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

The Paradise Payments website domain (“paradisepayments.com”) was registered on the 3rd of June 2014 and lists an “Optimus Dale” as the owner. An address in the US state of Arkansas is also provided.

A BehindMLM review of MagneticBuilder reveals that “Optimus Dale” is a pseudonym used by Sherm Mason (right).

Magnetic Builder launched in late 2012 and saw affiliates pay $29.95 to qualify to earn commissions when they recruited affiliates who did the same.

I’ve listed a slew of other opportunities Sherm launched in the Magnetic Builder review, all similarly themed.

Is Paradise Payments any different, or is this just another recruitment-driven pyramid scheme from Sherm Mason?

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

Forward: Bear with me… this has all gone down in the last few hours and putting the information together from mostly Portugese-language sources has been difficult. /end forward

Following the proclamation of plans to launch a Ponzi investment bank in the UAE late last year, GetEasy management went into hiding when said plans failed to materialize within the provided timeframes.

With investors wondering where their money went, now comes a series of announcements from various GetEasy ringleaders. [Continue reading…]

Back in September of 2014, the SEC had shut Zhunrize down for being a $105 million dollar Ponzi scheme.

The parties settled in December, with part of the settlement requiring the establishment of a Receivership.

Since then Michael Fuqua has been appointed Receiver in the Zhunrize case.

As part of his Receiver duties, Fuqua has been tasked with

• recovering Zhunrize assets
• identifying and verifying claims against Zhunrize assets
• pursuing and defending any litigation deemed to be in the best interests of the Receivership and, most importantly
• distributing recovered Zhunrize assets to the schemes victims and creditors

As mentioned earlier, Zhunrize was a $105 million dollar Ponzi scheme. Upon shutting it down, the SEC seized approximately $40 million held in various US-based accounts.

Since then the Receivership has gone on to recover an additional $30.7 million, with further recoveries expected pending co-operation from Chinese regulators. [Continue reading…]

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

The Goldmine Ads website domain (“rnrgoldmineads.com”) was registered on the 8th of August 2013, however the domain registration was set to private.

Further research reveals Goldmine Ads affiliates citing Robert Hinrichs and Richie Boman as the admins and owners of the company.

This appears to have been later confirmed by Hinrichs, who wrote the following in a Goldmine Ads related Skype chat with affiliates:

I’ve been online for many years. Richie and I got tired of being scammed and lured into programs by so-called ‘good’ people, only to find out that they weren’t so good.

We have created a program here that takes the best of many programs and stays away from the false lures and overblown hype that never pans out for the masses.

We have built a program with a custom script, that is meant to last. That is our hope and desire.

I did try to put together an MLM history on these two but unfortunately nothing came up.

Going off of what Hinrichs shared above though, Goldmine Ads would appear to be the duo’s first MLM venture.’

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

Despite the rosy image of thanks and gratitude carefully crafted on the Achieve Community forums, there is evidently a growing undercurrent of discontent.

Despite claiming Achieve Community would never accept deposits without a mechanism in place to pay out commissions, Achieve Community went ahead and did just that when they signed with iPayDNA.

For reasons that have never been clarified, Achieve Community was unable to pay commissions with iPayDNA despite accepting investment funds through them.

Part of the reason might have been the complex money laundering network Achieve Community attached itself through the payment processor.

It wasn’t long after iPayDNA was announced that Achieve investors began reporting bogus companies appearing on credit statement, strongly suggesting credit card factoring.

This naturally prompted a flood of refund requests, which now has apparently seen iPayDNA reach its refund limits. [Continue reading…]

Chatter on the grapevine this morning is that WakeUpNow are looking to file for bankruptcy.

I haven’t confirmed this yet myself, but a significant number of affiliates in other opportunities have been observed making the claim in recent promotional videos targeting WakeUpNow affiliates.

I did check Pacer for any bankruptcy filings but at the time of publication none were on the record.

The closest I’ve come to being able to confirm the news is a Facebook posting by Eric Turner, made just a few hours ago. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Ultimate Ad Club website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Ultimate Ad Club website domain (“ultimatead.club”) was registered on the 13th of December 2014, however the domain registration is set to private.

Two videos are linked off the Ultimate Ad Club website, hosted on a YouTube account bearing the name “Tom Taylor”.

This account was created about a week before Ultimate Ad Club launched, on January 12th.

Further research reveals affiliate also claiming Tom Taylor to be the admin of Ultimate Ad Club.

Tom Taylor is credited with running Wealth4Life, which is confirmed on his LinkedIn profile:

Owner/Admin of currently 14 web sites, ranging from Matrix programs, Traffic Exchanges, Dating sites, Online Tour Agency, Team build sites as well as PTC’s and various others.

Wealth4Life would appear to be a downline builder Taylor has built to recruit people into various MLM opportunities.

The Ultimate Ad Club Is Part Of The Wealth4Life Group Of Companies.

As per Taylor’s LinkedIn profile he is based out of the Philippines, which is likely where Ultimate Ad Club is being run out of too.

Why none of this information is available on the Ultimate Ad Club website is a mystery.

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

In the FAQ section of the TreasureAdz website, the following information is provided about company ownership:

TreasureAdz.Com is managed by a team experts experienced in online advertising and revenue generation.

The team is headed by Joan Oshea.

A bogus Google Plus profile was set up under that name to promote TreasureAdz, but otherwise no further information on Oshea is available.

Given this it’s likely that Joan Oshea, as represented on the TreasureAdz website, doesn’t exist.

The TreasureAdz website domain (“treasureadz.com”) was registered on the 17th of December 2014, however the domain registration is set to private.

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 Orbit9x website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The company website does have a “corporate” section, however no actual information about Orbit9x’s corporate management team is provided.

The Orbit9x website domain (“orbit9x.com”) was registered on the 22nd of May 2013, however the domain registration is set to private.

An address in Mumbai, India is provided on the Orbit9x website, however other than suggesting the company is being run out of India, didn’t lead anywhere.

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…]

Early last year saw Chinese regulators move in on Nu Skin.

Suspecting it of conducting pyramid scheme operations in China, the company’s affiliates were also running amok and making all sorts of false claims to bring in new recruits.

Long story short? Nu Skin suspended its Chinese business operations pending a formal review and, along with some of its top Chinese affiliates, was fined $781,000.

Nu Skin resumed Chinese business operations on May 1st, claiming to have reined in its local business practices and affiliates. Thus far they’ve managed to avoid further regulatory scrutiny in China.

As a company however, turns out that while $781,000 might sound like a paltry fine for a company that generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, losing $78.8 million from your bottom-line? Not so much. [Continue reading…]