Empower Network affiliate’s YouTube account banned
Feb.09, 2013 incompanies, Empower Network35 Comments
Alex Pereira joined Empower Network around October 2012 and regularly publishes articles to his Empower Network blog under the account “arkam77”.
Pereira also had a YouTube account which he recently uploaded some marketing videos he’d created, which he then embedded into his Empower Network blog. Ultimately of course the goal was to recruit new Empower Network affiliates and build Pereira’s downline.
Disaster struck however on February 3rd 2013, when YouTube banned Pereira’s account. [Continue reading…]
Global Wealth Trade v2.0 Review: Luxury autoship?
Feb.09, 2013 incompanies, MLM Reviews56 Comments
Not too long ago I was contacted by a Global Wealth Trade distributor who informed me that the company’s compensation plan had changed significantly since my original review back in January 2013.
At the time the Global Wealth Trade website was down so I wasn’t able to get details of their compensation plan (changed around mid 2012 I believe). Recently however the site is back up and I was able to confirm some changes to the compensation plan that I figured warranted a new writeup and analysis.
Here’s an updated review of the Global Wealth Trade MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]
Neways International Review: Autoship incentives?
Feb.08, 2013 incompanies, MLM Reviews2 Comments
Neways International (hereafter referred to as just “Neways”) is a personal care, nutrition and household cleaning MLM company.
Launched in 1992 and based out of the Utah in the US, Neways was founded by Thomas and Leslie Mower but is now owned by Golden Gate Capital (they owned Herbalife before it went public).
Golden Gate Capital acquired Neways after the Mowers were convicted of tax fraud:
According to the indictment and the evidence introduced at trial, the Mowers founded, co-owned and controlled Neways, Inc., an international multi-level marketing company based in Salem, Utah.
Mr. Mower was the Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Mower was the Chief Financial Officer and both also served as company directors.
Mr. Thompson was employed as corporate counsel for Neways, Inc. from the fall of 1995 through the summer of 1997.
The defendants devised and executed a scheme to conceal from the IRS more than $1 million of Neways, Inc.’s gross receipts received from Neways Australia, as well as more than $3 million of commission income the Mowers received from distributorships in the multi-level marketing structure of their United States, Australian and Malaysian companies.
See AlsoScent yourself up for success!California Consumer Privacy Act – CCPACanonical hiring Software Engineer - Cross-platform C++ - Multipass in Fresno, California, United States | LinkedInLoi californienne sur la protection de la vie privée des consommateurs – CCPAIn furtherance of the scheme, Mr. Thompson created and presented a false and fraudulent loan document and made false and fraudulent statements to an IRS Special Agent to hide the Mowers’ commission income.
In 2006, Thomas was sentenced to 33 months in prison to be followed by 3 years supervised release and ordered to pay a $75,000 fine in addition to paying prosecution costs.
Leslie was sentenced to 27 months in prison to be followed by 3 years supervised release and ordered to pay a $60,000 fine.
Management wise Neways is currently headed up by CEO Robert Conlee. Prior to his appointment to CEO in July of 2012, Conlee held executive roles in Xango (CEO) and Nu Skin (President, North Asia and Japan).
Read on for a full review of the Neways MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]
Analysis of FTC’s complaints against Herbalife
Feb.05, 2013 incompanies, Herbalife60 Comments
Following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request sent by the New York Post on the 26th of January 2012, the FTC sent back a reply in late January.
The FOI request specifically targeted consumer complaints the FTC had received against Herbalife. After checking their records, the FTC disclosed that they had 717 pages of records detailing 188 complaints.
15 pages were “withheld” by the FTC, with the agency citing the information exempt due to the information being obtained “via a law enforcement investigation”.
After the New York Post went live with the story last Sunday night, the FTC responded to enquiries about the language of the FOI reply sent out, clarifying that
it had made a mistake and should have cited a foreign government agency, not law enforcement.
Unfortunately the FTC continue to neither deny or confirm whether or not they are investigating Herbalife themselves. Nor have they clarified which “foreign government agency(s)” are currently investigating the company.
With the above clarification noted, what I haven’t seen addressed anywhere however is the mention of “pending law enforcement action”, mentioned in two of the complaints the FTC provided. [Continue reading…]
Network Marketing VT cash gifting scheme collapses
Feb.04, 2013 incompanies1 Comment
I first looked at Network Marketing VT back in January 2011 and it wasn’t hard to identify a major red flag with the offering of 100% commissions coming out of membership fees.
Members would sign up to Network Marketing VT, gift 100% of their monthly membership fee to their upline and in order to earn commissions themselves, would have to recruit new members of their own.
A bunch of marketing material and private label rights resellable ebooks were included with monthly membership but with commissions coming out of monthly membership fees, were entirely irrelevant to the MLM business opportunity side of things.
Not surprisingly, it appears the root cause of Network Marketing VT’s collapse lies in commission payment problems. [Continue reading…]
Herbalife facing “pending law enforcement action”
Feb.04, 2013 incompanies, Herbalife12 Comments
In what is usually a quiet time for business around the world, here in the MLM industry we’ve had the FTC bust Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing for being a pyramid scheme, damning allegations exposing Bidify being made by Bidsson’s former CEO and of course the ongoing saga between Bill Ackman, Herbalife and the FTC.
Make no mistake, 2013 is shaping up to be one of the most explosive years in MLM I’ve seen since I started covering the industry on BehindMLM.
With January delivering multiple eye-opening stories, it appears February looks set to continue the trend with the FTC confirming today that Herbalife is indeed facing “pending law enforcement action”. [Continue reading…]
CashBackBooking Review: Travelocity affiliate feeder
Feb.04, 2013 incompanies3 Comments
There is no information on the CashBackBooking website indicating who owns or runs the business.
The CashBackBooking’s website domain (“cashbackbooking.com”) was registered on the 12th of September 2012, however the domain registration is set to private.
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…]
King Soap Review: Natural soaps and recruitment
Feb.04, 2013 incompanies3 Comments
King Soap is a new MLM company that operates out of the US state of Utah.
The company is owned and operated by Randy Major. Whereas King Soap operates in the health and wellness MLM niche, Major’s past two MLM ventures have been in the social networking niche.
In 2011 Major (photo right) launched Treehouse social which was then replaced by Social Paycheck in late 2012.
Social Paycheck was a pay to click advertising network attached to a social network. With value to the advertiser at zero, when reviewing the Social Paycheck opportunity I placed a big question mark on the long-term viability of the business.
Not sure what happened with the company but just a few short months after launch Major appears to have decided to try something different with King Soap.
Read on for a full review of the King Soap MLM business opportunity. [Continue reading…]
Is cash gifting the core of the Empower Network?
Feb.02, 2013 incompanies, Empower Network131 Comments
In keeping with general tabs on the MLM industry as part of my research and what not here at BehindMLM, I process a lot more material on a daily basis than I write about.
One particular video came across my desk a week or so ago.
Despite being published a year and a half ago, I felt was worth dissecting as it pretty much confirmed the viewpoints I held about the company after reviewing theEmpower Network late last year.
The “No Excuses Summit” is an annual training event (independent of Empower Network) run by Ferny Ceballos and his “crew”.
The footage we’re going to analyse today (available at the end of this article) is taken from the second No Excuses Summit which was held in mid 2011.
It features none other than Empower Network CEO David Wood as a speaker. [Continue reading…]
Coiros Review: 2 cents a recruit?
Feb.01, 2013 incompanies1 Comment
There is no information on the Coiros website indicating who owns or runs the business.
The company’s website domain was first registered back in 2002 but was last transferred on the 4th of August 2008, indicating this is when the current owners acquired it.
Coiros’ domain registration information is public but not being a Spanish speaker, doesn’t really make much sense to me:
Registrant Contact:
ALMACENET
(Ozedit: email address removed)
c/CIudad Cultural nA2
Villalba Lugo
27800 ESTelf: +99.999999999
I have no idea what “Almacenet” or “ciudad Culutural nA2” is (Google turned up nothing relevant). Looking at that bogus phone number though, I can’t help but wonder if the rest of the entry contains legitimate information.
Vilalba Lugo (no double “L” in Vilalba) is a municipality in Spain and with much of the Coiros website targeting Spanish speakers, it appears that this is Coiros’ target market.
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…]
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