June 9, 2020

Is Surge365 a Scam? Don’t Join Until You Read This

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You’re here because someone might have told you about this opportunity to work at your home and make some good money out of it.

But you might have thought if… is Surge 365 a scam?

Before we answer that question, we’re going to show you a number of legit facts about the company to help you decide.

We’ll also help you decide if this is a legit opportunity to make money from home and leave your day job.

This MLM review, complete with solid facts, pros, and cons, is going to help you with just that so you’ll arrive at the right decision.

Surge365 Review

The overview and rankings

Name: Surge365

Founder: Scott Tomer, Lloyd Tomer, Chris Cokley

Type: Travel MLM

Products (Including Pricing): 2/100

Success Stories: 3/100

Price To Join MLM: $299 to $499 subscription + $99/monthly

Is Surge365 a Scam: Logo

What to look for in a MLM:

  • Low start-up fee & maintenance cost
  • High-quality affordable products
  • You don’t have to carry inventory
  • An affiliate-like system 
  • Generous compensation plan
  • Company is in the early momentum phase

Surge365 Pros

  • None

Surge365 Cons

  • Expensive subscription
  • Hidden monthly expenses
  • Pyramid scheme in disguise?
  • Owners faced lawsuits

  • Only 1 in 1583 members earn over $27k a year

  • No real product or service

Summary

Surge 365 is a travel MLM company that sells travel flights and travel packages. They also have all the red flags of a pyramid scheme and scam.

Make Time Online Rating: 1 out of 100 

Recommended: No

What is Surge365?

Surge365 is a travel Multi-Level-Marketing company founded by Lloyd Tomer, Scott Tomer, and Chris Cokley in 2014.

They provide discounts and incentives to members who can recruit people to join the system.

Lloyd "Coach" Tomer, the co-founder of Surge365, also launched YTB International in 2001, another multi-level marketing company.

Between 2006 and 2008, YTB was the subject of litigation and investigations based on allegations that it was operating as a Pyramid scheme in Rhode Island, Illinois, and California. In 2008, California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a lawsuit against the firm, which was resolved out of court.

Unfortunately, Surge365 has several legality-related difficulties. One such example is the company's creator, Scott Tormer, who is also the founder of YTB International.

In 2008, California Attorney General Jerry Brown sued the company for operating as a pyramid scam. Tomer must modify his business strategy to avoid being dubbed a pyramid scheme, as the dispute was resolved outside of court.

Tomer founded Surge365 around the same year YTB filed for bankruptcy in 2013.

Legal Issues

Unfortunately, Surge365 has a number of issues surrounding their legality. One such example is their founder, Scott Tormer, who happens to be a founder of another MLM called YTB International.

The company was sued by Jerry Brown, a California Attorney General, for running a pyramid scheme company in 2008. The issue was settled out of court and Tomer has to change his business model to avoid being labeled as a pyramid scheme.

YTB then went bankrupt in 2013, which was also the time when Tomer started another company which he called Surge365.

Here's a 2-minute video to help you know more about Surge365...

Now that you know more about them...

Is Surge365 a pyramid scheme?

Yes, Surge365 is a pyramid scheme. Their members can't make money if they won't recruit.

The only way for them to make some bucks is by letting other people join. That alone is enough evidence that this MLM is a downright pyramid scheme.

What is a pyramid scheme?

A company which is promising members monetary payment for recruiting people into the company instead of selling actual products or services.

A lot of countries have already labelled these companies as illegal as their members have no way of making money other than by means of recruiting.

See the Wikipedia diagram below to have a better understanding...

The members who are making money inside a company like this are those who recruit as many people as they can. They also work more than 8 hours a day just to continue recruiting.

But if you were to base on the diagram above, you can see that it is impossible for all members to make money from a company like this because you are going to eventually run out of members to recruit.

Here is a 5-minute video I prepared to help you spot these pyramid schemes in disguise.

Success is rare with Surge365

You won’t achieve any kind of success in Surge365.

Although it’s possible for you to have some success in other MLMs, that’s just not the case with this company.

Based on their income disclosure,  97.45% of Surge365 members lose money.

And those 3% are most likely the founders and the people on top of the corporate hierarchy.

92.3 Percent of Members Lose Money in MLMs

Aside from that,  72.5% and 99.9% of all MLM members from other companies lose money.

This happens because of the “sales quota” that this MLM has. This means that members must sell a certain number of products or services for them to stay “active” and be eligible to earn commissions.

If you can't reach the quota, then you just need to buy them yourself just to stay active. This is why many, if not all MLM members lose hundreds and even thousands of dollars from their own pockets before they can manage to recruit one single person.

We are going to discuss the Surge365 income disclosure later in this review.

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How does Surge365 Work?

The company connects clients to another flight booking and ticketing service.

Aside from that, they also offer everyday people to become members and gain an opportunity to work from home by recruiting more members into the company, who in turn, will also sell the “services” to other people.

Surge365 saves a ton of money in marketing costs because instead of promoting their services, they just let their members do all the hard work.

The Surge365 Compensation Plan offers four opportunities for profit:

  • Recruitment Commissions

  • Recurring Commissions

  • National Marketing Director Matching Bonuses

Surge365, like many MLMs, employs grand names and sophisticated language to mislead clients into believing there are multiple ways to make money within the organization when there is only one way to make money in Surge365, and that is by recruiting others.

You need to be at least 18 years old. In possession of a valid Social Security Number, FEIN, or whatever Tax ID Type is applicable for your location, register as a Small Business Associate (SBA) in Surge365. There is support for all main credit card brands, so feel free to use your Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express.

Because Surge365 pays commission to SBAs and provides a Form 1099 (or region-specific form) to SBAs who receive at least $600 in a calendar year, all information must be valid.

Before we see if that really is what’s happening, let's dig deeper into their...

Surge365 products

If you are really interested in trying out your luck in this “red-flagged” MLM, then we suggest you know their offerings so you’ll know what kind of “trouble” you’re getting yourself into. 

The thing with Surge365 is that they don’t have any real products or services, apart from the fact that they only provide an opportunity for their members to earn commissions from simply recruiting people.

What Surge365 does is they simply direct customers to another site called Pro Travel Network which sells the actual flight tickets and booking services.

Furthermore, the MLM also allows their members access to their exclusive travel portal system. And that’s the only thing they actually provide! There’s no product or service offered here, aside from simply “recruiting.”

Nonetheless, they have some sort of “products” they offer to make it seem like they’re one legit company:

  • Your Personal Travel Agency Portal - The system which keeps track of all the customers you have recruited.
  • Vortex Technology - Get paid every time someone buys a flight or cruise ticket or book a hotel from you.
  • Share the Surge Business Tools - A business tool package that allows members to mentor their recruited members into the program. This also allows them to gain access to commissions and bonuses.
Is Surge365 a Scam: Product

Aside from that, it’s also important to be aware that there are hundreds of other MLM companies that are offering the same products.

Some of the most notable ones are:

All of them claim that they have a special offering even if they are just selling the same kind of service...

Let's then move on to knowing...

Can you make money with Surge365?

Yes, you can, to be specific, just a very small amount.

You’ll also be losing your earned money from the monthly fees that this pyramid scheme company requires you to pay on a regular basis.

You can refer to their income disclosure to see that hardly anyone is making good money from Surge365.

How to make money with Surge365

Surge365 offers you 2 ways to “make money.”

These are through:

  • Recruitment commissions

  • Recruitment bonuses

As you can see, both ways are through recruiting, which again shows that the company is a pyramid scheme.

Before dealing with the compensation plan, let us know...

How much does it cost to join Surge365?

You have 2 options if you want to be a Surge365 member.

You either choose the travel income package worth $299 or the travel owner package worth $499.

The company calls the fees you pay for the packages as “license fees.”

Surge365 monthly cost

Aside from the joining fee, you also need to pay a monthly fee of $99. This equates to a monthly sales requirement of 99 PV.

The costs for 1 year are…

  • $299 - $499
  • $99 x $12 = $1,188

Minimum costs for year 1 = $1,487 - $1,687

And that’s before you add all the additional costs like travel, food, stay, and marketing expenses that you have to deal with once you’re one of their recruiters.

Surge365 compensation plan

Most MLM companies, if not all, create compensation plans that are very confusing. And Surge365 is no different. But you don’t have to worry because I’ll do my best to keep it simple and straightforward...

There are 4 ways you can make money from Surge365:

  • Recruitment Commissions - Earn $30 for every recruited member. You can also earn $50 for every recruit once your 3 recruited members stay with the company over the next 30 days. Aside from that, you’ll earn another $50 for recruiting and maintaining 7 members.
  • Residual Commissions - You receive $20 every time your recruited member recruits someone.
  • Matching Bonus - Earn a 100% matching bonus for every recruited member. What they mean by matching bonus isn’t clearly stated, but I believe that this has to do with the number of recruited members and the amount of bonuses they’ve earned.\
  • National Marketing Director Bonuses - A member who reaches the rank of National Marketing Director Level 3 earns an $8,000 bonus. Reach the National Marketing Director Level 5 rank and you’ll get a bonus of $1,000,000.
Is Surge365 a Scam: Compensation

Yes, I know… you’re still confused.

Surge365, just like any other MLM, use weird names and fancy terms so that people will think that there are lots of ways for them to make money inside the company.

When in fact, there’s just 1 thing you need to do in Surge365. And that is to…

  • Recruit people

If you’d like to know more about their compensation plan, you can check out this 5-minute video below...

You can also view the full Surge365 full compensation plan here.

Is Surge365 a scam?

Yes, Surge365 is clearly a scam.

The company doesn't sell any kind of product or service apart from the fact that they just recruit members who are tasked to also recruit!

Their company goals are also mere deceptions, saying that customers can earn a lot of money by becoming a member and selling “travel” services in the form of tickets and hotel bookings.

When the reality is, they’re just directing their customers to another ticketing service that sells the actual flight tickets and hotel reservations.

The next section of this review will show to you the real pros and cons of this company for you to come up with an informed decision whether you’re willing to risk everything up for the said “earnings” you can make from this company...

Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a distributor myself and I do not endorse it in any way.

I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program 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 how to “Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.

Tired of MLMs? Check out how I make money online here!

What I like about Surge365

Enter your text here...

Key Terms:

  • Pyramid Scheme – recruits members via a promise for payment from recruiting others into the company rather than providing a product
  • Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
  • Red Flag - A warning sign

#1 None

I normally have some good things to say about MLM companies even if they’re obviously not worth the try.

But in Surge365’s case, I really can’t find any! Perhaps this is because the MLM is clearly a scam...

So, why the hate?

What I don't like about Surge365

#1 Expensive subscription

Aside from being an outright scam, Surge365 also has a very expensive subscription price.

Did you know that you have to pay a massive $299 to $499 for joining the MLM, depending on the package you choose?

You even have to pay another $99 monthly fee just to stay active and receive some kind of commission.

Spending $1,487 to $1,687 annually just for membership doesn’t make any sense to me...

#2 Hidden monthly expenses

What’s more is that you must reach 99PV or sell $99 worth of Surge365 products every single month just to stay as their active member.

If not, then you have to buy them yourself.

Is Surge365 a Scam: Cons

The fact that many MLM members don’t know is that they are the biggest customer base of their clients. Members just keep buying their stuff because they hope that they’re going to “be their own boss” soon.

#3 Is Surge365 a pyramid scheme in disguise?

The only way you can make money from Surge365 is if you recruit people.

Yes, you might be told that you can sell travel tickets, but that’s just a cover up on the focus of the company, which really is recruitment.

MLM pyramid scheme

 There’s no real product or service offered, and you must keep paying $99 every month just to stay active.

Yes, you can make some money by recruiting, but someday soon, you’ll end up running out of members to recruit.

#4 Owners faced lawsuits

Surge365’s owners have a lot of bad track records.

Take for example what happened to one of their founders, Scott Tormer, who was charged with running a pyramid scheme on his previous company called YTB.

Is Surge365 a Scam: Cons 3

It already went bankrupt in 2013.

This means that there’s a good chance the same thing is going to happen to Surge365, especially that this clearly is a pyramid scheme when looking in all angles…

#5 Only 1 in 1583 members earn over $27k a year

If you’ll check out Surge365’s income disclosure, you’ll see that 97.35% of their members earn lower than $1,070 annually.

Is Surge365 a Scam: Cons 3

Meanwhile, 97.7% of the total member population earns just $1,070 in a year.

All while maintaining an average expense of $6,511 annually.

That means 1 in every 1,583 members earn more than $27,000 a year, which isn’t a good figure...

#6 No real product or service

I’ve mentioned this a couple of times already, but I would love to repeat it just to reiterate the fact that there is no real product or service offered in Surge365.

They just direct their “customers” to another travel agency called Pro Travel Network which sells the actual flight tickets and hotel bookings.

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My opinion - Surge365

Surge365 is a scam, no matter which angle you look at. I don’t normally label an MLM as such, but in Surge365’s case?

They sure deserve it.

And here's what I think about the company...

There’s no offered product and service and the only way to earn is through recruitment.

You can even earn more bonuses the longer your recruited members will stay in the company! That’s just silly to comprehend if you were to compare it to an actual business.

For sure, you don’t want to be a part of this kind of company...

How I make passive income online

MLMs are not scams or illegal. However, I'm not a fan of them because of the restrictions to the expensive products you have to promote.

Once I learnt about affiliate marketing, I realised it's a far superior business model because:

  • You can promote anything you want and truly own the business
  • You never need to sell to friends and family
  • It's completely free to start

In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.

But I went from a full time PE teacher to making a passive income online within one year...

Mike PE teacher to Passive Income Online

If you want to discover how I did it then check out this special video I created which explains exactly how. You can also get your free 7-day bootcamp to get started.

Make Time Online Income

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