Whenever I see an income opportunity attempt to instill confidence by proclaiming association with regulators or the hiring of former staff, alarm bells go off.

In my mind the only reason to resort to such tactics is to try and convince everyone what you’re doing it not illegal. What that is can be any number of things, but when we see the SEC namedropped, typically it’s to do with unregistered securities and Ponzi schemes.

A BehindMLM reader recently pointed me in the direction of a video from DFRF Enterprises. The video serves one purpose, that being to convince Chinese-speaking viewers that DFRF is not an illegal Ponzi scheme.

To achieve this goal, two Chinese-speaking investors are flanked by the CEO of DFRF, and a gentlemen who claims to be a former FBI agent. [Continue reading…]

Ever wondered where uFun Club’s top recruiters stayed when attending uFun Club galas in Thailand?

The answer is in one of 46 condos the company had purchased using investor funds.

The condos have now been seized, as part of the latest efforts by Thai police to recover assets from the $1.17 billion dollar Ponzi scheme. [Continue reading…]

SingliWorld get off to a bad start by advertising on their website that they were “founded in 2007”.

The SingliWorld website domain (“singliworld.com”) however, was only registered on the 21st of January 2013.

It’s possible that the company existed under a different name, however SingliWorld, as it’s presented on their website, has only been around for a few years.

Credited as the Founder and Managing Director of the company is Hermes Leong (full name Hermes Leong Koon Wah).

There is no information about Leong (right) provided on the SingliWorld website, with the company instead providing a copy and pasted generic marketing spiel:

To be properly introduced to Singliworld is to learn about the individual(s) who had the unique vision to start it in the first place.

If you copy and paste “is to learn about the individual(s) who had the unique vision to start it in the first place” into Google, the same phrase is used in 288 unrelated results.

It appears to have been first used by Aspire Worldwide in 2011 and subsequently copied numerous times.

Further research reveals SingliWorld affiliates crediting Leong with ‘20 years of experience in regional business‘ and a ‘degree in computer management and information technology‘.

No specifics are provided and I was unable to find anything MLM related to Leong. For the most part who this individual is remains a mystery.

Of note is that on his LinkedIn profile, Leong lists his current location as Singapore. This is likely where the company is being run out of.

This is important because Singliworld Pte Ltd appears on an “investor alert list” maintained by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

As Singapore’s central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is an integrated supervisor overseeing all financial institutions in Singapore.

The Investor Alert List provides a listing of unregulated persons who, based on information received by MAS, may have been wrongly perceived as being licensed or authorised by MAS.

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

There is no information on the Two Bit Matrix website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Two Bit Matrix website domain (“twobitmatrix.com”) was registered on the 14th of February, with a “Donald Shickle” listed as the owner. An address in the US state of New York is also provided.

A Google search of the Two Bit Matrix domain address reveals a Facebook profile belonging to “Donnie Shickle” (right). A caption on the profile reads:

Hi, I’m Donnie Shickle, singer, songwriter, musician, entrepreneur and modern day renaissance man of sorts.

I’m always looking to network with honest, reliable, open minded people who like to think outside the box.

Shickle’s Facebook profile has not been updated since November 2013.

Further research reveals a LinkedIn account bearing the name “Donald Shickle” (), in which Shickle claims to be the CEO of Two Bit Matrix:

Shickle also claims to be the CEO of “Mad Ad Cash”, which sounds like a recruitment-driven pyramid scheme:

Guaranteed Earnings

You have to do very little effort to start earning income. Just introduce your few friends to us and earn money.

The above is from the Mad Ad Cash website, with further research confirming it to be a matrix-based recruitment scheme.

In addition to launching dubious opportunities, Shickle has also been involved in a few of them as an affiliate.

On the Facebook group “Let Your Voice Be Heard”, Shickle has advertised Feeder Matrix (pyramid scheme), EZ Cash Gifts (cash gifting), This Christmas Cash (pyramid scheme) and as recently as February of this year, Zero2Pro (pyramid scheme).

Mad Ad Cash was launched in early 2014, with Alexa traffic estimates revealing the opportunity is dead. Two Bit Matrix would appear to be the successor of the scheme, although Shickle has been promoting both simultaneously.

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

Canada’s AMF

is the body mandated by the government of Québec to regulate the province’s financial markets and provide assistance to consumers of financial products and services.

Back in January the regulatory body issued an iGetMania investment warning,

cautioning investors in Québec about an investment program connected to the Portuguese firm GetEasy Limited and the British firm iGetMania Limited.

In addition to that warning, the IMF also filed a lawsuit against GetEasy, iGetMania, International Finance Corporation and TachoEasy Middle East.

The lawsuit requested the above parties cease and desist operating in violation of Canadian law, until such measures are introduced to bring their business models into compliance. [Continue reading…]

The following excerpt from a recent New York Post article pretty much says it all:

Hollywood heavyweight Michael Lynton waded into the long-running Bill Ackman-Herbalife battle last year (by) helping the CEO of the nutritional-shake maker try to stop a looming regulatory probe.

Michael Johnson, the CEO of Herbalife, reached out in an e-mail to his pal Lynton, the CEO of Sony Entertainment, to help short-circuit an attempt by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) to have the Federal Trade Commission investigate the company.

Ugh, I feel infected by Herbalife’s PR sleaze just from reading it… [Continue reading…]

In the lead up to the blockbuster Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather and Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao fight, billed as ‘the biggest pay-per-view sporting event in recent history‘, Showtime and HBO have been actively litigating against illegal stream providers.

To date two streaming websites have been shut down by court order in the US, with more litigation expected to be filed.

What caught my eye about the lawsuits was they were targeted streaming providers not because they’d streamed the fight (how could they, it hasn’t happened yet), but merely because they were ‘planning to illegally stream the fight‘.

In other words, advertising an intention to offer a stream of the fight was enough for a US court to have the two sites in question shut down.

The pay networks launched an attack in the Californian federal court against boxinghd.net, sportship.org and several other anonymous defendants offering a free stream of the fight.

The documents also accuse the defendants of promoting the illegal streams of the fight with advertising on the sites.

Since the legal action both websites have been shut down.

Upon reading an article reporting these developments, my thoughts turned to the streambox MLM opportunities we’ve seen emerge these last few months. [Continue reading…]

Feels like only yesterday we went through the Zeek Receiver’s 4th quarter 2014 fees and expenses report, with new updates now provided in the Receiver’s First Quarter Status Report for 2015.

Most of the information we’ve already covered in our ongoing coverage throughout 2015, which can be accessed via BehindMLM’s Zeek Rewards archives (articles written between Jan 01 and March 31st, 2015).

Below you’ll find a breakdown of new information and updates provided in the Receiver’s latest report. [Continue reading…]

On paper the uFun Club Ponzi scheme is pretty straight-forward.

Early adopters of the scheme invested real funds in exchange for uTokens.

Then, according to the rate of new fund investment, they are paid monopoly money which is then re-invested back into more uTokens.

Cash is made either by “selling” uTokens back to uFun Club, who pay out these requests with invested affiliate funds, or by selling uTokens to unsuspecting victims.

These victims are told uFun Club is legitimate and hand over real cash to top uFun Club investors. These investors then set up uFun Club affiliate accounts for the victims and transfer a set amount of uTokens into the account.

The account is then handed over to the unsuspecting victim and they then proceed to reinvest the monopoly funds paid out to them and accumulate more uTokens.

uFun Club investors who run unrelated businesses can also increase their share of uTokens, by accepting uToken payment for goods and services.

Meanwhile uFun Club publish a value of uToken to keep everybody from withdrawing, with said value artificially inflated by incremental amounts, and advertised as never going down.

When reserve invested funds weighed against withdrawal requests reach a certain threshold, uFun Club run a “split”, whereby everyone’s uToken amounts are reduced, with each coin/point remaining then raising in price.

Ponzi schemes have been doing this for years, commonly referring to the practice as a “restart”.

Hiding behind the facade of a cryptocurrency, uToken is little more than the Ponzi points model pioneered by Zeek Rewards, only they attached it to a penny auction (VIP points instead of uTokens).

And it is this model Thai police are now going to have to present to the Office of the Attorney General, in order to get the uFun Club Ponzi scheme classified as a “transnational crime”. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Money Go Round website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The website does have an “about us” link, however clicking on it currently returns a “404 not found” error.

The Money Go Round website domain was registered on the 30th of March 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

Further research reveals an official Facebook page set up Money Go Round affiliates, with Lynn Torres, Ivan Mircic, Katherine Korytkowski, Scott Sparks, April Dohle, Donna O. Youngs, Eli Lama, Ray StingRay Woodard and Dusty Williams listed as admins.

It is extremely likely that one or more of these individuals are running the company.

My money is on Ray Stingray Woodard (right), with the following Facebook post dated 9th of April suggesting he is in charge:

*****LAUNCHING IN ABOUT 2 HOURS!!!!*****

COME AND TAKE THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE ON MY NEW PROGRAM “THE MONEY-GO-ROUND” TONIGHT AT 9PM EST

A followup post on April 10th only strengthens the connection:

We had a GREAT launch and I feel so very Blessed and extremely excited!!!

We paid out to nearly 100 members on day 1. Some made as much as $680 the first day.

You have no idea how it makes me feel to have been able to help so many people…and we’re just getting started.

I have a great team of people that helped to make this happen… Dusty Williams,Donna O. Youngss, Jackie Apparicio, Helen Caronna, Scott Sparks (just to name a few) and the entire Team Texas Legacy… I can’t thank you enough.

There’s plenty of room on the Money-Go-Round for us to help so many more people… and this thing is spinning out of control so come take a ride with us… and LET’S GET DIZZY!!!

Other MLM opportunities advertised on Woodward’s Facebook profile include EzWealthBuilder (matrix-based Ponzi scheme), Total Takeover (pyramid scheme), Ingreso Cybernetico (Ponzi scheme) and Penny Matrix (pyramid scheme).

Of note is that at least one of the Money Go Round Facebook group admins above was an investor in Achieve Community.

A post on Ivan Mircic’s Facebook timeline dated 15th of April reads:

OMG…THIS IS ON FIRE…COME RIDE THE MONEY GO ROUND!

THIS WILL SURPASS WHAT ACHIEVE EVER WAS OR EVER COULD BE.

The SEC shut down Achieve Community in February, revealing it to be a $3.8 million dollar Ponzi scheme. Its founders are currently both facing criminal prosecution.

According to Ivan Mircic, Money Go Round is set to “surpass” the level of fraud Achieve Community was built on.

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