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What Can Be Done About International Fraud Disguised as MLM?
With Internet, a single scam can reach all across the world, and with international currency exchange processors (Paypal clones) they can get paid everywhere as well. If they were declared illegal in one country, they simply move on to another country.
The scam I have in mind claims to be MLM, but its own FAQ states "you do not have to sell any products". Its members have spun some creative interpretations on what this means, including "It is not MLM. It is better than MLM" or "you are selling membership, which is not a product".
This scam was already declared illegal in a dozen countries, got "cease and desist" in at least three more (including state of Georgia here in the US). They use a virtual office in UK to look more legitimate. They registered in Cyprus as an offshore corporation, but is probably ran out of somewhere in India out of a closet. They even moved their server from the US to Ukraine not too long ago.
Yet they are still announcing "expansion plans" to various countries, conventions and a 'cruise' in Asia.
They have a legion of members (or shills) who think "internet marketing" is spamming the Internet with article repositories who are then recopied to various blogs and forums and whatnot. So any critics are simply drowned out by the "noise".
They are not based in any particular country so local enforcement is mostly worthless (and local enforcement have gone after many local members in a dozen countries) but the head of the snake is still out there. And still signing up more members every day.
What can be done to combat such an international scam? Interpol is more about the big organized crimes, and this is almost beneath their jurisdiction.
@snarkus -- You're not helping much. :) Besides, I'm a scam buster, not a victim.
1 Answer
- Anonymous1 decade agoFavorite Answer
MLM's are all scams. That's the nature of that business. Anybody who thinks there's a such thing as a legitimate MLM is a fool. If you're fooled by a scam that poses as an MLM...well...I'm not sure what to tell you. You're getting fooled by a scam that's posing as a scam.