Immediately after the Zeek Rewards Ponzi collapse, Bidify pulled their compensation plan offline with the mindset that their plan as it was then would also most likely be seen as a Ponzi scheme by US authorities.

Ditching the Ponzi points style compensation they had in favour of a retail sale of bids style plan, Bidify pushed ahead into unchartered territory:

Could a penny auction survive attached to a MLM style compensation plan that wasn’t just a blatant Ponzi coverup?

So far the answer appears to be yes, with Bidify chugging along and seemingly having survived the Zeek Rewards Ponzi apocalypse. With a multitude of MLM penny auctions sitting in continously extended prelaunch phases (whilst paying out recruitment commissions to their members), how Bidify will fare in 2013 with some serious competition though remains to be seen.

In the meantime, one particular development within the Bidify affiliate sphere recently caught my eye. [Continue reading…]

In what can only be described as one of the longest running pyramid schemes in history, TVI Express popped up on my radar this week after apparently claiming a fresh new batch of victims in the city of Nagpur, located in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

For those unfamiliar with TVI Express, the scheme launched around 2008 and the basic idea is you pay $200 USD or so to join and then via a reverse matrix, once enough new matrix positions have been bought (either by newly recruited members or existing members repurchasing positions), members earn a commission.

Attached to each position is access to a series of third-party travel offers, but they have nothing to do with MLM compensation plan side of the business (including commissions paid out).

Ironically the TVI Express pyramid scheme initially launched in India, however it wasn’t long before they’d exhausted the local recruit market and shifted focus to recruitment abroad.

Thus far the scheme has spread to parts of Africa (largely outlawed), Australia (declared an illegal pyramid scheme), the briefest of stints in the US and more recently appears to be slowly spreading across Asia (at the time of publication, the Phillipines appears to be the primary recruitment target).

What I found suprising with this recent news then was how on Earth TVI Express managed to wind it’s way back into India and ensnare a whole new crop of victims. [Continue reading…]

Vidacup International is the latest MLM company launch hoping to capitalize on the widespread use of coffee and combination of a MLM based compensation plan.

Over the past few years I’ve seen a few MLM coffee company startups which have launched with various levels of success ranging from “where are they now?” to the upper reaches of moderate.

With most of these already launched companies having some variation of mushroom coffee as their primary product or mixed into their range of coffee products, I’m not all that sure there’s demand enough for yet another mushroom coffee offering in the MLM industry.

Obviously of a different opinion, the people behind Vidacup seem to think otherwise and so today we take a look at the recently launched Vidacup MLM business opportunity. Read on for a full review. [Continue reading…]

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

The company’s website domain (appsnetwork.co) however was registered on September 3rd 2012 and lists a “Rajesh Chatterjee” as the owner, operating out of Hamilton in New Zealand.

Chatterjee previously launched the Network Empire MLM opportunity earlier this year back in April. After analysing and reviewing Network Empire’s business model, I concluded that the idea of paying a company to build a website for you and then renting it back to them for a ROI didn’t make much sense as a MLM product.

Coupled with recruitment commissions offered through Network Empire’s compensation plan, things were looking pretty dodgy.

Research into the current status of Network Empire reveals that, although the company website is still up and running, the scheme collapsed in July 2012 with affiliates receiving no further payments after June.

After disappearing for two months, Chatterjee then sent an email to a top affiliate of Network Empire, stating

You’re getting THE PRODUCT that you’ve purchased. You have NOT purchased the income and that can’t be guaranteed.

Be rest assured, I’ve checked my legal liabilities long back and happy to see anyone in the court of law – should we both wish to host & fund a costly lawyers feast.

Through their compensation plan, Network Empire guaranteed affiliates a ROI of $10 a month for the first three months and $20 a month over the next three years for every website purchased by affiliates.

After the collapse of Network Empire in July, Chatterjee appears to be back three months later with a new company launch, Apps Network. Read on for a full review of the Apps Network MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]

There is no information on the Amazing Money Magnet website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The company’s website domain (amazingmoneymagnet.com) was registered on the 29th August 2012, however the domain registration information is set to private.

As always, if a 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…]

The only reference to who is running the We Find Ways MLM business opportunity is the following blurb taken from the company’s website:

We’re an experienced team of professionals that have been working in the pay-to-click industry for a considerable number of years.

The We Find Ways company website domain (‘wefindways.net’) was registered on the 22nd of February 2012, however the domain registration information is set to private.

As always, if a 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…]

Dynamic Impact was founded in mid 2012 and appears to be based in the US. The company does not provide a corporate address nor disclose where they are operating out of and additionally, Dynamic Impact’s website domain registration is set to private.

Marketing material from Dynamic Impact does include a corporate address, however this is just a virtual office address provided by “Quest Workspaces”:

Despite ambiguity as to where Dynamic Impact are headquartered, the company is upfront on the management side of things with Vincent Cataldi named as company CEO and founder.

I’m not sure whether this is supposed to be some sort of joke or not, but for reasons known only unto themselves, Dynamic Impact have (badly) photoshopped Cataldi’s head onto a suit to use as an official corporate photo of Cataldi:

For starters, unless I’m mistaken that suit is obviously computer generated.  A near identical suit appears in a supposed photo of “Ravishankar Raghavan” from Mumbai based Indian legal firm, “Majmudar and Co.”:

Noticeable the Dynamic Impact image is of a much higher resolution, prompting me to believe we might be looking at a stock “suit” photo both Dynamic Impact and CNBC’s Money Control have used.

Meanwhile Cataldi’s head might actually belong to an actual Vince Cataldi, however I was unable to locate a verifiable source. The closest I got was tracking it down to having been ripped from a “Sonico” social network profile (photo right).

Despite Dynamic Impact claiming that Cataldi ‘has now been continually active in (network marketing) for over 20 years’, I wasn’t able to find much. Infact, MLM wise Cataldi’s name only popped up in conjunction with the company One24 (a heavily recruitment orientated opportunity).

Speaking at One24’s “Summer Bash”, Cataldi was named as a “consultant of One24” on the event’s marketing material:

Given this, Cataldi does seem to be a real person however why Dynamic Impact are using photoshopped images to represent him on their website isn’t clear.

As for the rest of the executive staff, Phillip Georgeson (Communications Director) and Conrad Loreto (Medical Director) both also come from One24. I’m not sure whether John Rines (Media Director) or Karilyn Zapata (Customer Care Director) have a history in MLM but if they do, I was unable to find any specifics.

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

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

The company’s website domain (pennymatrix.com) however was registered on the 12th of January 2011 and lists a “Michael Dodd” who is apparently the “MD” (Managing Director?) of something called “Operations Corporation”, which appears to be a division of “World Light LLC”, with World Light LLC seemingly operating out of Tennessee in the US.

Through World Light, Dodd (photo right) appears to have launched a previous venture called “World Light Funding” back in late 2010. World Light Funding was a recruitment driven single line matrix pyramid scheme that is no longer operational.

At the time of publication of this review, the World Light Funding website (worldlightfunding.com) redirects to something called “World Light Plus”, which appears to be a religious centered business opportunity of some sort. The income opportunity section of the World Light Plus Website (under “reseller”) simply requests visitors “check back in two hours!”

How long the World Light Plus website has been displaying this information is not known.

Meanwhile, the “about us” section of the World Light Plus website is somewhat of an amusing read:

World Light Plus, the Company, is a unique for-profit enterprise founded in 2012. World Light Plus (WLP) is completely oriented towards and controlled by its membership, as stated by its slogan, For the Members and By the Members.

The actual history of World Light Plus (WLP) begins with THE VISION of the late Ronald Mashal, who passed away on July 6, 2008. He was generally described as soft-spoken and ‘easy-going’. His closest friends say he was also quite humble, yet inwardly a spiritual giant whose soul could “light up the world”.

One day, a critical medical condition caused him to be rushed to the hospital, where he was officially declared dead. However, in that mysterious place between pure spiritual life and physical death, between God’s heavenly realm and Earth, a VISION was revealed to him.

Ron was then shown the image of a ‘system’ that would create an easier path for not just surviving these conditions but eventually improving the human condition on Earth. He then asked Ron to go back and serve humanity by implementing THE VISION. Ron obeyed.

Like people in biblical times, Ron did not ask for his mission. Yet, it became sacred to his heart, mind and soul, despite the many travails and extreme sorrows he had to suffer.

Friends turned against him; some thought he had been smitten by madness. Fortunately, he had personal savings to sustain him while he devoted the remainder of his life to this mission.

Yet, he watched them slowly dwindle away as banker after banker who used to be his friend turned their backs to him. He especially needed help in designing computer programs that would model THE VISION in each of its aspects.

Yet, pseudo-computer experts who claimed to possess the necessary skills would all, one by one, prove their incompetence.

Still, he persevered as if driven by an equal degree of love for THE VISION’s Author and a heart-felt desire to carry out His will. As if possessed by a new, indefatigable spirit, he gradually overcame every obstacle in constructing THE VISION’S mathematical model on paper.

Ron succeeded! WLP now serves as the access door for an inspired and faithful variation of Ron’s original VISION.

WLP truly believes that its matrix compensation plan contains both its ingenious essence and global reach.

So some guy died, rose from the dead and continued on god’s mission for him… which was supposedly to launch various dodgy looking MLM businesses under the World Light brand?

Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Meanwhile back in reality, the YouTube account used to host Penny Matrix’s promotional videos is ‘mikedodd22’, with this same account used to host World Light Funding’s marketing videos back in late 2010.

To tie everything together and cement that “Mike Dodd” is behind World Light Funding and Penny Matrix, here’s a Twitter account tweet that does just that:

A recently deleted LinkedIn profile (Google cache screenshot below is from October 2nd, 2012), also shows Dodd listing himself as the CEO of Penny Matrix, under the username “worldlight”:

Why Dodd is claiming that World Light only launched in 2012 and why the Penny Matrix website does not reveal who the ownership of the scheme is not known.

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

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

The company’s website domain (moneypoolist.com) was registered on the 17th September 2012, however the domain registration information is set to private.

As always, if a 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 IncomeBang website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The company’s website domain (incomebang.com) was registered on the 24th September 2012, however the domain registration information is set to private.

As always, if a 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…]