TVG fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

TVG’s website domain (“135tvgud.com”), was privately registered on April 22nd, 2024.

Of note is TVG’s domain being registered through the Chinese registrar Alibaba (Singapore).

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…]

Local City Places fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

As per its website, Local City Places is based out of Arizona in the US.

Local City Places’ website domain (“localcityplaces.com”), was privately registered on May 1st, 2023.

Troy Warren is cited as Local City Places’ “editor” on its website.

On his LinkedIn profile, Warren discloses he’s also CEO and President of the company:

Why this information isn’t provided to consumers on Local City Places’ website is unclear.

In the footer of Local City Places’ website there’s a reference to City Press Media.

LOCAL City Places | Powered by City Press Media

There is a City Press Media website up at “citypressmedia.com”, but I’m not sure if it’s related. In any event, the website is running a WordPress theme populated with default theme data.

Another name we can attach to Local City Places is Tom Beal (right).

In a December 29th, 2023 press-release announcing Local City Places’ launch, Beal is cited as an Executive Board Member.

Executive Board Member Tom Beal, expert Digital Marketer, performance coach, and “mentor to mentors,” puts it this way, “There is no better way of spreading the good word about amazing local businesses.

The level of thought put into this for reviewers and local companies is extremely impressive.”

While Troy Warren doesn’t appear to have an MLM history, he does appear to have a long history of marketing and ecommerce related scamming.

A July 2009 article by Ivan Penn for the St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times), lays out some pretty serious misconduct.

• A lawsuit by MasterCard International in 1991 that accused Warren and more than a dozen other defendants of taking millions from consumers through false offers of low-rate credit cards under a company they ran, called Listworld. The case was settled and dismissed.

Listworld filed bankruptcy and reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which shut the operation down for deceptive practices.

• A bankruptcy filing that left Warren with a judgment for $1.9 million that he was declared responsible for in an order in 2006.

• An order by the Arizona Corporation Commission that Warren pay $20,000 in restitution to investors for selling stock he did not register for a charitable Internet business, FreeFundRaisingPrograms.com Inc.

• The Better Business Bureau gave Warren an “F” for his failed SearchBigDaddy.com Internet products and services business because of complaints, failure to respond to complaints and lack of business background.

Warren also has been sued at least five times for failing to pay state and federal taxes in the tens of thousands of dollars, from the early 1990s to 2005.

Penn’s article also covers BBZ Resource Management, which saw Warren sued by Tidewater Marketing Global Consultants for

unfair competition and counterfeiting, among other things, for “copying, distributing and misappropriating Tidewater’s business information.”

Tidewater and BBZ Resource Management ran a “gas and grocery program”.

Troy Warren, 49, of Mesa, Ariz., and his BBZ Resource Management company have been flooding e-mail boxes in Florida and elsewhere with offers for a gas and grocery program.

BBZ Resource Management escalated its marketing efforts in Florida after TideWater was put “under state control and [became] the subject of a criminal investigation for deceptive business practices”.

One of BBZ’s brokers e-mailed a press release about its program, stating, “Gas and Grocery Headquarters, the leading provider of gas and grocery certificates, is looking to help companies that fell victim to a now defunct gas rebate program based in Largo, Florida.

Hymie Orlin, one of BBZ’s representatives through fuelandgroceryincentives.com, said his company is picking up Tidewater’s clients.

One of BBZ’s merchant clients described the business as a Ponzi scheme.

Pouls calls the program run by BBZ Resource Management a fraudulent Ponzi scheme in which the company was using “new income to pay off old debts based on false pretenses.”

Pouls, a developer who also ran a credit card business and other ventures, says that he separated himself from BBZ after it became clear to him that the company was defrauding the public.

“The biggest thing going on was nobody was getting their cards,” he said. “I was appalled.”

Penn’s July 2009 article cites Warren and his company Troy Warren SBD offices as operating from a Chandler, Arizona address.

Local City Places’ Arizona address is also in Chandler, so I’m pretty sure this is the same Troy Warren.

In 2000, Alaska’s DCCED’s Division of Banking and Securities went after Warren for something related to the website “HotYellow98”.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to pull up specific case details. Fortunately Arizona’s Corporation Commission went after Warren for similar conduct in 2005.

[Warren] signed a Consent Agreement with the State of Alaska Division of Banking, Securities and Corporations on May 31, 2000, regarding the unregistered sale of securities to four Alaskan investors offered by HotYellow98.com, Inc., the Nevada Corporation and its predecessor the Arizona Corporation.

As part of the Consent Agreement … [Warren] paid restitution to four Alaskan investors in the amount of $26,000 and reimbursed the State for costs in the amount of $1500.

The ACC’s enforcement action relates to “ListWorldUSA.com” and “FreeFundRaisingProgram.com”. It is the same enforcement action cited above in Ivan Penn’s St. Petersburg Times article.

Finding that Warren committed securities fraud in Arizona, the ACC ordered Warren to pay another $20,000 in restitution and a $5000 administrative penalty.

Finally there’s a slew of consumer complaints against Warren published on Complaints Board.

The complaints are specific to September through November 2019, which is a bit odd. I can’t verify any of the claims so take them with a grain of salt.

Read on for a full review of Local City Places’ MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

Litecoin USDT fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

Litecoin USDT’s website domain (“litecoinusdt.vip”), was privately registered on April 16th, 2024.

Of note is Litecoin USDT’s domain being registered through the Chinese registrar Alibaba (Singapore).

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…]

Billionico is dead in the water following a securities fraud cease and desist from Texas.

As part of the Texas State Securities Board’s April 22nd order, Auratus was cited as an associated company tied to Terry Lee and a Hong Kong shell company.

Other companies TSSB associated with Auratus include Primus Liquidity Holding (Marshall Islands), Orbit Conceptum AG and CoinX24AG (Switzerland).

Now a separate Auratus website has emerged, along with a slew of new associated shell companies. [Continue reading…]

FCBQE fails to provide verifiable ownership or executive information on its website.

FCBQE represents it is headed up by “Robert Simon” and other named executives.

Simon and the rest of the executives however are represented by a stolen profile photos:

None of FCBQE’s claimed executives exist.

FCBQE’s website domain (“fcbqe.com”), was privately registered with bogus details on April 2nd, 2024.

Of note is FCBQE’s domain being registered through the Chinese registrar Alibaba (Singapore).

Despite existing for less than a month, FCQBE has already attracted the attention of regulators. On April 4th the Central Bank of Russia issued an FCQBE pyramid fraud warning.

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…]

TetherScan fails to provide verifiable ownership or executive information on its website.

TetherScan is purportedly headed up by “Lu Shengli”, who features in TetherScan’s marketing videos:

Curiously, TetherScan’s marketing videos feature Shengli as CEO of USDTScan.

TetherScan’s website domain (“tetherscan.org”), was privately registered on December 31st, 2023.

USDTScan has its own website up at “usdtscan.com”, privately registered in October 2022.

Of additional note is TetherScan’s website being a clone of USDTScan:

Putting all of this together, we can ascertain that USDTScan launched before TetherScan. Whoever is running both schemes is recycling USDTScan material to market TetherScan.

Between both schemes, Lu Shengli doesn’t exist outside of USDTScan’s or TetherScan’s marketing. This makes him a prime Boris CEO candidate.

Russians and/or Ukrainians are typically behind Boris CEO schemes. That is actors used to represent fictional executives.

Further supporting this is Ukrainian in USDTScan’s website source-code:

Although TetherScan is a clone of USDTScan’s website, this Ukrainian word has been scrubbed from TetherScan’s website source-code.

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…]

The DCPTG “click a button” app Ponzi has collapsed.

Following three or so days of reports of withdrawal problems, DCPTG’s primary website domain was disabled yesterday. [Continue reading…]

The Ovax Global Ponzi scheme appears to have collapsed.

Ovax Global’s official YouTube channel has been deleted. The rest of its social media accounts were abandoned in late March. [Continue reading…]

Former President Stuart MacMillan has sued Monat and founder and CEO Luis and Rayner Urdaneta.

MacMillan claims he owed millions pursuant to a signed Profit Sharing Agreement. [Continue reading…]

Polish Traffic Monsoon scammer Piotr Chajkowski has settled clawback proceedings against him.

In an April 10th filing, the Traffic Monsoon Receiver confirmed “the amount of $1,027,236.58, has been fully satisfied by payment of the full Settlement Amount”. [Continue reading…]