One of the minor irritants of a Ponzi scheme is that sooner or later the money being withdrawn exceeds new money being invested.

This can usually be sustained for a short while but sooner or later those payouts have to stop.

Last we checked in with Wealth4AllTeam they had just come off the relaunch of their Ponzi scheme (“a total passive investment only program“) they claimed would pay out a guaranteed 1.6% daily ROI, sourced from “new deposits”.

2 months or so later this new reboot scheme failed, with Wealth4AllTeam citing “low membership” (no new investor money) as the root cause.

Rather than just come clean and admit they were simply running a Ponzi scheme that ran out of new investor funds, a notice published on the Wealth4AllTeam website indicates CEO Danny Cianciulli are going to try to continue the charade well into 2013.

Hacker attempts, stolen money, fraudulent accounts… these are the usual porky pies Ponzi scheme admins spew out when they run out of new investor money. Over at Wealth4AllTeam things are no different. [Continue reading…]

When it comes to children as a marketing tool in MLM, thankfully the practice is generally frowned upon. By and large it leaves people with a bad taste in their mouth as it’s difficult to distinguish the technique from out and out shameless exploitation.

One of the more recent examples would be pairing of children’s charities and penny auctions. Using the affiliate funded Ponzi points scheme we’re all familiar with by now, Bids That Give sought to add a layer of obfuscation to the business model by heavily marketing that the company was donating to and “working with” children’s charities.

With children plastered all over the Bids That Give website today and knowing full well the mechanics of the “revenue sharing” Ponzi points MLM business model, I personally can’t help but find Bids That Give’s marketing efforts coming off as anything other than unapologetically sleazy.

MLM is a highly competitive environment and is often plagued with manipulation and cut-throat marketing practices. Everyone is searching for that edge over their competitors and adding children to the income opportunity equation is like throwing quadraplegics to the sharks.

Thankfully companies like Bids That Give have restricted the use of children as marketing tools to the non-affiliate side of the business. You participate in Bids That Give and children’s charities receive money, to the best of my knowledge children themselves aren’t participating in the opportunity itself (at least not publicly).

All too keen to take things one step further however and introduce child affiliates to the industry comes Empower Network. In true “badass” form, yesterday saw Empower Network parade a 12 year old “earner” on stage to the rabid applause of its affiliates.

Evidently children aren’t just MLM marketing tools anymore, they’re active income-generating affiliate marketers themselves. [Continue reading…]

DXN are based out of Malaysia and operate in the coffee niche of the MLM industry.

The company was founded in 1993 by Lim Siow Jin. The DXN website states that Lim ‘started the business in quest of the benefits of mushroom on human health‘.

In his DXN corporate bio, Lim is credited with being ‘a graduate from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology’ and having ‘a deep interest in utilizing the fullest potential of Ganoderma‘.

I wasn’t able to find any prior involvement in the MLM industry by Lim so DXN would appear to be his first MLM venture.

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

It’s no secret that India has become an MLM legitimacy warzone over the past decade or so. Legitimate MLM companies fight for market share in an industry space increasingly dominated by recruitment scams and dodgy investment schemes.

Whereas five or ten years ago these scams were low-key startups that usually had the rug pulled from under them before they gained any traction, as the market evolved these scams became increasingly sophisticated and widespread.

Here at BehindMLM I frequently receive requests from Indian readers wanting me to look into the multitude of scams running in their area. Unfortunately most of these are either not in English or don’t have a significant online presence for me to conduct any research into them.

They’re designed for a local Indian consumption, primarily targeting those who are in all likelihood ignorant of the main types of scams those following the MLM industry see around today.

Today the biggest Indian MLM scams involve hundreds of millions of dollars and swallow up ever-increasing numbers of the Indian general public. Figures that haven’t escaped the attention of the government.

The proliferation of scams in India operating within the MLM industry is the overall lack of enforcement and applicable laws to deal with large-scale scams. Currently any scam in India using an MLM compensation plan falls under the “Prize, Chits and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act”.

The problem?

The Act was passed into law way back in 1978 and is woefully ill-equipped to deal with today’s scams. [Continue reading…]

iClubBiz was launched in April 2013 and operates in the travel club MLM niche.

The company is based in the US state of Iowa and is headed up by owner Jeffrey Evers (also known as Jeff Evers).

On the “about us” page Evers claims to have ‘been working on the iClubBiz program for over 10 years‘.

We launched a member benefit company in 2007, a nutraceutical company in 2009 and a travel company in 2010.

No further information is provided.

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

There is no information on the Rocket Cash Cycler website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Rocket Cash Cycler website domain (“rocketcashcycler.com”) was registered on the 12th of October 2012, however the domain registration is set to private. It’s additionally noted that the Rocket Cash Cycler website is hosted in Belize, a known tax haven.

Marketing videos on the Rocket Cash Cycler website were uploaded to a YouTube account owned by a “Daniel Butts”:

Butts isn’t credited as the owner of Rocket Cash Cycler anywhere on the company website, however another YouTube video names him as co-founder of the company:

Previously uploaded videos on Butts’ YouTube channel market another opportunity called “EZ Wealth Formula”. EZ Wealth Formula launched in mid 2012, costs $84 to join and pays affiliates to recruit new affiliates.

Butts’ videos appear on the official EZ Wealth Formula website, with the company’s domain (“ezwealthformula.com”) listing Daniel Butts as the domain owner. The EZ Wealth Formula domain registration also indicates Butts is operating out of British Columbia in Canada.

Read on for a full review of the Rocket Cash Cycler MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

The Rippln website contains no information about who owns or runs the business and only provides visitors with the following message:

Stay tuned for more updates about the release.

The Rippln website domain (“rippln.com”) was registered on the 23rd of September 2012, however the domain registration information is set to private.

On the Rippln Facebook page, a “Brian Underwood” is named as company CEO:

Underwood (photo right) describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur” and “global innovator” on his personal blog and claims to have been “building companies over 20 years”.

Underwood’s previous endeavours in the MLM industry include the creation of iZigg, which he served as CEO of.

iZigg was an opportunity that launched in 2010 and revolved around SMS and advertising. Here’s what fellow MLM blogger Ty Tribble over at MLM Blog had to say about iZigg shortly after launch:

iZigg Scam: Will The FTC Step In And File A Lawsuit To Shut This Down?

iZigg is a new MLM company that promises wealth based on text message advertising. This is a classic “lots of hype” money game that will not last.

Tribble names Underwood as having previously been involved in BurnLounge as a master-distributor and the National Sales Director of LocalAdLink.

BurnLounge was launched in April 2007 and by June the same year the FTC had filed a lawsuit alleging the company to be a pyramid scheme. The case concluded in January 2012 with a judge declaring BurnLounge to indeed be an illegal pyramid scheme.

Tribble claims Local Ad Link was also a “scam” and that it ‘had people paying a bunch of money to get listed on Google‘.

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

Ads Profit Reward was launched in late 2012 with the company claiming to be ‘managed by a team of international marketers with over 50 years of proven experience‘.

Tatiana Toganel, Miriam Bello, Victor Rival, Munir Jannedy and LeAndra Hammond are all named as being part of the Ads Profit Reward “team”, however specifics of the company’s executive management structure are not disclosed.

Out of the above names Tatiana Toganel has previously popped up on my radar as having been involved in Huge Yield and Ultamex.

Huge Yield was a short-lived recruitment driven pyramid scheme that no longer exists. Ultamex too relies on constant recruitment to pay out commissions but appears to still be operational.

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

The Yotta Money Hybrid domain (“yottamoneyhybrid.com”) was registered on the 10th of March 2013 but the domain registration information is set to private.

On the company’s website however an “Arindam Yinh” appears to be the owner. Further research reveals Yinh allegedly operating out of Mumbai in India.

When queried about past MLM ventures, Yinh replied

Its my first. Trying my luck…

Read on for a full review of the Yotta Money Hybrid business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Team National is ‘a multi-million dollar, debt free, direct sales company’ operating out of the US state of Florida.

Team National was founded by Richard (Dick) Loehr in 1997 and eventually launched as a standalone MLM company in 1999, selling discount memberships.

Sadly after battling cancer for a decade, Loehr passed away in 2008, however company ownership was retained by the Loehr family.

Today Team National is managed by his daughter, Angela Loehr Chrysler (photo right), who serves as the company’s CEO and President. Loehr’s husband, Phil Chrysler serves as Team National’s Executive Vice-President.

Loehr Chrysler’s background is in medical and automotive sales (non-MLM), which she then left in 2000 to work with her father at Team National.

Angela left medical sales in September 2000, to work with Team National and was instrumental in launching National Travel Services, which she ran for two years.

In the next several years, she became more involved with all aspects of marketing and launching products and services for the Team National membership.

In 2002, Angela became Executive Vice President of Team National. She worked closely with her father, Dick Loehr.

In October 2005, Angela became President of Team National. Angela worked closely with the sales field committees and began overseeing operations with Dick mentoring her.

In October 2007, Dick stepped back from overseeing the company; he passed the torch to Angela, making her CEO.

Loehr Chrysler also holds positions in the Direct Selling Association’s Communications and Strategic Planning Committees and Family Owned Council.

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