Is Crowd1 a Scam? | 4 Shady Reasons Why We Don’t Recommend it

Is Crowd1 a scam? In this Crowd1 review we’ll take a 100% unbiased evaluation of the company. But the question remains if it is profitable. Find out in this comprehensive take on the of this seemingly elusive and investing opportunity. Here we lay out eight shady reasons why we don’t recommend it – especially if you want to keep your hard-earned money safe.

Crowd1 Review Summary

Product Name: Crowd1

Founder/CEO Jonas Eric Werner

Products and Prices: 

$143-3,293

Rating: 11/100

Best For: None

Recommended: Not Recommended

What Is Crowd1 About: Crowd1 is a seemingly big MLM run by experienced MLM executives in Dubai.

Overall Rating: 5/100

Summary: Is Crowd1 a scam? Crowd1 goes between being an MLM but leans most likely to being a Ponzi scheme.

What is Crowd1 About?

Crowd1 presents itself as a “crowd-marketing” company that originated from Dubai. It is currently running very much like an MLM that focuses on recruitment, as they don’t really offer any valuable products but rather acts as an affiliate of other membership-based businesses like an e-gaming platform, a course-offering website, a hotel, and tour booking website.

Here is how Crowd1 sees and presents itself:

Is crowd1 a scam about us page

The company mainly relies on memberships and recruitment in order to generate income, which means that it is more focused on building a downline of other marketers rather than providing any real value. Because of this, Crowd1 has been receiving some criticism and has been accused of being a pyramid scheme.

So far, there is not much information about the company’s ownership or management. The website does not provide any clear information about who is running the show. This is a bit concerning, as it is always good to know who you are dealing with when joining an MLM company.

Is Crowd1 a scam? Or is it just the typical MLM?

Reality Behind Crowd1

Crowd1 has been around since early 2019, but it is still too early to tell whether it will be successful or not.

When asked if they are running a pyramid scheme, the former CEO of Crowd1 Johan Staël von Holstein said in an interview email “Our ambition is to build a fantastic long-term and sustainable company in line with all the laws and regulations that exist in all countries where we will operate.”

But truth is, as the company focuses more on recruitment rather than selling any actual products or services, this creates a problem in the long run, as it is not sustainable and could lead to the company collapsing. Crowd1 doesn’t offer any product unlike other MLMs but instead they offer a membership packages to new recruits. These membership packages is however not about Crowd1 itself but instead about the companies related to them like Miggster, LifeTRNDS, Mindoe, Planet IX.

Think of it this way, Crowd1 acts like a bridge to their other companies to supply them with people that would use their platforms. Now the question is why can’t these websites and platforms find users on their own? So is Crowd1 a scam and is it just bridging people towards a bigger scheme?

It’s very boggling and from a business stand point, it’s quite unusual that they would rely on a third-party on finding leads through organic reach is more profitable. By the end of this article I’ll let you know what I think is actually happening and why they need Crowd1 to gather users. But before that let’s first try to differentiate between what is a pyramid scheme, affiliate opportunity and what is a Ponzi scheme.

What is a Pyramid Scheme?

The most frequent sorts of firms that provide incentives for referrals are affiliate programs, multilevel marketing (MLM) organizations, and pyramid schemes. Let’s have a look at the three primary ones as well as what a Ponzi scheme is and on which Crowd1 qualifies later on in this article.

Affiliate marketing gives you access to bonuses if you’ve influenced others to buy the company’s products or services as a direct result of your efforts. A multi-level marketing (MLM) is a form of direct sales in which you not only recommend people to buy goods or services but also become their upline and earn a commission off the purchases made by those they have recruited. An MLM and a pyramid scheme is almost the same as it functions by recruiting people and getting them to have their own downlines for profit, but the greatest difference is that a pyramid scheme is usually illegal and unregistered.

A Ponzi scheme is like the ultimate scam as it does not only involve intense recruitment but it also promises high returns in investments and making people believe investing in them does not have any risk at all.

From my initial assessment Crowd is a recruitment-intensive program with an investment tie up and therefore can tread between being either an MLM , a pyramid scheme or a Ponzi.

So is Crowd1 a scam? Which do you think it is? Let’s explore further…

Is Crowd1 a Scam, a Pyramid Scheme, Or is it a ponzi?

Well, for us to see if Crowd1 is a pyramid scheme or a Ponzi scheme we will have to first look for its registration.

Why? Because all financial enterprises, no matter what currency they deal in, are required to be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the countries that they run their business on. Some businesses may claim that just because they are running their business through cryptocurrency, they may claim that it is supposed to be a decentralized system, it does not need to be regulated, but the truth is, they still need to registered to run the business in a certain country.

And mind you, a business registration is not the sole proof of a business’ legitimacy as most countries have other requirements especially is a business involves, investment, exchanges and securities. But why do companies need to be registered on governing bodies and not just have a business registration?

Think of this, what if a corporation decided to pull out all its assets? A business without registration and compliance to other requirements is therefore not liable to the losses of their users since the business cannot be associated to anyone. If a firm isn’t registered but wants to pocket every investment for its own gain, a company with both a company registration and an SEC recognition can be held liable for everything that was taken. I hope you now appreciate how important a SEC registration is to any trading or investing project you may undertake.

Even if you’re just earning money through referrals and clicks, it’s important to check the registration status of a firm when considering doing business with them.

TIP: It’s not enough for a business to merely claim and provide you documentation of its registration. Because most commercial registration data is public, and the majority of states and countries will have websites where you may check its status, it’s your responsibility to do your own research.

Now let’s start.

People behind Crowd1

The current frontrunner and CEO of Crowd1 is Jonas Eric Werner a Swedish national. He has previous ties to a failed MLM Spinglo/Synkronice which presented itself as an upcoming online networking platform tied up to stock market platform, an ecommerce store and an online gaming platform. If you will compare it to the current Crowd1 branding, you may find they Crowd1’s branding and offers is very reminiscent of Spinglo which you can find here:

Is crowd1 a scam old MLM, Synkronice, by crowd1 CEO

His name also comes up in connection to a company associated to big cryptocurrency scam, OneCoin.

Surprisingly, other people who are connected to previous scams and failed MLMs are mentioned in this new video that they posted on their Youtube account:

Here are some of the personalities who were present in the video and some of their designated positions:

Mr. Kenny Nordlund– Chief Networking Officer
Mr. Johan Westerdahl – CEO of Impact Crowd Technology
Mr. Jonathan Strom – Chief Operating Officer
Ms. Hanna Kimblad-
Chief Global Events

It would be worth noting that Mr. Nordlund was a co-founder of OPN-Sitetalk, a rebooted MLM (previously Unaico) that merged with OneCoin. And if you haven’t heard, OneCoin has been one of the biggest Ponzi scheme that proliferated from 2014-2016. Most likely, Mr. Werner and Mr. Norlund met each other through OPN-Sitetalk which you can read from this press release they had last 2013:

Is crowd1 a scam 2013 press release mentioning Kenny Nordlund and Jonas Werner

Surprisingly, Crowd1 seems to also be connected to other personalities that are associated to other MLMS and scams that crashed years ago. Here are some of them, their designated position/relation to Crowd1 and a failed MLMs and scams that they are associated with.

NamePosition/ Relation to Crowd1Associated failed MLMs/scams
Tor Anders PetteroeRegistered as adviser of ICT in Madrid together with Jonas WernerWas coined the The Pyramid King;
TOWAH (a company that allowed processing of payments of different scams)
 Sverker CaronChief Product Manager of Miggster (a gaming platform partner of Crowd1)EXE, Venyard

So is Crowd1 a scam? From the previous histories of its executives, I would most likely steer clear away from it. I don’t feel any security knowing that they have been part of previous failed financial ventures!

A Deeper Look Beyond Crowd1

Crowd1 has a recruitment-intensive business model that offers packages the centers on utilizing the partner companies’ products like Miggster. But the question is, is Crowd1 even registered?

According to Crowd1’s website, these countries mentioned below are the restricted countries by which they don’t operate in. We’re not sure if they haven’t just updated this one, but we’ve read of a few countries not mentioned below that they’re operating in.

Is crowd1 a scam list of countries whre Crowd1 is restricted

Since Crowd1 mentioned that they were incorporated in Dubai, I looked for their registration in UAE:

Is crowd1 a scam UAE company registration

Despite it being registered in Dubai, Crowd1 is currently banned and advised against by the following countries (links to the advisories included):

Russia
Paraguay
Norway
Philippines
New Zealand
Mauritius
Czech Republic
Cote d’Ivoire
Slovakia
Peru
South Africa

Namibia
Gabon
Vietnam
Hungary

Now we ask again, is Crowd1 a scam? From the list of countries banning it, I would have run away from it!

Partner Companies

Crowd1 has repetitively mentioned “Impact Crowd Technology” or ICT Group as their partner, with this we looked into the details of the said company. In their website here are the office locations that they mentioned:

Is crowd1 a scam Impact Crowd Technology website mentions Goteborg, Madrid, Benalmadena and Dubai as office locations

So out of curiousity I looked for their business registration in some of those place and here’s what I found, I found that Impact Crowd Technology has been dissolved since 2021 in Madrid:

Is crowd1 a scam ICT is dissolved since 2021

But interestingly there is another company that is associated to both Jonas Werner and Tor Anders Petteroe that is currently registered in Spain, and it can be easily swapped as the company behind ICT because it is running on the same initials, Influence Crowd Technology:

Is crowd1 a scam No information comes up about Impact Crowd Technology in Spain's public register of companies but Jonas Werner is found to be President of Influence Crowd Technologies

You can even see on the top part of the screenshot above that when you search for Impact Crowd Technology on their public register, there is Sin informacion or there is No information about it. Information that can be found on Infocif (website used on the screenshot above) covers the whole of Spain registration, therefore the information is for both in Madrid and Benalmadena.

For Sweden, I expected that they would have a business registration since their CEO and some of their high executives or Swedish. Thing is, there are quite a few companies registered in Sweden with Impact Crowd Technology on their brand, not sure if one of these is their registration or if they own them all:

Is crowd1 a scam Impact Crowd Technology's company registration can be found in sweden

Next I checked if they are registered in Dubai on the UAE public registry of companies:

Is crowd1 a scam Impact Crowd Technology not registered in dubai

Turns out that Impact Crowd Technology is not registered in Dubai! I even searched using Influence Crowd and ICT but there wasn’t any registered company that comes up. It’s no wonder that Crowd1 has been seemingly changing Impact Crowd Technology’s branding as just a mere “ICT group”. Now we wonder why Mr. Johan Westerdahl the ICT group CEO mentioned in the video uploaded never bothered to change the website information of their office locations.

If you’ll go through the different country advisories about Crowd1, some of them included and mentioned Impact Crowd Technology.

So if you are not wary about Crowd1 despite all the advisories against them, well then that would be your personal choice. Do you really want to be victimized by such an grand ploy to steal your hard-earned money?

If you’re standing your ground on the belief that Crowd1 is a profitable venture, then I hope you read on so I can help you open your eyes more. Is Crowd1 a scam? I hope by now you have a close answer to that!

What does Crowd1Offer?

So here are the starter packages that they offer and the featured products (products of partner companies):

Is crowd1 a scam Starter Packages of Crowd 1
Starter Packages, lowest package (not seen) is £109 or $143
Is crowd1 a scam Featured products of Crowd 1
Featured Products

You’ll see that what Crowd1 actually offers are package memberships for the use of their partner websites/companies. Nothing that’s really too valuable!

Interestingly, they have additional offers like Loyalty Points, LinkMe and SoMe. Loyalty Points are like the keys to upgrade your membership or more likely having more perks as an upline; LinkMe is presented as a digital business card, or where you can easily store links of your social accounts; and SoMe is like a all-social-media-app where you can monitor your different platforms.

And I find these offers quite alarming. I don’t like the idea of a platform where you’ll give access to your other social accounts… because this is an easy scheme to steal your information and/or your identity!

Now the question is, is Crowd1 an MLM? Or is Crowd1 a scam – like a Ponzi?

Well for me, I don’t think Crowd1 is an MLM. MLMs are usually registered as business and complies with need requirements before they sell anything or ask people to invest in them. The thing with Crowd1 is that even if they have a registration for a certain country, they seem to skip compliance to the government bodies that is responsible for Securities.

My fellow writer, Louee, has mentioned that she found a company registration of Crowd1 in the public register of companies in the Philippines, BUT it lacks a secondary license needed for it to be allowed to offer investment opportunities.

Is crowd1 a scam crowd1 is registered as a company in the Philippines
Business registration of Crowd1 in the Philippines

This is the reason why people looking to invest should always investigate further.
This case in the Philippines is a good example since, the primary SEC registration only covers the trade of physical products any business that is looking to offer investments (like the Starter Packages) needs a secondary license to legally operate. When she looked for Crowd1 in the public register for a secondary license, here is what she found:

Is crowd1 a scam crowd1 has no secondary license, therefore, not allowed to offer investments in the Philippines

This is the reason why it was banned in the Philippines. So for all the countries that has advised against Crowd1 I hope that you listen to your government advisory.

If you’re still at the fence when I ask “is Crowd1 a scam?” and you still deny the fact that it’s most likely a risky and unprofitable venture, well, that would only mean that you’re willingly letting yourself become a victim, right?

Can you make money with Crowd1?

Maybe you would, especially as you continuously recruit. But do you really want to pull people in into an obvious scheme of ripping off from new members? Truth is, in every MLM and Ponzi scheme, the early adopter are the only ones who actually savor great profits!

Crowd1 Review: Pros and Cons

Pros

  • None

Cons

  • Lots of countries has advised against and warned about Crowd1 and its affiliated companies
  • They don’t comply/register on securities and finance governing bodies to legally operate
  • Executives have histories of failed MLMs and association with grand scams
  • Not an MLM as they don’t offer any product or service of their own. Only products and services of partner companies.
  • Affiliated company, Impact Crowd Technology is dissolved and are not registered on the locations they mentioned on its website.

Crowd1 Reviews and Testimonials

Is Crowd1 a scam? Here is what other people think about it!

Trustpilot Reviews:

While it’s hard to discern the authenticity of Trustpilot reviews, let’s take a bird eye view of their Trustpilot profile. It was shown that their profile was claimed just last 2020, and here is an quick view of the volume of comments for the last few months:

Is crowd1 a scam trustpilot reviews, mostly bad per month

Is Crowd1 A Scam?

While Crowd1 presents its business structure akin to an MLM it seems like we can’t fully associate it with that since they don’t offer any product or service of their own and are rather focusing on the recruitment part of the trade.

Also while Crowd1 has a company registration in Dubai, and possibly in other countries just like Norway, Philippines, New Zealand, etc., a company registration is not enough as they should also comply and register on finance governing bodies on each country. They have failed to do this – or are they just continuously disregarding it?

Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a user or member of Crowd1 myself and I do not endorse it in any way.

In this Crowd1 Review I have researched the website, testimonials, and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what Crowd1 genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn Ways to Avoid Online Scams then click the highlighted text. 

So is Crowd1 a scam? Honestly, I think it is a Ponzi Scheme. Backed by the country advisories against it, plus the histories of its executives and the seemingly fishy and non-valuable services offered by affiliated companies, it seems like Crowd1 is only in it to get people to join and make them believe that the company is legitimate and bound for greatness.

What I Like About Crowd1

I actually don’t like anything about it.

4 reasons why you should avoid Crowd1

  • Lots of warning and advisories against it.
  • Affiliated company, Impact Crowd Technology, is not registered in countries they mentioned on their website.
  • Services/ products of partner companies are not valuable enough to aspire any membership
  • Company is not regulated/registered by finance and security governing institutions to legally offer investments to people

My Final Verdict: Is Crowd1 a Scam?

Crowd1 looks and smells like a Ponzi scheme. Not only is the membership offer quite useless, but it’s also unprofitable in the long run. Only when Crowd1 has actually complied with the requirement of regulating financial institutions, to formally offer investment options for their members is the only time that we’ll reevaluate our verdict.

As Crowd1 continues to ignore and disregard government bodies that regulate investments and financial security offers, our verdict will stand as:

IS CROWD1 A SCAM? Well it is with conviction that I’ll say that CROWD1 is a Ponzi scheme waiting to collapse.

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Patricia or Patch Hammerson has been writing for 14 years now and a seasonal guest blogger of EFYL. She’s passionate about photography and content creation. She’s most likely doing photowalks around NW8 when she’s not working.

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Crowd1

$143-3,293
1.1

Credibility

0.1/10

Income Opportunity

3.0/10

Reliability

0.1/10

Price

2.0/10

Business Model

0.1/10

Pros

  • None

Cons

  • Countries have advised against and warned about Crowd1 and affiliated companies
  • They don't comply/register on securities and finance governing bodies to legally operate
  • Executives have histories of failed MLMs and association with grand scams
  • Not an MLM as they don't offer any product or service of their own.
  • Lots of countries has advised against and warned about Crowd1 and its affiliated companies They don't comply/register on securities and finance governing bodies to legally operate Executives have histories of failed MLMs and association with grand scams Not an MLM as they don't offer any product or service of their own. Only products and services of partner companies. Affiliated company, Impact Crowd Technology is dissolved and are not registered on the locations mentioned on website.

4 thoughts on “Is Crowd1 a Scam? | 4 Shady Reasons Why We Don’t Recommend it”

  1. Thank you very much. I believe I will refer this article to a few people I know who are thinking about making this investment. I am normally quite skeptical of any business that does not provide an actual product.

    This Crowd1 is a high-risk investment, and based on what you’ve written, anyone who decides to invest in them after reading such a lengthy write-up about them do so at their own risk.

    Before making any investment, I would advise folks to conduct extensive study. There is no such thing as a risk-free investment; every investment entails some level of risk. It is up to the individual to determine if such a risk is worthwhile.

    Femi

    • Hey Femi,
      Thank you very much for reading my honest Crowd1 review.
      I agree with your concerns raised that readers should consider in making the best decision for themselves.
      Thanks for chiming in!

  2. Wow. A lot of research has gone into this article. This is usually the big problem. People often do not take the time to really look into it or maybe do not even know how to. Often all it takes is to have good sales copy to convince people to sign up, regardless whether you are a legitimate company or not or can even deliver on the promises laid out in the sales copy.

    My brother told me the other day about a software he bought online that did not even work at all and not at all as advertised. He had to fight to get his money back as they said the 30 day money back guarantee is not a no questions asked 30 day money back guarantee. You should have proof of how you tried to use it etc. So my brother showed them proof and challenged them to show him how they can make this work, as it does not work at all and none of the claims they make in their sales copy are true at all. Luckily he paid through PayPal and got his money back through PayPal. While the PayPal dispute was still going on they already deleted my brother’s account as well. When he reported that to PayPal then PayPal said in this case we will just stop the investigation right here and refund your money immediately.

    It is such a shame that there are so much fraud out there online and that everything should be so closely investigated before being able to make a buying decision.

    • Hi Schalk,
      Thank you very much for reading my honest Crowd1 review.
      Yes I agree with you that the sales copy on the sales page is often used as a lure to trap people.
      Also that people don’t take the time or don’t know how to research and uncover all the risks before they dive in.

      Thanks for sharing about your brother and the bad experience he had with buying from an over-promised sales page. I agree that the Buyer Protection feature on PayPal is very useful and should be used for any courses or software bought online.

      Seriously Schalk and all readers, in terms of making money online or making money from home, personally I would much rather build a real online business that helps people than this highly risky “opportunity” (seemingly big MLM but is potentially a ponzi scheme). Instead why not go for fact based, proven since 2005 and a lot more quality (Training, tools, mentoring, community & support) and for reasonable pricing. This is why I recommend this over all others. And yes you have read that there is no need for any credit card information to create a free account to see if it suits your style.

      My pleasure to help you, John

Comments are closed.