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Tag: MLM scams

ANNOUNCEMENT: PP Blog Receives Repeated Spams Labeled ‘telexfree’ That Point To YouTube Video For ‘Leads’ Program

ANNOUNCEMENT: The PP Blog has banned a specific IP that appears to originate in the area of Fort Wayne, Ind. Between 1:33 p.m. and 1:36 p.m. today, the IP sought to pull six separate PP Blog stories with the aim of planting spam links. The first story was this one, dated Dec. 17, 2010: URGENT…

Apr 9, 2013
Profitable Sunrise Members Targeted In Easter Sunday Boat-Sharking For ‘TelexFree’ On Facebook; Viewers Told They Can Plunk Down More Than $15,000 For A ‘Contract’ That Provides Earnings Of At Least $1,100 A Week

UPDATED 12:42 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) An apparent affiliate for an MLM “program” known as “TelexFree” is trying to recruit Profitable Sunrise members on Facebook on Easter Sunday morning. In yet another stunning example of disconnect within the MLM sphere, a poster left a link to a video titled, “Telex Free — Earn Weekly Posting Ads.”…

Mar 31, 2013
FOR ZEEKERS: Court-Appointed Receiver Asks Federal Judge To Approve Claims Process, Bar Date — And More

“In examining these facts, the Receiver has determined that because the VIP Points aspect of the multilevel marketing program did nothing more than redistribute funds among Affiliates in Ponzi-scheme fashion, points generated and/or accumulated by Affiliates will not be an includable part of an Affiliate’s claim for purposes of receiving a distribution from the Receivership…

Mar 29, 2013
[VOMIT ALERT]: JSS Tripler 2 — After Name Change to T2MoneyKlub — Opens Feeder Scam Called Compound150; Operator/Cheerleader Lecture MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi-Forum Mods As ‘Opportunity’ Targets ‘Compounding Lovers’

The ink was barely dry on the most recent civil judgments for millions of dollars against serial HYIP pitchman Matthew J. Gagnon when Compound150 launched yesterday. On Tuesday, the SEC announced $4.2 million in new court-ordered assessments against Gagnon, who’d earlier been hit with more than $2.5 million in assessments in a related case and…

Apr 1, 2012
Appeals Court Upholds 20-Year Prison Sentence Of Seng Tan, Mercedes-Driving Pyramid Schemer Who Blamed Hurricane Katrina For Payment Delays And Told Members That The ‘Gods’ Had Sent Her To Make Them Millionaires

EDITOR’S NOTE: Simply put, the World Marketing Direct Selling (WMDS) and OneUniverseOnline (1UOL) pyramid scheme of James Bunchan and Seng Tan was one of the ugliest — if not the ugliest — in U.S. history. Bunchan eventually was implicated in a a murder-for-hire plot in which 12 witnesses and a federal prosecutor in Massachusetts were…

Mar 27, 2012
BULLETIN: BurnLounge MLM Operators, Top Promoters Ordered To Pay Nearly $17 Million In FTC Pyramid-Scheme Case

BULLETIN: A federal judge in California has ordered the operators and top promoters of the BurnLounge MLM scam to pay nearly $17 million. The FTC brought the BurnLounge pyramid-scheme case in 2007, saying the program “primarily provided payments to participants for recruiting of new participants, not on the retail sale of products or services.” In…

Mar 14, 2012
U.S., Colorado Say Bella Homes — An MLM ‘Opportunity’ — Is A Foreclosure-Rescue Scam Whose ‘Mastermind’ Is A Convicted Felon Currently On Probation; Firm’s Business Operations Halted

“Foreclosure-rescue scams prey on distressed homeowners’ desire to save their homes and to find any means to help fix their dire financial situations. As is the case with most loan-modification and foreclosure-rescue operations, consumers who dealt with Bella Homes lost not only the thousands of dollars they paid for ‘help,’ but also their homes.” —…

Feb 24, 2012
In Wake Of CONSOB Action, Affiliate ‘Press Release’ Calls JSS Tripler Members ‘Investors’ EIGHT Times And Suggests U.S. Government Approves Purported ‘Program’ That Advertises Return Rate That Dwarfs Madoff

You can’t make this stuff up . . . A week after CONSOB, the Italian securities regulator, announced it was opening a probe into the activities of JSS Tripler promoters amid claims the absurd “program” advertised returns that would make Bernard Madoff blush, a new “press release” ignores the CONSOB development, calls participants “investors” (eight…

Jan 30, 2012
Image Of Famed Actor And Grammy-Winner Will Smith Appears In Club Asteria House Organ Just Above ‘JOIN NOW’ Button; No Immediate Comment From His Publicist

UPDATED 1:47 P.M. EDT (U.S.A. OCT. 29, 2011.) An image of famed actor and rapper Will Smith appears in Club Asteria’s September house organ, an online glossy used by the firm to recruit affiliates across the world. It was unclear if Smith had knowledge of the promo or had authorized Club Asteria to use his…

Sep 9, 2011
After Weeks Of Prelaunch Hype And A Month Of Formal Fundraising, Andy Bowdoin Says He Is $480,700 Short Of $500,000 Goal; AdSurfDaily Patriarch And Accused Felon Says In Email That He Has Collected Only $19,300 To Pay For Criminal Defense In $110 Million Ponzi Case

He once had command of legions — and AdSurfDaily members lined by the hundreds and waited in line for hours to pay Andy Bowdoin to give them a chance to “build wealth.” At its peak in the summer of 2008, ASD reportedly was posting tens of millions of dollars a week in revenue. But that…

Aug 25, 2011
International MLM Huckster Who Laundered Money For Colombian Narcotics Operation Sentenced To 9 Years In U.S. Prison; David Murcia Also Faces 30-Year Term Behind Bars In South America Upon Release

David Eduardo Helmut Murcia Guzman (David Murcia), the MLM huckster whose pyramid scheme targeted the poor in Latin America and laundered money for a Colombian narcotics operation, has been sentenced to nine years in a U.S. federal prison. Murcia, 30, also faces a 30-year prison sentence in Colombia after his release from a U.S. jail.…

Jul 12, 2011