The reasons participants in pyramid schemes come up with to justify their participation in one are just as numerous as the schemes themselves.

Here on BehindMLM we regularly bear witness to all sorts of logic-fails, ranging from the tired “everything is a pyramid scheme” to “why hasn’t X company been shutdown if it’s a pyramid scheme?”

Typically these excuses ignore an opportunities business model, and instead attempt to shift focus onto something else. Whatever “something else” turns out to be is then typically used to override the recruitment driven nature of the business model.

One such argument I’ve seen of late however does actually focus on an opportunity’s business model, asserting that the restriction of payout levels somehow negates the recruitment driven nature of the scheme. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Earn With Yin website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Earn With Yin website domain (“earnwithyin.com”) was registered on the 15th of October 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 Wenyard website identifying who owns or runs the business.

The Wenyard website domain (“wenyard.com”) was registered on the 23rd of September 2013, however the domain registration is set to private.

Wenyard’s website does have an “about us” page, however the company only provides the following marketing copy:

Over the recent years, the two small European countries of Malta and Gibraltar have become the heart of the global online gaming world. Many of the world’s most famous gaming companies reside in these places.

In the pubs and in restaurants the brilliant minds of the IT developers, the business management and operational staff meet to enjoy the vibrant life of the Mediterranean.

During these meetings and informal talks, some of these brilliant young people decided to create a new game. It should be based on different levels of skill, real world events and the dynamics of the real financial world.

A whole new concept based on virtual stock trading with real life input was to be invented.

Out of the collaboration between several brilliant businesses and IT developers Wenyard was born.

Riiiight.

A parent company name is provided, “Leonard Virtual Property Ltd” operating out of Gibraltar, however this company is not mentioned anywhere else on the internet outside of Wenyard’s website.

The address provided for Leonard Virtual Property Ltd is that of “HLB Gibro Group”, who advertise on their website that they can ‘can help you incorporate and manage onshore and offshore companies in almost any international jurisdiction‘.

For all intents and purposes it would appear Leonard Virtual Property Ltd is little more than a virtual operation.

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…]

No information is provided on the Xseed website indicating who owns or runs the business. Infact, no information about the business is currently provided at all. Visitors to the Xseed website are only able to “pre-enroll” or watch a marketing video.

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

Further research reveals that the Xseed Facebook page names a “John de Vries” as Xseed’s CEO:

Marketing videos from Xseed Media on Youtube go on to announce that the company is currently in prelaunch, with an expected launch date of January 2014.

In another video, hosted by Jason Lyons (presented as an Xseed affiliate), an office building referred to as Xseed’s “worldwide headquarters” in Las Vegas, Nevada is shown:

Prior to Xseed, John de Vries (credited as John Devries and listed as Xseed’s Director, Secretary, President and Treasurer in official company documents), was the initial master distributor for Nutrie.

Nutrie, who appear to have official launched earlier this year operate in the health and nutrition MLM niche.

The marketing copy attached to the above Nutrie marketing video provides some additional insight into de Vries’ MLM career:

Prior to joining Nutrié, Mr. de Vries was CEO of Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar. He was the lead in developing the hottest and most profitable unit franchise system worldwide.

Prior to Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar, Mr. de Vries was President of Extreme Investment Group, where he provided consulting services to turn around companies, developed business plans, raised capital for startup companies or helped with the refinancing of companies.

He worked with clients ranging from quick service restaurants, payroll companies, Real Estate companies, cosmetic companies, etc. .

Prior to being President of Extreme Investment Group Mr. de Vries became a distributor with Monavie. While at Monavie, Mr. de Vries became the fastest growing distributor in Monavie history, breaking every previous record from growth, to volume, to rank.

Why de Vries left Monavie and his master distributor position at Nutrie is not immediately clear (I wasn’t able to find anything specific).

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

Following on from the arrest and interrogation of Speak Asia mastermind Ram Sumiran Pal on Tuesday, news broke today that his accomplice Satish Pal (no relation) had also been arrested.

Following a grilling by Indian authorities, Satish Pal revealed that he ‘played a major role in’ the business operations of Speak Asia, working closely with Ram Sumiran Pal.

On October 11th 2011, I received an email from Satish Pal with an attached PDF. In this document Satish Pal claimed that the content in the BehindMLM article “Who is really running Speak Asia” was ‘false, fake, defamatory, disreputable, baseless, scandalous and unjustified‘.

Satish threatened that if the content was not removed, he would

be constrained to intimate, approach, seek redressal from all available forums including but not limited to seeking forceful restraint, stoppage of your website, cancellation of domain etc. Needless to say both civil and criminal.

Apart from making the correction that was not related to Ram Sumiran Pal or Ram Niwas Pal (brothers), I didn’t remove the content.

Now, just over two years later Satish Pal has been arrested for his part in the Speak Asia scam. Let’s take a look at what he sent me back in 2011 versus what he yesterday told the police interrogating him. [Continue reading…]

Reports from Payza clients began to filter in yesterday about the payment processor having problems in some US states. In an announcement sent out to clients in the affected states, Payza advised [Continue reading…]

Despite the Speak Asia scam fleecing hundreds of millions of dollars from over a million email address accounts, to date only a dozen or so First Information Report complaints have been filed against the company.

One of the main reasons for this has been the constant quelling of the scheme’s participants, under the promise of refunds initiated by the company, by Speak Asia’s top recruiters and investors.

It’s no secret that should Indian authorities decide to drop the case against the Ponzi scheme (as laughable as this sounds it’s what many of them believe will happen through the courts), that the money these top recruiter investors stand to gain is substantial. [Continue reading…]

When the Mumbai High Court ordered that the Economic Offences Wing file a chargesheet against Speak Asia by December 16th, the general consensus amongst the scheme’s supporters was that the police were going to come up blank.

Two and a half years had passed since Speak Asia had been shut down, surely if the EOW had anything they would filed a chargesheet by now?

As the December 16th deadline loomed closer, what happened on Tuesday no doubt surprised the Speak Asia faithful.

It certainly wasn’t something I was expecting… [Continue reading…]

Following on from yesterday’s post about DS Domination and dropshipping,

Looking forward I guess there’s little left to do but adopt a wait and see approach. As far as Amazon goes, short of policing eBay themselves and trying to connect listings to Amazon accounts (which I don’t realistically see them doing), it would seem the ball is entirely in eBay’s court.

I sent an email to eBay to try to get to the bottom of whether or not they are officially fine with sellers, members of DS Domination or otherwise, selling Amazon products on their site.

I was kind of expecting a “refer to our terms and conditions” type vague reply but to my surprise, I was contacted by an eBay Customer Service rep who was quite clear on the issue. [Continue reading…]

The Total Takeover launched in November 2013 and is headed up by admin Matthew McMills.

McMills has a YouTube account, with videos uploaded over the past year revealing affiliate membership to TVC Matrix, a $9.95 or $19.95 a month recruitment scheme.

About a year ago, McMills also appears to have launched something called Internet Guru University (evidently from inside his car).

The Internet Guru University website is still up over at “internetguruuniversity.com”, however the site advises that the program is “sold out”. Going off the content posted on the site, it appears to be some sort of membership-based training platform.

With the launch of The Total Takeover, whether McMills is still involved in TVC Matrix as an affiliate is unclear.

Read on for a full review of The Total Takeover MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]