Be marketing began in late May, early June 2020. The company is a reboot of Melius.
Melius launched in late 2018, on the idiotic premise of giving out $50,000 real money trading accounts for $3000.
The company was publicly headed up by CEO and co-founder Jeremy Prasetyo.
Initially Melius’ other co-founders weren’t publicly acknowledged on the company’s website.
The main reason for that is because Melius’ other co-founders were Monir and Moyn Islam.
The Islam brothers made a name for themselves scamming people out of millions in OneCoin.
Originally from the UK, most of the Islam brother’s victims were ethnic minorities. As OneCoin began to collapse the brothers fled to Dubai.
Although not an outwardly obvious Ponzi scheme like OneCoin, Melius shared the scheme’s securities fraud roots.
Melius appears to have begun collapsing in late December 2019.
Be’s website domain (“befactor.com”) was acquired on March 26th, 2020. Promotion of Be began in mid to late May.
Melius’ website and social media profiles have since been deleted.
Be’s website cites Moyn Islam (President and CEO), Monir Islam (CVO) and Ehsaan B. Islam (CTO) as co-founders of the company.
Read on for a full review of Be’s MLM opportunity.
Be’s Products
Be markets two subscription services, which are also bundled together as “Elite”.
Live
Live your dream lifestyle with our exciting, exclusive membership club.
A Live subscription provides access to a travel discount portal, call/chat app, rideshare app, payment platform and business building app.
- Bronze Live – $199 and then $99 a month
- Silver Live – $499 and then $99 a month
- Gold Live – $799 and then $99 a month
Learn
Explore new skills, deepen existing passions.
A Learn subscription provides access to a trading app, “access to online learning resources”, a streaming platform and something called “Sense”.
Sense apparently connects “people, knowledge, and actions around the world”. Seriously, that’s all the info on Sense that Be provides.
- Bronze Learn – $199 and then $149 a month
- Silver Learn – $499 and then $149 a month
- Gold Learn – $799 and then $149 a month
Elite
Elite subscriptions combine Live and Learn services.
- Bronze Elite – $399 and then $149 a month
- Silver Elite – $950 and then $149 a month
- Gold Elite – $1499 and then $149 a month
Be’s Compensation Plan
Be’s compensation plan pays on the sale of subscriptions to retail customers and recruited affiliates.
Note that Be affiliates only earn commissions on subscription tiers they have sold.
E.g. A Be affiliate who has sold a Live tier subscription will only earn on Live subscriptions. This includes personal sales and downline sales.
Be Affiliate Ranks
There are eleven affiliate ranks within Be’s compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Star – enroll and maintain two customers who purchase a subscription
- Consultant – generate 1200 BV in weaker binary team side volume during a residual commission cycle
- Sapphire – generate 4000 BV in weaker binary team side volume during a residual commission cycle, and maintain two customers on purchased subscriptions
- Ruby – generate 14,000 BV in weaker binary team side volume during a residual commission cycle, and maintain three customers on purchased subscriptions
- Emerald – generate 29,500 BV in weaker binary team side volume during a residual commission cycle, and maintain three customers on purchased subscriptions
- Diamond – generate 90,000 BV in weaker binary team side volume during a residual commission cycle, and maintain four customers on purchased subscriptions
- Presidential Diamond – generate 180,000 BV in weaker binary team side volume during a residual commission cycle, and maintain four customers on purchased subscriptions
- Royal Diamond – generate 370,000 BV in weaker binary team side volume during a residual commission cycle, and maintain four customers on purchased subscriptions
- Ambassador – generate 1,110,000 BV in weaker binary team side volume during a residual commission cycle, and maintain four customers on purchased subscriptions
- Royal Ambassador – generate 2,997,000 BV in weaker binary team side volume during a residual commission cycle, and maintain four customers on purchased subscriptions
- Crown Ambassador – generate 7,997,000 BV in weaker binary team side volume during a residual commission cycle, and maintain four customers on purchased subscriptions
BV stands for “Business Volume and is sales volume generated by subscription purchases by retail customers and recruited affiliates.
A residual commission cycle is four weeks.
Fast Start Bonus
The Fast Start Bonus serves both as a retail and recruitment commission, paying 10% to 20% on new subscription sales.
- Affiliates who have enrolled a Bronze or Silver tier subscription customer earn a 10% Fast Start Bonus
- Affiliates who have enrolled a Gold or Elite tier subscription customer earn a 20% Fast Start Bonus
Customer Saving Bonus
The Customer Saving Bonus is essentially cash back on “Quest Dollars” used by referred customers.
Customers use Quest Dollars in Be’s travel portal. Affiliates earn a 20% commission if Quest Dollars are used by the customer.
Residual Commissions
To qualify for residual commissions, a Be affiliate must recruit two affiliates who purchase a subscription.
Be pays residual commissions via a binary compensation structure.
A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):
The first level of the binary team houses two positions. The second level of the binary team is generated by splitting these first two positions into another two positions each (4 positions).
Subsequent levels of the binary team are generated as required, with each new level housing twice as many positions as the previous level.
Positions in the binary team are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of affiliates. Note there is no limit to how deep a binary team can grow.
Sales volume (BV) is generated on both sides of the binary team via subscription sales.
BV is calculated at roughly 60% of fees paid by both retail and affiliate subscribers.
Residual commissions are paid based on “cycles”. A cycle is a four-week period.
Residual commissions are paid out based on rank, weekly throughout the four-week cycle period.
- Consultants earn $125 a week ($500 per four-week cycle)
- Sapphires earn $375 per week ($1500 per four-week cycle)
- Rubys earn $1000 per week ($4000 per four-week cycle)
- Emeralds earn $2125 per week ($8500 per four-week cycle)
- Diamonds earn $7500 per week ($30,000 per four-week cycle)
- Presidential Diamonds earn $15,000 per week ($60,000 per four-week cycle)
- Royal Diamond – earn $120,000 per week ($480,000 per four-week cycle)
- Ambassadors earn $70,000 per week ($280,000 per four-week cycle)
- Royal Ambassadors earn $150,000 per week ($600,000 per four-week cycle)
- Crown Ambassador earn $300,000 per week ($1,200,000 per four-week cycle)
Be’s compensation plan material states that 60% of payable residual commission volume must be from customers.
How this is monitored and what happens if the condition is not met isn’t disclosed.
Matching Bonus (unilevel)
Be affiliates earn a 10% Matching Bonus across their unilevel team.
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.
If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.
The unilevel team Matching Bonus doesn’t appear to have a depth cap.
Instead how much an affiliate earns through the bonus is capped over the four-week pay cycle based on rank:
- Consultants can earn up to $800 per four-week pay cycle
- Sapphires can earn up to $2000 per four-week pay cycle
- Rubys can earn up to $3000 per four-week pay cycle
- Emeralds can earn up to $4000 per four-week pay cycle
- Diamonds can earn up to $6000 per four-week pay cycle
- Presidential Diamonds can earn up to $8000 per four-week pay cycle
- Royal Diamonds and higher can earn up to $10,000 per four-week pay cycle
To qualify for the unilevel team Matching Bonus, Consultant and higher ranked affiliates must enroll and maintain two customers on Gold or Elite subscriptions.
Matching Bonus (generational)
In addition to the flat 10% Matching Bonus, Be also offers a generational Matching Bonus to Emerald and higher ranked affiliates.
The generational Matching Bonus is paid out using the same unilevel team the regular Matching Bonus is paid out with (see above).
The difference is as opposed to earning 10% on the entire team, Emerald generations are used.
The first Emerald generation in a unilevel team leg is capped off when an Emerald or higher ranked affiliate is found in the leg.
The second generation begins immediately after them, and is again capped when a second Emerald or higher ranked affiliate is found deeper in the leg.
If no such affiliate exists, the second generation runs the full depth of the leg.
Using these Emerald generations, the generational Matching Bonus pays out on up to four generations per unilevel team leg.
- Emeralds earn a 5% match on one Emerald generation per leg
- Diamonds earn a 5% match on the first Emerald generation per leg and 3% on the second
- Presidential Diamonds earn a 5% match on the first Emerald generation per leg and 3% on the second and third
- Royal Diamonds and higher earn a 5% match on the first Emerald generation per leg, 3% on the second and third and 2% on the fourth
Note that the generational Matching Bonus earned over a four-week pay cycle is capped based on rank:
- Emeralds can earn up to $2000
- Diamonds can earn up to $4000
- Presidential Diamonds can earn up to $6000
- Royal Diamonds can earn up to $8000
- Ambassadors can earn up to $15,000
- Royal Ambassadors can earn up to $25,000
- Crown Ambassadors can earn up to $50,000
Monthly Expense Plan
Be rewards Diamond and higher ranked affiliates with a cash bonus every four-week pay cycle:
- Diamonds receive $1000 per cycle
- Presidential Diamonds receive $2000 per cycle
- Royal Diamonds receive $3500 per cycle
- Ambassadors receive $5000 per cycle
- Royal Ambassadors and Crown Ambassadors receive $10,000 per cycle
Joining Be
As per Be’s published compensation plan;
The enrollment fee ranges from $0 – $45 based on the country you are in.
No explanation or further information is provided.
Conclusion
What Be comes down to is whether there’s more retail customers with subscriptions than affiliates.
Be’s website boasts the company has “15,000 customers” (most of whom will have been ported over from Melius). It doesn’t differentiate between retail and affiliate customers.
To gauge some idea of the retail viability of Be’s subscriptions, let’s look at the offered services:
- Quest – another travel discount portal… launched in the middle of a global pandemic to boot
- Triva – a communication phone app, seriously?
- iRide – a rideshare app run by an undisclosed third-party
- Latent Pay – payment cards carried over from failed Melius opp (likely obtained through a shell merchant given the fraudulent nature of Melius’ business model)
- Quantum – “build your business on the go”. Yeah alright, what does that even mean?
- Shift – trading app carried over from failed Melius opp
- Mind Hub – education platform with no details disclosed
- Wow – “LiVe ChAt In ReAlTiMe!”, welcome to 1999.
Given a bunch of Be’s offered services have been carried over from Melius, which collapsed, we already know they’re not retail viable.
As for the rest, who is paying hundreds of dollars upfront and then $99 to $149 to access them?
Practically all of the offered services have free widespread and readily available equivalents.
To dig deeper I’m going to single out Triva, Be’s mobile communication app.
Triva has a website over at “trivacall.com”. From that website can see the service can be signed up for at no cost for three months.
After which Triva costs 19.99 AED a month. AED stands for the “United Arab Emirates dirham.
Curiously there is no company information provided on Triva’s website. Most of the navigation links on the website don’t work.
Forget about free trial, why would I pay some company in the UAE run by persons unknown for basic cell phone functionality?!
And so it is with the rest of Be’s offerings. You can get the same thing or better for free elsewhere.
The one exception I’ll make is the travel portal. When a Be affiliate signs up, they’re given $80,000 in “Quester Dollars”.
These are supposed to be handed out as a marketing incentive, providing a raw dollar discount on quoted travel service prices.
In addition to counting towards purchased travel services, Quester Dollars are also commissionable.
My question is: who is footing the bill?
$80,000 in pre-paid travel portal discounts per Be affiliate who signs up is nothing to sneeze at. If those are genuine savings, again, who is paying for this?
I’m reminded of Melius’ bullshit $50,000 real money trading account for $3000 nonsense, which prompted a similar question.
Non-retail viable services leaves us with the majority of Be’s subscriptions being taken out by affiliates.
Your first red flag there is Be charging subscription tiers (Bronze/Silver/Gold), which don’t appear to affect the provided services.
What these tiers do affect is commission rates, making Be’s subscription tiers “pay to play”.
Pay to play in MLM is a strong indicator of a pyramid scheme, which Be most definitely is if the majority of subscription holders are affiliates.
Why would a retail customer switch between Bronze, Silver and Gold? They are locked out of the comp plan and, at least based on information provided by Be on their website, there’s no other difference between the subscription tiers.
Taking that into consideration, Be’s trajectory will mirror that of Melius’.
Things will stay afloat until recruitment dips, after which it’s a spiral towards collapse.
Will we see a third Melius reboot in a few months time? Stay tuned!
Update 10th April 2021 – Following a fraud warning from Canada, Be dropped its “befactor.com” domain and launched “berules.com”.
Update 16th May 2021 – A reader in the comments below (#40), stated that Be claimed it had “improved” its compensation plan.
An updated review was requested, which came up today.
Upon going over Be’s new compensation plan I noted only minor changes, which I’ve updated in this review.
Namely rank changes (including missing qualification criteria), the Matching Bonus being split between a unilevel and generational, and Lifestyle Rewards being ditched for a “Monthly Expense Plan”.
None of these affect the review in any significant way so I’ve declined to publish a separate updated review.
I’ve also noted the absence of retail customer clarification in Be’s compensation plan.
The company simply states:
A Customer is someone who has purchased any products or services through BE.
Seeing as affiliates can “purchase products or services through BE”, this implies the company is passing off affiliates with a subscription as retail customers.
This is not legally compliant, although it is in line with Melius operating as a pyramid scheme.
Update 20th October 2021 – A reader wrote in requesting a review on “Be To Inspire”, operating from “betoinspire.com”.
Although branded differently, this is just another domain Be Rules is operating from.