In its heyday, Liberty Reserve was the darling of countless scams that populated the MLM underbelly. And that was only a fraction of the fraud they got up.

The argument that the payment processor was simply trying to be the next Paypal was never going to hold up in court. Yet that’s the excuse that was trotted out at a sentencing hearing for Mark Marmilev.

Marmilev, Liberty Reserve’s Technology Chief, was sentenced yesterday in a New York District Court. [Continue reading…]

After a few years of developing its product line, Asea launched in 2009.

The company is based out of the US state of Utah, and is headed up by co-founders Verdis Norton, Tyler Norton (son) and James Pack.

So the story goes,

After three decades with Kraft Foods, Verdis Norton retired as the Vice President of Strategy and later was asked to run a biotech company. Some time after that, a particular technology caught Verdis’ interest, and when the technology came up for sale, Verdis mentioned it to his Park City, Utah friend and neighbor, James Pack.

James had moved to Park City years prior after building a highly successful telecommunications consulting company. So successful, in fact, that James retired at an age when most businessmen are just beginning to earn real income.

When James heard about the opportunity to join Verdis in business and acquire this intriguing technology, he pulled out a check, wrote in a large figure, and said, “There’s more where this came from. Let’s do this.”

And that’s how ASEA was born.

Following further research and development into their product line, Tyler Norton was then brought on at a later date. Asea marked the first involvement in the MLM industry for all three co-founders.

Heading up Asea as CEO today is Charles F. Funke (also known as Chuck Funke, right).

In his Asea corporate bio, Funke is credited with an extensive background in the financial sector. Like Asea’s co-founders though, his appointment as CEO appears to mark his first involvement as an executive within the MLM industry.

On the regulatory front, earlier this year Asea was accused of selling their products ‘through mechanisms that actually had the sole aim of recruiting other sellers (affiliates)‘.

Italy’s Anti-trust Authority claimed that upon signing up, these new recruits were then asked to make ‘an initial contribution (affiliate signup fee) or subscribe to a program of personal purchases (autoship).’

It was also noted that Asea ‘attributed healing abilities to their products that are not adequately demonstrated and certified‘.

The Italian regulator fined Asea €150,000 EUR in October.

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

Joining an MLM opportunity started by someone who was an affiliate in a travel-based pyramid scheme, then launched an MLM company who without notice took their affiliate’s customers and shutdown their MLM division, and then plead guilty to tax evasion should have been a no-brainer.

For many in the industry though, September was a month of spamming advertisements for RE247365 in the hope that people would sign up.

Operating itself as a pyramid scheme, RE247365 paid affiliates $50 for every new affiliate they recruited into the scheme. On top of this, additional bonuses were offered at certain recruitment milestones.

What usually happens in schemes like RE247365 is that those who get in early recruit as many suckers as they can, cash out their withdrawals and then move onto the next scam.

To that end, Alexa’s traffic estimate graph for RE247365 is pretty spot on:

Initial recruitment boom, cash out and do a runner before those you’ve scammed realize there’s nobody gullible enough left to recruit.

One problem though… this time around those who got in early are still waiting for their commissions to be paid out in full. [Continue reading…]

In an effort to get out of paying back the millions they collectively stole from Zeek Rewards victims, the scheme’s top profiteers filed a series of motions to dismiss mid 2014.

They then attempted to use the filing of these motions to stop the Receivership performing discovery (such as learning where they’d stashed their winnings).

A decision on that motion has been forthcoming, however with a recent ruling made on the filed motions to dismiss – it would now seem redundant. [Continue reading…]

Back in February, BTG180 filed a lawsuit against Robert Craddock and Fun Club USA.

The case was brought about after Craddock failed to deliver on contractual promises made between the two parties, and issues arising from Craddock using the BTG180 affiliate database to further his personal gains.

In July an amended complaint was filed by BTG180, adding Theodore Zentner to the defendant list. Zentner, an attorney and President of Fun Club USA, went on to file a motion to dismiss around October/November. [Continue reading…]

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

The PayAdShares website domain (“payadshares.com”) was registered on the 27th of September 2014, however the domain registration is set to private.

Affiliates on social media identify the owner of PayAdShares as Brian Solomonson.

A visit to Solomonson’s Facebook profile confirms as much, with Solomonson referring to PayAdShares as his “great program”:

In his profile, Solomonson claims to be living out of Stockholm in Sweden. It is likely that this is where PayAdShares is being run out of.

As for a history, I was unable to find any information pertaining to other companies Solomonson might have run in the past. Ditto involvement in the industry as an affiliate.

Solomonson does reference DigAdz on his Facebook profile though, indicating at least some level of familiarity with the industry:

DigAdz sees affiliates invest amounts of $1 or more on the promise 150% ROIs. Whether or not Solomonson is an affiliate with DigAdz is unclear.

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

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

The Unison Wealth website domain (“unisonwealth.com”) was registered on the 29th of May 2014, however the domain registration is set to private.

A marketing video features on the Unison Wealth homepage, which is attached to a YouTube account belonging to Jason Hall.

Whether or not Jason Hall is the voiceover featured in the video is unclear.

The name “Jason Hall” was too generic to bring up a reliable MLM history, raising the possibility that the name is a pseudonym.

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…]

Genesis Acquisitions International popped up on my radar back in October.

Promoted on the momentum of a purported $860,000 test investment by the scheme’s founders in July, Genesis Acquisitions International were soliciting a minimum $5000 investment on the promise of a 20% ROI.

Fortunately that all came crashing down when the FBI busted William Apostelos, owner of the scheme Genesis Acquisitions International was attached to.

Through WMA Enterprises, the FBI revealed that Genesis Acquisitions International was little more than one cog in Apostelos’ $50 million dollar Ponzi empire.

With Genesis Acquisitions International only in a fledgling state before the FBI moved in, losses in the scheme have largely been confined to that of local “business people, professionals and retired police officers” Apostelos managed to dupe.

Following the recent filing of an FBI affidavit, bad news for them. [Continue reading…]

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

The DigAdz website domain was registered on the 31st of October 2014, however the domain registration is set to private.

Further research reveals DigAdz affiliates identifying the admin of the company as “BeeJay”. I did hunt around but wasn’t able to ascertain anything further on this individual.

Purportedly Beejay is also the admin behind AdBonuz:

AdBonuz launched in early 2014 and promised affiliates up to 125% ROIs on $20 to $49 investments. Referral commissions on investments made by personally recruited affiliates were also offered, paying out down three levels of recruitment (unilevel).

In late November, AdBonuz affiliates on social media began reporting withdrawal problems. The company website is still alive today, however the scheme appears to have collapsed.

The language on the DigAdz website isn’t terrible, but it is slightly off:

Best performance for your advertising to get link back to your business and increase more rate of your goal.

Show your business keys or benefits before they visit your site or business. That can help you filter and get quality of visitor and them really want to join or purchase your product and services.

If one clicks the Facebook link on the DigAdz website, you are directed to a Facebook profile containing a heap of marketing videos from a “Marius Pedersen”.

Pedersen has been uploading DigAdz marketing videos to YouTube since the company launched in early November. On his own Facebook profile, Pedersen claims to be based out of Norway.

Whether Pedersen is “BeeJay” however is unclear, as he seems to focus on promoting the company over claiming ownership of it.

That said, Pedersen’s early involvement in DigAdz and his videos appearing on the official DigAdz website indicate he has a close relationship with those running it.

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…]

Effort Profiting launched recently and list coporate bios for four of their management staff on their website.

Trouble is, not one of these profiles is real.

As above, all four images used to represent the names provided are stock images that have been copy and pasted from other sites (the first image alone has over 600 similar hits in Google).

Throw in the generic bio copy used in each profile and it’s likely that the people listed as running Effort Profiting do not exist.

Two addresses in the UK appear on the Effort Profiting website. The first has a prominent spelling mistake in it and the second is a residential address.

Using fake addresses in the UK is a hallmark of Indian scammers.

Supporting this is the use of the name “Ravi Kiran” as CEO of the company and robotic voiceovers in Effort Profiting marketing videos.

Statistical data from Alexa also reveals an estimated 78.9% of traffic to the Effort Profiting website domain originates from India.

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…]