MOBE Has Been Shutdown By The FTC – Here’s Why

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Is this a good thing? 

Is MOBE really a scam?

The answer is yes and yes. At least in my opinion. But my opinion doesn’t matter. On the other hand, FTC’s (Federal Trade Commission) opinion does matter. And according to the FTC, MOBE is a scam. How big of a scam? Over $125 million. That’s the amount of money they managed to take (i should better say steal) from thousands of unsuspected people.

Actually, the FTC called MOBE “a fraudulent business education program” that was claiming their training course would enable people to start their own online business and earn a lot of money quickly from internet marketing. You can read everything the FTC has to say about MOBE right here.

At the time of writing this post, there is a TRO (temporary restraining order) in place until September 13,2018. The Preliminary Injunction Hearing is also scheduled to September 13, 2018, when hopefully the fate of MOBE will be decided.

MOBE is a scamAs you may already know or even if you don’t know everything started on June 4th when the FTC filed the civil suit against MOBE. The reason for that was because MOBE violated Section 5(a) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a) “which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce”. In plain English, it means that MOBE used misleading advertisement and claims. Specifically social media ads, online advertisements and live events telling people they can easily make a substantial income online. Also, deceptive refund practices and false “money back guarantees” like telling people they would give them back $500 if they failed to make any money with their system.

In my opinion, the FTC should have shutdown MOBE years ago. They’ve been using deceptive marketing tactics to promote themselves for such a long time. I explain below how MOBE was promoted online by some of their affiliates. The truth is there were a number of warning signs and plenty of negative reviews regarding MOBE online. But anyone who dared to say anything bad (the truth actually) was very often attacked and called a scammer by some of their members. The usual accusation was that you are just bashing MOBE so you can promote your own training program. At least now we know who was telling the truth.

We should all keep that in mind. As for now, it looks like MOBE is shut down for good and not coming back. FTC won’t issue a TRO unless there is a good reason. It means they have plenty of evidence from multiple sources and that’s why it is highly unlikely MOBE will come back from that.

You can read more and learn all the latest developments at the receivers website who has taken charge of MOBE. So, if you want to follow up on the case or learn if you can get your money back you should visit his website. Here is the link.

A Quick Reminder Of What MOBE Was

In case, you’ve never heard of MOBE before (that’s a good thing) here is a small summary of what it was:

“My Online Business Education” or MOBE was a high ticket online business coaching program. Its founder name is Matthew Lloyd McPhee also known as Matt Lloyd. MOBE claimed they could teach people how to build their own online business and earn money online. Thousands of dollars in commissions actually. Matt Lloyd claimed that members can “realistically generate $100,000” in their first year.

They also claimed they had a proven system for making money easily and quickly through internet marketing if you joined their program. The initial price was $49. A relatively small amount of money but that was only the beginning. Once you were in you were asked to spend more money and buy upsells that costed thousands of dollars. So, essentially the $49 was just the bait to lure people in.

Most people just didn’t know how much MOBE really cost. After all, it was not clear on their website how much money you would have to pay to access all their training and buy all their memberships. A number of people thought $49 was all they had to pay to start making money online. The memberships (upsells) ranged from $2,497 up to $29,997. Of course, there was no guarantee that you would ever earn your money back. If you wanted to buy all their memberships you would have to pay more than $60,000.

The 21-step course that cost $49 and was their core training was just the first step. Once you did that you were assigned a “business coach” to help you and unlock certain steps for you. Coaches main objective was to push members to buy expensive memberships and promote MOBE. Not to help them build an online business.

Here is a list of their memberships and prices:

  • Silver: $2,497 
  • Gold : $4,997 
  • Titanium: $9,997 + $199 per month 
  • Platinum: $16,667 + $299 per month 
  • Diamond: $29,997 + $299 per month 

According to the FTC, some individuals lost as much as $60,000 or more. It is more than obvious that their products are ridiculously overpriced. Of course, if you wanted to earn commissions you had to buy the memberships first. So, if you wanted to make a lot of money, thousands of dollars in commissions with just one sale like MOBE said you also had to spend a lot of money in advance. They were always trying to convince people they would earn a lot of money by buying higher membership levels.

That was the business model MOBE was using. Recruiting new members. MOBE’s training was focused on teaching you how to resell these memberships. In theory, you could use their digital products to build your own online business but in reality, people were pushed and told they had to buy higher levels of memberships and promote MOBE. Because that was the way to earn high commissions and not by starting your own business. Also, their products were designed to promote MOBE and make money for MOBE, the coaches, and the recruiters.

In my opinion, MOBE’s members were the actual product. At every step of the way MOBE was making money from them and the whole system was designed to make as much money as they could from each member. Not for their members to make money. In the end, the facts speak for themselves. The majority of MOBE’s members never made any profit. They just lost their money. Only a few people made money and of course Matt Lloyd (the owner).

If you want to read the TRO click here. You’ll learn some very interesting things about how MOBE was operating. For example, read the first paragraph of the second page.

MOBE is shut down by the FTC

Warnings Signs

  • Coaches. I should better say, salesperson. That was all coaches in MOBE were doing. Trying to sell you higher memberships and earn a commission for themselves. Programs like MOBE advertise personal coaching as one of their key features. They tell you that upon joining their program a business coach or mentor will always be there for you. To help you, to assist you, to guide you, to answer your questions and things like that. All lies. They are there to convince you to buy. Personal coaching never works when your coach can make money from you. Because that’s all they care about. Not if you’ll make any money. Personal coaching can only work if there is no way for the coach to make any more money from a new member. There are a number of programs that also do the same thing. 
  • The way MOBE was promoted by some of their members. Their affiliates created a number of websites promoting MOBE under different names. They were claiming you could start earning money immediately after signing up. But they didn’t mention what exactly is that you are buying. You had to read the disclaimer to find out you were joining MOBE. Those websites were just sales funnels redirecting people to MOBE. You can read my review of Automated Daily Income that was doing just that. In that review, i also reveal a number of similar sites doing the same thing. From the way MOBE was promoted by their affiliates it was pretty clear you should stay away from them. It was just so unethical.
  • Full of hype. Basically, they were just selling the dream that making money online is easy if you bought their system. That’s a myth. MOBE and its top earners/affiliates would say anything to make a sale including that joining MOBE is risk-free and you can get your money back if you are not satisfied. 
  • The many names of MOBE. It started out as My Online Business Education (MOBE), but it was also called MTTB (My Top Tier Business), My Online Business Empire and also my 21-step system. And like i said above their affiliates were instructed to promote MOBE under different names.
  • Too many complaints. MOBE exists online since 2011 and there were a lot of complaints about them all these years. You didn’t have to look very hard to discover them. All you had to do is visit the Better Business Bureau website. Plus MOBE’s rating on BBB site is F!
  • Expensive Upsells. There is no doubt the training is NOT worth the money. Nothing justifies these high prices. The only reason people were buying them was because they wanted to make money by reselling them to others. Not because they are valuable training courses like their affiliates said. 
  • Suggesting people to take out loans. That was the quality of personal coaching offered in MOBE. Coaches had no problem telling people who run out of money to raise limits on their existing credit cards to pay for their membership fees. Again according to the FTC coaches told MOBE members that “90 percent of your income will come from Titanium, Platinum, and Diamond conference profits, not your Silver profits”. And in case someone was skeptical about it coaches told them “Don’t ask for the price of the shovel when you’re digging for gold”. You can read all about it in the TRO.

Why MOBE was shut down by the FTC

Things You Need To Remember

Now that MOBE is shut down after all these years i believe we must all ask ourselves a question. Especially people who believed their promises and joined MOBE.

What did we learn from all that?

There must be a lesson to be taught here. Something that could help us all move forward and show us how to avoid similar scams in the future. One thing we could all learn is that things are not what they seem to be. Scams can sometimes be very difficult to spot. It is only a matter of time before Matt Lloyd and his top earners create the new MOBE or start promoting a new system that is going to make you rich.

Another thing everyone should learn is to be very careful about who you can trust online. Since this whole story began a number of “successful” online marketers and bloggers deleted their posts, their YouTube videos in an effort to erase their connection with MOBE. Some of them even published new posts saying they always knew MOBE was going to get shut down eventually. In the meantime, they are looking for a new get-rich-quick scam to promote.

The exact same thing happened when Digital Altitude (another popular scam similar to MOBE) was shut down by the FTC. Suddenly no one knew anything about them. These people will never stop. They will keep doing it. There are still people defending MOBE. For example, there is this MOBE consultant who is trying to help MOBE by telling people to leave positive comments at the FTC’s website. And that MOBE is not a bad business but its the FTC that’s becoming very strict. Don’t be that person. He is also suggesting that members should raise money to help MOBE and Matt Lloyd with the legal expenses. In case, you forgot MOBE is a scam that made over $125,000,000 million.

But you can do something. Stop buying high ticket sales programs. Especially if you are a beginner at internet/affiliate marketing. The overwhelming majority of their members make no money. They lose their money. Such programs simply don’t work. Don’t believe their BS and stay away from people promoting such products.

There is also the question of who is next? It seems that lately, the FTC is going after high ticket business coaching programs. There are other programs that operate similarly MOBE did. Programs like the Super Affiliate Network and AWOL Academy and many others. Are they next? Time will tell. Or i should better say FTC.

The most important thing to remember though is the following. Don’t become a victim. Don’t believe the hype and always do your own research before joining anything. Building a profitable affiliate business online takes time and requires work. Offer valuable and useful products/services to your target audience and don’t promote garbage like MOBE.

Conclusion

MOBE is a scam and unfortunately, lots of people lost their money by investing in that scam. FTC doesn’t shut down businesses for no reason. I believe now its clear to everybody that MOBE is internet marketing at its worst.

The best way to make money online is to build your own business. There are legitimate online marketing training programs that can show you how to build an affiliate website and make money from it. But you need to remember there is no such thing as “easy money online” with little to no work.

Don’t believe people who are claiming they can show you how to easily make money online. Don’t believe the so-called “internet marketing gurus” and don’t trust bloggers who have a habit of selling scams.

Stay safe from scams.


If you want to build your own online business and learn affiliate marketing click the button below and read my review about my No.1 recommended platform for making money. 


Leave your comments, questions and thoughts on MOBE below. And if you like this post share it with your social media followers. 


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10 Responses

  1. Kit says:

    These programs look shady at the first place especially when they ask for high upfront payment first. It rings my alarm bells very hard for such an amount to pay for a starter. I would bounce away as fast as I can when I see a huge payment is needed. The value receive in return would be a big doubt.

  2. Janrell says:

    Good to have read this. I hate it when scammers are just out there trying to cheat honest folks who are trying to make an extra few bucks online. It seems to me perhaps 8 out of 10 “online jobs” are fake?

    Thanks for the resource and research done on this scammer. Hopefully more people can be educated and not get cheated again. 

    • Nikos says:

      Hello Janrell,

      In my opinion most of the “online jobs” are actually low-quality programs that are basically useless. Of course, there are plenty of scams out there but i believe the majority of them are just awful products. Their only purpose is to steal your money. 

  3. John says:

    This is great news, MOBE should have been shut down ages ago, this is just a scheme that means the people at the top of the pyramid are getting rich whilst the people thinking it is a good business model struggle to pay the ever increasing fees.

    Preying on people who are trying to earn legitimate money is nothing more than greed.  Tell me has there been any more updates since you have written the post?

    Thanks

    • Nikos says:

      Hello John,

      As far as i know there has not been a major updated since i wrote this post. The TRO is still in effect and although i am not a lawyer i believe it will continue to be in effect indefinitely. From what i have read the legal process could take more than a year. 

      For the people who lost their money i don’t believe it is going to be easy to get them back. 

      Thank you for your comment,

      Nikos

  4. Jason says:

    This is Great news and Great work on your end getting this out there. I have a bad review of MOBE on my website and in it I basically call Matt Lloyd out for being a deceptive thief. If you ask me I feel he should have to pay everyone back who he has scammed and if he can’t then lock him up. It’s really nice to see cyber crime being cracked down on.

    Best Wishes

    Jason

     

  5. glenda says:

    Hi Nikos, 

    Thanks for the information about MOBE! I really appreciate on your part the way you explained in detail the sensitive aspects of MOBE. This will  definitely help me on my journey as a online entrepreneur. 

    If I may ask, what’s your take about the 21 program step of MOBE where some online fanatics regard it as a legit program not the MLM side of MOBE?

    • Nikos says:

      Hello Glenda,

      My opinion is that the 21 Steps MTTB program is just a program to lure you in and join MOBE. An introduction to MOBE and nothing more. Although there might be some value in their training i would never call it a legit program. MOBE’s objective was to make as much money as they could from their members. There are far better legitimate training programs that cost way less. 

  6. Lisa Petersen says:

    I was too a Victim of MOBE back in last year of June but I didnt go as far as the other people I disputed my 49.00 from my bank back in last year of June and they refunded me back the money. When I saw the other programs which the scam people with I didnt pursue it I just back away from it. I am glad that I didnt even have the money to do this

  7. Uttam Singh says:

    Hope Matt goes to jail and rot.

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