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Enlarge Getty Images | SimoneN The US Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday filed a lawsuit against 11 people accused of creating and promoting a crypto pyramid and Ponzi scheme known as "Forsage." The fraudulent scheme "raised more than $300 million from millions of retail investors worldwide, including in the United States," the SEC's announcement said. The SEC alleged that "in January 2020, Vladimir Okhotnikov, Jane Doe a/k/a Lola Ferrari, Mikhail Sergeev, and Sergey Maslakov launched Forsage.io, a website that allowed millions of retail investors to enter into transactions via smart contracts that operated on the Ethereum, Tron, and Binance blockchains." Forsage allegedly "operated as a pyramid scheme for more than two years, in which investors earned profits by recruiting others into the scheme." Forsage also "used assets from new investors to pay earlier investors in a typical Ponzi structur...

Everyone and their dog are making bank online these days, or so it seems. Why aren't you?! How can I make money now? How can I make money online? Everyone seems to be asking the same things. And there are lots of people that make their money by selling you all quick fix dreams! In reality, it's not that easy. We're not here to sell you any get-rich-quick scheme, that's for sure. Yes – there are tons of ways to earn money from home online, and quickly. However, it won't always be a lot. Unless you're willing to put in some considerable work (or investment). If that is the case, though, here are a few of our favourite ways to make money online. Buying and Selling The old classic of money-making ideas. Buying and selling. Wheeler dealing. Hustling. Whatever you want to call it – the internet has made being a self-employed buyer and seller easier than ever. But you don't have to jump in with a van and flat cap straight...

In August 2021, influencer Madison Vining made a big announcement on Instagram. After becoming one of the top sellers for the multilevel marketing essential oils company Young Living, she was quitting. To her more than 250,000 followers on Instagram and her Young Living team, known as the "Happy Oilers," the news came as a huge shock. Young Living is one of two of the major essential oils companies in the US, the New Yorker reported in 2017, along with its main rival DoTerra (both claim to be the largest oils company in the world, according to the magazine). Both reportedly reach $1 billion in sales annually and serve millions of customers. Vining, who had worked for Young Living for more than eight years, had reached "Royal Crown Diamond" status; sellers with that status make, on average, $1,645,692 annually or $137,000 a month, according to the company. People online began to speculate as to why Vining and her husband, Tyler, would leave so much money on the tabl...

[unable to retrieve full-text content] 'Blessing Loom' resurfacing on social media    CBS19.tv KYTX

A flag outside the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022. Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday filed a civil complaint charging 11 people for their roles in creating and promoting an allegedly fraudulent crypto-focused pyramid scheme that raised more than $300 million from investors. The scheme, called Forsage, claimed to be a decentralized smart contract platform, and it allowed millions of retail investors to enter into transactions via smart contracts that operated on the ethereum, tron and binance blockchains. But under the hood, the SEC alleges that for more than two years, the setup functioned like a standard pyramid scheme, in which investors earned profits by recruiting others into the operation.  In the SEC's formal complaint, Wall Street's top watchdog calls Forsage a "textbook pyramid and Ponzi scheme," in which Fo...

They're all over Instagram : multicolored beverages in layers of unnaturally bright oranges, greens, and blues, each flavor layered into a cup of ice to show off the vibrant colors. These "loaded teas" — made with tea concentrate and fruit-flavored drink mixes — often boast cheeky names like Bahama Mama or Mermaid and appear alongside promises of zero sugar, few calories, healthy antioxidants, and perhaps most importantly, a big dose of caffeine: #cleanenergy is a frequent accompanying hashtag, which makes sense considering that many loaded teas boast more than 160 milligrams of caffeine — more than double what's in a cup of coffee. This rainbow-hued array of drinks is popping up all over the country not as part of a new tea shop chain, but associated with "nutrition clubs" with vague names like Good 2 Go Nutrition or Healthy Life Nutrition. These nutrition clubs aren't new either, but they are appearing all over small-town America at an impressive cli...

"If you don't already budget your money, now might be a good time to start," said Chanelle Bessette, personal finance specialist at NerdWallet. Getty Images With the current inflation rate hovering at around 8.5% as of the end of July — that's a near 40-year high — there is no shortage of reasons to find new ways to save money and cut daily spending. The cost of food, for example, has climbed 10.9% in the 12 months ending in July, according to government data, while gas prices climbed 44.9% over the period. Yikes.&n...

You may have heard that MLMs are very very  similar to pyramid schemes, and yet you probably know someone you love and trust who sells for one and assures you it is simply a direct sales model, and if you are going to buy skincare from a store, why not buy it from a friend? So which is the truth? Well, both, actually.  According to investopedia, "MLM encourages existing members to promote and sell their offerings to other individuals and bring on new recruits into the business. Distributors are paid a percentage of their recruits' sales. New recruits become the distributor's network or downline and are, in turn, encouraged to make sales to earn money." What this means is that while a portion of consultants' income does come from directly selling products to their customers, the only way for them to make a  lot  of money is to recruit more and more people underneath them to also sell products, and collect a portion of those p...

Image source: The Motley Fool. PayPal Holdings   (PYPL -0.04% ) Q2 2022 Earnings Call Aug 02, 2022 , 5:00 p.m. ET Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks: Operator Good evening. My name is Savannah, and I will be your conference operator for today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to PayPal Holdings' earnings conference call for the second quarter 2022. [Operator instructions] Thank you. And I would now like to introduce you to your host for today's call, Ms. Gabrielle Rabinovitch, senior vice president, corporate finance and investor relations. Please go ahead. Gabs Rabinovitch -- Vice President, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations Thank you, Savannah. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. Welcome to PayPal's earnings conference call for the second quarter of 2022. Joining me today on the call is Dan Schulman, our president and CEO. We're providing a slide present...