TelexFree has recently been attempting to make inroads in Europe. In addition to heavily promoting the investment scheme throughout Russia, the company’s affiliate investors have also targeted western European countries.

Anticipating Europe to be a primary source of new investor funds with which to pay out existing investors with, TelexFree are even going so far as to hold their next conference in Madrid, Spain this weekend.

Fortunately all this Ponzi pimping hasn’t gone unnoticed, with at least one police department in the UK issuing a public warning against what they refer to as a “scam”. [Continue reading…]

It’s getting rather difficult to keep up with the continuous changes Phillip Ming Xu keeps making to his global Ponzi empire. After regulators around the world began to target Xu and his WCM777 Ponzi scheme late last year, he changed its name to Kingdom777 and hid behind the skirt of newly appointed CEO, James Tenorio.

What became of Tenorio remains unclear. He published one update on the Kingdom777 website in January, after which rumors claiming he’d abandoned the post began to surface. I was never able to confirm this information, however it seems Tenorio has since gone into hiding as there has been no communication from him since.

That left Ming Xu back in charge, and with Kingdom777 barely over a month old, it appears he’s gone and changed the name of his scheme yet again. [Continue reading…]

There’s been somewhat of a recent trend in MLM to collectively refer to affiliates and retail customers as just “customers”. No doubt the brainchild of a PR firm and compliance team conceived in a dank basement somewhere, the idea behind the constant use of this marketing tactic is to infer that affiliate customers equate to retail customers.

With affiliates being participants in the business opportunity this couldn’t be farther from the truth, but it doesn’t stop some MLM companies from trying. One such example is Empower Network’s David Wood.

In a series of Facebook posts today Wood, totally channeling the “there no difference between affiliates and retail customers” vibe, made some rather interesting suggestions to Empower Network’s affiliate-base. [Continue reading…]

Whilst it’s true that World Ventures don’t directly financially compensation you for bringing others to the business itself, you still have to bring others to the Rovia business to get anywhere in the compensation plan. And this, despite being a third party recruitment is still recruitment dependent MLM.

–BehindMLM World Ventures Review, March 2011

Just under a year ago the Norwegian Gaming Board announced that they had launched an investigation into World Ventures. At the time the investigation was revealed, this is what I wrote:

Concerned that World Ventures might be a “pyramid” and in violation of Norway’s “Lottery Act”, the Norwegian Gaming Board issued a press release yesterday stating

(The) Gaming Board has established a supervision of the company World Ventures’s activities in this country. We shall consider the Company operates in violation of Lottery Act which says that the pyramids are illegal.

Lottery Act § 16 states that it is forbidden both to create, operate, participate in or distribute pyramids.

The Act defines the pyramid as “pyramid sales system where the consideration paid for the opportunity to earn income, mainly because the other offices of the system, and no sale or consumption of services or other benefits.”

Looking at World Ventures’ compensation plan, it’s pretty much a given that they are going to fall foul of the Lottery Act’s pyramid scheme definition.

Nine months later and the Gaming Board’s investigation has concluded.

The verdict?

World Ventures is an illegal pyramid scheme. [Continue reading…]

Prosperity Cash Machine launched in late 2013 and is headed up by Julie Wilson and Paul Stevenson. There’s no official mention of the two on any company documentation, but their names frequently appear as credited owners on the company’s “testimonials” page:

In a September 2013 email sent out to Prosperity Cash Machine affiliate DeMarcus Davenport (who describes himself as a “leader who joined at the top”), Julie Wilson (based out of Ireland) offers some further insight into the company:

Hi DeMarcus,

I am the owner and I am 100% transparent and accessible to the members. I don’t have a bio online as such, however I have 100’s of people that I’ve worked with over the years and would happily vouch for me. I was the owner of CashLines LLC (not to be confused with ‘The Cashline’) similar to Prosperity Cash Machine, but not quite so powerful as it had a lower entry cost. That program was very successful until Zeek Rewards took everyone’s attention away with the lure of passive earnings.

Anyhow, I prided myself on being at the forefront and making sure support was top-notch and everything was running smoothly. Out of 1000’s of people in the program, we only ever had 8 refund requests and I put that down to good communication and support.

In the next couple of days the conf calls will start and it will be ME on the calls so that those that do not know me already, can get to know me. I don’t need to call you for anything important, but am more than happy to do so!

Yes, you can bring in people and you don’t need to restrict it to a few leaders, but large groups will need to hold off for a week or two. What I am doing for the leaders just now is creating an online spreadsheet so that they can keep a track of things in their team. Everything is being tracked very closely from this end too.

Best Wishes
Julie

I wasn’t able to find any specifics on CashLines, as per Wilson’s own words it was comparable to Zeek Rewards, a $600M Ponzi scheme shutdown by the SEC in 2012. Wilson writes Prosperity Cash Machine is “similar” to Cash Lines LLC, so that should give some idea of the types of schemes Wilson owns and operates.

Prior to launching Prosperity Cash Machine, Paul Stevenson (based out of Europe) was promoting ISN Coins (numismatic coins) on Youtube:

The “ISN Power Team” video provides instruction on ‘the fastest and most profitable way to build your (ISN) business‘ by, as per the August 2013 video screenshot above, advising viewers to recruit three new ISN affiliates, who recruit three new affiliates, who recruit three new affiliates and so on and so forth.

Whereas Julie Wilson appears to be seasoned at launching Zeek Rewards comparable schemes, Prosperity Cash Machine would appear to be Paul Stevenson’s first attempt at running a company.

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

FreeLife International launched in 1995 and are based out of the US state of Arizona. Initially marketing products in the nutritional supplements, weight loss and personal care niches, today FreeLife focuses on products containing goji juice.

Heading up FreeLife International on the executive side of things is Ray Faltinsky (right), who serves as CEO and Co-Founder with Kevin Fournier (FreeLife’s President).

Although the first decade or so appears to have been smooth sailing for FreeLife, the last decade has seen the company face two major counts of controversy.

In 2007, following an undercover investigation by CBC, Freelife came under scrutiny for making claims it’s goji products contained anti-cancer and anti-ageing properties.

FreeLife’s former spokesperson, Earl Mindell, has made several unfounded claims about health benefits of the company’s brand of goji juice, including that it has anticancer and anti-aging properties.

Mindell’s involvement with FreeLife was subject of a CBC hidden camera investigation in January 2007, questioning the unsupported anticancer properties of Himalayan Goji Juice and validity of Mindell’s Ph.D. qualification (which was later proved invalid and removed from Mindell’s biography on the FreeLife website).

Claims that undetermined constituents of goji may have a beneficial effect on cancer derive from preliminary evidence of cancer cell inhibition in vitro (i.e. in a dish).

There is no scientific evidence such effects occur in vivo (i.e. when consumed). H. Leon Bradlow, coauthor of a study that Mindell cites as support for this anticancer claim, says that his original research does not, in fact, prove that goji has any anticancer properties.

To the best of my knowledge no regulatory action took place regarding Mindell’s claims, however in 2009 Freelife again found itself in the headlines after a class-action lawsuit was filed against it.

The lawsuit, filed in Arizona, alleged the company made

false claims, misrepresentations, false and deceptive advertising and other issues regarding FreeLife’s Himalayan Goji Juice, GoChi, and TaiSlim products’.

Freelife settled the lawsuit April 2010, making a donation to an “educational organization” and promising to ‘take steps to ensure that its goji products are not marketed as “unheated” or “raw.”‘

More recently, Faltinsky and Fournier have launched L’Dara International to market an anti-ageing serum. Commencing business operations in late 2013, it appears L’Dara is yet to gain any traction.

At the time of publication Faltinsky and Fournier preside over both companies, which are believed to operate independently of eachother. It is noted though that both companies list the same corporate address in Arizona on their respective websites.

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

A phoenix is a mythical bird that, upon dying, resurrects itself from the ashes of its former self.

Rippln went down in flames last year, following the revelation that the company had failed to secure new investment and was being sued for trademark infringement by Ripple Labs. More thermo-nuclear apocalypse than phoenix, nonetheless and despite months of non-communication and evacuation orders from top affiliates, Rippln now appears to want to resurrect itself.

Well, at least if a recent affiliate email is to be believed. [Continue reading…]

Providing yet more evidence that TelexFree’s AdCentral investment scheme is nothing more than a $20 a week ROI Ponzi scheme, the company appears to be gearing up to release a new compensation plan. [Continue reading…]

Savi Health appears to have begun operations in 2012 but didn’t actually “open their doors” till December of 2013. The following message, confirming their official launch date was published on Savi Health’s Google Plus page on December 12th:

While we have been operational for some time, today is the first day when we officially say, yes, we’re open!

Located in the US state of Utah, Savi Health operate in the health and nutrition and personal development MLM niches. Heading up the company is Michael Larkins (right), who serves as Founder, CEO and President.

On the MLM side of things, Larkins joined Max International as President back in 2008.

Mike Larkins joined Max International in March 2008 bringing with him over 25 years of sales and executive management experience. His unique abilities have been demonstrated in the areas of corporate leadership, international expansion and start-up enterprises.

As President of Max International, Mike will continue to guide the company into global markets with what he refers to as “rational exuberance.”

Mike has lived in Japan for six years and his understanding of the culture and fluency in the Japanese language will be invaluable in introducing Max International into the world’s largest market.

I wasn’t able to find any information explaining why Larkins left Max, so I’m not sure what happened there.

Joining Larkins as co-founders of Savi Health are Mark Brown, Craig Case, Greg Fullerton (co-founder of Max International), Tony Wetzel and Richard Crosetto. Out of Savi Health’s co-founders, only Michael Larkin is credited with an executive position on the company website.

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

Despite claiming that new “rules and regulations” governing Kingdom777 compliance and an “approved code of ethics” would be published on January 31st, the deadline came and went without anything surfacing.

A bit late, owner Ming Xu now appears to have delivered… but it’s probably not what you were expecting. Or given the nature of Kingdom777, maybe it was. [Continue reading…]