My Protect Online are based out of Quezon City in the Philippines and claims to have been

established with a clear vision and mission for the Filipinos around the world, having its utmost commitment to help in terms of HEALTH and LIVELIHOOD’.

The company provides a “certificate of registration” and “company registration” with the Philippine SEC documents on their website under the company name “MyProtectLine INTL Company”. I was able to verify the SEC registration over at the Philippine SEC website (“sec.gov.ph”).

No explanation as to why the company is registered under a different name than the one they trade under is provided. One possible clue is evident in My Protect Online’s registration certificate, which lists the company’s “lines of business” as

• wholesale of textiles, clothing footwear
• wholesale of hardware, plumbing, heating equipment and
• other wholesaling

No mention of MLM, online business or any similar and/or related categories are listed. In light of this I’d treat My Protect Online’s provided documents referring to the online business as suspect.

Named as President and Vice-President of My Protect Online are Noel Soriano and Jenny Luna respectively.

Possibly due to language barriers I was unable to find any MLM history for either Soriano or Luna.

I did however find a Facebook profile named “Brilliant Mind” with someone claiming to be the CEO and President of My Protect Online:

Whether or not this is Noel Soriano is unclear.

It’s also worth noting that the My Protect Online domain (“myprotect-online.com”) is registered to a Jason Barinaga with an address provided in the Philippine province of Rizal. This address differs to the corporate address provided on the My Protect Online website.

Who Jason Barinaga is and what is connection to My Protect Online is also unclear.

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

After nearly a year of development, Vicesus finally opened their doors in August of 2012… only to shut them again last month, citing a lack of retail activity.

We are sorry to announce that the Grand Opening will be postponing.

The Main reason is the low activity. We have now tried to do it with affiliates as the main driving force to get custumers (sic) to the auction, this hasn’t worked.

In addition admitting that an affiliate-driven approach to generating retail activity hadn’t worked, Vicesus also announced that the company itself would be “focusing” on generating retail activity.

This naturally raised the question what exactly Vicesus needed MLM affiliates for, seeing as, other than deposit large amounts of money into the scheme, they didn’t really appear to fit into Vicesus’ new corporate marketing strategy.

That question remains unanswered, however Vicesus have pressed on and today announced their new retail customer generating strategy.

Have Vicesus fixed the problem of allowing affiliates to deposit money, fuel their own commissions and thus totally ignore retail? Let’s find out. [Continue reading…]

With the granting of an injunction prohibiting TelexFree from paying out weekly ROIs and signing up new affiliate investors in its core market Brazil, it was inevitable that promotional focus would shift to neighbouring regions.

One such region TelexFree’s affiliates are making inroads into is that of Peru, a country of thirty million that sits on Brazil’s western border.

Of particular note is that Peru is bordered by the western Brazilian state of Acre, where TelexFree is under investigation by Public Prosecutors and facing possible criminal charges of money laundering and embezzlement.

It is also the state the injunction was granted against TelexFree, crippling business operations throughout the country.

At the time the Acre injunction was granted, TelexFree purportedly had around 70,000 affiliates in Acre and, post shutdown, it appears a lot of the marketing momentum pushing the scheme shifted over to neighbouring Peru.

As TelexFree has begun to spread across Peru, local media picked up on it prompting Peru21, a national newspaper, to conduct their own investigation into the promotional activities of local affiliates.

Here’s what they found. [Continue reading…]

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

The VIP AdShares website domain (“vipadshares.com”) was registered on the 28th of September 2013, however the domain registration is set to private.

On VIP AdShares’ FAQ page, the company informs that it ‘is owned by the RWB Networks group’. No further information is provided, with RWB Networks group only appearing on the internet in conjunction with VIP AdShares.

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…]

There is no information on the AdverWorldwide website indicating who owns or runs the business. The company does provide a corporate address on all website pages, pointing to an address in the US state of Delaware.

The address provided, “2915 Ogletown Road, #1930 Newark, DE 19713 U.S.A”, appears to be a private residence, despite the presence of an office suite number:

The AdverWorldwide website domain (“adverworldwide.com”) was registered on the 13th of May 2013, however the domain registration is set to private.

A “business presentation” available on the AdverWorldwide website names a Sill Sanders as the CEO of the company:

This corresponds with the “Sanders Sill” name provided for the “AdverWorldwide” YouTube account, used to upload AdverWorldwide marketing videos.

The Twitter account “@AdverWorldwide” also uses the same name.

Outside of AdverWorldwide I was unable to find any further information on Sill Sanders.

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

There is no information on the Changes Worldwide website indicating who owns or runs the business. On the Changes Worldwide Facebook page a corporate address in the US state of Florida is provided, indicating this is where the company is based.

The Changes Worldwide website domain (“changesworldwide.net”) was registered on the 12th of September 2013 and lists a “Timothy Baggett” as the owner. On his LinkedIn profile, Baggett credits himself as the CEO of Changes Worldwide:

On his blog called “The Turn-Key System”, Baggett provides a brief history of his MLM experience:

My name is Tim and I am A MLM junkie. It seems like I have tried every MLM program from this planet (and some beyond) every time absolutely sure that I was on to something big.

I would join. jump in with both feet and try to get everybody and their grandma to join the “NEXT BIG THING.”

Yea, I was that guy that everyone ran from at family reunions (weddings, banquets, sporting events, funerals….ect) and what was so bad is my enthusiasm attracted people to my business opportunity the first 3 or 4 times but after the 17th, well you get the picture.

Circa 2010 Baggett was an affiliate with Lightyear Wireless, regularly appearing in the company’s top ten “sales performers” lists.

When Baggett left Lightyear Wireless is unclear, but he published an article on IBOSocial back in March of this year titled “10 Reasons I Joined Bids That Give”.

Bids That Give (now BTG180) is modelled on the Zeek Rewards Ponzi points compensation plan. In addition to the standard affiliate-funded revenue sharing and penny auction platform combination, Bids That Give added a charity element to the business model.

In his article Baggett writes

With BTG there are no selling or recruiting requirements, we are not a pyramid.

Of additional note is the involvement of Wayne Caraway, who credits himself as Changes Worldwide’s Chief Operating Officer on his Facebook profile:

Caraway was also previously involved in Bids That Give, and in a blog post titled “Bids that give review (why I chose BTG)” shares his experience with the company:

It came as a shock to a lot of people when I decided to give up traditional network marketing and join a new business.

I’m not bragging but many different reps from many different companies had been trying to recruit me for a long time with no success, the one thing that seemed to be common knowledge was, Wayne wouldn’t move.

So why did I decide to jump ship?

It’s really quite simple……… The Money!

Though I had done well, recruited quite a few reps and was happy with the paycheck, I got introduced to a concept that totally changed my way of thinking.

Private revenue sharing and daily pay!

You get rewarded or paid for recruiting others into the business…I can make money two ways with BTG by recruiting a ton of reps which I think is smart and all affiliates should be doing it. Or I can just recruit two, purchase some wholesale bids and take part in the daily payout,

Some have compared Bids that give to Zeek rewards and have concerns that the FTC will close Bids that give down.

Lets talk about that for a minute. yes Zeek turned out to be an illegal business but…BTG has made the necessary changes to the comp plan to not only make it stronger but to make it legal. Everything has been submitted to the FTC.

The reason I got involved in the home based business arena wasn’t for the products or perks, it was for the money. So to reiterate why I chose to join BTG…….ITS THE MONEY!!!!

Whether or not Baggett and Caraway are still actively involved in Bids That Give is unclear.

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

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

The Ads Davao website domain (“adsdavao.com”) was registered on the 19th of August 2013, listing a “Enrico Villanueva” as the domain owner. An address in the Philippine province of Devao del sur is also provided.

I wasn’t able to find any additional information on Enrico Villanueva on the MLM side of things. Given that Enrico Villaneuva is also the name of a well-known Filipino professional basketball player, I’m treating the use of the name as suspect.

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…]

Since it was founded in 2006, Liberty Reserve was a widely used ewallet payment processor for a multitude of MLM companies. On their website, the payment processor professed it was

the oldest, safest and most popular payment processor … serving millions all around a world.

And indeed Liberty Reserve was just that, until it was shutdown back in May for money laundering.

In a joint operation between Costa Rican, Spanish and US authorities across no less than 17 countries, the company was shutdown following an investigation that revealed money was being pumped into the processor to be laundered.

Liberty Reserve is alleged to have been used to launder more than $6 billion in criminal proceeds during its history.

In the aftermath of the shutdown Liberty Reserve’s co-founders and operators were apprehended and now face criminal charges.

The first of those cases to be resolved is that of Liberty Reserve co-founder, Vladmir Kats, who plead guilty to ‘money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business‘ on Thursday.

“Vladimir Kats, by his own admission, helped to create and operate an anonymous digital currency system that provided cybercriminals and others with the means to launder criminal proceeds on an unprecedented scale,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman.

“As a co-founder and operator of Liberty Reserve, Vladimir Kats served as a global banker for criminals, giving them an anonymous, online forum to hide the proceeds of their illegal and dangerous activities,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

“With his guilty plea today, we take a significant step toward punishing those responsible for creating and running this international den of cybercrime.”

The case and charges against Kats’ co-defendants, namely the other co-founders and operators of Liberty Reserve, are still pending.

Interestingly enough a few weeks ago now I received an unsolicited email from payment processor International Payout Systems (i-Payout), defending their taking on the MLM company TelexFree as a client. [Continue reading…]

Coercion, entrapment, extortion, blackmail, espionage, hacking, personal threats, racketeering, corruption… not the sort of stuff one would usually associate with the MLM industry but rather it’s what you typically might see in an action packed spy movie.

Yet in the battle between Ocean Avenue and Visualus, all of the above have taken front and centre stage – in what is easily the most alarming MLM showdown I’ve written about yet.

The bad blood between Ocean Avenue and Visalus revolves, not surprisingly, around the leaving of affiliates from Visalus to go join Ocean Avenue. This in itself is nothing new with plenty of MLM affiliates and companies locking horns over the years whenever the issue comes up.

What is most startling about Ocean Avenue’s case against Visalus though is the levels Visalus sunk to in the war they waged. [Continue reading…]

Barring and unforeseen last minute entrants, 2013 will undoubtedly go down as a the year the MLM industry’s underbelly ruthlessly targeted both China and South America.

Whereas efforts by South American regulators  over the past few months have finally begun to stem the tide of thinly veiled Ponzi schemes masquerading as legitimate MLM companies, over in China, specifically Hong Kong, things have been comparatively quiet.

In the face of several Hong Kong based schemes that are increasing in both exposure and scope, Chinese citizens who feel cheated by one particular company have taken to the streets. [Continue reading…]