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

The RonAdz website domain (“ronadz.com”) was registered on the 8th of May 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…]

One of the common questions we get here at BehindMLM whenever we call out a company that is not under investigation is that, if analysis of the business model reveals such blatant questions of legitimacy, how come regulators have not investigated the company.

Not being a regulator there’s no clear-cut way to answer this. Affiliates take full advantage of this and use a lack of regulatory investigation as a rubber stamp of legitimacy, with the more extreme examples even citing approval in the absence of action.

Naturally the idea that regulators haven’t stepped means nothing dodgy is going on is about as absurd as claiming murder is legal unless someone catches you. But the fact remains, the manner in which resources are allocated by regulators of the MLM industry are a mystery.

Here at BehindMLM i can report analysis and draw conclusions, but it is only a reactionary response readers get to regulatory action when it occurs. Predicting such action in a timely manner is nigh on impossible given the secrecy that surrounds such investigations.

Earlier this week Hispanic consumer groups and politicians who represent large Hispanic populations met with the FTC to discuss their concerns about Herbalife. At the heart of these concerns is the charge that Herbalife operates as a pyramid scheme and in particular, targets Hispanic communities that these consumer groups and politicians primarily represent.

The outcome?

The FTC slammed Herbalife’s business practices as “disturbing”. Apart from serving up the most damning commentary on Herbalife’s business practices yet from any US regulator, the FTC also revealed one of the primary challenges it faces in regulating the MLM industry.

It’s a question of resources. [Continue reading…]

The Broccoli Company was launched in 2010 and are based out of Mölndal in Sweden. The company only conducts business in Europe, with visitors to the Broccoli Company website required to choose a locale in Europe to proceed.

The Broccoli Company’s history began as Nature’s Own, founded by Magnus Ahlén and Lars Olof Mürbeck in 1993.

Despite being based in Sweden, Nature’s Own’s primary affiliate base was in Norway. In 1998 Norwegian authorities took action against the company, claiming it violated the Norwegian Lottery Act.

Norwegian authorities claimed Nature’s Own violated Section 16 of the act, due to the fact the company required affiliates to purchase products in order to be eligible to earn commissions.

Public Prosecutors in Norwegian county of Møre og Romsdal disagreed however and declined to take up the case, resulting in Nature’s Own resuming operations in Norway.

Fast forward to 2002 and Nature’s Own then found itself being sued by Fred Thorkildsen, one of the company’s top affiliates. I’m not exactly sure why Thorkildsen sued Nature’s Own, but it was reported that the company’s ‘growth had stagnated and then collapsed dramatically in subsequent years’, so it was likely commission or contract related.

As a result of Thorkildsen’s lawsuit, the prior claim by the Norwegian government that the company violated  the Lottery Act and ongoing ‘negative media attention surrounding the brand name‘, Nature’s Own changes it’s name to Natures of Scandinavia.

Four years later in early 2006, Olof Mürbeck sold his share in the company with Magnus Ahlén then partnering up with Scen Mattsson in 2007. Mattson had previously served as the CEO of Oriflame Cosmetics, another Swedish MLM company established in 1967.

When Mattsson came on board, Magnus Ahlén (right, with Mattsson) declared

we have a very exciting future, in parallel with that there will be a new start for the company.

Natures of Scandinavia changed its name to the Broccoli Company in 2010, and that brings us to where the company is at today.

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

With Empower Network’s Denver affiliate conference coming up the company has begun to spam press release websites with an announcement about their new blogging platform.

Dubbed “Empower Network 2.0”, the company writes

Software and web marketing company Empower Network will (host) its quarterly affiliate conference at the Bellco Theater at 700 14th St. on July 19-21.

During the conference, Empower Network will unveil Empower Network 2.0 (EN2), its new blogging platform.

Interesting that Empower Network now refer to themselves as a “software company”.

Whilst it’s great to see that Empower Network are finally acknowledging that “selling” someone elses free software makes no sense, the problem has always lied within Empower Network’s compensation plan.

Despite touting WordPress as their “product”, no Empower Network affiliates actually pay for it. Affiliates (and non-affiliates) pay affiliates directly, with payment of monthly subscription fee qualifying an affiliate to participate in what is essentially a monthly gifting scheme. [Continue reading…]

CashCropCycler launched in June 2013 with the company claiming to be run by the “Triple C Team”.

We are three friends, Americans by naturalization and Swedish by birth; Benson, Dave and Anderson.

The name “Triple C” came about in year 2012 when we gave all our personal earnings to support the Clarion Children’s Choir, that was the best experience for us as a team.

No further information, such as involvement in any past MLM companies, is provided any of the three purported owners. They do state however that CashCropCycler

is our first project but we do not hesitate to let you know more and more would be coming up in due time, all of which are Triple C brand.

The company’s website domain (“cashcropcycler.com”) was registered on the 25th of March 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…]

There is no information on the Buzz Zoom Advertising website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The company’s website domain (“buzz-zoom-advertising.com”) was registered on the 19th of December 2012, however the domain registration is set to private.

Today Buzz Zoom Advertising uses its own name-server however initially it was set up to use that of “megasharecycler.com”.

MegaShareCycler appears to have launched in late May according to the website, and offers affiliates a “100% passive income system” paying “2% daily for 75 days”. Affiliates invest in $20 “share units”, with the daily ROI paid out of newly invested affiliate money.

MegaShareCycler doesn’t seem to have officially launched however, with the site reporting $0 paid out in commissions. Either that or it flopped and was promptly abandoned.

In any case it’s highly probably that the same admin is behind both MegaShareCycler and Buzz Zoom Advertising. And for whatever reason, Buzz Zoom Advertising appears to be the opportunity the admin has decided to go ahead with and promote.

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…]

MaxeniumAds officially launched on July 1st 2013 after a brief prelaunch period throughout June. The company is headed up by CEO and co-founder Ranjit Kaur Cooner.

Provided on the MaxeniumAds website is a “certificate of incorporation of a private limited company”, granted to a “Max Xenium Pool LTD” in the UK.

British Certificates of Incorpation are available online for as little as £15.00, with “same day service” available for an additional fee.

MaxeniumAds provide the company number “8406931” on their website, which reveals an address in Birmingham in the UK. Also revealed in the listing is MaxeniumAds previous name, “EVERY HOUR INCOME LIMITED” (name changed on the 4th of April, 2013).

Every Hour Income Limited appears to be a previous venture of Cooner’s, using the now defunct domain name “everyhourincome.biz” (which expired in June 2013).

The only information I was able to find on Every Hour Income Limited is that it appears to be the brand Cooner used to market an income opportunity, something to do with recruiting affiliates under the guise of generating blog subscribers (affiliate ID: “rcooner”):

Whenever you refer someone to the system – they are offered a few upgrades that can get them up to 3000 instant subscribers!!

And if they take up that option – You get paid!!

But here is the best part…  You then get paid if that person brings in other members…

In her MaxeniumAds corporate bio, the company claims Cooner has ‘extensive experience in the mobile industry, internet marketing and advertising‘.

The only MLM company I found Cooner connected to was participation in That Free Thing as an affiliate (“free stuff” based MLM company that launched in 2011):

Other than whatever Every Hour Income Limited was, MaxeniumAds appears to be Cooner’s first MLM venture.

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

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

The ProfitAdShare website domain (“profitadshare.com”) was registered on the 12th of April 2013, however the domain registration is set to private.

A “certificate of incorporation” from Lancaster City in the UK has been uploaded to the ProfitAdShare website, but lends little to nothing to the credibility of the company (it looks like something I could doctor up in Photoshop in about five minutes).

Of more pertinent interest is the mention of “dailypayer.com” in ProfitAdShare’s terms and conditions:

DailyPayer launched in July 2011 and promised affiliate investors a maximum 2.5% daily ROI, capping out at 200%. ROIs were paid out of affiliate investments with the scheme collapsing a few months later in October.

Today the DailyPayer website is defunct and presumably has been for some time. With that in mind it seems unlikely that the admin of ProfitAdShare stored a copy of DailyPayer’s Terms and Conditions for future use, but rather that the admin of both companies is one and the same.

Based on the information available however, it’s not possible to confirm this.

Either way, 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…]

Consider:

You run an MLM company and offer two products, a WordPress installation for $25 and affiliate training for $1000.

Affiliates pay $19.95 to join as an affiliate, and must either purchase or sell both products in order to receive commissions on the sale of said products to newly recruited affiliates, or retail customers.

And when I say commissions, I of course mean those customers or affiliates directly pay you.

Now naturally there’s an inherent danger within this business model in that if your company mostly consists of affiliates, there’s a good chance revenue wise, all that’s happening is the shuffling of new affiliate money to existing affiliates. Your company takes its $19.95 affiliate fee each month and those in the company just gift eachother.

How is this danger measured? Analysis of the company’s generated revenue.

Simply put, using the above model, if a company’s revenue is 51% or more sourced from affiliates, its functioning as a pyramid scheme. Due to the fact that affiliates are paying eachother directly, it also qualifies as a gifting scheme to boot.

After analysing your business and realising that well below 51% of your revenue is from actual retail customers, what do you do?

Well, if you’re David Wood from Empower Network you put out a series of statistics that you know are probably going to be misread and parroted by the majority of people reading them. [Continue reading…]

As was reported on Wednesday July 10th, TelexFree latest attempt to circumvent a business crippling injunction handed down against them in June was to file an injunction appeal of their own.

Upon filing their injunction, which marks the third attempt by TelexFree to lift the Acre injunction against the business, the company advised that they expected ‘a preliminary decision later this week’.

Last Friday TelexFree’s injunction request was heard by Chief Justice Eva Evangelista. The decision?

TelexFree’s injunction appeal was denied. [Continue reading…]