SEC Shuts Down $600 Million ZeekRewards
Even more important, can you really make money as an active affiliate for ZeekRewards or is it a complete waste of time, energy and money?
Let’s take a hard, close, unbiased look – then you can make up your own mind if this getting involved is right for you and your family.
Zeek Rewards Review
Zeekler.com and ZeekRewards.com are both owned and operated by Rex Venture Group LLC, an online subsidiary of Lighthouse America. The company was established on June 24, 1997 and is incorporated in the state of Nevada.
This makes the “mothership” 15 years old which lends a lot of credibility and stability right from the start.
So far so good.
BUT if you venture over to check out their BBB.org rating… things start going downhill pretty fast. They actually score an “F” where the top score is an A+.
Of course you can’t read “zeek reward scam” into this poor Better Business Bureau rating but it might be cause for you to sharpen your due diligence pencil and take a closer look.
From the company web site we learn they are located in Lexington, NC and operate a number of dedicated servers from a Miami, Florida based NOC.
Is Zeek Rewards a Scam?
Depends entirely on who you ask, I suppose.
Venture over to Ripoff Report and you’ll find a few complaints filed but you will also find a lot more raving reviews from both Zeekler.com customers and ZeekRewards.com affiliates who are making money.
Not a lot of money, mind you (in most cases)… but this is true for literally every business or profession across the planet. There are always the tiny minority who get in, get busy and produce a magnificent result… and the majority who get in, do little or nothing and then complain about how it doesn’t work!
Strictly speaking, however, a “scam” is defined as:
Noun 1. scam – a fraudulent business scheme
Now that Zeek Rewards has been shut down for securities fraud – guess we have to admit it DID fit the bill here.
So what is the moral of the story here? The moral is… despite the evidence and despite doing your due diligence – a lot of companies will “go down” for whatever reason. Knowing this, why not focus on create MULTIPLE streams of income versus putting all of your eggs in one basket? That way, heaven forbid, one of the companies fall like Zeek just did – it may be a bummer but it is not catastrophic.
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{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the writeup on Zeekler, Rob. I appreciate the unbiased review. But, I appreciate even more the fact that you focused attention on the importance of having an effective plan of action. That is key to success in any business and any industry.
Hey Freddy – thanks for stopping by. Yeah, I’m confident zeekrewards is a great program but there are a lot of great programs wherein the major of people do not make any money. Not through fault of the company, product or comp plan but due solely to a lack of marketing skills. So everyone really should pay more attention to the HOW first before they sign up.
Hi Rob….Looks like you Zeeks is really powerful and growing. I have tried to listen your recordings but for some reasonno sound…maybe my laptop…but anyways CONGRATS on your growing business. I have been infor 1 month today and have made $67 not bad for the beginning. Now I have to find a way to sponsor. I will look into Youtube videos, this should help out…Again Congrats !!!
Rob,
I always enjoy the content on your blog. You always get straight to the point of what people want to know.
I agree that no matter what the program, marketing is the key ingredient. For those willing to put in the time to learn how to market as well as having the correct mindset and conditioning their mind for wealth, they will see success.
Karen
Karen – it has always struck me as odd that a lot of people will get caught up in the HYPE and INCOME POTENTIAL of a particular program without really thinking it through how THEY intend to market and promote. I mean, have any of us really seen a product or service sell itself? Really?! So I really do encourage people to study what it means to embrace the art and science of marketing FIRST before joining any program to see if they really want to go down that road. Thanks again for sharing.
Hello Rob,
I am somewhat intrigued by Zeek but not confident enough in the company to invest. However, the way they sell it…if you put in money up front. Say 10K…and re-invest the daily 1.5% earnings…then within 6 months you will have 50,000 bids that translate to dollars that you can remove. At this junction (6 mos in) removing just 20% of your daily earnings, you will be profiting 4500.00 monthly – that’s the numbers and how it works – not bad in 6 mos with 10k upfront. I know several folks that are making it very well in Zeek for doing nothing….just posting an add once a day and referring 2 customers and there is even a service that you can pay to automate that. You literally never have to do anything. Here is my problem (I am interested in your take)..I was ready to invest the 10k and their servers went down…they were down for almost 2 weeks. I investigated a little and discovered that it is hosted in a data center owned by a friend of one of the owners and they are constantly having issues with the traffic (data connection) In addition to that…the code it is programed in is very old spagetti code from the owners previous business. What reliable company would tolerate 2 weeks of downtime, I am a systems analyst myself, major upgrades are always done in tandem cutting over from a live system to the new. It just seems like a shoestring operation. And, more importantly, the payouts are consistantly 1.5% daily….now with auctions funding that…the payouts would vary more from day to day. I believe it is being funded by people that come in and buy bids… Like I said, 10K is the max you can buy and is what they push. I think it truly does fit the definition of a pyramid. And that is not coming from someone that thinks MLM’s are pyramids. I just think there are a lot of red flags….good money can be made but someone will be left getting stuck eventually. I am interested why you would not promote it.
Kevin – you have obviously taken a much closer look at the “how” people make money with this program even if they do not sponsor, recruit and build a team. But now that you have shared what you shared… personally… I would not touch the program with a ten foot pole. Why? Because 5-6 years ago their were a lot of similar type programs online called “DOUBLERS”. These worked the same way you are describing. You would invest some moneies to “buy advertising units” or some other digital product that had no real cost… and by simply doing that… you would earn 1.5% daily return or whatever. So you could double your money in 3-4 months literally doing nothing.
Eventually these all got shut down as being illegal. Not to say zeek is illegal… but I wouldn’t personally take the change. Not worth it. Better to pick a company with a proven track record.
Thanks Rob,
We are on the exact same page here! It is just nice to get confirmation from someone such as yourself though and that was what I was looking for. Yes, I looked real close for a long time and almost pulled the trigger. Just too many red flags in my opinion. Of course, something for nothing sounds attractive to be sure and it might work that way (for a while)…but, as we both know…that’s not how the world works. And, to be honest, I would rather work for it as stupid as that sounds.
Aloha Rob,
Great post. Fair and objective. I read it with interest because I recently signed up with ZeekRewards after looking into it with a good friend of mine.
You’re right, it does come down to marketing and your own efforts. My sponsor joined at just the diamond level ($99/month) and in the last 3 months has brought in 14-15 people. He’s earned just under $5,000 in these 3 months. His sponsor has been in since January and has brought in about 50-60 people. He’s earned nearly $200K since January, and now averaging about $3K/day, primarily from the daily profit-sharing.
These results aren’t typical obviously as you pointed out.
I’ve been in about a week and haven’t sponsored anyone yet because I haven’t started marketing it yet. But I’m still making money (albeit, just a little at this point) every day by placing the one free ad/day required to participate in daily profit-sharing. Not a bad deal
So it seems that everyone can make a little money no matter what if they’re willing to be consistent in placing their Ad/day, and those that really want to pound it out can make an awful lot more.
Great post. You’re absolutely right, it comes down to our own efforts and ability to market, not just how good the company is.
Have a great day!
‘Doc Seth’
~husband, dad, elevator~
Hey Doc – thank you so much for sharing.
Marketing is the key, plain and simple and there is no easy answer for the question: “What is the best way to market?” since that will be different for everyone. But if a person simply MAKES A DECISION and sticks with it – they can make money in any opportunity. If someone is making money – then YOU can make money. If you are willing to put in the time and effort.
I’m finding alot of raving reviews online about Zeek Rewards, but the sad truth of it is that the average person won’t make any money. Don’t believe me? Try this, go somewhere like inetgiant and search on penny auctions, you get back thousands of postings, that’s what you’re competing against.
After 17 days of placing 50-100 ads a day, I didn’t get 1 hit. Not one person was interested in penny auctions. I only wanted to test drive this for a month at the lowest member level.
And then I found out it’s impossible to cancel a subscription with Zeek Rewards. If you call their Help Desk, you always have 99 people ahead of you and then at some point your call gets dropped. Live chat is the same, you have about 99 people ahead of you, then the chat box disappears and then reappears only to ask if you would like to initiate chat, eventually it just stops appearing. So needless to say, their customer support is terrible.
And if you’re curious, my sponsor just told me to call the help desk to cancel and never heard back from him again.
So all in all, the only people making any money are the sponsors. I”ve come to the conclusion that any company that has “sponsors” of any kind, is a company to stay away from, cause it’s some sort of pyramid scheme, and only the people at the top make any kind of money.
Thanks for sharing, Stan.
Hey Rob,
It’s been really interesting since I started in MLM and I was definitely one of those people who did NOT have a long-term plan for growth. I don’t know much about ZeekRewards (for some reason, their business model seems complicated), but I know that for ANY business you need to be prepared for when your warm market (or “easier” market) is depleted. “Effective Marketing” takes some work to learn, but I truly believe anybody can learn it. Thanks for bringing this to everyone’s attention!
Take care,
Phil
Phil – hey, thanks for stopping by. You are right – marketing is the name of the game and it something everyone can learn.
Hi Rob,
I have recently come across a lady who was absolutely passionate about ZeekRewards.
From your excellent review, it does seem like an interesting business model. However, I could not agree more with you about the “HOW CAN YOUGOING TO MARKET?” challenge!
Whichever network marketing business that we are in, the leads are the live bloods!
Great insights, Rob! I appreciate you
Viola Tam
Good honest review Rob.
Zeek is a different animal no question.
I am a 56 year young guy from Toronto who fought hard through information overload and learned marketing (always learning still) online.
I come from Old school Amway before the internet where I did well.
I’ve looked at many programs and tried some….I do my home work before I start any program.
Due deligence.
My sponsors in Zeek are million dollar earners in two other MLMs before the internet.
They don’t do programs that are scams nor do I.
I’m not a “grasshoper on steroids” jumping from one thing to the next thinking that if I don’t make it it’s the programs fault.
I’ve made my fist 50k online which took 5 years.
So you know I’m 5 months into Zeek Rewards and yes started as a skeptic like in all programs.
I didn’t think putting 10k in to start was smart as some have done and don’t get why one would.
I’ve eased my way up and did not tell anyone about this until I knew for sure it’s honest.
Now I recruit but I don’t tell folks “Hey get in and do nothing.”
That’s retardation in full bloom Rob.
Lastly Zeek pays every week …week in ,week out like clockwork for me and the vast majority of affiliates.
My income grows daily as my sponsors said it would and no I’m not going to make 10 million dollars this year doing nothing…haha.
Every program takes work.
The only free cheese is in the mouse trap!
Thanks for sharing, Nicholas. Lots of wisdom there…
I agree Nicholas. Good stuff there.
I also think that Zeek gave the entire MLM biz a black eye in how they conducted their business. Up line Sponsors were constantly calming the waters trying to sooth their down-lines nerves and anxiety over website failures, payment processing, lack of response from their online help desk, etc… I kept asking “why don’t they just … “stop talking about the problems and shut up, shut down … and FIX IT !”
I also think you can do your due dilligence … and later get a black eye. I hear Amyway’s/Quixstar/Amway and several other MLM companies have done that to alot of people. So, the only safe way is to INVEST in yourself and control your OWN Business. Create something NEW that you’re passionate about and then learn how to market and sell it “yourself” to people who need and want to buy it. Right?
I have been in network marketing for 38 years and personally I believe all MLM, including Zeek Rewards are based on the same basic philosophy. Compounding. Any way you look at it, all programs worldwide use variations of the same model. some are based more on personal use products which require less people and more volume, and others are based on more people and less personal volume. Zeek and other programs like them are based on the collective. These profit sharing pools allow everyone to share into a collective profit and the collective of members contribute to a fair share for all in the collective. You might say Zeek is kind of a socialist style of marketing while more traditional MLM’s are designed so that only the productive profit. A more true free enterprise model. The only negative I could find is that socialism ALWAYS self-destructs over time as the non-productive eventually become a drain on the productive and the model collapses. Look at the situation in Greece and you will find the comparison accurate.
Wow, Kevin – never heard the concept of “socialism” shared within the network marketing arena but you are spot on. Food for thought. Thanks for that…
I think your review is missing a couple of key questions. First, why is Zeek Rewards even paying people thousands or even hundreds of dollars a day for posting one spam ad a day? Rather than paying affiliates to post ads that no one ever reads, wouldn’t it make more sense to hire an actual ad agency?
Second, if you do the math, someone who starts out with $10,000 and invests 100% of their earnings every month, they would make enough to pay off the national debt in approximately 8 years.
Third, if penny auctions are experiencing exponential growth, then why would they even need affiliates to continue spamming ads?
They fact that people are currently making money does not mean that this is a legitimate company. It could simply be a ponzi as older affiliates are paid by newer affiliates. I suggest that anyone interested in investing in Zeek Rewards do their due diligence before investing.
I’m reading the blog and I like that nobody is being a jerk. Everyone here is “talking” and putting out their opinion. Very refreshing. A close friend told me about this last week and it is interesting but MLM stuff always smells like a ripe fish. That’s why we check out discussion sites like this. A few questions come to mind.
1. If I put in $100 I was told I have 100 penny bids that are given away to people that are on an opt in list (if I pay them to place them). That gets them started. But how many really start buying bid? It costs a dollar to buy one penny bid. If the item goes for 2 dollars that means that there ar 200 penny bids at a dollar each or $200 generated. That’s how the massive amounts of money are generated to pay 50% commissions and to pay for the sold items. Is that right? But how many people pay a dollar per bid? I would not. That’s a lot of money to risk just to get outbid.
2. How much of the bidding is from new people like I would be, placing my $100 and how much is coming from real people buying bids?
3. What if no new people like me came in placing their money and providing others with bid money? Are there enough real people out there spending money buying bids to keep this going or is it a Ponzi type feeding off of new people only?
Just asking.
Jim – I really don’t have the answers to your questions as I do not participate in Zeekrewards BECAUSE of those types of questions. I simply cannot see how this company/product/comp plan can sustain itself and it has already been revealed the company has been buying/using or spending the bids or something. I know people who are making money but that doesn’t mean it is a stable business that will be here for the long term.
Rob – you may not participate in Zeek rewards – but the first item that I viewed when I visited your blog was an advertisment for a very similiar type of business, which make me seriously question both your incentives and credibility
Advertising for products similiar to those you review is not good business because it can lead to a biased view of the product
Jack – I would agree with you in most cases but in this case we reviewed Zeek Rewards before deciding to participate in another program. And, frankly, anyone who does a “review” is offering you a biased opinion – theirs! There are a lot of people making a lot of money in ZeekReward, Bidify and other penny auction programs by either participating passively or by promote the program. All of those may or may not be good programs. We decided to go with another program which does not add or detract from our Zeek Rewards review. What we shared is what we shared.
people should watch out for this company because I can clearly call it it a scam. I sent Zeek 5 money orders, total amount $4500, but I have yet to see those funds posted on my personal page . I tracked the funds and yes, they have received and cashed the money orders. So yes the company is a scam…
Stay tuned to the NC Attorney General for news on how to recoup some if not most of your money. It may take time, but we all hope to come through. Follow zeekrewardsupdates.blogspot.com for updates
Dear Zeek Reward Afliates, So sorry to see another bunch of hardworking individuals have their source of income and dreams crushed. This has happened to me before in the past and i made a great recovery so despair not. Keep the faith. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
I just read your blog and I too appreciate the need to do due diligence for any all financial and income opportunities. Before I delved into ZEEK REWARDS, I checked out their business model with serveral friends of mine who have their own businesses. Though sceptical at first, they all agreed it looked as if the business model was workable. I am privy to some current info which very soon will be disseminated on several media fronts. The SEC will shortly be admitting they are having a lot of difficulty in finding any individuals who were harmed in their dealings with Zeek Rewards and are unable to find a security that was in violation of SEC regulations. I am extremely hopeful that Zeek Rewards will be exhonerated and made whole again in the next few months. Thanks to you and all respondees for your thoughts and considerations on the need to do your homework and the understanding that marketing is the true key to any business’ success.
Thanks for sharing. One of the challenges is “we never know” if or when a company may have challenges. One of the things we teach and preach is to create multiple streams of income in the event one of them goes down it is a bummer but not catastrophic.
Sorry…. for all of you why the zeekrewards doesn’t work? in future will it work ? i want know about it….. its very important….
You’re a little late to the party Sherif – Zeek has been shut down the SEC.
It’s March 2013. There’s a sucker born every not minute .. every second. After reading many of these reviews from 2012 my statement is verified. These guys like MOVIEMAN are eating their words about Zeek Rewards today. It’s been shut down and losses to investors has amounted to over $600 million. When will people learn to run from such schemes before they’re suck of all their hard earned money?
The challenge, Acklafan, is if the company had been doing what they SAID they were doing… it would have been a legal, viable business. But they were NOT doing what they said they were doing. That’s the challenge. How do you know? How do you sift the good from the bad. It’s pretty much impossible.
I don’t personally participate in Zeek Rewards. This was simply a review. For sponsoring, see MLSP as they offer the best program available to help you learn how to generate leads online.
Yep, one of the things we teach is to “Build a business, not just a downline” because companies come and go. Create multiple streams of income from a variety of sources and you’ll pretty much protect yourself from future let downs.
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