Over the last few weeks I’ve seen a noticeable increase in Total Life Changes customers and affiliates complaining about ongoing shipping delays.

TLC affiliates have been quick to respond to the issue, as they’ve no doubt been bearing the brunt of complaints from customers. But by and large these responses have been dismissive.

So what’s the story and why is this an ongoing issue? [Continue reading…]

MyWealthPowerSystem launched last month and identify John Blanchard as the company’s “owner and creator” on their website.

Carol and Greg Carr appear to be the supporting act, credited as “co creator and admin” and “admin” respectively.

My Wealth Power System was created with one goal in mind and that was to create a program where members can earn multiple income streams simultaneously.

If you visit the MyWealthPowerSystem without an affiliate referral link, Blanchard (right) appears as the coded sponsor.

Blanchard’s location is given as Alberta, Canada, which is presumably where MyWealthPowerSystem is being run out of.

In late 2013 John Blanchard launched RWJ Marketing, a recruitment-driven matrix scheme. Blanchard also used the scheme to funnel participants into other questionable opportunities he was in at the time.

Carol Carr was also involved in RWJ Marketing, as part of the team managing the company’s social network properties.

Problems first surfaced in early January of 2014, with Blanchard threatening to terminate the account of any affiliates who made complaints or were deemed “negative”.

Do you want to keep bouncing around program to program and never getting anywhere? I have been there done it and done with it!

I already have some members that left us a few weeks ago and now are wanting to come back… WHY? Because the grass is not any greener on the other side and never will be!

RWJ Marketing is and laugh if you want to but we are a true retirement plan that overtime will make you more money then you ever thought possible.

After a series of changes to the RWJ Marketing compensation plan leading into March, Blanchard announced he was shutting down the scheme on March 22nd.

I don’t think I need to say much about our existing team build system except that it is not doing so well mainly because we have only a hand full of members promoting … for over 3000 members.

This does not work and come’s down to the same problem with all team build I ever owned or been a part of.

I understand why so many don’t promote and that is because it does not benefit them directly. I can understand that….it does get frustrating for someone that promotes their butts off just to benefit someone else.

Having said this I have created a new system that will encourage members to promote because it will directly benefit them.

This new system is the best of both world… It benefits the ones promoting and also help’s the members that have a hard time recruiting still build a business.

So RWJ Marketing will be gone and we will transfer our team build to the new system.

RWJ Marketing affiliates universally reacted negatively to the news, claiming that Blanchard had been focused on paying himself and his “original little family” of affiliates in the weeks leading up to the announcement.

Part of that family was Carol Carr, whose husband Greg was also an RWJ Marketing affiliate.

According to RWJ Marketing affiliates, even funds from their ewallet balances that had not yet been withdrawn were taken:

I have been informed by RWJ members that even funds that were being retained in their wallets in order to pay the regular fees prior to the changes have been taken.

Firstly they were converted to points, and now those points have been removed, and the money lost. One person told me that he had $260 in his wallet which he has lost.

Generally in a program, Admin respects that money in the wallets belongs to the member, not for him to do as he chooses.

Chatter on social media reveals that RWJ Marketing affiliates who dared to ask where their money was had their affiliate accounts terminated immediately.

Has anyone worked out how much John Stole? 3000 members x minimum $30 balance = $90,000.00 minimum, most people had much more than $30 and some as much as $200 plus all the missing matrix 7 and 8 money.

I asked support what happened to my money and Carol said John would get back to me but basically the money was used to pay in waiting members that signed before the point system started

Blanchard eventually went on to launch a new matrix-feeder he called “Easy Downline Club”, however that appears to have collapsed within a few weeks (April 2014).

Blanchard then tried to launch a third feeder scheme called Presidential Diamonds Club.

In an email sent to his affiliates on April 17th, Blanchard wrote:

I won’t get into all the details but EDC never got off the ground for the simple reason that a lot of members we’re working against us…

You will notice that a lot of them you won’t find in here and that will remain that way.

RWJ and EDC are both dead. The members that are in here at this moment are the members that showed us that they are serious about their business.

There will always be people that are negative and like to complain about everything but I assure you the Presidential Diamonds Club is not for them and I won’t even blink an eye before removing them from this team.

I will not let people try to ruin it for others that are serious.

Presidential Diamonds Club doesn’t seem to have lasted too long either. The site was still up as of February 2014 (the domain is now parked), however activity appears to have stalled around mid 2014.

Having finally ditched the Presidential Diamonds Club, Blanchard and the Carr’s are now back with MyWealthPowerSystem.

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

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

The FortuneAds website domain (“fortuneads.com”) was registered on the 25th of December 2014, however the domain registration is set to private.

As I researched the FortuneAds website I noticed the presence of Google Adsense ads.

Further research revealed the same Adsense account was used to display advertising on the website domain “eimimo.com”.

This domain was used to launch the business opportunity EiMimo in 2012. The scheme saw affiliates paid to view advertising and collapsed someime in early 2013.

As per EiMimo affiliate marketing presentations, the company was run by Jeff Strong:

The key consortium member/owner of Eimimo.com is Jeff Strong. He has many sites and programs on the internet.

His office is located outside of Portland, Oregon, USA. He has been actively involved in various internet ventures for the past 12 years.

Whether or not Strong is behind FortuneAds is unclear, but ads being shown via the same Adsense account as EiMimo would certainly suggest so.

As always, if a 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 AdminPayMe website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The AdminPayMe website domain (“adminpayme.com”) was registered on the 22nd of February 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

Further research reveals that most of the promotional material for AdminPayMe is in languages from south-eastern Europe.

Reflecting this is Alexa’s traffic statistics, which estimates that Serbia and Croatia make up a combined quarter of all traffic to the AdminPayme website.

Given this, it’s likely that whoever is running AdminPayMe is based out of one of these countries.

As always, if a 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 CashBotClub website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The CashBotClub website domain (“cashbotclub.com”) was registered on the 19th of February 2014 and lists a “Barb Peterson” as the domain owner. An address in the US state of Minnesota is also provided.

Further research reveals Peterson (right) has participated and run a number of advertising-based Ponzi schemes in the past, including

• MyLittleCashFlowBooster (August 2013) – $5 cash gifting scheme
• LollypopAds (June 2014) – $10 investment scheme promising a 150% ROI, collapsed a few months after launch
• 5DollarsAds4Profits (September 2014) – 5$ investment scheme promising a daily 3% ROI for 40 days (120%), seems to have collapsed around the end of 2014
• LittleGuyProfits (January 2015) – $5 investment scheme promising a $7 ROI, collapsed within a week or so

Peterson was a participant in MyLittleCashFlowBooster, however she ran the other three schemes.

Looking at those timestamps, one can pretty much plot a predictable course of a scam being launched, it collapsing and then another one is launched shortly thereafter.

With LittleGuyProfits collapsing earlier this year, Peterson has now launched CashBotClub.

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

News broke yesterday that an individual had been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in New York.

This particular convening of a grand jury is significant because it involves an investigation related to Herbalife.

As best as I can tell, the grand jury news was broken by the Hartford Courant. Before we get into the specifics of yesterday’s news though, let’s recap what we currently know. [Continue reading…]

In one of the more comedic episodes of the TelexFree saga, we saw the company and their lawyers place much emphasis on a court-ordered audit last year.

The audit, to be conducted by the firm Ernst & Young, was ordered to provide the court with answers to specific questions – the answers to which were to assist Judge Borges in determining whether or not TelexFree was a scam.

The implication behind getting a neutral third-party to perform the audit was that TelexFree themselves could not be trusted with the task.

Hardly surprising when you consider the company already had a history of misleading and failing to provide information to the court when requested to do so.

Anyway, upon the order being made, TelexFree were quick to reassure their Brazilian investors that the audit would absolve the company – proving once and for all that it wasn’t a Ponzi scheme.

After three lengthy delays, Ernst & Young finally submitted their audit report last month.

The conclusion drawn from the data analysed and questions the court had asked them to find the answers to, was that TelexFree had ‘ characteristics of a “financial pyramid”‘.

Immediately TelexFree sought to denounce the report, claiming it was full of errors and “inconclusive”.

Unhappy with the work of E&Y being publicly trashed by TelexFree and their lawyers, Acre’s Public Prosecutors recently approached the Acre Court and asked that the audit report be made public.

TelexFree naturally weren’t too happy about that. [Continue reading…]

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

The ProCyclerExtreme website domain (“procyclerextreme.com”) was registered on the 12th of January 2015, listing a “Jansen Smith” as the owner. An address in the US state of Kentucky is also provided.

Further research reveals this address to be in the middle of a residential district.

As part of their marketing efforts, affiliates of IntellaShares are claiming, in addition to Smith having invested with IntellaShares, that he is also the owner of ProShareExtreme.

ProShareExtreme Owner – Jansen Smith is a registered Intellashares Member!

The above has been plastered all over the internet by IntellaShares affiliates.

Somewhat curiously, Smith (right) lists his location on his Facebook profile as Illinois. What the connection is between ProCyclerExtreme and Kentucky is unclear.

ProShareExtreme meanwhile launched in January 2015, with the scheme promising investors a $1.33 ROI on $1 investments.

A message on the ProShareExtreme website advises that the company claims to be the victim of recent DDOS attacks:

We will be back open Tuesday March 17th at 10:00 a.m est.

We were under a DDOS attack yesterday, we have added hardware to protect us from attacks again. The site is still propagating.

Thanks for your patience!!!

Typically schemes like Pro Share Extreme trot out the DDOS excuses when they begin to run out of newly invested funds.

ProCyclerExtreme launched around the same time as ProShareExtreme, with Smith likely hedging his bets against one of the opportunities taking off.

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

Clever container was founded in 2006, with the MLM side of the business launching in 2007.

Based out of the US state of Illinois, Clever Container are headed up by Karen Eschebach and Jennifer Weaver.

Absent from the Clever Container website are the exact roles Eschebach and Weaver have in the company, aside from being owners. For some reason there’s no corporate management structure provided anywhere on the Clever Container website.

So the story goes, Eschebach and Weaver (right) met at a Pampered Chef party:

When she became a mother herself, (Karen) began a Clutter Cutters Club for other moms in her Grosse Pointe, Michigan neighborhood.

“We’d get together once a month,” Karen explained, “and I’d help them all with ideas on how to organize their pantries and linen closets. I’d give them an assignment and the next month, they’d come back with before and after pictures.

Sometimes we’d even go to someone’s home and organize a closet, so everyone would learn from the process.”

It wasn’t long before people started asking for more personal attention and Karen found herself with a small business as a professional organizer.

After a corporate career in data processing, where she designed systems to keep information in place, she thought she’d found the perfect way to organize her life as a wife and mother with her desire to work.

With three kids, there weren’t a lot of extra hours in the day, so Jennifer decided to spend a few evenings a week as a direct sales consultant for The Pampered Chef — selling cooking utensils at parties that women in the neighborhood would have in their homes.

And it was at one of those parties, which Karen happened to attend, that the two women’s little side businesses began to merge into one very big idea.

That idea of course was Clever Container, which Eschebach and Weaver have been running ever since.

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

Following the collapse of the GetEasy Ponzi scheme, one of the main contenders to emerge as a reload scheme has been VIConcept (Valuable Idea Concept).

Launched by António Loios, the scheme pretty much mirrors GetEasy’s business model. A Ponzi front-end is paired with a residual binary backend, through which affiliates are paid for investing and recruiting others to do the same.

Even the shell company created to offer legitimacy to the scheme, TachoEASY Middle East FZC, is reminiscent of GetEasy’s fictional “TachoEasy AG”.

Hardly surprising when you consider Loios (right) was behind that company too.

In any event, looking to capitalize on the collapse of GetEasy and rope in as many investors who lost money in the scheme, Loios was quick to announce the launch of VIConcept once it was clear GetEasy was finished.

Pending a complete lack of action from Portuguese regulators, GetEasy’s owners, management and insiders (such as Loios) have made off with untold millions in stolen investor funds.

For a background on Loios prior to his involvement in Ponzi schemes, we turn to BehindMLM reader “Restelo’s Old Man“:

António Loios himself is a career politician from PSD (Social Democrats) and Computer Engineer.

During the 2000s he had a biz selling truck lubricants, managing to get familiar with the truckers and, despite complete lack of relationship with the business besides lube selling, was chosen by them to represent truckers from Associação Nacional das Transportadoras Portuguesas with the government, during the violent protests of 2008 (source for this info is a news piece in “Diário Económico” dated from 2008).

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