PIE, which stands for “Personal Independent Earnings”, launched in 2011 and refer to themselves as “The First Totally Complete Entrepreneurial Business Academy”.

Heading up PIE is founder David T. Rosen.

In a marketing video on the PIE website, Rosen explains;

Back in 1987 I discovered network marketing and when I first saw it, I thought “This is the answer”.

However, I quickly also discovered that it really wasn’t working. It didn’t work for everybody, and that was a problem.

So I decided to do something about it.

On his LinkedIn profile, Rosen (right) credits himself with having worked at “PIE Business” since 2002. The PIE 24/7 website domain however (“pie247.com”), was only registered in January 2011.

PIE in one form or another appears to have been around since 2002, with PIE 24/7 likely to be its latest incarnation.

I did try to track down what opportunities Rosen was involved in prior to launching PIE, but didn’t find anything concrete.

One last thing I’ll flag is that while Rosen lists his own location on LinkedIn as Ontario in Canada, there is no corporate address provided on the PIE 24/7 website.

The PIE 24/7 website domain registration is private, again failing to provide this important contact information.

Why PIE 24/7 do not disclose where they are operating out of is not clear.

Read on for a full review of the PIE 24/7 MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

That paid video email is all but redundant in this day and age should go without saying, yet it’s the service iWowwe continue to base their MLM opportunity around.

2014 was a bit of a quiet year for the company, at least externally. According to a report from former top iWowwe income-earner Attila Juhasz however, much has been going on inside the company. [Continue reading…]

You’d think some two and a half years after Zeek Rewards was shut down and revealed to be an $850 million dollar scam, that the issue of whether or not it was a Ponzi scheme would have been wholly settled.

Unfortunately that’s not the case.

In their latest ploy to avoid paying back those they stole from, Zeek’s top US investors will now elect a “rebuttal expert” to argue their case.

And wasting even more time isn’t the half of it. Through the Receivership, Zeek’s victims are going to partially foot the expert’s fees. [Continue reading…]

Last February the Norwegian Gaming Board found World Ventures to be an illegal pyramid scheme.

This was met with an appeal, in which World Ventures declared:

WorldVentures considers both a number of the factual and legal aspects of the Gaming Board report as unfounded and associated with failure.

Through filing their appeal, World Ventures was able to continue business operations in Norway. This ceased when a decision was made on the appeal, denying it in full.

A few days later World Ventures formally ceased business operations in Norway, announcing simultaneously that they were going to sue the Norwegian government (Gaming Board) in a Trial Court.

A case appealing the Gaming Board’s decision was filed and heard on the 2nd of January, with a decision on the matter published late last week. [Continue reading…]

As laughable as a Ponzi scheme opening up its own investment bank might seem, that’s currently what’s being sold to GetEasy investors.

Following a warning issued by the Bank of Portugal last November, and the announcement of a police investigation the month prior, GetEasy has struggled to pay out the ROIs it promised investors.

The scheme has all but ground to a halt. In the interim, several announcements from companies GetEasy feigned partnership with revealed there to be no such partnerships at all.

And this has now culminated in GetEasy dropping the facade, telling investors that they will be shortly launching an investment bank. [Continue reading…]

Typically when a Ponzi scheme hits regulatory problems the admins usually shut it down and disappear.

Every once in a while though an admin comes along and believes they’ve truly re-invented the wheel.

Achieve Community owner Kristi Johnson is one of those admins.

With the stress of coming up with new excuses each week to keep her investors happy likely taking its toll, Johnson’s latest update is riddled with a barrage of Ponzi rhetoric. [Continue reading…]

Listed as the admin of ProAdShares at the end of the company’s website FAQ is “Nagy”.

Further research reveals ProAdShares affiliates identifying a “Nagy Mohamed” as the name that appears on their commission receipts.

Why Mohamed doesn’t provide his full name on the ProAdShares website is unclear.

Adding an additional layer of confusion is the fact that ProAdShares website domain is registered to “Ahmed Masoud” with a different email address.

The domain registration details for Masoud suggest he is based out Saudi Arabia.

One domain registered using the same address that appears on ProAdShares commission receipts is “kashosoft.com”, some sort of classifieds forum in Arabic.

Mohamed Nagy meanwhile is the name of a well-known Egyptian footballer, with the name appearing in conjunction with ProAdShares unlikely to be a co-incidence.

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…]

Grocery Rewards Network launched in December 2014 and provide a contact address in the US state of New York on their website.

Further research reveals this address to be virtual office space rented from Regus:

Grocery Rewards Network would appear to exist in New York in name only.

Identified as the President of the company on the Grocery Rewards website is “Stephen G. Barr”.

Stephen G. Barr has a Harvard education background and is well experienced in the start up world.

He has sat on nearly 50 company boards and is one of the top 3% angel list investors.

This matches the information provided on Barr’s Facebook profile, where he identifies himself as being from New York but currently residing in California.

Given this, it’s likely that Grocery Rewards Network itself is in actuality being run out of California too.

Despite an extensive social media presence, I was unable to put together an MLM history for Barr.

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

Identified as a trio of “business partners” in a Total Takeover prelaunch marketing video are Dave Lear, Wallace Nuanez and Val Smyth.

Total Takeover is currently in prelaunch (accepting free affiliate signups), with an advertised launch date of January 26th.

Dave Lear and Wallace Nuanez (sometimes credited as “Wallace Nunez”) appear to have a long MLM history together.

The pair first popped up on my radar as part-owners of Tazew.

Tazew launched in mid 2013, paying affiliates to recruit new affiliates against an irrelevant mobile marketing tools backdrop.

The Tazew website is still up today, but the scheme appears to have stalled shortly after launch.

A quick Google search reveals Lear and Nuanez, either together or individually, have been involved in VidaCup (coffee), Empower Network (cash gifting hiding behind free WordPress blogging platform), Brain Abundance (brain pills), RE247365 (short-lived recruitment scheme riddled with fraud), Liberty Health Net (matrix-based recruitment), Sisel (random assortment of products) , Pure Leverage (recruitment orientated blogging platform) , Organo Gold (coffee), EPX Body (weight loss) , Uneeqlee (text messaging ads + recruitment), Javita (coffee), FGXpress (pay to play + autoship) , VappNet (failed gaming app), Seacret (dead sea salts + autoship) and Stiforp (recruitment).

Even between the two of them, given the sheer number of opportunities Nuanez and Lear have been involved in I’d readily classify them as “opportunity jumpers”.

Val Smyth on the other hand hails from The Legends Network. Bob Bremner is officially credited as the founder and CEO of the company, however multiple readers (some affiliates of the company) claim that the company is infact owned by Val Smyth (see comments section of our Legends Network review).

Prior to that Smyth launched a series of marketing tools orientated opportunities, each utilizing 1-up style (pass-up) compensation plans.

Now, Smyth Nuanez and Lear have gotten together to launch Total Takeover (not to be confused with The Total Takeover, a collapsed $50 a month cash gifting scheme launched in 2013).

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

Last November saw the Receiver file a clawback lawsuit against twenty-five Canadian Zeek Rewards investors.

Some have replied to the litigation filed against them, but a number of net-winners chose to simply ignore the proceedings against them.

Allowing sufficient time for a reply to be filed to pass, this resulted in the Receiver filing for default judgement against eight of the investors in late December.

In orders filed yesterday, the Court Clerk granting the motions for a total of $669,368. [Continue reading…]