One of the core signatures of an HYIP scam is highlighted when a “program” is presented as a “Plan B,” typically in the context of creating “multiple income streams” or “in case Plan A fails, you’d better have a “Plan B.”
Zeek Rewards A-lister Keith Laggos gushed about Lyoness, his “Plan B” program. Zeek collapsed in a pile of Ponzi rubble and Lyoness later caught the attention of authorities in Australia.
Fellow Zeek A-Lister T. LeMont Silver pushed an ill-fated series of Plans B such as JubiMax/JubiRev and GoFunRewards/GoFunPlaces.
Now it has come to pass that a “program” whose actual name is Plan B reportedly has encountered a police raid in Europe in which money and expensive cars were seized. Perhaps showcasing its Stepfordian mindlessness, the “program” added “4you” to its name, becoming “PlanB4You.”
AdVentures4U, a similar MLM fraud, tried a similar tactic before crashing in 2009. That “program” was a “Plan B” for MLM scammers who earlier had joined the AdSurfDaily and AdViewGlobal MLM scams.
If the PlanB4You name wasn’t enough of a giveaway that the “program” was one to be avoided, PlanB4You’s presence on the MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum provided another one. (It’s on TalkGold, too.)
From a Zhunrize slide as viewed through Open Office. Red highlight by PP Blog.
2ND UPDATE 5:25 P.M. EDT U.S.A. Purported “Plans B” are one of the core signatures of the the MLM HYIP sphere, which is known for incredibly toxic global frauds such as Zeek Rewards and AdSurfDaily. In 2009, an ASD reload scam known as AdViewGlobal was positioned as a “Plan B.”
The individual schemes of Zeek and ASD took in a combined sum of at least $969 million. AdViewGlobal appears to have disappeared with millions of dollars — after targeting ASD victims for a second time.
Laggos’ listeners were told that, if things went south at Zeek, Lyoness would be an excellent hedge through which $10,000 directed at the scheme might return “a quarter-million dollars.”
“Plan B” also is known as “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” HYIP prospects often are told to join more than one scheme or to quickly get in another if something goes wrong with the current scheme, sometimes known as “Plan A.”
Plan B schemes typically are a means by which prospects are lured into a continuous cycle of MLM frauds. Zeek and OneX promoter T. LeMont Silver later went on to “Plan B” schemes such as GoFunPlaces/GoFunRewards and JubiMax/JubiRev. Those schemes cratered or encountered difficulties. Silver now is pushing the exceptionally murky BitClub Network “opportunity” as a Plan B.
MLM HYIP schemes may switch forms. They may appear as straight-line investment-fraud schemes such as Legisi, which collapsed after an SEC intervention in 2008. ASD was an “autosurf advertising” scheme that collapsed in 2008 after an intervention by the U.S. Secret Service. Zeek, a purported “penny auction” company, collapsed in 2012 after an SEC intervention.
The trend now appears to be to wrap traditional products such as cosmetics and diet shakes into murky and confusing schemes that pay recruitment commissions. No specific payout may be mentioned.
The phrase “Plan B” even appears in promo material for Zhunrize. The material also references Plan A. Based on this information, it appears as though Zhunrize was touting itself as both a “Plan A” and “Plan B” scheme.
“Do you know anyone who would like to develop a plan ‘A’ Or plan ‘B’?” the Zhunrize promo queries.
In the promo, Zhunrize prospects are told they can earn “thousands each month by helping others to save time, gas, money and avoiding crowds.”
One of the problems in this bizarre sphere of MLM is that tainted money from earlier scams may flow into emerging scams, in effect making banks and payment vendors warehouses for a continuous stream of fraud proceeds that flow between and among pyramid schemes and Ponzi schemes.
Like Lyoness, Zhunrize is involved in the shopping-portal business. Like Zeek and other “programs,” Zhunrize also was positioned as a “profit-sharing” or “revenue-sharing” opportunity.
Case files associated with various recent HYIP/revenue-sharing schemes put losses in the billions of dollars. Because some promoters simply move from one scam to another, they are eviscerating wealth on a global scale.
If someone pitches you on an MLM “Plan B,” run like the wind.
Regardless, Silver might have to dial up his efforts if he hopes to become be the new standard-bearer in the category of name-dropping to sell a purported MLM/direct-sales “opportunity.” That record is held unofficially by the WCM777 “program,” which the SEC described in March as an international pyramid scheme.
But even longtime MLM huckster Phil Piccolo — known as the “one-man Internet crime wave” in part for the ceaseless dropping of names such as Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, Groupon, Walmart and Apple — must be shaking his head in begrudging awe at Silver’s recent efforts to foist the emerging BitClub Network brand on the consuming public.
With BitClub Network, Silver has put his name-dropping into overdrive, joining the likes of the scamming chieftains of WCM777, the collapsed pyramid scheme that traded on the names of Siemens, Goldman Sachs, the Denny’s restaurant chain and a series of hospitality companies with famous flags.
Distressingly, Silver assures his audience in a recent promo that “people from all across the globe” were listening to his webinar and to promos of other affiliates. The named countries included the Philippines, Russia “and all over Europe, Australia, Canada.”
The Silver promo session was titled, “Make Money With No List Featuring BitClub Network Webinar.”
Silver hasn’t topped 700 yet in the unofficial name-dropping calculus, but he’s off to a good start, essentially positioning BitClub Network as a company that will create profit opportunities for the same sort of visionaries who spotted the genius behind one-time emerging brands such as Google, AOL, Microsoft (Internet Explorer), Amazon.com, Apple’s iPhone, Apple’s iPod, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogger and more.
It’s all about “being at the right place at the right time,” Silver bleats. He even suggests in text that BitClub Network could be the next “email.”
As the video proceeds, Silver talks about Bitcoin, using slides to drop the names of Tiger Direct, the Sacramento Kings NBA franchise, Lord & Taylor, Dish Network, Expedia, Newegg and Gyft. He also works in the names of CVS Pharmacy, Sears, Target, Home Depot, Whole Foods Market and more.
Along the way, Silver also drops the names of California Gov. Jerry Brown, “China’s Central Bank Governor” and Gerogy Luntovsky, “deputy chairman of the bank of Russia,” according to text Silver displays.
From a promo for BitClub Network featuring T. LeMont Silver.
UPDATED 4:14 PM EDT (U.S.A.) Superman IV — the last movie (1987) starring Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel — was not a great flick. It’s remembered principally for Reeve’s starring role, the penury of what the Washington Post described as the “the Golan-Globus conspiracy,” poor special effects — and for something Superman did: Round up all the nuclear weapons on earth, place them in a giant net and heave them into the sun.
Depending on your point of view, the movie delivered either the greatest utopian achievement ever or the storied franchise’s cheesiest moment.
With Ponzi and fraud schemes proliferating online across the planet, could Supe make a difference in 2013 in a different arena — one that would not alienate too large a segment of the audience?
The PP Blog, for one, wouldn’t mind if Superman hurled all the HYIP scams and pretend “revenue-sharing” programs into a boiling sun. He could start with the remaining carcass of GoFunPlaces/GoFunRewards, which is now DOA in the USA, according to BehindMLM.
Reload scams certainly will follow; Supe could boil them, too. And using his high-speed mind index, he could segment the serial scammers (Lex Luthors) from the general population and deliver them to the judge. They are causing real pain to real people.
As things stand in the real, nonutopian world, how GFP/GFR members will get back their money is unknown. If there is a potential plus for folks drawn into MLM’s latest debacle, it’s that the enterprise claims it is “Backed By A 100 Million Dollar Plus Debt Free Company.”
See March 23 PP Blog story on yet another five-alarm fire served up by MLM and some of its purported “leaders.”
One of the core signatures of an HYIP scam is highlighted when a “program” is presented as a “Plan B,” typically in the context of creating “multiple income streams” or “in case Plan A fails, you’d better have a “Plan B.”
