themlmsyndrome

[themlmsyndrome]

Not good

Pay and benefits are nice. New facility.

Pretty laughable as far as values. They will say one thing and contradict it when convenient. Make no mistake- they talk a good talk but management looks out for #1, which can be expected for family-owned business. Except G.Y. is cool- he’s for the people…LOL Read the reviews- they like to keep people in the dark about departmental issues and instead of brainstorming potential fixes, they will leave employees in the dark and gossip behind their backs. Tempers and emotions flare- just hope you’re not around when that happens (not like it’s kept quiet). The expectation is that everyone be a subject matter expert, but several departments needed to establish their own precedents for managing workflow as well as SOPs- then they will find a way to use it against you to keep productivity and effort maxed out. Oh and the thing about growth opportunities- don’t buy it there’s limited positions. The last thing is favoritism- they trust the wrong people for “intel”- the people who are looking to preserve their (and their friend’s) rapport at any cost. These people are valued specifically to listen in and question others about a given individual to gain subjective witness accounts of them so they can justify at-will termination without remorse. Good luck fighting any of this- CEO is versed in Law.

Stop getting defensive. If people aren’t happy, maybe it’s not just them. Give honest feedback with actual solutions-people want to grow…Emotions aren’t everything- leave your personal problems at the door. You have a chance to turn all this around but emotions are preventing it.

[themlmsyndrome]

Bad Experience

Downtown, team outings, commrader

If you’re not white or Asian 9 times out of 10 you WONT get hired. There’s no diversity within this company. I mean just look at their website. So many great companies to work besides Velo IT Group. They will act like you got the job but f you over in the end. 10/10 do NOT recommend.

HIRE DIVERSE CANDIDATES

[themlmsyndrome]

Company on decline, no long term plans for growth  *Essentia review *

Ability to Work from Home

Leadership is disconnected with employees. No HR Company thinks they have established a good culture but nobody really follows it. Weekly team meetings to discuss the work of other markets that you have no business in No long term growth outlook 20+ employees let go in past year Travel more than they say you will CEO is too busy with other non company related work to be involved. Managers require you to report detailed weekly report with everything you did for every hour of each day. Healthcare & benefits have changed every year. 3rd payroll system within 2 years. Tout that they have ability to complete work faster than competitors, but do not have enough employees to do the work resulting in overworking current employees on weekends, late nights ,etc...

Stop weekly reporting hour by hour No more weekly team meetings for work that you don't have any part in Hire field crews to do work and stop making project managers perform site walks

[themlmsyndrome]

Fine Learning Experience, But Not Worth It

The employees at Velo are amazing - they really take care of each other. The engineering team is solid and very capable (but any other department lacks leadership).

I really could not recommend anyone work here. The management (owner included) tends to take out their anger on employees. They place blame on others without accepting responsibility for their own actions. There are also a lot of mind games played at Velo. You might end up working 10+ hours a day while still being told you're not doing enough. It looks like a fun work environment on the outside (and it is, sometimes), but there's a lot of negativity and discontent under the surface. During the Covid pandemic, management was not understanding of employees' concerns. Masks were mocked, and safety measures were disregarded. It created an environment that was uncomfortable for many employees. There are some really wonderful people working at this company, but the management is severely lacking. There is very high turnover, and there's a reason for that.

Be kind to your employees. Don't make them your scapegoats.

[themlmsyndrome]

SCAM

They informed me that they were selling a corp with up to $100k in credit/funding power. The corp had nothing, zero, nada. I had to proceed to use my credit which was something I was trying to avoid. This site and company is a scam. Once everything went through you could no longer reach the salesman.

[themlmsyndrome]

Multiple Popular Chrome Extensions Have Been Compromised With Malicious Code

OTHER

Hey, all,

A few days ago, I started getting weird pop-ups from very bizarre sites called IGCritic and PPCorn. I won't link to the sites directly as they've already had record levels of traffic as a result of this, but both of the links are weird old articles about cute animals. Strange, right?

I got in touch with a bunch of people who were having the same issue (which was surprisingly hard to do as this time 2 days ago there was basically nothing online about the problem) and we've been working in a Discord for about 10 hours straight to isolate what's going on. Here's what we know:

- Someone from a seemingly legitimate company has been contacting the developers of popular extensions with an offer to pay them in exchange for adding a harmless looking, anonymised analytics script. This is apparently very credible-sounding, the site looks legit on first glance, and it's done over the phone (with an American accent).

- We've so far identified four Chrome extensions/apps which have been compromised. We've contacted the devs and heard back from all but one so far. They are pushing fixes imminently.

1. Github Gloc - UPDATE: FIXED

2. Chrome Currency Converter - UPDATE: FIXED

3. Promoted Pin Hider - UPDATE: FIXED

4. Notepad (the Chrome app) - UPDATE: FIXED

- There are definitely more, we just don't know what they are yet. For reference, Notepad has 100k+ users, so it's a wide-reaching issue.

- The code causes your browser to, at somewhat regular intervals, call up a series of bizarre sites which (using some kind of API thing which I don’t understand) redirect you to the sites in question. Sometimes to Google. The sites open in their own window (in the bottom-right of your monitor, I think) and are usually inaccessible. It opens behind everything else you have open.

- I can go into more detail if you’re interested, but the mechanism of how the person is profiting from this is a little obscure to us at this stage. It’s hard to know what the vector of the attack is, but it doesn’t take much imagination to realise that the ability for an extension to consistently open windows without your permission isn’t great.

We’ve been doing a lot of digging, but we still don't know the full extent of what the malicious code is doing.

Anyway, get rid of those extensions for now unless they've been updated, and Google: sort out your extension submission process. How is this not being checked for?

Finally, if you are/know an extension developer, please warn them to be vigilant. This person appears to be practised in this and has ostensibly socially-engineered their way into some impressive levels of access.

Update May 29th: Boxel Rebound was seemingly compromised in the same way, apparently by the same person. Now fixed, awaiting Google to accept the patch.

Update May 30th: Boxel Rebound's patch has been accepted, so now should not cause the pop-up issue.

[themlmsyndrome]

OneCoin cops 2.5 million euro pyramid scheme fine in Italy

The Italian Antitrust and Consumer Protection Authority has fined OneCoin 2.5 million euro for being a pyramid scheme.

Italy was one of the first countries to take a hard-line stance against the OneCoin Ponzi scheme.

In early December of last year, the AGCM announced an investigation into OneCoin and ordered local affiliates to stop promoting the company.

The regulator cited the reason behind the investigation was suspicion OneCoin was a “deceitful Ponzi scheme”.

On December 30th the AGCM issued an interim injunction against One Network Services, effectively banning the promotion of OneCoin in Italy.

AGCM’s investigation into OneCoin continued and finally wrapped up in late February.

Despite OneCoin dismissing the regulator’s preliminary findings, the AGCM officially banned OneCoin in Italy on February 27th.

Despite the ban, undercover raids on OneCoin recruitment events revealed promotion of the Ponzi scheme in Italy was still taking place.

OneCoin was given ten days to cease any and all promotion of the company in Italy.

They were also required to provide the AGCM with a detailed plan of measures taken to ensure OneCoin was not promoted in Italy.

As of March 7th, ten days after the February 27th ban, OneCoin had as of yet failed to reply to the AGCM.

This prompted the regulator to warn that continued non-compliance saw OneCoin risk fines of €10,000 to €5 million euro.

Whether OneCoin ultimately responded to the AGCM’s ban is unclear. On August 10th however the AGCM announced it was fining the company 2.5 million euros for running a pyramid scheme.

The AGCM identify OneCoin as a “pyramid sales system” that sold “onecoins” to the general public.

The regulator referred to claims OneCoin sold “training packages” as “incorrect”.

(OneCoin’s) promotional activity was centered on the promise that the consumer, after acquiring a training package, could obtain OneCoins (through a process of transforming the rough currency called mining) and that later those virtual coins would have increased their value.

OneLife’s business proposal was therefore based on a false, high-profit return: for example, the purchase of the €27,530 package would have allowed a value of €3,000,000 after just two years of joining the program.

Pyramid schemes in Italy are illegal as per the Consumer Code, which is used to regulate commercial practices.

Citing “numerous evidence” gathered in conjunction with the Antitrust Special Department of the Guardia di Finanza, the AGCM fined

OneLife Network €2 million euros

One Network Services €500,000 euros

Easy Life SRL €80,000 euros and

the owner(s) of two Italian OneCoin affiliate websites €5,000 euros each

OneCoin has yet to respond to the AGCM’s fine, which as far as I’m aware of is the first monetary penalty issued against the company.

With affiliates unable to convert their Onecoin Ponzi points balances into cash and several top leaders bailing, OneCoin affiliate recruitment has slumped (Alexa).

The company is currently focused on trying to revive investment activity through promotion events in Africa and Vietnam.

Update 8th March 2018 – Following an appeal, an Italian Administrative court has reversed AGCM’s suspension of OneCoin.

The new directive has been issued while AGCM continues to investigate.

[themlmsyndrome]

"IDPR is a scam."

IDPR makes their employees write positive reviews - they are part of a broader company that owns a reputation management company. Don't trust the positive reviews you see on here. Clients literally pay this company to create fake reviews on Better Business Bureau, Google Reviews, etc.

IDPR is a scam and makes EMPTY promises to clients. There is NO strategy - you will pitch for days on end to reporters who don't care about your tiny clients. I am writing this review in the hopes of helping someone who was in my position, looking for a job in PR. My worst day at my current job is a million times better than my best day at IDPR. All of IDPR's employees hate it here, and there is no opportunity for growth. My advice is to run. Far away. You'll find other companies that value you as a person and you as an employee. Don't suffer like I did.

Practice integrity, with both clients and employees.

[themlmsyndrome]

BowlaCoin Review: Bowling on the blockchain?

BowlaCoin operates in the cryptocurrency MLM niche and appears to be based out Sweden.

On its website, BowlaCoin names Michael Petersen as Founder and CEO of the company.

As per Petersen’s corporate bio, he’s

a committed person with strong passion for Bowling and have been in the industry from the age of six, I played myself up to the Danish national team, and won many competitions in Denmark, Sweden and Germany, later in life I decided to start my own bowling alley from the bottom, so built by myself the lanes, score system and everything.

Now I see a new generation in the industry and I want to be the first to bring blockchain technology into the market.

And so we have BowlaCoin. Petersen’s attempt to merge bowling with the blockchain.

Prior to BowlaCoin, Petersen (right) was promoting the FutureNet and DasCoin Ponzi schemes.

Petersen appears to be based out of the Philippines, hence the Philippine corporate address provided on BowlaCoin’s website.

Of note the same address is used by TeamConnect. A link to TeamConnect’s website also features in BowlaCoin’s official compensation documentation.

The exact nature of the relationship between BowlaCoin and TeamConnect is unclear.

TeamConnect uses BAC, a token attached to BowlaCoin. Global Daily Pro matrix tiers also appear in BowlaCoin’s affiliate rank qualification criteria.

This suggests that its potentially also owned by Petersen.

It’s worth also noting that TeamConnect’s website cites Global Daily Pro an official partner.

Global Daily Pro is an adcredit pyramid scheme reviewed here on BehindMLM a few days ago.

Read on for a full review of BowlaCoin’s MLM opportunity.

BowlaCoin’s Products

BowlaCoin has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market BowlaCoin affiliate membership itself.

BowlaCoin’s Compensation Plan

BowlaCoin’s MLM opportunity revolved around acquisition of BAC points.

BAC is an internal token used within BowlaCoin. At the time of publication, BAC is not publicly tradeable.

BowlaCoin’s compensation documentation states that 1 BAC = $1.

Affiliates can invest directly in “game tokens”, which are then used to obtain BAC points.

Member – $5 a month for 1000 game tokens

Basic – $35 annually for 5000 game tokens

Advance – $85 annually for 10,000 game tokens

Partner – $250 annually for 25,000 game tokens

Business – $1000 annually for 50,000 game tokens

Royal – $3500 annually for 100,000 game tokens

BAC can also be obtained by using TeamConnect and bowling at partnered bowling alleys (these don’t exist yet).

BowlaCoin Affiliate Ranks

There are ten affiliate ranks within BowlaCoin’s compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

Agent – invest in a Basic or higher license, generate $1000 in investment volume from personally recruited affiliates and $500 on both sides of the binary team

Senior Agent – invest in an Advance or higher license, qualify for the $10 Global Daily Pro matrix, have one Agent on both sides of the binary team, personally generate $2000 in investment volume and $5000 in total downline investment volume

Managing Agent – maintain an Advance or higher license, have one Senior Agent on both sides of the binary team, personally generate $5000 in investment volume, $20,000 in total downline investment volume and $3000 in weaker binary team investment volume

Bronze Agent – invest in a Partner or higher license, have one Managing Agent on both sides of the binary team, personally generate $7000 in investment volume, $50,000 in total downline investment volume and $15,000 in weaker binary team investment volume

Silver Agent – maintain a Partner or higher license, qualify for the $400 Global Daily Pro matrix, have one Bronze Agent on both sides of the binary team, personally generate $10,000 in investment volume, $100,000 in total downline investment volume and $25,000 in weaker binary team investment volume

Gold Agent – invest in a Business or higher license, qualify for the $1000 Global Daily Pro matrix, have two Silver Agents on both sides of the binary team, personally generate $15,000 in investment volume, $100,000 in total downline investment volume and $50,000 in weaker binary team investment volume

Sapphire Agent – maintain a Business or higher license, have two Gold Agents on both sides of the binary team, personally generate $25,000 in investment volume, $250,000 in total downline investment volume and $100,000 in weaker binary team investment volume

Ruby Agent – invest in a Royal or higher license, qualify for the $2500 Global Daily Pro matrix, have three Sapphire Agents on both sides of the binary team, personally generate $50,000 in investment volume, $800,000 in total downline investment volume and $200,000 in weaker binary team investment volume

Emerald Agent – maintain a Royal or higher license, have three Ruby Agents on both sides of the binary team, personally generate $125,000 in investment volume, $2,000,000 in total downline investment volume and $500,000 in weaker binary team investment volume

Diamond Agent – maintain a Royal or higher license, have three Emerald Agents on both sides of the binary team, personally generate $250,000 in investment volume, $10,000,000 in total downline investment volume and $2,000,000 in weaker binary team investment volume

ROI Booster

BowlaCoin affiliates can pay an annual fee to increase monthly BAC returns.

Basic tier affiliates pay $100 to receive up to 10% a month

Advance tier affiliates pay $100 to receive up to 10% a month or $200 to receive up to 15%

Partner tier affiliates pay $300 to receive up to a 20% a month or $1500 to receive up to 25%

Business tier affiliates pay $300 to receive up to 20% a month, $1500 to receive up to 25% or $5000 to receive up to 30%

Royal tier affiliates pay $300 to receive up to 20% a month, $1500 to receive up to 25%, $5000 to receive up to 30% or $10,000 to receive up to 35%

Referral Commissions

BowlaCoin pays referral commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

BowlaCoin caps referral commissions down ten unilevel team levels.

Referral commissions are paid out as a percentage of funds invested across these ten levels as follows:

level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) – 20%

levels 2 to 10 – 2%

Residual Commissions

BowlaCoin pays residual commissions via a binary compensation structure.

A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):

The first level of the binary team houses two positions. The second level of the binary team is generated by splitting these first two positions into another two positions each (4 positions).

Subsequent levels of the binary team are generated as required, with each new level housing twice as many positions as the previous level.

Positions in the binary team are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of affiliates. Note there is no limit to how deep a binary team can grow.

BowlaCoin don’t specify how often residual binary commissions are paid. Typically they are daily or weekly.

Be it daily or weekly, at the end of the calculation period BowlaCoin tallies up new investment volume on both sides of the binary team.

Affiliates are paid 10% of volume generated on their weaker binary team side.

Leftover volume on the stronger binary team side is carried over into the following calculation period.

Binary and Unilevel Bonuses

The Binary Bonus takes the first ten levels generated within a binary team and treats them like a unilevel.

That is to say the first level of a binary team would be level 1, the second level of the team level 2 and so on and so forth.

The Binary Bonus pays 1% on investment volume generated on each binary team level.

The Unilevel Bonus is a similar bonus paid on up to ten unilevel team levels (the actual unilevel team, not the binary).

Through the Unilevel Bonus, a BowlaCoin affiliate can earn a 30% bonus on level 1 and 1% bonus on levels 2 to 10.

Note that how many levels the Binary and Unilevel Bonuses are paid out is determined by how much a BowlaCoin affiliate has invested:

Member license affiliates receive the Binary and Unilevel Bonuses on two levels

Basic license affiliates receive the Binary and Unilevel Bonuses on three levels

Advance license affiliates receive the Binary and Unilevel Bonuses on four levels

Partner license affiliates receive the Binary and Unilevel Bonuses on five levels

Business license affiliates receive the Binary and Unilevel Bonuses on seven levels

Royal license affiliates receive the Binary and Unilevel Bonuses on all ten available levels

Matching Bonus

The Matching Bonus is paid out on referral (unilevel) and residual (binary) commissions earned by personally recruited affiliates.

Matching Bonus rates are determined by how much a BowlaCoin affiliate has invested:

Partner license affiliates receive a 5% Matching Bonus rate

Business license affiliates receive a 10% Matching Bonus rate

Royal license affiliates receive a 15% Matching Bonus rate

Rank Achievement Bonus

BowlaCoin rewards affiliates with the following Rank Achievement Bonuses:

qualify as an Agent and receive 100 BAC

qualify as a Senior Agent and receive 500 BAC

qualify as a Managing Agent and receive $200

qualify as a Bronze Agent and receive $500

qualify as a Silver Agent and receive $1000

qualify as a Gold Agent and receive $5000

qualify as a Sapphire Agent and receive $10,000

qualify as a Ruby Agent and receive $50,000

qualify as an Emerald Agent and receive $100,000

qualify as a Diamond Agent and receive $250,000

Joining BowlaCoin

BowlaCoin affiliate membership is tied to the purchase of a license:

Member – $5 a month

Basic – $35 annually

Advance – $85 annually

Partner – $250 annually

Business – $1000 annually

Royal – $3500 annually

The more a new BowlaCoin affiliate spends on their license, the higher their income potential.

Conclusion

The combination of bowling and blockchain might sound novel, but I can’t think of any beneficial reason to implement it.

Case in point BowlaCoin has launched without any operational partnered alleys.

After we open the first 3 bowling alleys ourselves, then we start franchising the concept and selling software license to other bowling alleys.

There will be two ways to purchase our software license:

1. Franchising a Bowl A Coin bowling alley

2. An existing bowling alley may upgrade their software license to ours.

Owning your own Bowl´A´Coin alley: Each member of Bowl´a´Coin can apply for financial assistance for their own bowling alley.

Bowl’a’Coin will determine their level of assistance based on specific criteria.

BowlaCoin seems to be a classic convoluted cryptocurrency solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Well, at least as far as the physical bowling alleys go.

Outside of that you have the online bowling game, of which there are plenty of alternatives to choose from.

To make sense of any of this, we have to accept that bowling is just a ruse. Central to BowlaCoin is the acquisition of BAC points.

Affiliates invest, get tokens, spend tokens through the online game and get BAC in return.

The idea is you get enough BAC to eventually withdraw more than you initially invested.

The ROI booster detailed in the compensation analysis above is basically pay a fee and we’ll give you more BAC each month.

That side of BowlaCoin is your classic investment scheme. With BAC pegged at $1 a token, it’ll pay out internally until withdrawals exceed new investment.

This triggers securities regulation, which requires BowlaCoin to register with financial regulators in any jurisdiction they solicit investment in.

At the time of publication BowlaCoin provides no indication it has registered with any financial regulator.

On top of that there’s the issue of BowlaCoin potentially operating as a Ponzi scheme. As it stands the BowlaCoin’s primary source of revenue is new investment.

There is an attached advertising platform, but I can’t see that generating significant revenue – it’s too niche.

With new investment being used to fund BAC withdrawals, BowlaCoin is operating as a Ponzi scheme.

The majority of commissions tied to recruited affiliate investment means BowlaCoin functions as a pyramid scheme too.

The cynic in me pegs Michael Petersen as wanting his own FuturoCoin, and bowling is the ruse he’s implemented to launch it.

If you want to launch an online bowling game or real world bowling alleys, go for it.

Attaching a token to them however is pointless. It’s the same old “invest in our token and moon” nonsense.

Nobody outside of the investment opportunity will care and you know how this ends.

[themlmsyndrome]

Royal Holiday- Complete Scam

My husband and I were approached by this company while on vacation in Punta Cana at the Tropical Princess resort on November 20th, 2017. They offered us a drink which we weren't going to refuse since we were on vacation. Royal Holiday then proceeded to tell us how they can save us so much money on our future vacations and offered us a price. The price was fair for what they claimed to be offering, I still wanted to do some research on my own and said that we would come back tomorrow if we liked what we researched. RH then continued to bring out more drinks and made promises that we would be able to cancel our contract at any time if we didn't like any research we found or if they didn't hold up to any promises. This was a selling point as I felt reassured that we could cancel at any time for a full refund if we were unhappy with our decision. During the Holidays is when I usually book our upcoming vacations for the year, at this time I noticed that we would actually be spending more money yearly (plus the yearly service fee and all monies paid to Royal Holiday) for our vacations. I called Royal Holiday on 1/2/2018 and was hung up on twice when asking who I need to speak with regarding terminating my contract. I then sent an email to Juan Fonseca expressing my desire to terminate my contract and requested all monies paid refunded. See Below:

Melissa G

Jan 4 (6 days ago)

to Juan

Hello Juan, I would like to cancel my membership and request a full refund ($3,946.00 USD). I have found that there is grounds to cancel the contract as promises made cannot be fulfilled. We were promised that this membership will save us money on our vacations. I ran an analysis of the next three vacations that we are planning. Not one of them is saving us money by using Royal Holiday Vacation Club, we would actually be spending hundreds of dollars more.

Also of these vacation spots, there are no Hotels that I would choose as only a couple of them are actually on the beach or have satisfactory reviews.

I have contacted my attorney to find the best way to resolve this matter and he has urged me to reach out to your company before filing a formal request.

I do hope that we can resolve this matter in a timely manner without additional legal fees as we have not used this contract yet and do not plan to do so.

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear back from you soon.

On 1/7/2018 I called Royal Holiday again to be told that someone would call me back shortly, no one called. On 1/8/2018 I called again to be told that everyone was busy, however someone would call me back, again no one called me back. The same day I sent another email to Juan Fonseca:

Melissa G

Jan 8 (2 days ago)

to Juan

Hello Juan, I have been waiting on a response from you since sending my previous email. I have even called a couple of times and have not heard back from a single member of our organization. In regards to the complete lack of attention, refusing to take my calls or call me back and the obvious avoidance from your company (Royal Holiday is available to your 24/7?) I am now set more than ever to terminate my contract with Royal Holiday.

While being sold this contract membership I was assured by the Manager onsite at your Tropical Princess Punta Cana location that I would receive all monies paid back if I am ever not happy or agreements were not met. This is the main reason I decided to go with your company (if I didn't like it, I wouldn't be out anything). I was promised that we would have excellent customer service and that this club would save us so much money on future vacations. As stated in my previous email, using your company would actually cost me more on my vacations, also your locations are not as desirable as your sales team made them out to be, at best most only obtained a 3.5 out of 5 rating from individuals world-wide. Royal Holiday's customer service and response time also has me questioning this agreement and feeling as though my Husband (Adrian Gernert) and I were taken advantage of after being given several drinks and then scammed.

As stated in my previous email I am requesting immediate termination of my contract with all monies paid promptly refunded to me ($3,946.00).

If I do not have a response and remedy to this situation by 12:00pm EST on or before January 15th, 2017 I will be forced to involve my attorney and also seek damages for time wasted, and all legal fees incurred.

Please feel free to contact me at your earliest convenience ..............

On 1/9/2018 after receiving no response either email or via phone I called Royal Holiday once again and was assured that Juan would call on 1/10/2018.

On 1/10/2018 Juan called me at 12:32 EST, our conversation lasted 25 minutes and 44 seconds. I explained to Juan why I want to terminate my contract and that the only reason I did agree to the contract was that I was promised that I could cancel if Royal Holiday didn't fulfill their promises and if I was unhappy in any way (Yolanda at the Tropical Princess location is who made these promises). He told me that this isn't true and that I cannot cancel my contract. The promises made were not included in the contract either, so obviously I am lying about this. Juan was very eager to book my vacations instead of helping me to resolve these issues, he reasoned that I haven't even given them a chance. I explained that I don't need use the clubs services as the only benefit of going with this company would be to save me money which ultimately isn't happening after doing my own research. I ended the conversation by asking him to do the right thing to cancel the contract and refund me all monies paid, I haven't used their services, promises made are not factual and the promise of being able to cancel was conveniently left out of the contract.

This company uses excessive alcohol and false promises to get your money and quite frankly I don't know how they are still in business as unethical and crooked as they are.

[themlmsyndrome]

Royal Holiday- Complete Scam

My husband and I were approached by this company while on vacation in Punta Cana at the Tropical Princess resort on November 20th, 2017. They offered us a drink which we weren't going to refuse since we were on vacation. Royal Holiday then proceeded to tell us how they can save us so much money on our future vacations and offered us a price. The price was fair for what they claimed to be offering, I still wanted to do some research on my own and said that we would come back tomorrow if we liked what we researched. RH then continued to bring out more drinks and made promises that we would be able to cancel our contract at any time if we didn't like any research we found or if they didn't hold up to any promises. This was a selling point as I felt reassured that we could cancel at any time for a full refund if we were unhappy with our decision. During the Holidays is when I usually book our upcoming vacations for the year, at this time I noticed that we would actually be spending more money yearly (plus the yearly service fee and all monies paid to Royal Holiday) for our vacations. I called Royal Holiday on 1/2/2018 and was hung up on twice when asking who I need to speak with regarding terminating my contract. I then sent an email to Juan Fonseca expressing my desire to terminate my contract and requested all monies paid refunded. See Below:

Melissa G

Jan 4 (6 days ago)

to Juan

Hello Juan, I would like to cancel my membership and request a full refund ($3,946.00 USD). I have found that there is grounds to cancel the contract as promises made cannot be fulfilled. We were promised that this membership will save us money on our vacations. I ran an analysis of the next three vacations that we are planning. Not one of them is saving us money by using Royal Holiday Vacation Club, we would actually be spending hundreds of dollars more.

Also of these vacation spots, there are no Hotels that I would choose as only a couple of them are actually on the beach or have satisfactory reviews.

I have contacted my attorney to find the best way to resolve this matter and he has urged me to reach out to your company before filing a formal request.

I do hope that we can resolve this matter in a timely manner without additional legal fees as we have not used this contract yet and do not plan to do so.

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear back from you soon.

On 1/7/2018 I called Royal Holiday again to be told that someone would call me back shortly, no one called. On 1/8/2018 I called again to be told that everyone was busy, however someone would call me back, again no one called me back. The same day I sent another email to Juan Fonseca:

Melissa G

Jan 8 (2 days ago)

to Juan

Hello Juan, I have been waiting on a response from you since sending my previous email. I have even called a couple of times and have not heard back from a single member of our organization. In regards to the complete lack of attention, refusing to take my calls or call me back and the obvious avoidance from your company (Royal Holiday is available to your 24/7?) I am now set more than ever to terminate my contract with Royal Holiday.

While being sold this contract membership I was assured by the Manager onsite at your Tropical Princess Punta Cana location that I would receive all monies paid back if I am ever not happy or agreements were not met. This is the main reason I decided to go with your company (if I didn't like it, I wouldn't be out anything). I was promised that we would have excellent customer service and that this club would save us so much money on future vacations. As stated in my previous email, using your company would actually cost me more on my vacations, also your locations are not as desirable as your sales team made them out to be, at best most only obtained a 3.5 out of 5 rating from individuals world-wide. Royal Holiday's customer service and response time also has me questioning this agreement and feeling as though my Husband (Adrian Gernert) and I were taken advantage of after being given several drinks and then scammed.

As stated in my previous email I am requesting immediate termination of my contract with all monies paid promptly refunded to me ($3,946.00).

If I do not have a response and remedy to this situation by 12:00pm EST on or before January 15th, 2017 I will be forced to involve my attorney and also seek damages for time wasted, and all legal fees incurred.

Please feel free to contact me at your earliest convenience ..............

On 1/9/2018 after receiving no response either email or via phone I called Royal Holiday once again and was assured that Juan would call on 1/10/2018.

On 1/10/2018 Juan called me at 12:32 EST, our conversation lasted 25 minutes and 44 seconds. I explained to Juan why I want to terminate my contract and that the only reason I did agree to the contract was that I was promised that I could cancel if Royal Holiday didn't fulfill their promises and if I was unhappy in any way (Yolanda at the Tropical Princess location is who made these promises). He told me that this isn't true and that I cannot cancel my contract. The promises made were not included in the contract either, so obviously I am lying about this. Juan was very eager to book my vacations instead of helping me to resolve these issues, he reasoned that I haven't even given them a chance. I explained that I don't need use the clubs services as the only benefit of going with this company would be to save me money which ultimately isn't happening after doing my own research. I ended the conversation by asking him to do the right thing to cancel the contract and refund me all monies paid, I haven't used their services, promises made are not factual and the promise of being able to cancel was conveniently left out of the contract.

This company uses excessive alcohol and false promises to get your money and quite frankly I don't know how they are still in business as unethical and crooked as they are.

[themlmsyndrome]

A bad company

Nothing except flexible working hours

(1) Low pay (2) The CEO is not trustworthy and loves making empty promises. Also, he just wants to get anything done without paying any effort and money.

[themlmsyndrome]

BitClub Network investor alert issued in North Carolina

A BitClub Network investor warning has been issued by the North Carolina Securities Division.

The May 1st alert, which I only came across earlier today, warns the company’s mining pool investment opportunity is a security.

The Securities Division determined that the BitClub Network mining contracts are securities.

These securities are not registered, nor are they covered under federal law or exempt from registration.

Further, BitClub Network is not registered to sell them in North Carolina.

Acknowledging that BitClub Network isn’t officially marketed to US residents, nonetheless

the Securities Division has found that there are promoters of this scheme in North Carolina and they are providing instructions to enable investors to circumvent the geo-blocking technology.

The Securities Division issued one such BitClub Network affiliate in North Carolina with a letter of caution on May 21st.

Since receiving our Letter of Caution, the promoter has deactivated the website.

To the best of my knowledge BitClub Network operate in violation of local securities law in every jurisdiction they operate in.

North Carolina’s warning comes amid a steady decline in traffic to the BitClub Network website from February, 2018.

At the time of publication Alexa cite Japan (15%) and South Africa (13%) as primary sources of traffic.

With roots in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme and having already wiped burdensome initial investment contracts, a continued downward trend will likely lead to BitClub Network collapsing again.

The owners of BitClub Network and top investors are believed to mostly consist of US citizens hiding abroad.

[themlmsyndrome]

BitConnect Review: BitConnect Coin pump & dump with Ponzi ROIs

BitConnect provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The BitConnect website domain (“bitconnect.co”) was privately registered on February 9th, 2016.

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.

BitConnect Products

BitConnect has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market BitConnect affiliate membership itself.

The BitConnect Compensation Plan

BitConnect affiliates invest bitcoin on the promise of a “daily profit” ROI.

BitConnect convert invested bitcoin into pre-mined BitConnect Coins through an internal exchange.

An affiliate can then opt to transfer their BitConnect Coins to BitConnect, on the promise of advertised daily ROIs:

invest $100 to $1000 and receive up to 40% a month for 299 days

invest $1010 to $5000 and receive up to 40% a month for 239 days plus bonus 23.9% ROI

invest $5010 to $10,000 and receive up to 40% a month for 179 days plus bonus 35.9% ROI

invest $10,010 to $100,000 and receive up to 40% a month for 120 days plus bonus 30% ROI

Referral commissions are paid on invested funds through unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

Residual commissions paid out as a percentage of invested funds across the unilevel team as follows:

level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) – 7%

level 2 – 3%

levels 3 and 4 – 1%

level 5 – 0.5%

level 6 – 0.3%

level 7 – 0.2%

level 8 – 0.1%

level 9 – 0.05%

level 10 – 0.03%

level 11 onward – 0.01%

Joining BitConnect

BitConnect affiliate membership is free, however affiliates must invest between $100 to $100,000 to participate in the attached MLM opportunity.

Conclusion

BitConnect Coin is a publicly tradeable altcoin. Users can download their own wallet and mine the coin if they wish.

BitConnect’s MLM opportunity however has nothing to do with this, short of using BitConnect Coin as a vehicle to conduct Ponzi fraud through.

BitConnect affiliates invest real money (USD/bitcoin) into BitConnect, who exchange it for BitConnect Coins they’ve generated for little to no cost.

These coins are then parked with the company for a period of 120 to 299 days, on the promise of a daily ROI payout.

The ruse behind BitConnect’s advertised “up to 40%” a month ROI payouts is “bitconnect trading bot and volatility software.”

For obvious reasons, this doesn’t pass the Ponzi logic test.

BitConnect Coin has no real world application. Nobody is buying or trading it other than BitConnect and its affiliates. The current public value of $8.75 (CoinMarketCap) is the result of the pump stage of the coin.

So how does a company generate a monthly ROI of up to 40% trading an altcoin only its affiliates are interested in?

The answer is they can’t.

BitConnect can throw generated BitConnect Coins around at will, but the company can’t produce a monthly ROI in USD to pay affiliates with. That money is solely derived from subsequent affiliate investment, making BitConnect a Ponzi scheme.

If trading BitConnect was indeed providing a massive monthly ROI, affiliates would be able to purchase BitConnect Coin on a public exchange and invest it through BitConnect.

This is not the case, with only BitConnect Coin directly invested in through BitConnect (via bitcoin) able to be reinvested for a ROI.

The referral commissions serve as a recruitment layer, adding an additional pyramid layer to the scheme.

BitConnect affiliate recruitment of course ties into the value of BitConnect Coin, as new affiliates invest in BitConnect Coin (through BitConnect) and inadvertently drive up the price.

On paper this looks like public demand for BitConnect Coin, but it’s really just affiliates investing in BitConnect’s Ponzi scheme. The only reason BitConnect Coin is used is because BitConnect can generate them at little to no cost.

As with all Ponzi schemes, once affiliate recruitment dies down so too will new investment. This will see BitConnect starved of revenue and unable to meet its ROI obligations.

Being a variable ROI scheme, BitConnect’s collapse will be painfully slow. This gives the anonymous admins plenty of time to cut and run, whilst desperate affiliates are left in the lurch.

BitConnect Coin will have likely been removed from public exchanges by that time. With BitConnect affiliates ultimately left holding yet another worthless pump and dumped altcoin.

[themlmsyndrome]

18 arrested in India for holding OneCoin “Ponzi scheme seminar”

OneCoin affiliates looking to promote the Ponzi scheme in India held a recruitment seminar in Navi, Mumbai last Sunday.

Unbeknownst to them, plain-clothes Mumbai police officers were in attendance.

According to the officers in attendance, the scammers running the presentation boasted of local OneCoin affiliates earning between ₹500,000 and ₹1,000,000 INR ($7760 and $15,520 USD).

The average current net income in Mumbai is about ₹50,639 INR a month ($785 USD).

Video footage of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also used to promote OneCoin, although the footage itself only pertained to “digital transactions” in general.

After listening OneCoin scammers solicit ₹11,900 INR investments on the promise of a ROI in 2018 (OneCoin is accepting new investment but withdrawals are frozen), police had heard enough.

All eighteen organizers of the “Ponzi scheme seminar” were arrested on the spot.

We attended the seminar in civil clothes and heard the whole presentation.

This particular company has no registration with the RBI nor does it have any licence for running such financial schemes promising high returns.

Hence we arrested the 18 people who had organised the seminar and are investigating the case to trace the master mind,” said Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale, adding, this scam is being run by the accused in Navi Mumbai, Thane and other parts of Maharashtra.

Mumbai police can naturally only go as far as top Indian OneCoin investors. If more arrests follow though, that could significantly put a dent in new investment.

As per the scheme, the investor has to purchase one coin for ₹11,900 and when the rate of the Crypto currency rises, the rate of the coin also goes high.

“The coins were virtual coins and when the rates of the coins go up, one can sell those coins to another person and earn cash, and the chain goes on,” said Mr. Nagrale.

The Navi Mumbai police made the participants understand how the scheme was fraudulent.

At the time of publication Alexa cite India as the largest source of traffic to the OneCoin website. India is also the third largest source to the OneLife website.

[themlmsyndrome]

MLM and The Ace Initiative Pt. 2 / Brandon Odom pt. 5

Today's blog post was inspired by a recent e-mail sent to me from a blog reader. "The Ace Initiative" has taken the next giant leap in their charade and decided to host a big meeting in Kelowna, BC. They are calling it, "The First Annual Ace Summit", and it is going to start on August 9th, and it will end August 12th. The "Summit" will be hosted by the three leaders, and according to "Dr." Travis Fox, "It is all about improving your business and your ad specifics. We are bringing top speakers to really show you the next level". Brandon Odom has some prerequisites before attending, "Definitely need to get your ticket as soon as possible. Jump in that group, start going through the content, get that homework done. That way you are ready when you show up to the event to really just implement". Here is the video: https://www.facebook.com/MemieB.sala/videos/1847918408635165/?t=3

The event costs $297 - $497, depending on when you paid, and the schedule of events is listed here: Thursday August 9th "Summer Hill Vineyard ACE Summit Mixer" -Summer Hill Vineyard 6:00pm- 10:00pm "Friday August 10th "Coast Capri"-Registration 8:00am-9:00amSummit Introduction 9:15-am-9:30am Brandon, Travis & Bryan-9:30am- 11:00am - " Architecting " "TravisFox"-15 Min Break-11:15am- 12:30 "Content Creation" "Bryan @Bryan Hodgson-12:30pm-1:30pm Lunch-1:30pm-2:45pm "Facebook Training" "Dennis Yu"-15 Min Break-3:00pm- 4:30pm "Facebook Training" "Dennis Yu"-4:30pm-5:00pm "ManyChats Training" "David Wilkinson"-15 Min Break-5:15pm- 6:15pm Instagram & Photo Editing "Shauna Clark"-Closing Day One- "Brandon Odom, Travis Fox & Bryan Hodgson" Saturday August 11th "Wild Play Park"-Wild Play Park Kelowna "Bring white shirt and running shoes -9am-10am Registration-10:00am Team building event starts-Noon-1:00pm Lunch-1:00pm-4:00pm Team building-4:30pm-Close- Colour Festival . "white Shirt" Sunday August 12th "Coast Capri- Kelowna"-10:00am-Noon "Facebook Training" Dennis Yu-Noon-1:30pm Lunch-1:30pm-2:30pm Brandon Odom-2:30pm-3:00pm "Stepping into your truth" Ashley Makenzie-15 Min Break-3:15pm-4:15pm Balazs Kardos-4:15pm-5:00pm Awards Q&A-15 Break-5:30pm Closing Ceremonies "Special Guest" The event pricing, as far as I can tell, does not include food outside of the schedule, lodging, or airfare. The event also does not offer discounts for days you do not wish to attend. The location for this event is strange. "The Ace Initiative" is incorporated in Nevada and all three of the leaders are from the States. It appears they are travelling to Canada because their scam has been more successful across the border. I noticed when Brandon was running "Team Phoenix Marketing" that many of those members were also from Canada, and he probably kept many of them when changing the identity to "The Ace Initiative". Canada appears to have been an untapped market, and these three have been able to take advantage. The event itself is completely comprised of useless days and activities. There is not one redeeming thing these three leaders are going to offer to their recruits at this "summit", which makes sense since they have nothing to offer anyways. Let's go through each day and expand upon why it is a terrible use of time and money. The Thursday "Summer Hill Vineyard Ace Summit Mixer" is awful because you will not be able to network with these people, since they are already involved with the group, but you will be paying to not be "marketing" to your potential recruits. You could save a day of food and lodging and skip this stupid event. Friday's introduction is unnecessary since everyone already knows who they are. That's fifteen extra minutes people can spend in bed. "Dr." Travis Fox's "architecting" is possibly the most honest portion of the entire event. He is going to spend an hour and a half molding recruit's minds by using psychological techniques designed to disarm skepticism. He will use "love-bombing", "story telling", "social influence", "the liking principle", "sensory words", and of course, "authority bias". After all of the manipulation the recruits get to recover with a fifteen minute break. Bryan's "Content Creation" is just a disguised title for him going on stage and using his version of the psychological persuasion techniques. According to the three leaders, "90%" of the content has already been created by them, so why would you need this lesson? After Bryan's boring speech, a lunch break will definitely be needed. The rest of the day is filled with useless "Facebook Training", which the recruits have already completed, and some other nonsense about setting up a robot to chat with people and photo editing. Not only is all of this information regularly available online, but it is free of charge! These recruits will have paid hundreds of dollars to be bored to death. Saturday is completely useless. Much like Thursday, there will be absolutely nothing related to the business. In fact, Saturday is so useless it's a waste of words to talk about. Sunday starts late because of the hangovers everyone will have from the night before. The recruits will get to start their day with the ultimate hangover cure, "Facebook Training". It appears their event team ran out of ideas on how to waste time. After the "Facebook Training" nap, the recruits will get to enjoy a well-deserved lunch break. After lunch the recruits will get to hang out with Brandon for an hour doing -- apparently nothing since they didn't bother to label his section. Brandon is going to be the wild card, nobody will know what to expect. After Brandon's turn, there is story time with Ashley. Time to take another nap. This is followed by a 15 minute nap, and then another story time nap with Balazs. Once you are done napping through the stories you will rewarded with an "award ceremony". I'm not sure what could be awarded, but it can't be any worse than the 30+ award shows the States hold every year on major cable networks. You get another break after that excitement followed by a "special guest". I'm going to guess this is Tony Robbins, because who else would fly out and waste their time doing something like this? After the recruits are done with that, they will get to check out of their hotel and take a red eye back to their home so they can make it to work in the morning. Luckily, I've already experienced one of these events, so I'll be skipping this one. However, if anyone wants to attend and send me some feedback about it, I'll be more than happy to read and publish it for the wonderful viewers of this blog. Please note, I recommend doing anything else with your money before this, including playing the lottery, but it's your money and you can do what you want.

[themlmsyndrome]

MLM and MOBE / Brandon Odom Pt. 4

Today's blog post was inspired by a recent article written by Ethan Vanderbuilt called, "MOBE Scam Shutdown For Bilking $125 Million From Victims". In Ethan's article, he details the way in which the FTC has determined My Online Business Empire (MOBE), to be a scam and has had its assets frozen in a unanimous five to zero vote. This scam is referred to as a "business coaching scheme" The scam involves an endless recruitment scheme in which members get introduced to the program through online advertisements on social media. The advertisements are designed to lure new prospects into an "education system" that offers the opportunity to teach new members how to make thousands of dollars. The way in which they make thousands of dollars is by finding new people to enter the "education system" by purchasing advertisements for "MOBE". The "MOBE" costs can be exorbitant, ranging from nearly two thousand dollars to twenty-five thousand dollars, and this does not include the monthly fees. The more money you pay for the training, the larger commissions you will receive when new members pay for their "education system". If you have been following this blog for a while, then you will see this "education system" looks similar to the other "education systems" Brandon Odom has designed for selling "Enagic". That's mainly due to the fact that Brandon Odom was a member of "MOBE" and there are videos of him promoting the platform. Here is the video: The funniest part is the comment section in which Brandon has tried to get this video removed. He doesn't want people to make money from his content, unless he is also making money from it. This is not the first FTC victory against "business coaching schemes", and it looks like they are going to take a more aggressive approach against these people. This type of fraud has been around for centuries, and even though this version involves "webinars" and social media, the hallmark characteristics remain the same as any other consumer fraud. There is a confidence person providing a worthless product or service that is designed to deceptively take money from unwitting participants. In this particular instance, "MOBE" as well as Brandon Odom have provided an "education system" that does not provide any real education or teaching that will help a person earn "thousands of dollars". Instead, the "education system" is a pay-to-play fee used as an entry to an endless recruiting scheme. The "education system" is an unnecessary addition to the fraud and it is designed to obfuscate the real "business opportunity". This new FTC victory against "MOBE" may be the first step toward Brandon Odom and his "The Ace Initiative" buddies being caught for scamming others. I had previously given Brandon credit for creating "Team Phoenix Marketing", but he had only copied "MOBE" and "GAZ" (Global Affiliate Zone). He hasn't created a "business opportunity" or a unique "education system" that will make his members wealthy, and he has continued to profit from rather than enrich the people that have trusted his programs. Hopefully this video connecting Brandon to the "MOBE" scam will help direct attention to his other "businesses". _______________________________________________________________________________ Source: https://ethanvanderbuilt.com/2018/06/11/mobe-scam-shutdown-for-bilking-125-million-from-victims/ https://brandonodom.theaceinitiative.com/brandon/lander https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2018/02/ftc-obtains-court-order-halting-business-coaching-scheme