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

On the World Ads Link “about us” page, the company provides only the following vague marketing copy, written in poor English:

World Ads Link Limited is governed by skilled & apt professionals who are fully experienced that could deal with people in better career link with online advertisement & financial systems.

The World Ads Link website domain (“worldadslink.com”) was registered on the 24th of March 2013, however the domain registration is set to private.

World Ads Link does provide an “our faces” page on their website, with the company alleging to showcase photos from a “head office” in New Zealand and a secondary office in Japan.

The photos depicted on both office pages are unfortunately doctored up images, sourced from a variety of non-related websites.

The above screenshot is the “New Zeland (sic) Head Office” page, on which World Ads Link claims to have an office in Hamilton, New Zealand.

From left to right, here are the originals of the photoshopped images World Ads Link have used.

Image 1 is from the website of Strata Realty, showcasing the Corona Spectrum Business Center they have for lease in Corona, California:

Image 2 is from the start-up business venture “Miavia”, who market “handcrafted travel guides”:

Image 3 is a stock photo from the website “123RF”, titled “Group of male and female businesspeople seated at a table watching an online presentation on a computer screen” (through the back of their heads?):

And image 4 is from a website called “Nammudekodakara”, written in the Indian language Malayalam:

The fourth website World Ads Link have doctored their images from is of note, as Malayalam is a rather obscure language online and not recognised by Google Translate.

As noted above Malayalam is a language spoken in India, specifically in the state of Kerala. Meanwhile the Alexa website report for the World Ads Link domain reveals that 31% of the website traffic originates from India (no other country is significant enough to rank).

Putting all of this together, along with the poor English all over the World Ads Link website, I think it’s a safe bet to assume that whoever is behind the company is based out of India. Probably either in the state of Kerala itself or somewhere nearby.

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…]

All Teamed Up operate in the internet marketing MLM niche and appears to be based out of the Newfoundland in Canada.

Heading up All Teamed Up is Rodney Brace. Brace (right) credits himself as the “sole proprietor” of his marketing company “Top Dog Advantage”. On the All Teamed Up website, Brace explains

This Product Driven Income Plan is owned and operated by Top Dog Advantage Inc. We have been in business since 1999 and incorporated in 2007. I, Rodney Brace, am sole proprietor.

We have been developing software and services for a few years. We have been marketing even longer, promoting other company’s products and services.

Our goal as always been to create/promote products and services that help people be more successful in business, especially the home-grown-businesses and entrepreneurs.

We recently decided to package our products in a way that is the most cost effective for the consumer and still remain profitable for us.

Prior to releasing software through Top Dog Advantage in 2008, Brace states on the company’s website that

from 2001 – 2008 we worked with companies and individuals to assist them with branding their email communications professionally.

We suspended this service in March of 2008 so we could focus on more cutting edge technologies.

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

Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars lost by affiliate investors in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme, fourteen months after the SEC shut it down there are still those running around professing its legitimacy.

One such group is Robert Craddock’s ZTeamBiz who, in addition to swearing Zeek Rewards wasn’t a Ponzi scheme, look set to spearhead attempts to reintroduce the MLM industry to the Ponzi points revenue sharing model. [Continue reading…]

When one considers the MLM industry globally, often at times it feels like the industry transitions through a simultaneous time-delay.

Typically due to a lack of legal precedents and litigation, as MLM spreads through countries of different economical tiers, I can’t help but observe the same issues and problems cropping up as they did years ago in other countries.

Those seeking to take advantageous of new markets use the same tactics deployed one or two decades ago by those that came before them in what are now well and truly established markets.

Some of these marketing tactics are legitimate… and some not so much.

One that falls squarely on the “not so much” side of things are outrageous claims made by an MLM company’s affiliates, typically deployed to talk up the benefits of a company’s product line.

Echoing product claims made over the past few decades in US markets that have seen numerous MLM companies penalised and, in some cases, permanently shutdown, Herbalife’s Indian distributors are apparently running around making all manner of medical promises. [Continue reading…]

As part of my writing here at BehindMLM I find myself sifting through mountains of MLM related information on a daily basis. One topic I find that pops up on a consistent basis is the debate over the importance (or lack thereof) of retail sales by an MLM company.

By using the term “retail sales” in MLM one is of course referring to sales of a product or service (not a third-party offering) by an MLM company to non-affiliates. Non-affiliates can be referred to as non-participants or any other name that denotes them as not participating in the compensation plan and earn commissions.

Some MLM companies attempt to muddy the clear definition of a retail customer by claiming that affiliates who do not recruit are retail customers. It is important to note that the failure to recruit new affiliates does not preclude an affiliate from generating commissions (typically by selling the company’s products), and as such they simply cannot be defined as retail customers (who simply cannot generate commissions no matter what they do or don’t do).

Here at BehindMLM it’s no secret the vital important I place on retail sales in my company reviews. The existence of retail sales and its viability is one of the key indicators I use in my analysis of an MLM company’s compensation plan and business model.

Adopting a common-sense approach to retail sales in MLM, I use a benchmark of around 50%, figuring that if a company can demonstrate that at least 50% of its revenue is from retail sales then they’re well-clear of being a pyramid scheme.

I mean, selling products to retail customers is what MLM is supposed to be about right? So is expecting a company to be at least 50% engaged in this unreasonable?

According to some MLM proponents, very much so.

One common assertion I see used time and time again is the insistence that US regulators do not care if products are being sold to retail customers or affiliates.

‘A product sale is a product sale and so long it is being purchased on the merit of the value of the product itself and not just to generate commissions‘, or some derivative is the common reasoning used.

The problem with that is of course that you then wind up companies operating in a loophole, ignoring retail altogether and focusing on generating recruitment commissions via product sales, with an inflation in product cost masking what would otherwise be a blatant recruitment incentive.

That however is conveniently ignored.

‘So long as a company is generating revenue via product sales, who cares whether customers or affiliates or retail non-paricipants?‘

Anyone who gives a damn about pyramid schemes operating in the MLM space should care.

If there’s no noticeable difference between a pyramid scheme set up to mask recruitment commissions paid out of inflated product prices, and an MLM company that professes legitimacy despite a lack of retail because commissions are generated via product sales – then the MLM industry has a huge problem.

But hey, that’s just me with my common-sense. I don’t have a sob story to tell you… there’s no rags to riches “I lived in a van in Hawaii for a decade eating my own shit to get by” backstory to BehindMLM. I’m just a guy with a keyboard trying to make sense of an industry that is notoriously treacherous to wade through, for the uninformed and informed alike.

The hell do I know about pyramid schemes? [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the LibertaGia website indicating who owns or runs the business, with the company only providing the following vague marketing spiel:

LibertàGià is a technology company working internationally which main goal is to develop apps that will solve common problems in people’s lives.

The LibertaGia website domain was registered on the 19th of July, however the domain registration is set to private.

A corporate address in the Portuguese city of Lisbon (Lisboa) is provided on the LibertaGia website, possibly indicating that the company is being run out of Portugal.

Despite the lack of disclosure on the LibertaGia website, further research into the company revealed affiliates naming a “Rui Salvador” as the company’s CEO and founder.

This information appears to be confirmed by visiting Salvador’s Facebook profile, which is full of LibertaGia marketing material:

Possibly attributable to language barriers, I was unable to find any information on Salvadaor’s past MLM ventures.

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

Epic launched in October of 2013 and is headed up by CEO Glen Jensen.

No corporate address or company information is currently present on the Epic website, however the company’s website domain registration provides a Utah based address in the  US.

A “Tina Monson” is provided as the Epic domain owner (“epicera.com”), who credits herself as Glen Jensen’s “executive assistant” in her LinkedIn profile:

Glen Jensen (right) first popped up on my radar as the replacement CEO of Go Fun Rewards, after Randal Williams bailed from the company to go and start JubiRev.

Around a month after accepting the CEO position at GoFunRewards, Jensen resigned from the post. To the best of my knowledge no official reason has ever been made public for Jensen’s abrupt departure.

Jensen was however named by Randal Williams in a lawsuit filed against GoFunReward’s parent company, eAdGear. In his complaint, Williams accused Jensen of

creating revenue positions in the compensation structure of GoFun Places for (his) family members.

After Jensen left the company, GoFunRewards floundered before eventually ceasing operations in the US altogether. This was done under the premise of receiving legal advice concerning GoFunRewards’ business model and compensation plan (indicating that it was a Ponzi scheme).

In addition to Jensen’s involvement in GoFunRewards, he’s also launched Agel Enterprises and Uprize. For a more detailed look at Jensen’s MLM history, see the GoFunRewards BehindMLM review.

Otherwise, read on for a full review of the Epic MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Penny Auction Profit website indicating who owns or runs the business. The company does however claim to be based out of the Cayman Islands (a known tax haven):

Our firm consists of a team of individuals, well established in the Cayman Islands, with different backgrounds in term of nationality and work experience.

The Penny Auction Profit website domain (“pennyauctionprofit.com”) was registered on the 16th of July 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…]

Xango launched in 2002, making it eleven years old at the time of this review. The company is based out of the US state of Utah, and operates in the health and nutrition MLM niche.

On their company website, Xango list five founders: Gary Hollister, Aaron Garrity, Joe Morton, Gorden Morton and Kent Wood.

Gary Hollister served as the original CEO of Xango between 2002 and to 2006 and appears to have begun his involvement in the MLM industry after being appointed CEO of Enrich International (now Unicity International) in 1997.

Aaron Garrity, Joe and Gordon Morton were also in Enrich International during the time Hollister served as CEO, and is where the business relationship formed between the group that would later result in the launch of Xango.

Today Aaron Garrity (above, being held bythe rest of Xango’s original co-founders) serves as Xango’s CEO, Chairman and President.

Having been around for just over a decade, Xango has courted its fair share of MLM controversy and drama.

In 2003 Xango was sued by Tahiti Noni International (now Morinda). Tahiti Noni International alleged ‘that Xango executives stole TNI’s concept for a mangosteen-based supplement while they were employed by TNI’s parent-company‘.

Xango counter-sued and both cases wound up being settled out of court. Details of the settlement were not made public.

Xango primarily market a mangosteen-based juice, with the company’s affiliates landing Xango in hot water with the FDA in 2006.

Xango’s affiliates

used marketing materials to promote mangosteen juice claiming more than 20 human health benefits, including “anti-inflammatory,” “anti-microbial,” “anti-fungal,” “anti-viral,” “anti-cancer,” “anti-ulcer,” “anti-hepatotoxic,” “anti-rhinoviral,” and “anti-allergic” effects.

In 2007 Xango was sued by Angel Investors LLC who at the time held a roughly 1% stake in the company. Angel Investors LLC accused Xango management of

corporate looting and mismanagement of millions of dollars by the company’s founders for their personal expenses including luxury cars and performance-enhancing medical treatments.

XanGo’s founders took millions of dollars in personal loans from the company and paid themselves excessive salaries while wasting corporate assets.

The group cited such expenditures as $6,000 monthly auto allowances, family vacations and, in one case, $20,000 worth of home furnishings.

The suit was initially dismissed by a 4th District Court but then overturned in 2009 by the Utah Supreme Court. Rather than take the case to trial however, Xango settled with Angel Investors ‘for an undisclosed amount of money‘. Once again the exact terms of the settlement were not publicly disclosed.

More recently, in May of this year Xango’s sixth founder Bryan Davis (not credited on the Xango website) filed suit against the company,

accusing his partners of spying, threatening employees, falsifying distributor positions to siphon off funds, defrauding on XanGo taxes and their personal taxes, falsifying records, changing credit card statements, charging as business expenses to purchase grand pianos, vacations, home renovations, landscaping, electronics, expensive bicycles, scooters, and for CEO Aaron Garrity, an open expense account for one mistress.

According to the lawsuit, Garrity embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets from the company, writing off clothing, medical enhancements, jewelry, event tickets, bicycles, electronics and chartered planes and vacations as business expenses.

CFO Nate Brown set up secret founder accounts for Garrity and others to allow them to improperly spend XanGo assets.

Davis also alleges in the lawsuit that Garrity’s assistant, Andrea Waterfall, with whom he was in a relationship, had a company credit card that she used for personal expenses, and that Garrity sent in fraudulent expense reports.

Other allegations include Garrity using power and influence as a founder to threaten XanGo employees into turning a blind eye to his theft and instituting what he termed a “culture of giving” at XanGo meaning that founders and employees Garrity determined were in his good graces could unlimitedly use XanGo assets for their personal benefit.

The lawsuit further reports founders are alleged to have used XanGo employment and forced qualified distributor positions to siphon XanGo assets to family members and friends.

Davis alleges the founders conspired to give themselves illicit distributions through a tax fraud scheme and that the founders also formed various competing companies with XanGo assets.

He is also claiming that the founders took steps to freeze him out of the company — ignoring Davis’ objections to wrongful conduct, falsifying board minutes to reflect unanimous consent to actions to which he had voiced objections, XanGo employees were told not to talk to Davis under penalty of termination, that founders also falsely claimed to XanGo employees that he had resigned his position at XanGo and disparaged him.

As a result, Davis said XanGo withheld bonus/distribution payments to Davis as well as discontinuing employee benefits.

The lawsuit further states that Garrity has also misused XanGo’s security department to retaliate against Davis, Angel, leaders and founders of competing MLMs and XanGo distributors and employee, according to the suit; Garrity allegedly asked Justin Barrett to use his access to law enforcement databases to find information on these individuals that was not on public record, which information Garrity could then use to his advantage.

He also requested that the XanGo Security Department obtain non-traceable wireless accounts for him for the purpose of online corporate intelligence gathering, dissemination of information and posting defamatory comments about competitors, distributors, employees and others.

A bogus account was illegally created under the fictitious name “John Gable.”

Xango initially responded to Davis’ lawsuit by claiming ‘the accusations are fabricated because Davis is attempting to extract an inflated buyout from them for his shares in the company‘.

This refute was then backed by the filing of a lawsuit against Davis of their own, in which the company claims ‘Davis was negligent in his duties‘.

As at the time of publication the resolution of both lawsuits is pending.

Just before launching their new venture Xalo, Xango also axed 20 percent of its global workforce.

Dave Webb, XanGo’s vice president of communications, said the cuts were not “performance-based,” but rather strategically motivated.

The company is looking for “the best return on investments and allocation of resources” to help it prosper over the long haul, he said.

Xalo launched in October of 2013 as a separate division of Xango, complete with its own company name and compensation plan.

For the purpose of this review I’ve only touched briefly on the history of the company, for a more detailed history of Xango readers are encouraged to read up on Wikipedia’s Xango entry.

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

Vicesus was announced in the months following the Zeek Rewards Ponzi collapse and sought to capitalize on the momentum behind the MLM penny auction niche at the time.

I first reviewed Vicesus back in January of 2013 and identified a core issue of the company’s revenue sharing model. Despite having a retail bid offering, the affiliate-funded Ponzi points component of the Vicesus compensation plan was clearly aimed at targeting ex- Zeek Rewards affiliates looking for a “reload”.

Despite the compensation plan being released in January, turns out that Vicesus was nowhere near ready to launch. Infact it wasn’t until the end of August, seven months later, that Vicesus officially opened its doors.

And now, not even two months later, they’ve gone and closed them again. [Continue reading…]