As the situation over at Worldwide Solutionz continues to deteriorate, hopes that Marelize van Niekerk-Venter might come clean have been dashed.

Van Niekerk-Venter, along with various members of her family, masterminded the global Ponzi operations of Worldwide Solutionz.

In October of last year, WorldWide Solutionz became the subject of multiple regulatory investigations in South Africa.

Van Niekerk-Venter (right) has maintained that no such investigations exist, however it has become increasingly difficult for her to maintain the charade.

Marelize’s latest update to the WorldWide Solutionz faithful portrays the scheme at breaking point, with “voluntary insolvency” her latest ploy to delude victims of the scheme. [Continue reading…]

uFun Club launched in 2014 and saw affiliates invest in packages of up to $57,000.

Through a Ponzi points based system attached to the uToken digital currency, the expectation was that affiliates would eventually generate a positive ROI.

If investors cashed out their uTokens, uFun Club would then simply pay them with funds invested by other affiliates.

A complex Ponzi scheme, but a scam nonetheless.

And now news of arrests of uFun Club owners and management in Thailand. [Continue reading…]

Just days after Argent Pay Global floated a series of useless poll ideas, news broke today that their payment processor has now suspended the scheme’s ewallet services. [Continue reading…]

Today marks the day BehindMLM has been covering the MLM industry for five years.

As good a time as any I figured to take a look back at where we’ve come from, what’s happening now and where we’re going. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Super 2×7 Matrix website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Super 2×7 Matrix website domain (“super2x7.com”) was registered on the 25th of July 2014, however the domain registration is set to private.

Further research reveals the Super 2×7 Matrix website is using the nameservers of “planethomestay.com”.

PlanetHomeStay was launched in 2011, with the now defunct website appearing to be some sort of e-commerce barter website.

The domain registration for PlanetHomeStay is set to private, however it’s worth noting that locations members of site can choose to sell items in are all Malaysian states and territories.

Another website using the PlanetHomeStay name-servers is Our Matrix Club (“ourmatrixclub.com”).

Our Matrix Club was launched in 2012 and saw affiliates invest $5 on the promise of an advertised $680 ROI.

Statistics from the Our Matrix Club website reveal the last payout was made on the 16th of July 2014, confirming the scheme has long-since collapsed.

Unfortunately the Our Matrix Club domain registration is set to private, however further research reveals that emails sent out to Our Matrix Club affiliates were signed off as “John – OMC Admin”.

I wasn’t able to find any further information on this individual.

An individual naming themselves “omclub” can be observed promoting Super 2×7 on social media, confirming that the same admin is behind both schemes (omclub = ourmatrixclub).

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 MePals network indicating who owns or runs the business.

The MePals website domain (“mypals.com”) was registered on the 18th of April 2011, with a “Daniel Laverdiere” listed as the domain owner. An address in Quebec, Canada is also provided.

I’m not sure if it’s the same person, but most of the information connecting Laverdiere to the MLM industry is quite old (1990s to early 2000). Claims of him being involved in the MLM industry since around 1998 are made, however I wasn’t able to find anything concrete.

The following appears to be from the Daniel Laverdiere in question. It was published in 1999 to promote The Global Bio Venture, a $5 cash gifting scheme:

Hi ! My name is Daniel Laverdiere.  I am 40 years old, father of two.

I have been self-employed for the last 22 years, as a system analyst and as a computer programmer for the last 12 years, 10 years on the net, 3 years as a webmaster.

After all these years doing business with and for people, I can say that I have seen most marketing and money making concepts that will ever reach your E-mailbox.

Personally, I have been involved in many different MLM and direct marketing plans. I keep tight statistics on every plan with which I choose to work.

I use sophisticated software I have created to keep track of numbers.

I have understood that the best money making plans on the net that work are the ones that cost under US$100 (for a one time fee), that do not require much work, and if  possible have other people work for you (like the real big guys).

After working a lot with those plans, I found out that the fastest and most rewarding are those that actually cost under US$20.

They have a faster response time, and since they cost less, people are ready to dig in faster than with highly sophisticated MLMs or marketing plans costing more and requiring lots of promoting….

Now, with the background of having worked on all those plans, I want to tell to you about the very best of them all.

Its name is:  “The Global Bio Venture.” (Launched June 1st 1997)

When you buy the program, you become an authorized dealer. You promote it a bit , just as I do now, and you send some copies of YOUR copy of the software that, as an owner, will carry your name in it, and then YOU will receive orders and make money forever…

This was followed up by the launch of FortuneMaker in 2000, a $50 cash gifting scheme Laverdiere himself launched:

I have been doing business on the net since 1988. I have seen most of the actual businesses being born… I seen real scams, I got ripped off for real, I have lost lots of money and time promoting those scams, and this is exactly what I DID NOT want FMN to become.

What would be the point of building a hit and run site ??? I have started about 50 businesses online, most of them were free, and were used as traffic building system.

More recently Laverdiere launched ProList (2011) and ProAdz (2014). Laverdiere’s name doesn’t appear anywhere on these sites, but the email address used to register these domains matches that of MePals.

ProList takes affiliate fees and uses it to pay commissions ‘from everyone down 50 levels‘.

ProAdz purportedly offer affiliates free leads provided they recruit new affiliates into the scheme. The company also sells access to their affiliate database, allowing those who pay a fee to market directly to them.

Alexa traffic estimates to both the ProList and ProAdz domains suggest both schemes are dormant. With this likely prompting the launch of MePals.

Why none of this information is provided on the MePals website is a mystery.

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

BLINKeTV identify themselves as

the most awaited and exciting launch by SPAKEBOOK, a Mediaway Limited company, incorporated in London, United Kingdom about 9 years ago, providing advertising and brand promotion services worldwide.

MediaWay (“mediaway.co.uk”) is a legitimate web, print and video marketing company operating out of the UK, however this is not the MediaWay BLINKeTV are talking about.

Their MediaWay (“mediawayuk.com”) exist in the UK in name only, with the corporate address provided on the MediaWay (hereafter referred to as (“MediaWayUK”) website belonging to ServCorp.

As per their website, ServCorp sell mailing addresses (virtual office space) worldwide.

Furthermore the domain “mediawayuk.com” was only registered on the 21st of July 2014, with any claims that the company is nine years old appearing to be bogus.

SpakeBook meanwhile appears to be some sort of brand promotion service, unrelated to the BLINKeTV MLM business opportunity.

Of note is that while the BLINKeTV and MediaWayUK domain registration are set to private, the SpakeBook domain registration isn’t.

The owner of the domain is listed as a “Mark Stuart”, with an address in the US state of New Jersey.

Further research reveals this address to belong to Raymond Consulting Corporate, who claim to have

rich experience in global market, international operation, equity investment and oversea profound knowledge of Chinese enterprises.

There is no mention of BLINKeTV, MediaWayUK or SpakeBook on the Raymond Consulting Corporate website.

Another red flag is that the domain registration for the Raymond Consulting Corporate website is again different.

As per the BLINKeTV website, a “Kennedy Price” is identified as the company’s CEO.

Price is also credited as the CEO of MediaWayUK and SpakeBook, with his SpakeBook corporate bio stating

Mr Kennedy Price has to his credit, a 24 years of advertising experience in various top-notch organizations worldwide.

He is a LLM in Media Law and also renders his legal expertise to selected companies worldwide.

Further research nothing on this individual outside of promotion of BLINKeTV, SpakeBook and MediaWayUK.

Generic Anglo-Saxon names, dodgy company registrations in the UK and anonymous domain registration…

All the hallmarks of Indian scammers are there with further research revealing BLINKeTV promotions claiming ‘package upgradation (sic) coming soon for Qbule affiliates‘:

Qbule was a Ponzi scheme launched in early 2014, modeled on the Speak Asia survey-based Ponzi scheme.

Speak Asia was shut down by Indian regulators in mid 2011, Qbule meanwhile had collapsed by the end of 2014.

Both schemes operated out of India and primarily targeted Indian investors.

Additionally most of the BLINKeTV promotional material available has been published by individuals bearing distinctly Indian-sounding names.

India also appears as the first country of operation on the BLINKeTV website. Other countries and continents listed include Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, the US, Cambodia, and Europe.

That’s enough for me to flag the individuals Kennedy Price and Mark Stuart, as represented on the BLINKeTV, MediaWayUK and SpakeBook websites, as likely not existing.

BLINKeTV is probably being run by an individual or individuals out of India, who for one reason or another do not want you knowing who they are.

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 GetProfitAdz website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The GetProfitAdz website domain (“getrofitadz.com”) was registered on the 18th of March 2015, however the domain registration is set to private.

Worth noting is that Alexa currently estimates that 57% of the GetProfitAdz website traffic originates out of Germany (35.8%) and India (21.5%).

This suggests that GetProfitAdz is likely being run out of one of these two countries.

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 MyDollarFans website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The MyDollarFans website domain (“mydollarfans.com”) was registered on the 2nd of March 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…]

There is evidence that the activities of Telexfree have characteristics of a financial pyramid.

-Ernst & Young report on TelexFree, February 2015

That an average person would agree that the above statement is conclusive is a given, but not TelexFree’s lawyers.

Despite the detailed reasoning behind E&Y’s conclusion (based on information TelexFree had provided the firm), TelexFree’s lawyers were quick to denounce the report as inconclusive.

The company even went so far as to attempt to deny public access to the report, arguing that the contents of it were protected by tax-secrecy laws.

Thankfully that argument was rejected.

But while the public still don’t have access to the entire E&Y audit report, today saw that process edge one step closer. [Continue reading…]