Did a New Zealand primary school principal sold DoTerra to her own school and forced it on her students?

An interesting bit of news passed my desk this morning: Parent threatens to sue primary school if essential oil diffusers are not removed.

Apparently a parent (also attorney) Rainey is threatening to sue Milford Primary School in Auckland, New Zealand if essential oil diffusers are not removed from the classrooms. A one paragraph notice, buried in a newsletter to parents, notified that 20 diffusers will be spread among the classrooms diffusing DoTerra Onguard mix which supposedly helps students concentrate and ward off illnesses. However, several ingredients in the Onguard mix can trigger asthma and other allergies.

Further digging shows that the school had budgeted 2000 AUD for these diffusers. The principal, Sue Cattell, claimed that this is the first negative reaction to the item, buried in March 2019 PTA meeting notes. Turns out, the principal herself was the instigator of the agenda item... Apparently she's a DoTerra seller on the side. In the PTA meeting, the agenda item also suggested pitching DoTerra diffuser kits to parents as a fundraiser.

Since she didn't unilaterally approve the purchase, it's technically NOT an ethical violation, but her failure to disclose that she's the seller? It's DISGUSTINGLY DISHONEST.

And about keeping students healthy? That's the sort of bogus claim that got DoTerra an FDA warning back in 2014. But then, DoTerra reps always had a sense of hyperbole... Previously they had even suggested DoTerra oil can kill Ebola virus (and many other viruses). No, I wasn't kidding. And no, essential oil doesn't kill viruses when diffused.

Tsk, tsk.

(originally via BehindMLM)

The Worst Kind of Scammer: False Claim of Government License by Options Rider

Ever heard of "Options Rider"? No? Me Neither, that is, until they started announcing absolutely bull****. But let's start from the beginning.

Back on April 16th, a review of Options Rider appeared on BehindMLM. The company purports to be offering option trading out of New Zealand, but the address is that of a Regus virtual office. And no owners were identified on their website. Shady enough? Searching the interwebs revealed two names: Bob Roberts and Thomas Carter.

Bob Roberts appears to be associated with another virtual entity called BancdeOptions, supposedly HQ'ed in Hong Kong, but it's another virtual office.

Here's the really hilarious part though... At the time of BehindMLM's review (early April 2015) Options Rider showed a license number:  FSP license number 207/13

Sometime after that review, they changed it to FSP license number FSP109805.

But I was able to locate a version of the Options Rider contract, on "WV Trading" that PREDATES the both of them that says: "CIF License number 207/13"

The Company is authorized and regulated by the New Zealand Securities and Exchange Commission to offer certain Investment and Ancillary Services and Activities under the Provision of Investment Services, the Exercise of Investment Activities, the Operation of Regulated Markets and Other Related Matters Law of 2007, Law 144(I)/2007, as subsequently amended or replaced from time to time (“the Law”), with CIF license number 207/13.

The problem is New Zealand does NOT have a Securities and Exchange Commission. New Zealand investments is regulated by Financial Markets Authority. And the cited laws do NOT exist in New Zealand. And obviously, "CIF" number is meaningless in New Zealand. In NZ financial entities are licensed as FSP (Financial Service Providers), but its relevance will become clearer. There is no "Options - anything" licensed as FSP in New Zealand. Search the database yourself.

In fact, you should notice that by typing in a few test cases that NONE of the FSP number goes above 5 digits. Thus, the 6-digit number given by Options Rider is BOGUS.

By now it should be clear that this company is a scam, citing license by a nonexistent government agency for legitimacy. But wait, there's even more hilarity in the lies of Options Rider!

BREAKING NEWS: Indian police arrested "YOBSN" heads (3 Indians, 1 non-Indian) for International Pyramid Scheme

First reported by PatrickPretty.com

CCB, Bengaluru City @CCBBangalore Busts INTERNATIONAL MLM Fraud which collected millions of $s and arrested New... http://t.co/J0g2LwHJK0
— BengaluruCityPolice (@BlrCityPolice) December 4, 2014

The scam that was referred to "International MLM Fraud" is YOBSN, aka "Smart Media Technologies" (but also known as Social Media Technologies, Automatic Geek, and so on.)

Quoting from the BangalaruCityPolice's Facebook account:

On Dec. 3, “acting on a complaint received at the office of DCP Crime, CCB F&M squad raided Room No 225 of Hotel Capital, Raj Bhavan Road, where 4 accused persons were explaining, advertising & collecting enrollment fee from new victims of YOBSN SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORK MLM fraud web based company ( hosted from US ) and run through a website www.socialmediatechnologies.com . . .

New members are lured with promise of big money in USD $s by pushing the ‘CREATING YOUR OWN SOCIAL NETWORK’ tagline and encouraging members to bring in more members & growing their pyramid on the LEFT & RIGHT side.

They advertise by saying that when a company like Facebook etc is making billions of $s from social network, why can’t you make money.

This company runs a Web site called Smart Media Technologies. Any person can become a member by paying 8000 to 25000 INR as per their capacity. Then the person has to introduce Two persons (Left & Right member) to invest for which he would get 25% BONUS each as commission. As the pyramid grows, he would get more bonus. Each member is given a username/password and the commission earned & number of members introduced is meticulously accounted in the login itself. In fact, each user can see his pyramid and the amount of commission earned by it.