Following a reader request, SoBuy came up for review today.
My first port of call was the company’s website…
Ruh-roh.
Further research reveals SoBuy promoters claiming the company collapsed just shy of a fortnight ago (yeah I’m a bit behind on reviews):
Here’s an account from SoBuy promoter Janice Giesinger, as per a video she uploaded to her “Internet Marketing Nomad” channel on March 17th;
[0:19] I also want you to know that I’m coming to you with this video from a little bit of shame from marketing it. And also with a little bit of humility I guess.
This is probably the worst thing that has happened so far in my marketing career.
{1:13] So I just wanted to say that this is not something that I can smile about at all. Nor is it something that I’m proud of.
I am very sorry for having fallen for the SoBuy scam and for believing that it was the real deal, and for promoting it as such. Because I truly believed that it was real.
I’m even more sorry for the small handful of people that joined me in faith that this was real.
Even if I sponsored only one person it would have been one person too many. And I feel like a bag of… I can’t say the word here on YouTube. I feel like a big bag of poop. Okay?
It’s really affected me emotionally. Not because of the money that I lost in it, but more because of the people who lost money.
That not only just followed me into SoBuy, but there were thousands of people you guys, that lost money in SoBuy.
Giesinger’s apology sounds sincere but rings hollow when you look at her channel video history.
In any event, former SoBuy affiliates are claiming the scammers behind it have launched PerRank:
In lieu of of a SoBuy review, we’ll instead go over PerRank.
PerRank fails to provide executive or company ownership information on its website.
In what appears to be a nod to SoBuy targeting investors through an app, PerRank’s website renders on a mock mobile phone:
PerRank’s website domain (“perrank.com”) was registered on February 15th, 2022.
An incomplete address in China is provided, suggesting whoever is running the company is based out of, or at the very least has ties to China.
For reference, SoBuy’s website domain was privately registered on December 21st, 2021.
PerRank’s domain being registered mid February suggests the owners planned SoBuy’s collapse weeks before they pulled the website offline.
As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money.
PerRank’s Products
PerRank has no retailable products or services.
Affiliates are only able to market PerRank affiliate membership itself.
PerRank’s Compensation Plan
PerRank solicits investment on the promise of advertised returns:
- Free Member – no cost to join, receive $4 a day for two days
- Trial Member – invest $30 and receive $1.5 a day for five days
- SVIP1 – invest $100 and receive $150 a month for 180 days
- SVIP2 – invest $300 and receive $450 a month for 180 days
- SVIP3 – invest $900 and receive $1350 a month for 180 days
- SVIP4 – invest $2000 and receive $3000 a month for 180 days
- SVIP5 – invest $5100 and receive $7650 a month for 180 days
- SVIP6 – not disclosed
- SVIP7 – not disclosed
- SVIP8 – not disclosed
Note that Free and Trial members have to invest at an SVIP tier in order to continue earning after 2 or 5 days
VIP investment tiers require reinvestment to continue earning after 180 days.
The MLM side of PerRank pays on funds invested by and returns paid to recruited affiliates.
PerRank Affiliate Ranks
There are four affiliate ranks within PerRank’s compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Affiliate – sign up as a PerRank affiliate and invest
- Captain – recruit fifteen affiliates
- Supervisor – have five personally recruited Captains
- Manager – have five personally recruited Supervisors
- Regional Manager – have five personally recruited Managers
Recruited affiliates must have invested. It is unclear whether there are any other investment tier restrictions.
Referral Commissions
PerRank pays referral commissions on invested funds down three levels of recruitment (unilevel):
- level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) – 6%
- level 2 – 4%
- level 3 – 2%
ROI Match
PerRank pays a ROI match on returns paid down three levels of recruitment:
- 3% on level 1
- 2% on level 2
- 1% on level 3
Rank Achievement Bonuses
PerRank rewards affiliates for qualifying at Captain and higher with the following Rank Achievement Bonuses:
- qualify at Captain and receive $2000 AUD a month plus a free SVIP1 investment position for a year
- qualify at Supervisor and receive $8000 AUD a month plus a free SVIP2 investment position for a year
- qualify at Manager and receive $20,000 AUD a month plus a free SVIP3 investment position for a year
- qualify at Regional Manager and receive $80,000 AUD a month plus a free SVIP4 investment position for a year
Note that a single free SVIP investment position is upgraded as higher ranks are qualified for.
Joining PerRank
PerRank affiliate membership is tied to an initial $30 to $5100 investment.
Free and Trial tier affiliates must invest in an SVIP tier after two or five days respectively.
PerRank Conclusion
PerRank is the old “do a meaningless task” Ponzi model, run through cryptocurrency.
The nonsense behind SoBuy’s and PerRank’s Ponzi scheme is “virtual orders”.
The main business of the Sobuy platform is to help the four major e-commerce platform merchants increase their product sales and praise rates by placing virtual orders for the products with relatively low sales volume to increase product sales and visibility.
The e-commerce platform places product sales orders with the headquarters of the Sobuy platform.
The Sobuy platform will deliver the product to the task center on the platform.
VIP members on the Sobuy platform help complete product sales.
Sobuy will issue a part of the commission to the VIP members who help to complete the sales task.
Virtual orders are just to help products on the four major platforms increase sales and visibility, the product will not be shipped, and you do not need to spend any
money.The money for the purchase of the product will be paid by the SOBUY platform and will not cost your own money.
What this boils down to is clicking buttons and collecting a monthly return, paid daily.
PerRank’s Ponzi ruse falls apart upon consideration of a few points:
- generating virtual orders does absolutely nothing for an e-commerce platform, it is not a revenue generating activity
- as such, why would an e-commerce platform pay any entity for virtual orders
- if external revenue was being generated via e-commerce platforms, why do SoBuy/PerReve affiliates need to invest?
Things get even more ridiculous when you look at the companies SoBuy and PerRank represent are associated e-commerce platforms:
Amazon and Etsy… really?
SoBuy operated with an Australian spin, representing it was working with major Australian retailers:
In case it wasn’t abundantly clear: None of these companies have anything to do with SoBuy or PerRev.
If you’re particularly gullible, feel free to reach out to these companies and verify yourself.
With that out of the way, simple math explains why SoBuy lasted barely a few months.
That same math will guarantee PerRank collapses too. And typically reboot Ponzis don’t last as long as their predecessors, so we could be talking a few weeks.
PerRank’s website is too new for statistics but Alexa ranks traffic to SoBuy’s website domain as Mexico (37%), Honduras (27%) and the US (14%).
As with all MLM Ponzi schemes, once recruitment dries up, so too will new investment.
This will starve PerRank of ROI revenue, eventually prompting a collapse.
The math behind Ponzi schemes guarantees that when they collapse, the majority of participants lose money.
Update 13th June 2022 – PerRank has collapsed.