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

The Magnetic Gratitude website domain (“magneticgratitude.com”) was registered on the 30th of January 2015, with “Sherm Mason” credited as the owner. An address in the US state of Arkansas is also provided.

Sherm Mason (right) first popped up on BehindMLM back in 2012, as the admin of Magnetic Builder.

Our BehindMLM Magnetic Builder review reveals that Mason has a long history of launching low-key scams.

Case in point: Magnetic Builder, a short-lived $29.95 recruitment-driven scheme.

Mason again popped up in 2015, this time as the admin of Paradise Payments.

Paradise Payments saw affiliates invest between $2 to $1000 in a three-tier matrix-based Ponzi scheme.

Alexa traffic estimates for the Paradise Payments website suggest the scheme collapsed shortly after launch.

This is what has likely prompted Mason to launch Magnetic Gratitude.

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

When I first reviewed Globally Positioned Partners back in December of 2014, one of the key issues of concern identified was affiliates being the main purchasers of product.

Earlier this month I was informed that Globally Positioned Partners launched (relaunched?) on April 7th, complete with a new compensation plan.

Figuring the old review was due an update then, here it is. [Continue reading…]

Recovering efforts by the WCM777 Receiver continue, with a fourth interim report filed on April 20th.

In it there’s not so much new information, but rather developments on existing efforts to recover funds.

Krista Freitag’s report clocks in at twenty pages of length, with the most relevant parts in summary format below. [Continue reading…]

Prior to the regulatory shutdown of uFun Club, you’d be hard-pressed to find promotions for the scheme that didn’t mention supposed investment and partnership with Bina Puri.

One of the largest construction firms in Malaysia, Bina Puri operate the the Bangkok Marina Resort & Spa through a local Thai subsidiary.

Back in 2013 uFun Club laundered 17 million THB ($525,000 USD) through the firm, buying a 29 percent stake in Bina Puri’s Thai subsidiary.

A UFUN branch, UTR Co, also bought 100 units worth Bt150 million in the Bangkok Marina Resort & Spa Project, he added.

Despite buying in for 29 percent and dropping $4.6 million USD on resort units though, uFun Club

didn’t send anyone to represent it on the board, leaving it with no participation in the company’s management.

So why did they invest in the subsidiary?

Precisely so that uFun Club investors could run around the internet claiming that the scheme was in a partnership with Bina Puri.

So the flawed mantra went, if Bina Puri was one of the largest construction firms in Malaysia, how could uFun Club be a Ponzi scheme?

Flashy images of the Bangkok Marina Resort & Spa accompanied the claims, with these actions now landing uFun Club in hot water.

Yesterday saw Bina Puri file an official police complaint in Thailand, specifically referencing uFun Club and its investor’s misuse of their company name. [Continue reading…]

After touting free airfares and publicly inviting members of the Thai media to attend a uFun Club press-conference today, “abruptly” the event has now been cancelled.

The event, to be held in Kuala Lumper with Daniel Tay (aka Tay Kim Leng) speaking, was supposed to be an opportunity for uFun Club management to prove that uFun Club wasn’t a $1.17 billion dollar Ponzi scheme. [Continue reading…]

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

An address in the US state of Michigan features on the website. Further research reveals this address to belong to “Michigan Runner Service”.

I wasn’t able to find any further information on this company, but did note that multiple business provide the same street address but with a PO Box number. This indicates that Michigan Runner Services may provide mail forwarding services for their clients.

The BnB Trades website domain (“bnbtrades.com”) meanwhile was registered on the 7th of April 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

Traffic analysis may provide some insight into where BnB Trades is being run out of. Alexa currently estimates that Poland (18.5%), India (18.2%) and Russia (14.3%) are the top three countries providing traffic to the BnB Trades domain.

Together these countries make up 51% of all traffic to the BnB Trades website, with the owner(s) of the company likely residing in one of the three.

My money is on India, based on the fact that if one clicks the “Western Union” logo at the bottom of the BnB Trades website, rather than the global Western Union website one is instead redirected to “india.westernunion.com”.

This fits the offering of pointless business registration certificates on the BnB Trades website, which is a hallmark of Indian-based scams.

Ditto the awkward English present in the company’s FAQ and T&Cs:

What is Bulls and Bears Traders (BnB)?

Bulls and Bears Traders is a registered company from Canada and United States that offers private clients investing into high profit business process optimization.

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…]

22There is no information on the Success Cycler website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Success Cycler website domain (“successcycler.com”) was registered on the 27th of March 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

Further research reveals an individual going by the alias “redzlord” claiming to be the Success Cycler admin.

Posting on social media on April 8th, redzlord reassured readers he wasn’t a scammer:

I am the admin of the program.

Members don’t have to worry about the identity of the admin. I am 100% real person and will play fair here.

Redzlord has a strong presence on Ponzi promotion forums, with a Photobucket album identifying him as “Regie Diadid” (right).

A number of promotional images for various Ponzi schemes exist in the album, which trace back to Diadid’s involvement in them under his alias.

According to Diadid’s LinkedIn profile, he operates out of Melbourne, Australia and currently works in the construction sector.

Recent Ponzi schemes Diadid has been involved in include Madvertising Pro, AdRewards Club, Grand Wealth Alliance Pro, Decide Your Path and Ezy Cash Network.

In 2014 Diadid launched a scheme of his own called “The Teamwork Project”.

The Teamwork Project saw participants purchase $5 matrix positions and then get paid when newly recruited affiliates did the same.

Launched in March, a few months later investors began reporting slow earnings. By late 2014 the scheme had completely collapsed.

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

The Your Job Space website domain (“yourjobspace.com”) was registered on the 12th of December 2013, with a “Steve Martin” listed as the owner of the domain. An address in the US state of Delaware is also provided.

Further research reveals this address belongs to “American Incorporators, LTD”, who advertise virtual office services starting at $150 annually on their website.

As such Your Job Space appears to exist in the US in name only.

As for “Steve Martin”, that this is the name of a well-known comedian was not necessarily a red flag in and of itself.

All sorts of claims are made about Martin in his Your Job Space bio, with several sentences written with atrocious grammar:

Steve began his advertising career in 19 where he was appointed ass a General Manager In the year 20.

Other sentences that appear on the page have simply been copy and pasted from other websites.

One such website is that of Ad Minings:

Ad Minings was an advertising Ponzi scheme launched in mid 2014. It crashed shortly after launch.

Further research reveals AdMinings to be headed up by a “Roger Brandon”, another generic-sounding Anglo-Saxon name.

Advertising spiels for Ad Minings claim that the company is ‘registered in UK, USA, BVI, UAE & SEYCHELLES‘.

To that end a number of identical registration certificates also appear on the Your Job Space website, switching out Seychelles for Anguilla.

Finally a number of video testimonials, purportedly made by various Your Job Space employees, feature on the “CEO Profile” page.

I’ve highlighted one in particular in the above screenshot, with the same actor found to be offering “natural video testimonials” on Fiverr for $5.

This individual is obviously not a “Live Support Agent” of Your Job Space, as represented in the video.

I didn’t bother to look up any of the other videos, but one can safely assume they too feature cheaply paid for actors.

Fake CEO, copy and pasted CEO biography, likely fake company registrations (and if not fake, utterly pointless) and paid actors posing as company staff?

What we’re probably looking at here is a reboot scheme launched by the admin(s) of Ad Minings. My first instinct was that Your Job Space was likely the work of Indian scammers (all the hallmarks are there), but the traffic profile for the site leaves me unsure.

Alexa currently estimates that the top three sources of traffic to the Your Job Space domain are Saudi Arabia (20.6%), Thailand (12.8%) and South Korea (6.2%).

In any event, pretty much all of the information pertaining to the company and its staff on the Your Job Space website is utter nonsense.

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…]

More bad news for the uFun Club faithful, with Thai police at a press-conference today estimating that a staggering $1.17 billion USD has been lost in the scheme.

Some of that money will have been withdrawn by early investors, $7.7 million has been seized by Thai police but the rest of the funds remain unaccounted for.

It is believed uFun Club management have laundered the funds offshore, but where is currently a mystery. [Continue reading…]

Upon reading a review of your business model that clearly and precisely identified it as a Ponzi scheme, what would you do?

If you were intending to scam people from the get go, probably nothing.

If you were legitimately unaware of the parallels of a Ponzi scheme and your business model though, surely the right thing to do would be to acknowledge the analysis and work towards correcting it.

Not Sheila Tabarsi. The self-styled psychic adopted an entirely different approach.

Today we take a look at one of the most roundabout ways you’ll see someone take to acknowledge the accuracy of a BehindMLM review. [Continue reading…]