On their website, Infinite Gold Online advise that they

will be an offshore company, but we will have an information and training center/office in the Metro Manila soon.

Metro Manila refers to the city of Manila in the Philippines and its surrounding cities.

In addition to being based out of the Philippines, Infinite Gold Online have also registered themselves as an LLC in the US state of Delaware on September 18th. This appears however to be a virtual presence, as the address provided on Infinite Gold Online’s registration is that of the agent they used to register the business.

On the management side of things, Infinite Gold Online state that the company

will be spearheaded by two highly successful individuals, namely, Mr. John Fernandez and Mr. Homer Bulos.

No further information on these individuals is provided by Infinite Gold Online and I was unable to find any additional MLM industry specific information on them.

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

7 Minute Workout launched in mid 2011 with a binary based compensation plan, requiring affiliates to bring at least one new retail customer (student) each month to qualify for commissions.’

I’m not exactly sure when but sometime over the last few months 7 Minute Workout ditched their binary and have adopted the currently popular pass-up model.

In doing so, unless I’m missing something, it appears 7 Minute Workout have abolished the retail side of the business. As per the company’s own explanation of their new compensation plan,

Every time a person registers, they pay their small fee and we do two things;

1. We send you exactly 50% of their fee

2. We place them into your organization.

Now, as your client who is now your “downline member” promotes the product and earns their own cheques, they earn a cheque for you too.

There is mention of an “optional” affiliate signup, however this appears to be a token effort to distinguish affiliates from retail customers.

Affiliates shall be charged NO FEE by 7minuteworkout for setting up an account to join affiliate programs or to join any program.

7minuteworkout Affiliate Program is, however, only open to users of the service and deemed a “closed” affiliate program open to members only.

As per the 7 Minute Workout Terms Of Service Above, there’s no difference between a retail customer and affiliate, with signing up to 7 Minute Workout being the only pre-requisite for affiliate membership. [Continue reading…]

In the next 30 days, a new social network is going to be released to the world.

You will hear about it on your favorite blogs and on TV.. The news will cover it… And not only will your friends and family members be talking about it, but complete strangers will also approach you about it…

Because the technology involved will not only change how we communicate, it will also change how commerce, both online and offline, happens.

-Official Rippln marketing copy, supplied to affiliates circa June 2013 and reproduced on over 200,000 webpages (Google)

To borrow a tired joke; If I was to look up the hype in an MLM dictionary, I’d probably see a copy of Rippln’s logo. No further explanation required.

After going live with the marketing copy above and copious similar efforts, here’s a rundown of the Rippln MLM business opportunity today. [Continue reading…]

Limu was founded in 2004 and are based out of the US state of Florida.

Limu (interchangeable with “the Limu Company”) operates in the health and wellness MLM niche and is headed up by Founder, CEO and President, Gary Raser.

Having proven himself in the world of business, building his own success as a distributor in network marketing, Gary turned his strategic vision to create the LIMU dream: making better futures for families everywhere.

In a promotional video on the Limu website, Raser (right) claims to have been introduced by “a guy” who “called him up every day inviting him to one of those meetings”. Raser says that after he finally attending one of the meetings, he was “hooked”.

That was 25 years ago (and) we were successful right from the beginning, but not without disappointment.

Raser claims that after experiencing disappointment and frustration with MLM companies changing compensation plans to benefit the executive staff over “the field”, his wife suggested he start his own company.

This company was Dynamic Essentials, which Raser co-founded in November of 2008 with Kevin Jones. By the end of 2009 Dynamic Essentials was bought out by Nature’s Bounty Inc. (NBTY), who are

an American manufacturer of vitamins and nutritional supplements which are distributed under many third party brands in the United States and internationally.

Dyanamic Essentials continued on as an independent MLM company, operating as a subsidiary of NBTY. Dynamic Essentials’ flagship product was a seaweed extract named “Royal Tongan Limu”.

In 2002 Dynamic Essentials was issued a warning by the FTC in regards to their marketing material, which claimed Royal Tongan Limu

was clinically proven to cure, prevent, or treat a range of diseases and disorders such as allergies, diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dynamic Essentials failed to adequately respond to the FTC’s warning and the following year in 2003 they were abruptly shutdown by the regulator.

Facing seizure of their product inventory, Dynamic Essentials instead opted to

voluntarily destroy its inventory of bottles of Royal Tongan Limu, along with the product’s related literature and materials.

NBTY was no stranger to FTC violations, having previously been pinged in 1995 for

falsely or without substantiation (advertising) that its products promoted weight loss, increased muscle mass, decreased body fat, promoted hair growth, prevented premature hair loss, lowered cholesterol, and prevented arthritis.

The result of the FTC’s 1995 action against NBTY resulted in a $250,000 consumer redress payment and a settlement order.

Under the terms of the order settling the matter, NBTY agreed not to make unsubstantiated claims about any dietary supplement and not to misrepresent the results or conclusions of any test, study, research article, or any other scientific opinion or data.

The FTC used Dynamic Essentials shutdown as evidence showing NBTY had breached the terms of the 1995 order made against them. The FTC took the matter to court and NBTY were ordered to pay $2 million dollars civil penalty.

In 2004, the year after Dynamic Essentials was shutdown, Gary Raser returned to the MLM industry with the launch of Limu.

Prior to Dynamic Essentials, Raser was an affiliate of National Safety Associates (NSA), achieving the top-level affiliate rank of “National Marketing Director”.

NSA marketed a series of water and air filters, coming under regulator scrutiny in 1992 due to the recruitment practices of some of its affiliates.

In response to the media attention surrounding the issue, Raser stated at the time that

(NSA) distributors are supposed to focus on sales, not recruiting.

Herndon and other ex-distributors, he said, did not follow all the sales training and became frustrated when they failed to sell the product.

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

Brazilian regulators are currently on fire in their handling of both the TelexFree and BBOM Ponzi scheme fraud cases.

Setting an example that India and other countries drowning in Ponzi and pyramid scheme fraud would do well to follow, Monday firstly saw TelexFree denied their bankruptcy protection application and then on Tuesday, the uncovering of a fresh $8.6 million USD fraudulent transfer attempt by BBOM that prosecutors managed to thwart. [Continue reading…]

Prior to launching DS Domination, Roger Langille’s primary MLM focus was his affiliate membership with Sozo.

So the story goes, Langille met with Mark Adams (co-founder and CEO of Sozo) in April. During a wine and dine, Langille claims Sozo promised him lead generation, the opening of the business in Brazil, that Sozo would be “best in class”, a check match bonus that “equated to the binary”, a “3 for free” recruitment incentive, the “full opening” of Sozo in Canada, a 401k retention program, a weight-loss coffee range and a new compensation plan.

Langille claims none of the “promises that were made were delivered on” by the company.

Despite this, Langille still managed to become the highest ranked affiliate in Sozo (Sapphire) shortly after signing up, claiming to be a “top recruiter” and responsible for ‘70-80% of the growth across the entire company‘.

Langille states he was able to maintain via his online marketing, but once the ‘online started to be cancelled and we started moving in a different direction… the numbers completely, drastically went down‘. [Continue reading…]

If the injunction continues TelexFree may enter into bankruptcy.

Should the company spend a few more days being prohibited from signing up new investors, they would have no money to pay the old ones.

-Djacir Falcão, one of TelexFree’s lawyers explaining on July 10th why the Acre injunction should be lifted

News broke yesterday on BehindMLM that TelexFree was entertaining the idea of applying or Bankrupty Protection in Brazil.

The comment was accompanied by a TelexFree Facebook notice, informing the company’s affiliate investors that owner Carlos Costa would shortly be putting up a video explaining the move.

Less than twenty-four hours later Costa came through, announcing, amongst other things, that on Thursday the 19th TelexFree had indeed filed for Bankruptcy Protection in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo.

In both the TelexFree Facebook announcement and Carlos Costa’s video, it is claimed that the company filing for bankruptcy is to “protect its affiliates”. But is that really the case?

Having failed to convince judges in Brazil to lift the business crippling Acre injunction, handed down in June which prohibits TelexFree from recruiting new investors and paying out existing ones, the main thrust behind the bankruptcy protection filing appears to be the belief that TelexFree will be able to present an alternative business model to the courts, and more importantly this time have it accepted. [Continue reading…]

Hidden Hunger International launched in mid 2013, operating out of the US state of Texas.

Hidden Hunder International (HHI) is headed up by founders Ruel and Angel Morton. According to the Morten’s HHI corporate bio:

Ruel and Angel have been together for almost 20 years and have 3 children; 2 daughters and a son. Together they have worked in several companies over the past 20 years.

Ruel Morton’s biggest success in the MLM industry appears to have been as an affiliate with Fortune High-Tech Marketing (FHTM), in which he credited himself as ‘the #1 Top Money Earner‘.

Morton regularly appeared in official corporate FHTM marketing material (right), in which he was credited as a “Presidential Ambassador” of the company.

Fortune High Tech Marketing was shutdown earlier this year by the FTC and three US State Attorney-Generals for being a pyramid scheme.

The FTC and attorneys general for the states of Illinois, Kentucky, and North Carolina have moved against Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing (FHTM), alleging it is a pyramid scheme.

A federal judge in the Northern District of Illinois has appointed a receiver and ordered an asset freeze.

“This is the beginning of the end for one of the most prolific pyramid schemes operating in North America,” said Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway.

“This is a classic pyramid scheme in every sense of the word. The vast majority of people, more than 90 percent, who bought in to FHTM lost their money.”

A top FTC official called FHTM a “rigged game.”

At a FHTM conference held just before the company was shut down, Morton declared Fortune High Tech to be

the most lucrative financial opportunity in the history of the country.

Following the closure of FHTM I did read some chatter that Morton moved onto Shaklee (health, nutrition, personal care and weight loss), however I was unable to confirm this information.

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

SimpleFastCash launched in March of 2013 and was founded by Graham Frame, who operates out of Lincolnshire in the UK.

Frame appears to have joined Empower Network about a year ago, under the affiliate acccount “frammie”:

In a marketing video Frame uploaded to his YouTube channel, titled “Why Empower Network Does Not Work!”, Frame credits himself as a ‘marketing expert with over forty years experience‘ and claims to have had ‘online success since 1998‘.

In the past, I’ve built profitable networks in MLM companies… heck I’d even started my own MLM companies online which had done very well.

In a blog post titled “Folks who never made a dime online made money this week in Pure Leverage” by founder Joel Therien, Frame was listed on Therien’s “reseller leaderboard” for Pure Leverage for the week 12th to 18th of March 2013.

In 2006 Frame launched “Your Cash Cow”. Your Cash Cow was a matrix-based recruitment scheme that charged affiliates $10 to participate. The scheme seems to have collapsed sometime in 2008.

Frame also launched something called Cash4Sure, which seems to revolve around website hosting:

Graham Frame has been in business for over 40 years. He has started and successfully built many businesses, both conventional and MLM and has a very comfortable lifestyle that most people envy. He founded Cash4Sure.biz in 1998, a thriving business that is still going strong today.

Taking business seriously, he is a member of many organizations. He is an accountant, a salesman and an internationally renowned master hypnotist. His specialty is in clinical hypnosis and his services are usually given free.

Seeing an opportunity, he has just launched a new online program. It suits the needs of any person wanting to establish an internet presence with their business.

Web hosting demand is going to skyrocket in the coming years and Graham is providing a service which far exceeds what is available for the price.

Here’s how one Cash4Sure affiliate described their experience with the business in October of 2009:

I, too was victimized by Graham Frame. My family invested almost $18,000 in his Cash4Sure program after being promised a certain level of return. Of course nothing ever happened, return-wise.

Mr. Frame gravitated from California to Utah, and then left the country and is presently in Italy. He promises to make good on our and other folks’ investment but I feel it will be a long wait.

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

SociPays launched in June 2013 and is headed up by Thomas Greeen (also goes by “Tom Green”), who is credited as CEO of the company on the SociPays website.

Tom Green is a seasoned business professional with over 40 years of sales, marketing, and business management experience. Tom was introduced to network marketing in the 1970’s and had many successes.

He began marketing on the internet in 1994 and has owned several successful companies including Dynamics4Success, Web Factor 2, and Tours4Success.

Tom has built big downlines in many companies and he has the needed experience to lead SociPAYs.com to success.

Green appears to run his online ventures through the parent company “Techs4success Inc”, who are based out of the US state of Florida.

Despite Tech4Success’ US based address however, Green himself appears to be based out of the Philippines:

On the Techs4Success Inc BBB listing, an incorporation date of February 2005 is provided along with a “Thomas D Green” listed as the “Director/President”.

A supplied Techs4Success website domain on the BBB listing (“4s2s.com”) is no longer active. A few additional domains linked to Techs4Success Inc I checked are also not active.

Shortly after uploading some SociPays informational videos on his YouTube account (“4VNetwork”), Green began spamming several YouTube videos seeking to attract “special leaders”:

Forming a special leaders group to launch new program

Join and Get FREE $850 Plan 3 Upgrade

perfect for leaders and multiple positions and big payouts

Get paid when you cycle and get paid match for referral cycles.

7 separate 2 X 2 recycler matrixes fill only 6 slots

no graduating steps or connecting matrixes

Growing payout from $100 to $5,000.

Each Referral Pays avg $1,000 a Cycle Big Money Fast

(referral link and contact details removed)

Green left the above comment on affiliate marketer videos advertising Rocket Cash Cycler ($315 matrix-based pyramid scheme) and HourlyRevShare (recently collapsed $5 Ponzi investment scheme).

The selective targeting by Green of these two businesses indicates he felt affiliates of those two opportunities would find SociPays a good fit.

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