$600M Ponzi scheme incubated in small NC town - MSN
ZeekRewards Ponzi Scheme Originated In Small North Carolina Town - Huffingtonpost
CEO admits ZeekRewards a Ponzi scheme | BehindMLM
Feds Halt Alleged $600 Million ZeekRewards Ponzi Scheme: How It Happened And What's Next - Forbes
-
Mastermind Evil genius con artist would be accurate words to describe Zeekrewards CEO, Paul Burks. With an awesome team & clever execution, they pulled off one of the biggest Ponzi Schemes in U.S. History. Too bad the magical natural force, Karma is real and eventually "What goes around, comes around". Life lesson : Make money the honest, genuine way !
Oh those online reward websites. Luring naive young people, middleschoolers, & highschoolers to earn points, fill out offers, sign up for tons of services, trial offers, useless junk, and working so very ridiculously hard for small prizes only later to come to a harsh & cold reality....A HUGE REALIZATION / EPIPHANY.... that the whole entire thing is the biggest waste of time ever. And the creators are taking a huge advantage over people. Working a minimum wage job would be wayyyy better & efficient / faster way of making money, then buying whatever you like to your heart's desire. Definitely a lesson a lot of young people go through with these stupid reward sites. (like lockers, who remembers that?
)
HowStuffWorks "What is a Pyramid Scheme?" - Dirty Truth Exposed
Along with online reward websites, another thing people should AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE : MLM (Multi-level Marketing) products & services. Never sold in stores, but make up excuses like they want to save $ on advertising so they choose to sell using non-traditional methods... through people. It's all one big pyramid scheme. Which rely heavily on referrals, recruiting victims, bugging & being a pushy salesman to family, friends, and coworkers to convince them to buy something since the person makes a small commission.
MonaVie - Overpriced acai berry @ about $45 a bottle. Like any other MLM, has been in several controversies - false health claims for products have never been scientifically confirmed or approved by regulatory authorities
MonaVie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Herbalife - Global nutrition & weight management company.
ACN - American Communications Network Inc -
ACN Inc. - Wikipedia. - Offers cheaper telecommunications, television, energy & other services through a network of independent sales agents. Competitors : Vonage, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Tmobile, etc (endorsed by Donald Trump, WTF)
Story with a Very Important Lesson Learned :
My first year of college when I was 18, two female acquaintances who were not friends but classmates I talked to sometimes invited me to this "cool money making opportunity" near the UCI College campus, in Orange County - Southern California. In some shady quiet area with a lot of tall buildings, a space they rented out I believe since their headquarters are in North Carolina. Before going, I asked questions like what the product / service is, they never gave me a direct answer & dodged the question completely (like politicians). Later I learned they did this on purpose and was taught to do so to lure you & keep people curious & attending the recruiter event. Also they have very comprehensive scripts to read to new referrals & when selling to new potential customers.
After a few minutes into the presentation, people learned exactly what this whole event was about and what the company was called : ACN (American Communications Network). They sell cheaper alternative phone & TV services.
Inside the building, there were hundreds of people and a massive presentation screen, with loud music playing. Like every new young & naive referral, I was overwhelmed, was having fun, & meeting new people. A guy on stage shared his story how he started working a low paying job at McDonalds flipping burgers and next thing you know, was showing off pictures of his expensive, 100k+ sports car. Impressive ! He said we can all achieve this dream too ! encouraging people to sign up. Of course, everybody thought it was free and were ready to start working for this exciting company.
At the very end of the presentation.. they SURPRISED all the new people with a STUPID RIDICULOUS price tag of $500 to get started. It seemed all like one big & EVIL DECEPTION to get people even at the recruiter event. Of course, like any average person I asked why do we need to pay to work ?!? Their stupid lame excuse : to get licensed / certified (BS). Next, they pulled me aside into a small office to talk to me and aggressively pressured me to fork over the $500 cash. For some of the people who didn't have a job or the $, they tried real hard to persuade you to ask your PARENTS for the money. Looking back, I can't believe how money hungry, greedy, corrupt, SICK, and shady this company was along with MLM in general. Nobody likes being pressured or deceived. No worries, I was so disgusted & angry.. I ignored all the calls & never payed the $500.
My intuition, gut instinct, and 6th sense went off big time.... I sensed very strongly something shady was going on and not right at all. They say to trust your instinct because most of the time, it's true.
What happened to those 2 highschool classmates that invited me to the event ? Turns out they naively forked over the $500 and were struggling, became extremely / overly desperate to recruit new referrals and get them to sign up & pay $500. I never ever talked to them again of course. And from that horrible experience on, I learned MLM is very evil & corrupt, and should be avoided like the plague ! Because the creators at the top of the pyramid were all about making money in a terrible shady way using non-traditional methods. Too bad the products & services weren't good enough to be sold in stores and not advertised on TV because they wanted to save money that way and USE PEOPLE & MASSES OF SHEEP to do all the ...dirty hard work. Later, after researching the company online a bit more and seeing millions of horrible reviews all telling people to stay far away from MLM.. I learned they love to prey upon young & naive college students. They even have booths on college campuses sometimes too. SICK & CORRUPT ON SO MANY LEVELS.
Whenever I hear close family, friends, etc talking about MLM, I tell them it's all evil and a lot of people have had horrible bad experiences or how they had their lives ruined & ended up bankrupted & broke. And to definitely do their research & read reviews online. The number of bad experiences triumphs good reviews. However, the pro-MLMers people can always try to justify anything. They're arrogant & say condescending things that don't make sense like "Well, that was your fault, you weren't able to refer people & get people to sign up & pay $500? that sucks, don't blame us.". How cold... When in fact, people have every right to be blamed for all this corruptness & getting lured into a DECEPTIVE TRAP meant to use people & extract money.
Lesson learned / Advice :
1. Evil... sooner or later, always ends up getting exposed. And truth prevails.
2. Instead of MLM... it's always BETTER to get a job at a well known & branded establishment with a great reputation like Target, Starbucks, In-N-Out Burger etc. Or a small / family business.
- Other options & paths in life : Going to college and earning a degree / certificate. A lot of people juggle both school / work.
- Doing things on the side like Affiliate / Internet Marketing / Lead Generation, online freelance work, building & monetizing websites, etc.
3. Focusing on ONE THING is awesome. On the other hand, some skillfully people have the amazing & powerful ability to multitask simultaneously, doing multiple things at once & building.... MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INCOME.
Doing a GREAT JOB, executing, and working hard is key to a lot of things in life. *Example : Going to college, while at the same time juggling a job or 2, while at the same time doing Affiliate / Internet marketing / Lead generation, gardenwork for grandma, owning a small business on the side, etc on your free time.
4. Stay sharp, smart, educated, informed, and aware. "Knowledge is Power". In our kid & teen years, a LOT of people don't understand the importance of it but as we grow older & wiser, we learn just how true it is
5. Life is what you what you want it to be & you can do anything if you put your mind to it as clique as that sounds. Always keep positive, lift your head up high, & don't let small obstacles in life interfere
-
PS - Wasn't planning to write a lot, got carried away
Anybody got any terrible MLM stories to share?
ZeekRewards Ponzi Scheme Originated In Small North Carolina Town - Huffingtonpost
CEO admits ZeekRewards a Ponzi scheme | BehindMLM
Feds Halt Alleged $600 Million ZeekRewards Ponzi Scheme: How It Happened And What's Next - Forbes
-
Mastermind Evil genius con artist would be accurate words to describe Zeekrewards CEO, Paul Burks. With an awesome team & clever execution, they pulled off one of the biggest Ponzi Schemes in U.S. History. Too bad the magical natural force, Karma is real and eventually "What goes around, comes around". Life lesson : Make money the honest, genuine way !
Oh those online reward websites. Luring naive young people, middleschoolers, & highschoolers to earn points, fill out offers, sign up for tons of services, trial offers, useless junk, and working so very ridiculously hard for small prizes only later to come to a harsh & cold reality....A HUGE REALIZATION / EPIPHANY.... that the whole entire thing is the biggest waste of time ever. And the creators are taking a huge advantage over people. Working a minimum wage job would be wayyyy better & efficient / faster way of making money, then buying whatever you like to your heart's desire. Definitely a lesson a lot of young people go through with these stupid reward sites. (like lockers, who remembers that?
HowStuffWorks "What is a Pyramid Scheme?" - Dirty Truth Exposed
Along with online reward websites, another thing people should AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE : MLM (Multi-level Marketing) products & services. Never sold in stores, but make up excuses like they want to save $ on advertising so they choose to sell using non-traditional methods... through people. It's all one big pyramid scheme. Which rely heavily on referrals, recruiting victims, bugging & being a pushy salesman to family, friends, and coworkers to convince them to buy something since the person makes a small commission.
MonaVie - Overpriced acai berry @ about $45 a bottle. Like any other MLM, has been in several controversies - false health claims for products have never been scientifically confirmed or approved by regulatory authorities
MonaVie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Herbalife - Global nutrition & weight management company.
ACN - American Communications Network Inc -
ACN Inc. - Wikipedia. - Offers cheaper telecommunications, television, energy & other services through a network of independent sales agents. Competitors : Vonage, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Tmobile, etc (endorsed by Donald Trump, WTF)
Story with a Very Important Lesson Learned :
My first year of college when I was 18, two female acquaintances who were not friends but classmates I talked to sometimes invited me to this "cool money making opportunity" near the UCI College campus, in Orange County - Southern California. In some shady quiet area with a lot of tall buildings, a space they rented out I believe since their headquarters are in North Carolina. Before going, I asked questions like what the product / service is, they never gave me a direct answer & dodged the question completely (like politicians). Later I learned they did this on purpose and was taught to do so to lure you & keep people curious & attending the recruiter event. Also they have very comprehensive scripts to read to new referrals & when selling to new potential customers.
After a few minutes into the presentation, people learned exactly what this whole event was about and what the company was called : ACN (American Communications Network). They sell cheaper alternative phone & TV services.
Inside the building, there were hundreds of people and a massive presentation screen, with loud music playing. Like every new young & naive referral, I was overwhelmed, was having fun, & meeting new people. A guy on stage shared his story how he started working a low paying job at McDonalds flipping burgers and next thing you know, was showing off pictures of his expensive, 100k+ sports car. Impressive ! He said we can all achieve this dream too ! encouraging people to sign up. Of course, everybody thought it was free and were ready to start working for this exciting company.
At the very end of the presentation.. they SURPRISED all the new people with a STUPID RIDICULOUS price tag of $500 to get started. It seemed all like one big & EVIL DECEPTION to get people even at the recruiter event. Of course, like any average person I asked why do we need to pay to work ?!? Their stupid lame excuse : to get licensed / certified (BS). Next, they pulled me aside into a small office to talk to me and aggressively pressured me to fork over the $500 cash. For some of the people who didn't have a job or the $, they tried real hard to persuade you to ask your PARENTS for the money. Looking back, I can't believe how money hungry, greedy, corrupt, SICK, and shady this company was along with MLM in general. Nobody likes being pressured or deceived. No worries, I was so disgusted & angry.. I ignored all the calls & never payed the $500.
My intuition, gut instinct, and 6th sense went off big time.... I sensed very strongly something shady was going on and not right at all. They say to trust your instinct because most of the time, it's true.
What happened to those 2 highschool classmates that invited me to the event ? Turns out they naively forked over the $500 and were struggling, became extremely / overly desperate to recruit new referrals and get them to sign up & pay $500. I never ever talked to them again of course. And from that horrible experience on, I learned MLM is very evil & corrupt, and should be avoided like the plague ! Because the creators at the top of the pyramid were all about making money in a terrible shady way using non-traditional methods. Too bad the products & services weren't good enough to be sold in stores and not advertised on TV because they wanted to save money that way and USE PEOPLE & MASSES OF SHEEP to do all the ...dirty hard work. Later, after researching the company online a bit more and seeing millions of horrible reviews all telling people to stay far away from MLM.. I learned they love to prey upon young & naive college students. They even have booths on college campuses sometimes too. SICK & CORRUPT ON SO MANY LEVELS.
Whenever I hear close family, friends, etc talking about MLM, I tell them it's all evil and a lot of people have had horrible bad experiences or how they had their lives ruined & ended up bankrupted & broke. And to definitely do their research & read reviews online. The number of bad experiences triumphs good reviews. However, the pro-MLMers people can always try to justify anything. They're arrogant & say condescending things that don't make sense like "Well, that was your fault, you weren't able to refer people & get people to sign up & pay $500? that sucks, don't blame us.". How cold... When in fact, people have every right to be blamed for all this corruptness & getting lured into a DECEPTIVE TRAP meant to use people & extract money.
Lesson learned / Advice :
1. Evil... sooner or later, always ends up getting exposed. And truth prevails.
2. Instead of MLM... it's always BETTER to get a job at a well known & branded establishment with a great reputation like Target, Starbucks, In-N-Out Burger etc. Or a small / family business.
- Other options & paths in life : Going to college and earning a degree / certificate. A lot of people juggle both school / work.
- Doing things on the side like Affiliate / Internet Marketing / Lead Generation, online freelance work, building & monetizing websites, etc.
3. Focusing on ONE THING is awesome. On the other hand, some skillfully people have the amazing & powerful ability to multitask simultaneously, doing multiple things at once & building.... MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INCOME.
Doing a GREAT JOB, executing, and working hard is key to a lot of things in life. *Example : Going to college, while at the same time juggling a job or 2, while at the same time doing Affiliate / Internet marketing / Lead generation, gardenwork for grandma, owning a small business on the side, etc on your free time.4. Stay sharp, smart, educated, informed, and aware. "Knowledge is Power". In our kid & teen years, a LOT of people don't understand the importance of it but as we grow older & wiser, we learn just how true it is
5. Life is what you what you want it to be & you can do anything if you put your mind to it as clique as that sounds. Always keep positive, lift your head up high, & don't let small obstacles in life interfere
-
PS - Wasn't planning to write a lot, got carried away
