QNet has received a pyramid scheme fraud warning from Russia.
As per the Central Bank of Russia’s October 6th warning, QNet exhibits “signs of a financial pyramid” scheme.
QNet related websites cited by the CBR include “qnet.net”, “qnet.com.ru”, “qnet-official.ru” and “qnetrussia.ru”. QNet’s Hong Kong shell company corporate address is also listed in the warning.
BehindMLM reviewed QNet in December 2017. We noted QNet being an obvious pyramid scheme with a long history of fraud.
QNet is run out of Malaysia by Vijay Eswaran (right). Eswaran masks QNet’s operations through shell companies incorporated in Hong Kong.
Outside of Bhutan, regulatory action against QNet has been taken in India, Cote d’Ivoire, Afghanistan and Bhutan.
QNet is also tied to the disturbing practice of hostage recruitment across Africa.
Hostage recruitment sees QNet promoters kidnap victims and force them to recruit new QNet affiliates. The practice is closely tied to immigration fraud and human trafficking.
QNet hostage recruitment has primarily been an issue in Ghana and Liberia.
Local authorities in Ghana have tackled QNet hostage recruitment for years. QNet has the backing of the local government though, making regulation of the pyramid scheme difficult.
This has resulted in Ghanaian locals taking the law into their own hands.
SimilarWeb currently tracks top sources of traffic to QNet’s website as India (26%), Pakistan (11%), Australia (8%), Turkey (8%) and Russia (5%).
In August Vietnam was the second largest source of traffic to QNet’s website. At least for now, QNet recruitment in Vietnam appears to have collapsed.
Despite QNet scamming consumers for decades, authorities in south-east Asia have failed to take action against Eswaran.