Crowd1 Ponzi Scheme

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Crowd1

Crowd1 promotes itself as not being an investment, and yet the only thing available for purchase appears to be expensive membership plans. They have no product or external revenue. While the site still appears to be online at the moment, their business model is not sustainable and has already been flagged by multiple regulators.

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

About Crowd1

"Crowd1 was founded by Jonas Erik Wener in mid 2019." "Crowd1 is currently being heavily promoted across Russia, Azerbaijan and Qatar." "Crowd1 provides no information on their website about who owns or runs the business."

"Crowd1 is an established online social community and marketing company registered in Dubai, UAE, that connects people to each other around the world, at the same time as giving them exclusive access to a range of marketable products and services. Crowd1 has been a pioneer of online crowd marketing since 2019 and since then we have seen an exponential expansion of our worldwide community, from zero to almost thirty million people in under three years. We are on every continent but Antarctica, we translate our message into ten languages. We are wholly global, proudly diverse, genuinely inclusive."

"You can join the movement in one of three ways, as a customer, as a member or as an entrepreneur. To avoid any confusion: Crowd1 is not an investment, nor a get rich-quick scheme. It is, however, an opportunity to use great products and to start your own business for anyone wanting to grow both personally and professionally."

"Crowd1 does not sell or offer products of its own. We market the products and services of other companies and we provide passionate and dedicated digital entrepreneurs access to a platform with a library of unbeatable offerings and a worldwide crowd." "Let's kickstart your professional journey with Crowd1 by taking a closer look at our great starter packages. In each package you'll find a business toolkit containing premium education apps, SaaS credits, CRM tools and more."

"Crowd1 is an established crowd marketing company based in the UAE with the mission of giving members all over the world the opportunity to take part in the digital economy, provide quality education, and to contribute to achieving more equal opportunities worldwide. "

"It is completely free to join Crowd1. However, you always need a sponsor's link. With that link you can then go on to browse the C-Store and explore all our great products as a customer. If you would like to get more involved you can recommend the products to others as a Member. You can also decide to grow your own crowd as an entrepreneur. Members and entrepreneurs are called Affiliates of Crowd1. To avoid any confusion, Crowd1 is not an investment scheme in any shape or form."

"Crowd1 has no retailable products or services, with affiliates only able to market Crowd1 affiliate membership itself."

"Supposedly, Crowd1 generates revenue through online gambling." "Currently the most profitable industry is the gaming industry." " "Crowd1 shall introduce our customer base to this industry in a way that will create substantial recurring revenue for Crowd1 members without being a gaming company and without arranging any payments to a gaming company." "Naturally no information about any of the supposed gaming partners Crowd1 has is provided. Yet despite that, the company simultaneously touts accumulated returns of 450%."

"As it stands the only verifiable source of revenue entering Crowd1 is new investment." "Using new investment to pay owner rights share returns to existing affiliates would make Crowd1 a Ponzi scheme."

"BBC Africa Eye has premiered a documentary exposing Crowd1 as a failed Ponzi scheme."

"To date regulators from no less than fourteen jurisdictions have taken action against Crowd1." "Russia is the sixteenth jurisdiction to take regulatory action against Crowd1." "Other countries to issue Crowd1 fraud notices include Peru, New Zealand, Mauritius, South Africa, the Philippines, Norway, Namibia, Paraguay, Gabon, Vietnam, Cote d’Ivoire, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic."

This is a global/international case not involving a specific country.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

• Known history of when and how the service was started.
• What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
• What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
• Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
• Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
• How were people recruited to participate?
• Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

• Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
• Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - Crowd1 Ponzi Scheme

Date	Event	Description
November 2nd, 2020	Main Event	Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Technical Details

This section includes specific detailed technical analysis of any security breaches which happened. What specific software vulnerabilities contributed to the problem and how were they exploited?

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost is unknown.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

General Prevention Policies

Experienced cryptocurrency users can typically tell what's fraudulent, however this takes practice, so it's always best for new participants to err on the side of caution, and avoid investing in most services.

To prevent such ponzi schemes, our framework provides that 2 industry reviews should be conducted of each proposed new service, by knowledgeable organizations. Regular reviews should also be conducted to ensure that all customer assets are fully backed, which prevents ponzi schemes since the key component is that funds are no longer backed.

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.