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Troy Mason, a seasoned con artist, is the owner and operator of 25X Club.
Mason was last encountered by BehindMLM with Our Gas Club only a few months prior.
Our Gas Club was a pyramid scam that cost $79.95 per month.
A review of Our Gas Club by BehindMLM was released on April 16th, 2022. On or about April 29th, Mason gave up the plan and started 25X Club.
As of the time of writing, the old domain of Our Gas Club’s website now links users to 25X Club’s website. The actual Our Gas Club was only introduced in March 2022.
Mason is thought to be an American citizen who works out of Texas. In June 2021, US regulations finally caught up with Mason in this regard:
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission revealed today that it has filed a civil enforcement action against Troy Mason of Houston, Texas, and his Texas-based company, ZTegrity, Inc., accusing them of engaging in fraudulent solicitation and failing to register with the CFTC as required by the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA).
The lawsuit asserts that the defendants misrepresented their forex trading pool as a substitute for a savings account that delivered a higher rate with the same level of risk, if not lower, from at least October 2019 until the present via a variety of websites and social media platforms.
The defendants referred to this forex trading pool as “The Black Club” and “The Forex Savings Club” on its website, and they claimed that 411 individuals had contributed more than $460,000 to it.
The complaint further claims that the defendants deceitfully promised participants that they would receive their contributions to their individual “Forex Savings Accounts” back and that they would share in the “substantial profit[s]” that would be made from trading forex with the participants’ combined funds.
Our Gas Club’s predecessor was Ztegrity. Mason relaunched it as a pyramid scheme with a gas theme after it had previously been an FX fraud.
The CFTC is still pursuing its lawsuit against Mason as of September 2022.
Read on for a thorough analysis of the MLM opportunity offered by 25X Club.
Products of 25X Club
The 25X Club does not provide any goods or services for sale.
The 25X Club affiliate membership itself is the only thing that affiliates may promote.
A “discount club,” “online emergency medical file” service, “issue resolution counseling service,” a clock, postcards, and “gas stickers” are among the benefits of affiliate membership in the 25X Club.
The Compensation Plan of 25X Club
Affiliates of the 25X Club must pay either an annual or monthly membership.
Silver costs $19.95 per year.
$19.95 a month for gold
Monthly fee for Platinum: $99.95
They receive commissions when they bring on new hires who follow suit.
Commission Structure for 25X Club
The 25X Club uses a unilevel compensation structure to track and pay commissions.
An affiliate is put at the head of a unilevel team in a unilevel pay system, and each affiliate they recruited is positioned immediately under them (level 1):
New affiliates brought on by any level 1 affiliates are added to the original affiliate’s unilevel team at level 2.
If any level 2 affiliates bring on new affiliates, they are promoted to level 3, and so on down a theoretically endless number of levels.
Based on the three affiliate membership tiers of 25X Club, commissions are paid using this unilevel team structure.
Commissions for Silver Members
For each Silver and Gold affiliate they bring on board, Silver tier 25X Club affiliates are paid $4. For each recruited Platinum affiliate, $8 is awarded.
Keep in mind that Silver-tier 25X Club affiliates are not eligible for MLM commissions.
Memberships in Gold
25X Club Gold tier affiliates make money.
$4 for each recruited Silver or Gold affiliate
$8 for each Platinum affiliate brought in
$4 and $8 per month are passed up from every Gold and Platinum affiliate recruited beneath them, correspondingly (assuming there are no other Gold or higher tier affiliates between them and the affiliate recruited)
Silver Memberships
Affiliates in the 25X Club’s platinum tier receive
$4 for each recruited Silver or Gold affiliate
$10 for each Platinum affiliate brought in
Each Gold and Platinum affiliate they recruit receives $4 and $8 per month, respectively. Each Silver and Gold affiliate they recruit receives $4 and $15 each month (assuming there are no Gold or higher tier affiliates between them and the affiliate recruited)
Joining 25X Club There are three pricing points for affiliate membership in 25X Club:
Silver costs $19.95 per year.
$19.95 a month for gold
Monthly fee for Platinum: $99.95
A 25X Club affiliate’s revenue potential increases with the amount of money they spend on membership.
25X Club Summary
Troy Mason had to restart Our Gas Club after only two months, which indicates that it failed rather miserably.
More of the same at different pricing points is what 25X Club offers.
Mason claims that 25X Club is not an MLM opportunity, even though it is very much one:
Is this Network Marketing or MLM?
The private 25X Club is not an MLM or network marketing organization. The affiliate program has two tiers.
This is nonsense. A unilevel team is used by 25X Club to monitor commission payments made at various levels.
It’s OK to refer to an MLM business that pays recruiting commissions down two tiers as a “2-tier affiliate program,” but MLM is still MLM.
Regardless of semantics, all commissions paid out by 25X Club are linked to hiring. Accordingly, 25X Club is a pyramid scam.
Similar to many MLM pyramid scams, commissions will stop when affiliate recruiting stops.
Following the termination of payments to those above them, downlines will stop paying $79.95 each month. Before you realize it, an irrevocable collapse is initiated when they cease paying their fees.
Most participants in MLM pyramid scams lose money, according to the math underpinning them.
It’s important to note that the CFTC obtained an injunction and froze Mason’s assets in case you’re wondering why someone being sued by the CFTC is launching rehashed pyramid schemes.
I believe Mason’s legal defense is being funded by Our Gas Club, 25X Club, and whatever follows next.
Updated on October 12, 2022. Troy Mason has paid the CFTC $943,570 to resolve allegations of currency fraud brought by Ztegrity.
