Following on from yesterday’s discussion over whether or not eBay suspended the seller account of a DS Domination member or not, I started to ponder the incident a bit deeper.

What is currently known is that a DS Domination member had their eBay account suspended because eBay were

not comfortable with (the member’s) selling practices or business model, and (felt) they don’t help to promote a positive buying and selling environment.

DS Domination member’s and the company itself maintain that the suspension was not a result of DS Domination membership, but rather due to a failure to follow the company’s dropshipping training and advice.

If DS Domination are indeed warning affiliates that not explicitly following their training and advice, all of it, will result in an eBay account suspension, then that I can accept.

It got me thinking though, what exactly did eBay object to then? Was it the way items were listed, the types of items listed? What exactly was going on here?

We know eBay, by their own admission, have no problem with dropshipping and, as DS Domination members are prompt to point out, plenty of people dropship items to eBay buyers every day without issue.

Hell you can even contact eBay yourself and verify they have no problems with dropshipping, so it’s obviously not that.

…or is it? [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Coastal Vacations website indicating who owns or runs the business. The “who we are” section of the Coastal Vacations website only offers up the following vague marketing copy:

Coastal Vacations is an association of entrepreneurs, professionals and home-based business owners.

Over eight years ago a Board of Directors committed themselves to researching and building business relationships with travel companies that possess a proven track record of customer satisfaction and industry credibility.

The Coastal Vacations website domain (“coastaltravelpackage.com”) was registered on in July 2002, listing a “COA Network” as the domain owner. A suite address in the US state of New Jersey is also provided.

The name “COA Network” does not appear anywhere on the Coastal Vacations website, however the company does have its own website domain over at “coanetwork.com”.

On the COA Network website the company advises

COA Network was established in 1992 as the leading provider of voicemail services to businesses and individuals throughout North America. Starting with the vision of CEO and Founder, Paul Champaneria.

At the bottom of the Coastal Vacations website, a message informs visitors that the site is ‘Powered by FocalPoint’.

FocalPoint (“focalpointsystem.com”) is a “replicated site and automated marketing system”, created and owned by COA Network.

Given this it is unclear whether or not COA Network actually own Coastal Vacations or whether they’ve just set up the website (and in doing so listed themselves as the owner of the company’s website domain).

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…]

May 2011 saw India’s Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) shut down Speak Asia, the biggest Ponzi / pyramid hybrid scheme in Indian history at the time.

Come December 16th, two and a half years after Speak Asia was shut down, the Mumbai High Court has ordered the EOW finally file a chargesheet against the company.

One might get the sense that over the past thirty months Indian regulators have been sitting on their hands, but the truth of the matter is far from it.

The longevity of the Speak Asia case is unfortunately a symptom of India’s regulatory and legal systems being unable to cope with the scope and magnitude of today’s online scams. [Continue reading…]

DS Domination’s bundling of “how to copy Amazon product descriptions into eBay auctions, markup the price and dropship” was bound to raise concerns at some point.

At the entry-level, which the company uses to demonstrate the concept of drop-shipping to new and potential members, it was always going to be a question of who would get fed up first – eBay or Amazon?

Firing what appears to be the first bullet at DS Domination members is eBay, specifically calling out a DS Domination member’s “selling practices and business model”. [Continue reading…]

10FreeMoney launched in November 2013 and is headed up by an admin who signs off as “D&K Collins” (taken from the 10FreeMoney FAQ).

Further research reveals D&K Collins identifying themselves as David Collins, admin of Alert2Pay:

I AM The Administrator D.Collins former owner of Alert2Pay, now co-owner of 10freemoney. I am one of the most trusted admins in the world of hyip and money back guarantee.

Alert2Pay launched in August 2012, accepting $50 investments from affiliates and guaranteeing a 7% daily ROIs for 30 days.

By September 2012 (just short of two months) Alert2Pay had run out of new affiliate money, with Collins pulling the familiar “we got hacked!” excuse:

Hello Valued Members! (Please read this entire email)

It is with a heavy heart that I have no choice but to report that Alert2Pay is closing today.

First and foremost – I will do my UTMOST to ensure that NO members will be left out of pocket!!

I am refunding all deposits to those who did not earn anything on their investments! The refunds will be processed today and I will try to cover every member who did not get a chance to earn with Alert2Pay!

We cannot pay commissions however, nor can we pay monies back to those who are already in profit.

Now, for the explanation…BE WARNED!!

Alert2Pay was being attacked by one of the world’s biggest hackers who goes by many names, One of the names is Wealthy Rick, or the most recent Alex, who is the current owner of wealthadz.com and many other websites.

This hacker has been hacking into members accounts, stealing their money, changing their username, passwords, and payment emails while withdrawing it into his own account.

He also stole more than $60,000 from Alert2Pay by hacking into our server, uploading a API agent and retrieving our API details which is used to make mass payments to members.

This hacker has stolen our entire database and is uploading it to his websites and selling the leads as package deals to the members of his sites. So with that being said, you will need to change your username and passwords to all your programs.

This hacker is following people around , logging into their most recent programs (using their previous username and password) and stealing their money.

With that being said, we are holding onto our last bit of dollars and we will use this to pay our major investors back first, then we will work on the smaller payments last.

This is the only way that I, the owner of Alert2Pay can close down this program. I would not be able to live with myself knowing that somebody lost 5 to 10,000 dollars when there are families out there starving and homeless.

I cannot promise that every investor who did not earn with us will get their money back, because at some point, what we do have left will run out. I am deeply sorry and I apologize that you had to go through this torment!

As you may or may not know, ProfitAdz is one of the other sites that has been a victim of this same person. The Admin, Thomas Sullivan is a well respected honest Admin, and has his hands full too, trying to recover.

The hacker somehow redirected this mans site to his newest site, set up to scam members out of their money. Sounds familiar don’t it? Remember when we were alert2pay.com, yes, he stole that from us too.

In closing, I want you all to know that despite the actions of this hacker, I did everything in my power to keep Alert2pay going.

I spent countless hours, quite a few bucks, and sleepless nights trying to keep the hacker at bay, because the members are top priority, but in the end, the hacker had to win…before he hacked more members accounts!!

I want you all to know that my Partner Cathy Evans, has done her best to help, but this has been out of her hands as well. She is a wonderful woman and she made my job as the admin here a heck of lot easier!

Please do not blame her, she was our support admin and had nothing to do with payments whatsoever! I want to thank Cathy for everything that she\’s done to make A2P one of the greatest sites to hit the net.

I’m closing this update now and the refunding process will begin. I will be posting more information about the hacker on the front page of Alert2Pay and I will expose as much as I can! The website will stay up for this purpose only.

Please be aware of this guy because he is hacking everything and everybody! Also please get protection for your computer and run a complete scan everyday.

I found tracking cookies and a trojan on my computer and I strongly believe this is what he’s using to gather your personal information. Please stay safe and farewell.

The Alert2Pay program has ended.

Despite the promises of investor refunds above made by Collins, postings on social media by Alert2Pay affiliates indicate that the vast majority of refund requests were not honored.

Now, a year later, Collins is back with 10FreeMoney.

Read on for a full review of the 10FreeMoney MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Vertical Legacy operate in the blog network MLM niche and for all intents and purposes, appear to be an offshoot of Wealth Masters International.

Vertical Legacy is a natural extension of the vision that first began, when in 2005 Kip (Herriage) and partner Karl Bessey founded industry leader Wealth Masters International.

Taken from the Vertical Legacy’s “company” page,

Vertical Legacy is a company built on the strongest of foundations and by combining your aspirations coupled with this talented team’s strengths, the sky’s the limit for you and for those you care for the most. And as we move forward, please never forget…

Vertical Legacy… Where Building Your Legacy… Is Our Legacy.

The page then goes on to list eight “leadership team” members, each of which is in some way associated with Wealth Masters:

• Kip Herriage – co-founder and CEO of Wealth Masters International
• Karl Bessey – co-founder and President of Wealth Masters International
• John Jackson – Senior Vice-President of Leadership Development
• Per Gunnar Hoem – top Norwegian Wealth Masters affiliate prior to WMI getting banned in Norway for being a pyramid scheme
• Cathy Werking – Wealth Masters affiliate
• Ryan Nelson – Wealth Masters affiliate
• Wayne Allyn Root – speaker at Wealth Masters events
• Peter Bileagus – speaker at Wealth Master events

Wealth Masters International launched in the MLM personal development boom of the mid to late 2000s. Trouble first began in 2010 when WMI ran into regulatory issues in Norway. Later that year the Norwegian Gaming Board declared Wealth Masters to be an illegal pyramid scheme, and things have been in a downward spiral ever since.

In 2011 WMI announced it was planning an Initial Public Offering (IPO), which never eventuated.

After lengthy delays, WMI launched the subsidiary “Pure” in 2012. The Pure website is still online today (“purenow.com”), however the company failed to go anywhere after launch. For all intents and purposes it appears to be an abandoned project today.

Wealth Masters was the subject of two major investigations in 2011, one from the SEC (possible securities violations) and the other from the New Zealand Commerce Commission (pyramid scheme suspicions).

By 2013 Wealth Masters appeared to be all but dead in the water, with the company even referring to itself as “gutted” in a lawsuit filed against previous consultants and ex-affiliates.

Two of the ex-affiliates Wealth Masters sued, Aaron and Sophia Rashkin, filed a countersuit against WMI, alleging it to be a pyramid scheme.

WMI’s business model is complex on paper yet simple to articulate: Pay up to $20,000 for token products and services in exchange for the right to earn commissions from recruited participants that do the same.

Less than one-half of 1% of WMI’s gross revenue can be attributed to legitimate retail sales; thus, proving the point that the products have no legitimate without the recruitment mechanism.

Those outcome of both lawsuits is still pending, but in the meantime Vertical Leverage would appear to be WMI’s latest attempt as re-inventing itself.

Other than it being referred to as an “extension”, there’s currently no explanation as to how Vertical Legacy will fit into the existing Wealth Masters business opportunity, or whether it’s intended to replace the Wealth Masters brand entirely.

At the time of publication the Wealth Masters International website (“wmitoday.com”) is fully operational.

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

With Acre’s Public Prosecutors rejecting Carlos Costa’s mediation proposals late last week, it fell on Judge Thais Khalil to go over the proposals and make a decision.

Khalil’s decision was handed down yesterday in the shadow of Carlos Costa running all over Brazil to declare “god used him” to create TelexFree and that “nobody will take it” away.

This was followed up by a rather amusing “the battle is coming to an end” video, which was published on TelexFree’s Facebook page with the following caption:

The battle is coming to an end. We trust in God, we trust in justice.

In stark contrast to the deceptive narrative TelexFree are shoving down their affiliate’s throats, common-sense has once again trumped the company’s marketing theatrics. [Continue reading…]

Max International launched in early 2007 and market products focused on ‘glutathione’ distribution to the body.

Max International was originally founded by three founders – Steven K. Scott, Fred Ninow and Gregory Fullerton, however only Scott remains with the company today.

Ninow left Max International in 2010, eventually going on to launch Ocean Avenue in late 2012. I’m note sure when Fullerton left but today he’s with Savi Health, credited as a co-founder on their company website.

Steven K. Scott (right) meanwhile has a long history of television marketing, specialising in brand awareness and marketing campaigns through The American Telecast Corporation.

Taken from Scott’s website (“stevenkscott.com”),

In 2007 a meeting took place that was to radically change the course of Steve’s life. He met Dr. Robert H. Keller, a renowned research scientist and medical doctor.

Dr. Keller, an immunologist, oncologist and hematologist had authored more than 100 articles that had been peer-reviewed and published in various medical journals and chapters to more than 75 medical textbooks.

But the night they met at Chuck Norris’s home, Dr. Keller showed Chuck and Steve his clinical studies on a patented breakthrough nutritional formula that was proven to significantly increased cellular production of Glutathione, one of the cell’s most important protein chains.

Dr. Keller had been using the product with his patients for more than ten years and had seen phenomenal outcomes.

Steve funded a new company to take Dr. Keller’s nutritional breakthrough to the world. The company was named Max International.

On the executive side of things Max International is headed up by co-CEOs Joe Voyticky and David Bagley.

Voyticky comes from a corporate law background and doesn’t appear to have an MLM history prior to Max International. Ditto Bagley, who comes from a nutritional sciences background and apparently “co-founded a nutritional company”.

On their website Max International advise that they are based out of Utah in the US.

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

Following what can only be described as a PR nightmare spanning multiple countries and continents, WCM777 have themselves come clean and acknowledged they were selling unregistered securities in the US.

All but confirming the company operated as a Ponzi scheme, owner Phil Ming Xu’s latest update on the WCM777 website is a bit… strange. [Continue reading…]

Healthy Habits Global launched in November 2013 and are based out of California in the US.

The company operates in the coffee MLM niche and is headed up by Founder and CEO Ted Fitzgerald (below right).

Fitzgerald’s Healthy Habits corporate credits him with a ‘17 year career in direct sales‘.

Prior to his direct sales career, Ted built many businesses from the ground up including athletic clubs, restaurants and other retail establishments.

Ted has hit the top positions in every company he has been involved in. He has build (sic) organizations of over 55,000 distributors with over $10 million in yearly group revenue.

On Fitzgerald’s LinkedIn profile he lists himself as having been an affiliate of Gano Excel from February 2009 to February 2011. In February 2011 Fitzgerald appears to have left Gano Excel to work for Symmetry Software (non-MLM).

Gano Excel market a Ganoderma based coffee, with Fitzgerald’s time there appearing to be the inspiration behind Healthy Habits Global.

Despite mention of a seventeen year plus direct sales career, I was unable to find any further information on Fitzgerald’s involvement in the MLM industry.

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