On October 12th Changes Trading owner Timothy Baggett issued an apology for months of delays in paying out his affiliates.

As all of you know we have fallen behind in commissions that were owed from the last couple of months.

I want to sincerely say how sorry I am that this has happened and I want to assure you that we are working very diligently to get this resolved.

Commissions being paid correctly, and on time is the life blood of any business like ours and it is essential to staying open.

We have always taken pride in getting our commissions paid on time and correctly we intend to get this fixed and to get back on the right track.

Over the next few weeks we will be sending out payments to you as we try and get this completely cleared up.

At the time, it sounded as if Changes Trading had put their issues behind them.

Turns out however that after “working very diligently” on the problem over the last two weeks, Baggett concluded the only way to ensure affiliates were paid on time was to remove himself from the equation.

In an email sent out to Changes Trading affiliates on October 21st, Baggett (right) wrote

Dear CTS Participants,

After months of work and effort to restructure CTS, we have come up with an innovative solution to resolve the many outstanding issues. The foremost issue is: who is going to lead CTS into the future.

(Ozedit: I thought the foremost issue was nobody was getting paid?)

The answer may surprise you. Because we have decided to turn leadership and ownership over to, Make Your Future – the company that invented the trading systems that CTS has promoted.

Make Your Future (MYF) is now the owner of Changes Trading Systems (CTS) Marketing and will lead CTS into the future. I will step down as the owner and CEO of Changes Trading System, and MYF will assume direction and control on November 1st, 2014.

The name of Changes Trading System (CTS) will continue to be used for marketing and training purposes but Make Your Future will be the owner of Changes Trading Systems.

I apologize for the problems of the past and know that this change of leadership and direction will be a benefit to the most important people – the trading client, and the sales Agent. It has been an honor to serve you and I wish you all the very best.

I will no longer be involved in the leadership or ownership of CTS, nor will I have a position of leadership or ownership in Make Your Future.

I would hope that you will give this change in direction a chance to prove that the “system” is the most amazing futures trading system in the world, and that Agents will earn, and be paid commissions in a timely manner from the sale of Make Your Future / CTS products.

You will be contacted in the near future by Make Your Future / CTS, and they will answer your questions and concerns and help you to go forward.

Tim Baggett

Baggett launched Changes Trading as Changes Worldwide back in late 2013. The company initially accepted $25,000 investments from affiliates on the promise of >100% 90 day ROIs, however this later morphed into Changes Trading.

How much money Changes Worldwide took in from investors is unknown, ditto the amount Baggett skimmed off the top since the company’s launch.

What appeared to be the case now though is that he was doing a runner. Or so it seemed. [Continue reading…]

Just shy of a week ago I reviewed the newly launched opportunity True Value Savings.

Of the two founders, Teresa Mongar and Debbie Miles, it was definitely Mongar who had more of an eye-brow raising MLM history.

Miles previously held affiliate membership with LifeVantage (dietary supplements), Scent-Sations (candles) and Amega Global (magic wands).

Mongar on the other hand has a history with recruitment driven pyramid schemes and one of the largest MLM Ponzi schemes in history.

And that’s not even the half of it.

Today we delve even deeper down the rabbit hole… [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the 8Elos website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The 8Elos website domain (“8elos.com”) was registered on the 4th of July 2014 and names “8 Elos Finest Jewelry Limited” as the owner. An address in the British Virgin Islands (a known tax-haven) is also provided.

In 8Elos’ Terms and Conditions a different address for 8 Elos Finest Jewelry Limited is provided:

Any written communication provided on this Agreement, should be made to the following address:

8 ELOS FINEST JEWELRY LIMITED 20, Rue Adrien Lachenal 1207 Geneva – Switzerland

Research reveals that this address belongs to SFM Corporate Services, who offer offshore “company formation with bank account”.

Rates provided on SFM’s website reveal a company can be set up in Switzerland with a bank account starting at 3320 EUR.

The British Virgin Islands meanwhile is a common place of registration for MLM company owners looking to dodge regulatory agencies.

From 8Elos’ Terms and Conditions:

Any controversy or claim arising out of or relating to the Agreement, or the breach thereof, shall be settled by arbitration administered by British Virgin Islands Arbitration Center under its Arbitration Rules.

Jurisdiction and venue of any matter not subject to arbitration shall reside exclusively in British Virgin island District Court.

The law applicable to this contract is the British Virgin Island Law.

8Elos would appear to exist in both the British Virgin Islands and Switzerland in name only.

The 8Elos compensation plan suggests the company is likely owned by an individual or group of people with ties to Brazil and the US:

The 8Elos belongs to a holding company controlled for investors Brazilians and North Americans that act in the sectors of fuel, fashion, transport, vehicles and financials.

The only trace of executive structure I was able to find was this slide from an 8Elos affiliate presentation:

It names “Mark Pereira” as Chairman of the company.

Somewhat curiously, in place of information about Pereira instead a quote from Abraham Lincoln is present.

One reason for that might be because Pereira’s actual name is “Marcello Pereira”:

Pictured above with TelexFree top investor Sannderly Rodrigues, Pereira (full name “Marcello Fornelos Jose Pereira”) is based out of the US state of Florida.

In addition to fraternizing with known Ponzi underworld figures, Pereira himself appears to have had run ins with the law (example 2).

If any Portuguese readers are able to summarize what those charges are about it will be greatly appreciated, auto-translate isn’t making much sense.

Why the ownership and management details of executives are not provided on the 8Elos website is a mystery.

Read on for a full review of the 8Elos MLM business opportunity.
[Continue reading…]

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

The AdsEarner website domain (“adsearner.com”) was registered on the 7th of September 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 HubOffer website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The HubOffer website domain (“huboffer.com”) was registered on the 17th of August 2014 and lists a “Francis Natasa” from “Hubopco Limited” as the domain owner. An address in Stirling, Scotland is also provided.

Hubopco appears to have been recently registered as a company name in the UK (May 2014), with the address provided shared with 114 other companies (sounds like a virtual mailbox).

Call me cynical but UK-based company registration, weirdly spelt admin name and suspicious European address? It’s likely that Francis Natasa doesn’t exist, the company is bogus and the address in Scotland is little more than a rented mailbox, if that.

This has Indian scammers written all over it.

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

Power Lead System launched in late 2013 and then… well I’m not really sure what happened.

The domain the company was using (“plsfunnel.com”) is no longer in use today.

In my BehindMLM Power Lead System review, I called out the company’s compensation plan for being too heavily titled towards affiliate recruitment.

Based on a 1-up model, there was little incentive for affiliates to focus on retail sales of Power Lead System’s lead platform.

Neil Guess, the owner of Power Lead System, was initially receptive to this criticism but soon became defensive over how said criticism was worded.

When it was then pointed out that charging affiliates fees for purpose of qualifying them to earn commissions by recruiting affiliates who then pay the same fees, Guess spat the dummy:

Hopefully THIS might make things clearer for YOU…

It’s obvious from your many responses concerning MLM law, rules about affiliates, and even your opinion about floating capture forms, that you are pretty ignorant in Internet marketing and MLM law.

I gotta hand it to you though, when I asked you to show me the law that backed up what you were saying, you never did… you simply came back with a cleverly worded response to appear as if you were quoting from some MLM manuscript.

I’ve been in the trenches of this industry my friend, and until you’ve been there yourself, you and I might as well be speaking different languages.

I won’t be responding or coming back to this site after this, and choose not to read any more of the ‘Word according to Oz’…. I’ve got a business to run!

The law Guess asked to see refers to the payment of recruitment commissions in MLM. Guess appeared to be under the impression that this was legal.

You need cited law to explain to you why an affiliate-heavy company or recruitment commissions or charging affiliates to simply participate in an MLM income opportunity is going to land you in trouble?

Good grief, start by researching every MLM company shut down over the past decade. I would have thought common-sense was enough but you seem to be one of those “I’ll see how far I can push the grey” types. Next you’ll be telling me you’re legal because you haven’t been shut down…

As above, I tried to point out the obviousness of what he was asking to see (citing common-sense that recruitment-driven pyramid schemes are illegal) but to no avail.

Now, roughly a year later Guess is back with Lead Lightning. The precense of the Power Lead System logo on the Lead Lightning website would indicate that this is a reboot:

Has Neil Guess learnt anything pertaining to the legality of recruitment-driven chain schemes this past year?

Let’s find out.

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

There is no information on the Tiny10 website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Tiny10 website domain (“tiny10.com”) was registered on the 18th of August 2014, however the domain registration is set to private.

An address in Singapore is provided on the Tiny10 website, however no street number is provided so the address is rather useless (read: fake).

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…]

EvryAffiliates is the MLM division of the online casino EvryBet. For the purposes of this review, I have used EvryBet to refer to both the casino and the attached EvryAffiliates MLM business opportunity.

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

The EvryAffiliates website domain (“evryaffiliates.com”) was registered on the 24th of May 2014, however the domain registration is currently set to private.

Before it was made private, a “Hans Engelcrona” of NetVentures Inc. was listed as the domain owner. An address in Belize (a known tax-haven) was also provided.

Why Engelcrona was removed from the domain registration is unclear.

In August Engelcrona and NetVentures Inc. registered for a trademark application for “EvryBet”.

On the application NetVentures appears with the aforementioned Belize address, however Engelcrona is listed with an address in Bjursås, Sweden.

Given Engelcrona’s ownership of the EvryBet domain and trademark application, it is highly probably that this where the company is being run out of.

Confusingly, a third entity is added to the mix by way of a footer message on the EvryAffiliates website:

Licenses and Operators

The Evrybet.com website is operated and managed by OddsMatrix Ltd, a company bearing registration number C44411, and having its registered address at Suite 4, Num. 62/63 Morina Court, George Borg Olivier Street, St.Julians, STJ 1081, Malta.

OddsMatrix Ltd. is licensed and regulated by the Lotteries and Gaming Authority of Malta

As per their website,

OddsMatrix delivers a wide range of sportsbook solutions. Fully managed white-label, hybrid managed and DIY, hosted or API.

Putting two and two together, it would appear that EvryBet is a managed casino offering of OddsMatrix, which Hans Engelcrona has attached to the EvryAffiliates opportunity, which he runs from Sweden through his Belize-registered NetVentures Inc. company.

Why Hans Engelcrona or NetVentures Inc. do not appear anywhere on the EvryBet or EvryAffiliates websites is a mystery.

Mentioned during the fallout between Bidify and their former CEO, Engelcrona has been credited with running Bidify’s Bidsson penny auction website.

90% of auctions listed on Bidsson were being shill bid and won by a company employee in Norway.

Two men operate the Biddson website and handles the shipping out of Norway Hans Engelcrona and Robin Bakkejord. Hans lists all the auctions daily on the Bidsson website then he has his young assistant use self registered accounts to counter bid everyone on the auction site.

This means that they win 99% of the auctions that they list.

Engelcrona’s specific role within Bidify was never officially clarified.

In any event, Bidify was a Ponzi scheme modeled on the $850 Ponzi scheme Zeek Rewards.

Following the shutdown of Zeek Rewards in 2012, Bidify rewrote their Ponzi points compensation plan in an attempt to go legit.

This flopped and the company then re-invented itself a few times over the next few months (reverting back to their original Ponzi roots), before finally settling on a complete reboot as MyCenterBid in mid 2013.

Just as Bidify’s previous attempts at rebooting itself failed, so too did MyCenterBid.

Whether Hans Engelcrona is still involved with the scheme or at what point he abandoned ship remains unclear.

In any event, Engelcrona would appear to have moved on from rigging Bidsson auctions and has decided to launch an MLM company of his own.

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

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

The My Resultz website domain (“myresultz.com”) was registered on the 28th of August 2014, however the registration is set to private.

Further research reveals thee people credited as co-founders of My Resultz in official corporate presentations: Scott Nelson, J.J. Meier and Tripp Mehew.

Scott Nelson credits himself with “40 years” experience in the MLM industry.

On his LinkedIn profile, Nelson credits himself as a Solvaei affiliate (cell service MLM company launched in 2012, went bankrupt in 2014). He also lists himself as an International Silver Network (ISN) affiliate as of early 2013.

With the launch of My Resultz, whether or not Nelson will maintain his affiliate memberships with these companies is unclear.

On her LinkedIn profile, Meier credits herself as the President of FemOne from between 2001 and 2004.

FemOne (launched 2002, now defunct) marketed a range of nutritional and personal care products specifically targeting women.

Between 2005 and 2008 Meier was the Executive Vice-President of Business Development for ITV Ventures.

ITV Ventures was owned by Donald Barrett and marketed health and nutrition products tied to Barrett’s infomercial business.

In 2008 the FTC fined Barrett $55 million for false advertising. ITV Ventures was shut down as a result.

Following ITV Direct, Meier has engaged in several non-MLM specific spokesperson and marketing roles.

Tripp Mehew was also involved in ITV Ventures (I later learned that Scott Nelson is ex-ITV too). After ITV was shut down, Mehew went on to brand himself as a self-styled “online marketing coach” under the brand Ten99. Mehew also joined Solavei with Nelson in 2012.

Below you can see the logo for Ten99, which has been repurposed and colored orange for My Resultz:

J.J. Meier and Tripp Mehew have also previously appeared together in an infomercial hocking Mehew’s book, “The Science of Getting Rich @ Home”:

Why no information about Nelson, Meier or Tripp exists on the My Resultz website is a mystery.

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

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

Globaliz Biz does have an “About Us’ section on their website, but only the following vague marketing copy is provided:

Globaliz Biz™ is one of the Top Web Hosting Companies in India. We are always committed to providing professional quality and best web hosting services with superior support and affordable pricing to businesses and individuals seeking web hosting packages.

Globaliz Biz marketing on social media suggests that the company is owned by Sujan Valand.

In his LinkedIn profile, Valand lists his location as Wapi (Vapi?) in India.

Prior to the launch of Globaliz Biz earlier this month, Valand was an investor in Banners Broker and Profitable Sunrise:

Both Ponzi schemes, Profitable Sunrise was shut down by the SEC in April 2013. Banners Broker was more of an organic collapse, with the scheme continuing to re-invent itself over the past few years as new investor funds dried up.

Earlier this month details of a Canadian regulatory investigation into the scheme and owner Christopher George “Chris” Smith were revealed.

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