These days if you want to cover MLM news, being proficient in English alone just doesn’t cut it.

After getting my ass kicked by Spanish and Portuguese all week covering TelexFree, now reports from China (in Chinese) are filtering in slamming Nu Skin’s marketing practices there.

Criticism of Nu Skin’s business operations in China are nothing new, but now government officials are starting to take notice.

Following an investigation by a Xinhua News reporter, China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce has instructed “local authorities” to ‘investigate media reports that allege Nu Skin distributes false information and conducts illegal business in China‘. [Continue reading…]

This is actually something I wondered about when I first read about Aerci Arreal Olm chaining himself to the Barão do Rio Branco forum. From the images and YouTube footage of Olm, you had a guy rock up in a tshirt and jeans with little more than a chain and some padlocks.

Water? Shelter? Toilets? There didn’t seem to be a whole lot of protest-supporting infrastructure on the site Olm chose. Despite vowing to remain chained to the forum until he “passed out” (from holding it in?), Olm’s protest didn’t seem all that well thought out.

Less than 24 hours later, I suppose it wasn’t all that surprising to learn that Olm had already reneged on his initial “I won’t be unchained unless I pass out” vow.

In a perhaps not so subtle move, Olm unlocked his chains and, rent-a-crowd TelexFree supporters now in tow, moved his protest to the Acre Public Prosecutor’s Office.

It seems overnight, Olm decided to shift the focus of his protest from the legal system currently evaluating the Ponzi evidence before it, to the Public Prosecutors who supplied the evidence.

Given that Olm has vowed not to end his protest until TelexFree’s Brazilian assets are unfrozen, a decision that can only be made by a Judge in court, it would seem rather strange to stage a protest outside of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. [Continue reading…]

Klob International appear to have “launched” in the US in 2011, with the company’s “Contact” page listing additional phone numbers in Mexico, Peru and Colombia.

The Klob International “member agreement” states that it’s

a legal entity established and existing under the laws of Mexico, residing in the city of Guadalajara, in the State of Jalisco, as stated and described in deed No. 17,314, granted by Atty. Enrique Ramos Ruiz, Notary Public No. 20, located in the city of Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico, dated June 20, 2009.

Spanish-speaking markets appear to be Klob International’s primary focus, with much of the company’s website still presented in Spanish if “English” is selected as the display language. Marketing videos for Klob also appear to be exclusively in Spanish.

As far as I can tell, there is no information on the Klob International website indicating who owns or runs the business. The Klob International website domain (“klobinternational.com”) was registered back in 2007, however the domain registration is set to private.

The “What is Klob” website page displays a video with some guy speaking in Spanish.

On the “Klob People” page a testimonial from a Sergio Cervantes reads

Klöb thinks outside the box and delivers a new concept to the market thanks to the innovative ideas of ​​Pedro López and Manuel Estrada, who have not only proven to be business owners with character, but men who can be considered friends.

Further research revealed a US launch marketing video, in which Estrada and  López can be seen speaking to Klob International affiliates:

Estrada (right) and López  (left) are credited as President and Vice-President respectively.

Likely due to the language barrier, I was unable to find any MLM history (affiliate or executive) for either Estrada or López.

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

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

The DailyPaidRewards website domain (“dailypaidrewards.com”) was registered on the 9th of November 2013, 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…]

Following the filing of an appeal that was designed to stall legal action against TelexFree in Brazil, the company was fined R$10,000 ($4200 USD) for acting in “bad faith”.

Additionally Judge Borges also ordered the company hand over ‘data relating to the registration and operation of the accounts of each of the affiliates, including twelve months of retroactive data’.

TelexFree were given ten days to comply, however as of January 14th the company had failed to submit any affiliate data to the court.

Explaining why they hadn’t handed over the data, TelexFree ‘argued that they had no access to information about the registrations and transfers accounts of the promoters of (the company)‘.

Yes, you read that right. TelexFree are claiming they have “no access” to TelexFree affiliate data. [Continue reading…]

A few days ago, whilst speaking to Boston radio station Vem Viva, Acre Public Prosecutor Alessandra Marques dropped the bombshell that her office had been in contact with US regulators. Marques also revealed that a US investigation was underway involving the IRS.

TelexFree’s official response?

“Lolwut? Nobody told us about an investigation…’

Addressing concerned TelexFree affiliate investors who had been “contacting him since Saturday”, International Marketing Director Steve Labriola got straight to denying a TelexFree US regulatory investigation exists. [Continue reading…]

On June 13th 2013, Acre’s Public Prosecutors were granted an injunction against TelexFree. Amongst other things, this injunction saw TelexFree face fines of R$100,000 a day ($42,500 USD) if they signed up any more Brazilian affiliate investors or paid out any existing ones.

Since then it’s been an open secret that top Brazilian affiliates have instructed their downlines to resign with TelexFree fraudulently using bogus details. Typically the credentials used suggest that Brazilians signing up as TelexFree investors are doing so from the US.

As of yet Acre’s Public Prosecutor’s haven’t made a move on this issue, although the Judge handling the case recently demanded TelexFree hand over their affiliate database.

Suggesting that an investigation is underway and fines might be forthcoming, TelexFree lawyer Andé Andrade summed up the current situation to iG:

I have no way of knowing if your registration is made by you from Brazil or by someone who lives in the United States.

Telexfree does not accept registration of affiliates in Brazil. We are very clear about it.

Now, if you are on the site (…), and put in U.S. data, with a (credit) card that is registered in the United States, I have no way to say whether you are who you say you are. I can not investigate whether you are who you say you are.

iG note that TelexFree ‘deny responsibility for any payments made ​​by the company to affiliates in Brazil‘. They also observe that it’s entirely possible to select Brazil as a country of residence when depositing investment funds with TelexFree’s payment processor, i-Payout.

The payment system used by the company, called an eWallet, also allows the indication of Brazil as a place of residence.

Debit cards used for withdrawals, according to affiliates, can normally be sent to Brazil and used for withdrawals at least seven Brazilian banks.

According to Andrade, Telexfree International does not have to control these transfers.

“The payments are made ​​using international credit cards. (As TelexFree) I do not have to know what the fate of that payment is,” said the lawyer.

“As Telexfree, I have no control over the issuance of debit cards [ through the eWallet]. They have control over shipping it somewhere as they are the company operating the card.”

Sorry what? [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Income4Ads website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Income4Ads website domain (“income4ads.com”) was registered on the 30th of November 2013, and lists a John Stephenson as the domain owner.

I punched the provided registration address (“1574 Chandler Hollow Road Pittsburgh, PA 15219”), and Google said it didn’t exist (tried some variations too).

The Income4Ads website is hosted in Russia, broken English features on the company website, their marketing videos are voiced over by someone with a middle-eastern or Indian accent, and John Stephenson is a generic an Anglo-Saxon name as they come. Put all of that together and I was already suspicious as to whether or not John Stephenson was an actual person.

My suspicions were confirmed when I visited the website Income4Ads uses to host the “how it works” marketing video:

As above, that gave me an email address and affiliate referral code to go off. The email address turned up nothing but turns out that same referral code has been used in other MLM opportunities:

The two that caught my eye were Wazzub and TextCashNetwork but there was also a bunch of non-MLM “pay to click” schemes tied to the code.

The TextCashNetwork result above took me to a Blogger account, belonging to Muhammad Sarfraz Awan:

On his LinkedIn profile Awan lists himself as being based out of Pakistan and working as an “Accounts Officer” at Islamabad Feeds (Pvt) Ltd:

By tracking his commonly used affiliate referral code, Awan has clearly been involved in various MLM opportunities to date. Income4Ads however appears to be his first venture on the executive side of things.

As suspected, John Stephenson does not appear to be an actual person.

Read on for a full review of the Income4Ads MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

The Traiborg Privacy Policy states that Traiborg is ‘owned by Creaciones Traiborg, S.L.‘ The company’s “Anti-Spam Policy” goes on to specifically name a “Traian Borgovan” who, as per the Traiborg website domain registration, owns Creaciones Traiborg S.L.

The Traiborg website domain registration also provides a corporate address for Creaciones Traiborg S.L. in Andalusia (Spain) is also provided, indicating that this is where Traiborg are operating out of.

It’s noted that the company’s name, Traiborg, appears to originate from the splicing of Borgovan’s first and surnames (Traian Borgovan).

On the MLM history side of things, Borgovan (right) lists Revenue Times ($10 investment scheme) and GlobAllShare (social network shares) as “groups and interests” on his LinkedIn profile.

Pinning down a launch date for Traiborg was a bit of a challenge, but it appears the company officially launched it’s MLM affiliate business in mid to early 2013.

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

Over the last few days a veritable sea of information has been released pertaining to TelexFree’s sponsorship of the Bazillian football club, Botafogo.

Patrick Pretty’s covered the Botafogo story and subsequent fallout with their main sponsor, Viton 44.

This morning the latest on the Botafogo story comes from Alessandra Marques, of the Acre Public Prosecutor’s Office:

Botafogo could be harmed by accepting sponsorship from Telexfree, now accused of being the biggest financial pyramid the history of Brazil with warnings issued in at least two more countries.

According to the prosecutor Alessandra Marques, responsible for the action that blocked the deal in Brazil, the freezing of assets of members of Telexfree can, in theory, include funds from the contract with the club, even if the funds are held external (to TelexFree).

As interesting as it is to watch the prospect of Acre seizing TelexFree investor funds transferred to Botafogo develop, of far more significance were comments made by Marques on US radio. [Continue reading…]