBeTurbo operate in the advertising MLM niche and claim to be based out of Seychelles.

Our headquarters, based in Seychelles, offers our members the highest level of privacy protection.

This gives us and our members around the world many advantages in terms of absolute discretion and confidentiality of member information at werbeturbo.

Why “absolute discretion” and affiliate confidentiality are selling points for an MLM opportunity, I’m not sure.

Curiously, the address provided in Seychelles is a PO Box. WeBeTurbo appears to only exist in Seychelles on paper, there is no “headquarters”.

Also the image used to represent WeBeTurbo’s headquarters appears to be an image of a building in England. A Google search reveals multiple websites using it to represent an address at 7 Birchin Lane, London.

Why WeBeTurbo are using an image of a building in England to represent a PO Box address in Seychelles is unclear.

Sammy Antoine Freminot is cited as WeBeTurbo’s Director, with further research suggesting he is a lawyer based out Seychelles.

Whether or not Freminot is actually running WeBeTurbo is unclear.

All of this seems pretty suspect to me, so I’m flagging it as highly suspicious.

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 Inwell website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Inwell website domain (“inwell.biz”) was registered on the 29th of August 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

Inwell claim to be registered in the UK, with a Certificate of Incorporation of a Private Limited Company for “Inwell LTD” provided on their website.

It should be noted that UK registration requires little more than payment of a fee and a rented mailbox – no physical presence in the UK is required.

Another document on the Inwell website lists a “Scott Jameson” as the company Director.

I’m flagging this generic Anglo-Saxon name as likely a false identity however, with Inwell instead likely run by an individual or individuals in Russia.

The first clue is that an Inwell marketing presentation video on the company website is only available in English and Russian.

The English presentation has been dubbed over, with slides from the Russian video used:

Alexa traffic estimates support this, with Russia and the Ukraine making up 79.2% of all traffic to the Inwell website.

Furthermore, “Scott Jameson” doesn’t appear to exist outside of Inwell’s UK registration documents.

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…]

“Results not typical”.

For a number of years this disclaimer has been plastered on Empower Network marketing material.

Rather than serve as an actual disclaimer though, instead it’s used as a liability waiver. Or at least that’s the intention.

And it’s not just rogue affiliates doing it either, Empower Network corporate mandate the disclaimer be used:

It’s okay to make income claims as long as they are true and properly disclaimed.

A step in the right direction is proper disclosures. We need to advise consumers and prospects of the average earnings of our affiliates.

A statement like, “Results Not Typical. For average earnings, click HERE” (with an active link to the Empower Network Income Disclosure Statement).

So basically as long as you do the above, you can pretty much publish whatever you want.

Well, almost. [Continue reading…]

Following a decision last week to can US business operations, American MyAdvertisingPays affiliates are threatening legal action over slashed ROI payouts. [Continue reading…]

Following a judgement hearing held a few hours ago, we can now report that the ACCC’s pyramid scheme case against Lyoness has been dismissed. [Continue reading…]