Fortron provides no information about who owns or runs the company on its website.
Fortron’s website domain (“fortron.io”) was privately registered on August 14th, 2020.
Based on the company name and nature of the business, I suspected Fortron to be a reboot of the Forsage gifting scheme.
I was able to confirm this by way of Forsage owner and top scammers discussing Fortron on the official Forsage YouTube channel.
Forsage launched earlier this year on the ethereum blockchain.
It was founded by Lado Okhotnikov and combines gifting with a Ponzi business model.
Over the past few weeks traffic to Forsage’s website has flatlined:
For a gifting Ponzi, this begins the road to collapse. Hence the launch of Fortron.
Read on for a full review of Fortron’s MLM opportunity.
Fortron’s Products
Fortron has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market Fortron affiliate membership itself.
Fortron’s Compensation Plan
As with Forsage, Fortron combines gifting with a Ponzi business model. The only difference is tron (TRX) used in place of ethereum.
Matrix sizes used in Fortron’s cycler are 3×1 and 2×2.
A 3×1 matrix is simple in nature, requiring only three positions to be filled.
A 2×2 matrix starts with two positions on the first level, which expand to four positions on the second level:
A single 100 TRX initial buy in purchases a cycler position in both a 3×1 and 2×2 matrix.
Fortron refers to the 3×1 matrix as FTR3 and the 2×2 as FTR4. The initial 100 TRX buy-in is split evenly between both matrices.
Positions in FTR3 and FTR4 are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of Forsage affiliates.
Once all positions are filled, a cycle commission is triggered. The position cycling out of the matrix also enters a new matrix of the same size.
There are twelve tiers in both the FTR3 and FTR4 cycler tiers. Tiers must be bought into manually and in order.
Cycle commissions paid across Forsage’s FTR3 and FTR4 cycler tiers are as follows:
FTR3
The first two positions filled in a FTR3 matrix are gifted directly.
The 50 TRX position from the third position is used to create an upline matrix position on the same tier (in effect, gifting the 50 TRX to your upline).
- tier 1 (positions cost 50 TRX) – receive 100 TRX and a new tier 1 position
- tier 2 (positions cost 100 TRX) – receive 200 TRX and a new tier 2 position
- tier 3 (positions cost 200 TRX) – receive 400 TRX and a new tier 3 position
- tier 4 (positions cost 400 TRX) – receive 800 TRX and a new tier 4 position
- tier 5 (positions cost 800 TRX) – receive 1600 TRX and a new tier 5 position
- tier 6 (positions cost 1600 TRX) – receive 3200 TRX and a new tier 6 position
- tier 7 (positions cost 3200 TRX) – receive 6400 TRX and a new tier 8 position
- tier 8 (positions cost 6400 TRX) – receive 12,800 TRX and a new tier 8 position
- tier 9 (positions cost 12,800 TRX) – receive 25,600 TRX and a new tier 9 position
- tier 10 (positions cost 25,600 TRX) – receive 51,200 TRX and a new tier 10 position
- tier 11 (positions cost 51,200 TRX) – receive 102,400 TRX and a new tier 11 position
- tier 12 (positions cost 102,400 TRX) – receive 204,800 TRX and a new tier 12 position
FTR4
The first two positions in a FTR4 matrix pass gifting
- tier 1 (positions cost 50 TRX) – receive 150 TRX and a new tier 1 position
- tier 2 (positions cost 100 TRX) – receive 300 TRX and a new tier 2 position
- tier 3 (positions cost 200 TRX) – receive 600 TRX and a new tier 3 position
- tier 4 (positions cost 400 TRX) – receive 1200 TRX and a new tier 4 position
- tier 5 (positions cost 800 TRX) – receive 2400 TRX and a new tier 5 position
- tier 6 (positions cost 1600 TRX) – receive 4800 TRX and a new tier 6 position
- tier 7 (positions cost 3200 TRX) – receive 9600 TRX and a new tier 8 position
- tier 8 (positions cost 6400 TRX) – receive 19,200 TRX and a new tier 8 position
- tier 9 (positions cost 12,800 TRX) – receive 38,400 TRX and a new tier 9 position
- tier 10 (positions cost 25,600 TRX) – receive 76,800 TRX and a new tier 10 position
- tier 11 (positions cost 51,200 TRX) – receive 153,600 TRX and a new tier 11 position
- tier 12 (positions cost 102,400 TRX) – receive 307,200 TRX and a new tier 12 position
Joining Fortron
Fortron affiliate membership is tied to a 100 TRX cycler position purchase.
Conclusion
With Forsage having run its inevitable course, the scammers who stole most of the money are eager to keep the theft going.
Fortron is a 1:1 reboot. Same smart contract script. Same website script. All that’s changed in the scam’s name and cryptocurrency hitched to the contract script.
All in all about two minutes work.
Forsage “leaders” who joined Lado Okhotnikov on the Fortron announcement webinar include Vitaliy Dubinin (below), Ankur Agarwal and two other guys:
Someone going by “Nicky” (Vicky?) is supposedly representing “the Chinese team” of Forsage scammers.
Dubinin boasts he was able to purchase a Mercedes E300 with the money he stole through Forsage.
These are the scammers who received the majority of funds gifted into Forsage. Now they’re looking to do it again with Fortron.
The math behind Fortron is the same as that of Forsage, or indeed any gifting scheme.
In order for people at the top of the company-wide matrix to steal enough money to buy luxury cars etc., the majority of people gifting in have to lose money.
As with Forsage, Fortron will facilitate this until recruitment dies off again.
Based on Forsage’s Alexa web traffic estimates, the majority of victims are in the US, India and Nigeria.
Reboot scams typically don’t last as long as their predecessors, so expect Fortron to have a shorter shelf-life than Forsage’s six or seven months.
Footnote: This review is part of a series documenting Lado Okhotnikov’s Forsage Ponzi schemes.
To date that includes:
- Forsage – launched Feb/Mar 2020
- Fortron – launched Aug/Sep 2020
- ForsageTron – launched sometime after Jul 2020
- Forsage XGold – launched Sep 2020
Update 5th August 2022 – The SEC has filed securities fraud charges against Vladimir “Lado” Okhotnikov. Ten additional Forsage insiders and US promoters have also been sued.
The SEC alleges Forage and its various together formed a $300 million dollar Ponzi scheme.