Alyx Union

A summary of what happened?

Alyx Union emerged as a multi-level marketing (MLM) platform that solicited investments in various cryptocurrencies, promising substantial daily returns. However, extensive investigations and user reports have raised significant concerns about its legitimacy and operational practices.

Major Concerns and Complaints:

1. Lack of Transparency:
   • Alyx Union’s official website did not disclose any information about its ownership or executive team. The domain “alyxunion.com” was privately registered on October 30, 2023, and access to the root domain was disabled, limiting available information to an affiliate sign-up page.
     BehindMLM
2. Use of Fictitious Executives:
   • The platform featured individuals posing as executives, such as “CEO Ryan Strasser,” who do not exist outside of Alyx Union’s marketing materials. Investigations revealed that the person portraying Strasser had ties to China, specifically through volunteer work with a Shenzhen-based charity, A Heart For China, around 2017.
     BehindMLM
3. Unregistered Securities Offering:
   • Alyx Union operated without proper registration with financial regulatory authorities. In countries like the United States, offering passive investment opportunities requires registration with entities such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Alyx Union’s disclaimer stated that its services were not available in the U.S. and certain territories, likely to circumvent legal scrutiny.
     BehindMLM
4. Ponzi Scheme Structure:
   • The platform’s compensation plan relied heavily on recruiting new affiliates who were required to invest a minimum of $100 in cryptocurrencies like Tether (USDT). Returns were promised in the form of aelf (ELF), a cryptocurrency that experienced a significant pump and dump in 2018. Such a structure is indicative of a Ponzi scheme, where returns to earlier investors are paid from the contributions of newer investors.
     BehindMLM
5. Association with Previous Scams:
   • Analysts noted that Alyx Union launched shortly after the collapse of similar schemes like SCF and Fintoch, following identical operational patterns. This repetition suggests potential involvement of the same fraudulent entities, possibly linked to Chinese organized crime.
     BehindMLM
6. Negative Online Reviews:
   • Platforms like Scam Detector assigned Alyx Union low trust scores, labeling it as “Suspicious,” “Unsafe,” and “Doubtful.” These assessments were based on factors such as proximity to suspicious websites, threat profiles, phishing activities, malware scores, spam scores, and domain blacklist status.
     Scam Detector

Current Status:

As of June 15, 2024, Alyx Union’s website became inaccessible, indicating a collapse of the platform. This sudden shutdown is characteristic of fraudulent schemes that cease operations once they can no longer sustain payouts to earlier investors.

Recommendations:

Potential investors are strongly advised to exercise caution and conduct thorough due diligence before engaging with online investment platforms. Key considerations should include:

• Regulatory Compliance: Ensure the platform is registered with appropriate financial regulatory authorities.
• Transparency: Verify the authenticity of the company’s executives and operational headquarters.
• Business Model: Be wary of schemes that emphasize recruitment and promise high returns with little to no risk.

Engaging with unregulated and opaque platforms like Alyx Union can lead to significant financial losses. It is crucial to remain vigilant and informed to protect oneself from such fraudulent schemes.

Analyzing the Fake Copyright Notice(s)

Our team collects and analyses fraudulent copyright takedown requests, legal complaints, and other efforts to remove critical information from the internet. Through our investigative reporting, we examine the prevalence and operation of an organized censorship industry, predominantly funded by criminal entities, oligarchs, and disreputable businesses or individuals. Our findings allow internet users to gain insight into these censorship schemes’ sources, methods, and underlying objectives.

What was Alyx Union trying to hide?

Alyx Union‘s attempts to hide unfavourable content through the misuse of copyright notices while allegedly engaging in perjury present serious legal concerns. These actions suggest a calculated attempt to manipulate legal systems to suppress free speech, a fundamental violation of copyright law principles and an abuse of legal processes. The use of such tactics not only undermines the integrity of copyright protection but also potentially constitutes perjury, further entangling Alyx Union in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information Alyx Union may be trying to remove from the internet –

Investigative Report: Unveiling the Truth Behind Alyx Union

Introduction: Alyx Union presented itself as a cryptocurrency-focused multi-level marketing (MLM) platform, offering promises of high returns through investment in digital assets. However, an in-depth investigation reveals a tangled web of deceit, false claims, and operations that bear the hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme. This report explores Alyx Union’s operations, allegations of fraud, the use of fabricated identities, connections to prior scams, and the complaints from investors who were left in financial ruin.

1. Origins and Operational Overview

Alyx Union was launched with the domain alyxunion.com, which was privately registered on October 30, 2023. The platform claimed to specialize in cryptocurrency investments and purported to generate substantial returns for its participants. Its marketing materials heavily emphasized security and trust, but an analysis of the company’s operations painted a different picture.

• Accessibility and Restrictions: Alyx Union’s website was primarily geared toward global users, but it included disclaimers that its services were unavailable in jurisdictions like the United States, Canada, and Europe. Experts suspect this was a calculated move to avoid legal scrutiny from regulatory authorities in these regions.
• Investment Mechanism: Investors were required to deposit a minimum of $100 in Tether (USDT) or other cryptocurrencies. They were promised daily returns and payouts in aelf (ELF), a cryptocurrency with a controversial history marked by speculative volatility.

2. Allegations of Fraud and Deception

A. Lack of Transparency

A glaring red flag was the absence of verifiable information about Alyx Union’s ownership or executive team. The platform claimed to have “Ryan Strasser” as its CEO, but investigative efforts uncovered that this identity was fabricated. “Strasser” appeared in promotional materials, but the individual behind the persona had connections to a Shenzhen-based charity called A Heart for China in 2017, leading experts to believe that the face was hired for the campaign. No genuine corporate structure or management was ever disclosed.

B. Fictitious Executive and Fraudulent Claims

• Fabricated Leadership: The promotional images of the CEO and supposed team members were confirmed to be stock images or unrelated individuals.
• False Location Claims: Alyx Union purported to operate from legitimate financial hubs, but no records of the company existed in these regions.

C. Unregistered Securities Offering

Alyx Union solicited passive investments, which legally qualify as securities under many regulatory frameworks, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and similar bodies globally. Despite this, Alyx Union never registered with any authority to offer such investment opportunities. This illegal operation placed the platform squarely in the category of unregulated securities fraud.

3. Ponzi Scheme Indicators

Alyx Union’s business model was heavily reliant on recruitment, a hallmark of Ponzi schemes:

• Recruitment-Driven Profits: Returns for existing investors depended on continuous recruitment of new affiliates. Participants were incentivized with referral bonuses to bring in more people, creating a pyramid structure.
• Unsustainable Returns: Promised daily returns were unrealistically high, raising suspicions among financial experts. Historical patterns in similar schemes suggest that these returns were funded by the deposits of new investors, not by actual profits or investments.

4. Links to Previous Scams

Alyx Union shared operational similarities with other fraudulent platforms such as SCF and Fintoch, both of which collapsed prior to Alyx Union’s launch. Analysts suspect that Alyx Union may have been created by the same group of scammers, potentially linked to Chinese organized crime networks specializing in MLM crypto fraud.

• Pump and Dump Connections: The choice of aelf (ELF) as a payout cryptocurrency was no coincidence. This token was associated with a major pump-and-dump scheme in 2018. By tying payouts to ELF, the platform exploited a volatile and speculative asset to its advantage.

5. Public Complaints and Negative Reviews

A. Withdrawal Restrictions

Numerous investors reported that they were unable to withdraw their funds. Complaints included:

• Arbitrary delays.
• Requests for additional deposits to “unlock” their accounts.
• Complete cessation of communication from the platform once withdrawal requests were made.

B. Aggressive Recruitment Tactics

Many investors complained of relentless pressure from Alyx Union’s representatives, who used manipulative tactics to push for higher investments. This aggressive marketing strategy is a common feature of fraudulent MLM schemes.

C. Scam Detector’s Analysis

Independent review platforms, such as Scam Detector, flagged Alyx Union as “Suspicious” and “Unsafe,” citing multiple risk factors:

• Association with phishing and malware.
• Domain blacklisting.
• Proximity to other fraudulent sites.

6. Sudden Collapse

On June 15, 2024, the Alyx Union website became inaccessible, marking the platform’s collapse. The abrupt shutdown is consistent with Ponzi schemes, which often dissolve once the influx of new investors slows and the operators can no longer sustain payouts.

7. Legal Implications and Future Risks

A. Unregulated Operations

Alyx Union’s disclaimer that its services were unavailable in certain regions highlights a deliberate attempt to evade legal accountability. However, victims of the scheme may still pursue legal action in their jurisdictions, citing fraud and unregistered securities offerings.

B. Potential Sanctions

Authorities in countries affected by Alyx Union’s activities may launch investigations to identify and prosecute the individuals behind the platform. The possibility of sanctions against any known associates remains high.

Conclusion: A Stark Warning for Investors

Alyx Union is a textbook example of a crypto Ponzi scheme, leveraging the allure of high returns and the opacity of blockchain technology to exploit unsuspecting investors. Its lack of transparency, reliance on recruitment, and abrupt disappearance underscore the need for vigilance in the online investment space.

Key Lessons for Investors:

1. Verify Regulatory Compliance: Always check whether a platform is registered with reputable financial authorities.
2. Scrutinize Business Models: Be wary of platforms that emphasize recruitment or guarantee high returns with minimal risk.
3. Investigate Leadership: Legitimate companies have traceable executives and a verifiable corporate structure.

Alyx Union’s downfall serves as a stark reminder of the dangers inherent in unregulated investment schemes. Investors must remain cautious, skeptical, and informed to avoid falling victim to similar fraudulent enterprises in the future.

How do we counteract this malpractice?

Once we ascertain the involvement of Alyx Union (or actors working on behalf of Alyx Union), we will inform Alyx Union of our findings via Electronic Mail.

Our preliminary assessment suggests that Alyx Union may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from Alyx Union, initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to Alyx Union to provide details regarding their communications with the agency or expert, as well as the identification of the individual(s) responsible for executing these false DMCA notices.

Failure to respond in a timely manner will necessitate a reassessment of our initial assumptions. In such an event, we will be compelled to take appropriate legal action to rectify the unlawful conduct and take the following steps –

Since Alyx Union made such efforts to hide something online, it seems fit to ensure that this article and sensitive information targeted online by these events get a lot more exposure and traffic than what it would have received originally

We hope this becomes an excellent case study for the Streisand effect…The key idea behind the Streisand effect is that efforts to restrict information can backfire, often causing the information to gain more attention than it would have otherwise. This effect is widespread in the digital age, where users quickly notice and spread censorship efforts on social media and other platforms. Trying to suppress something can unintentionally lead to it becoming more visible, which Alyx Union is finding out the hard way.

Potential Consequences for Alyx Union

Under Florida Statute 831.01, the crime of Forgery is committed when a person falsifies, alters, counterfeits, or forges a document that carries “legal efficacy” with the intent to injure or defraud another person or entity.

Forging a document is considered a white-collar crime. It involves altering, changing, or modifying a document to deceive another person. It can also include passing along copies of documents that are known to be false. In many states in the US, falsifying a document is a crime punishable as a felony.

Additionally, under most laws, “fraud on the court” is where “a party has sentiently set in motion some unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the judicial system’s ability impartially to adjudicate a matter by improperly influencing the trier of fact or unfairly hampering the presentation of the opposing party’s claim or defense.”  Cox v. Burke, 706 So. 2d 43, 46 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998) (quoting Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118 (1st Cir. 1989)).

Is Alyx Union Committing a Cyber Crime?

Yes, it seems so. Alyx Union used multiple approaches to remove unwanted material from review sites and Google’s search results. Thanks to protections allowing freedom of speech in the United States, there are very few legal ways to do this. Alyx Union could not eliminate negative reviews or search results that linked to them without a valid claim of defamation, copyright infringement, or some other clear breach of the law.

Faced with these limitations, some companies like Alyx Union have gone to extreme lengths to fraudulently claim copyright ownership over a negative review in the hopes of taking it down.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. Alyx Union is certainly keeping interesting company here….

The DMCA takedown process requires that copyright owners submit a takedown notice to an ISP identifying the allegedly infringing content and declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they have a good faith belief that the content is infringing. The ISP must then promptly remove or disable access to the content. The alleged infringer can then submit a counter-notice, and if the copyright owner does not take legal action within 10 to 14 days, the ISP can restore the content.

Since these platforms are predominantly based in the U.S., the complaints are typically made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which requires online service providers and platforms to react immediately to reports or violations. Big Tech companies rarely have systems in place to assess the merit of each report. Instead, all bad actors need to do is clone a story, backdate it, and then demand the real thing be taken down.

Reputation Agency's Modus Operandi

The fake DMCA notices we found always use the “back-dated article” technique. With this technique, the wrongful notice sender (or copier) creates a copy of a “true original” article and back-dates it, creating a “fake original” article (a copy of the true original) that, at first glance, appears to have been published before the true original.

Then, based on the claim that this backdated article is the “original,” the scammers send a DMCA to the relevant online service providers (e.g. Google), alleging that the ‘true’ original is the copied or “infringing” article and that the copied article is the “original,” requesting the takedown of the ‘true’ original article. After sending the DMCA request, the person who sent the wrong notice takes down the fake original URL, likely to make sure that the article doesn’t stay online in any way. If the takedown notice is successful, the disappearance from the internet of information is most likely to be legitimate speech.

As an integral part of this scheme, the ‘reputation management’ company hired by Alyx Union creates a website that purports to be a ‘news’ site. This site is designed to look legitimate at a glance, but any degree of scrutiny reveals it as the charade it is.

The company copies the ‘negative’ content and posts it “on the fake ‘news’ site, attributing it to a separate author,” then gives it “a false publication date on the ‘news’ website that predated the original publication.

The reputation company then sent Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice claiming the original website infringed copyright. After a cursory examination of the fake news site, Google frequently accepts the notice and delists the content.

In committing numerous offences, Alyx Union either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about Alyx Union, ignorance does not excuse this wrongdoing.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. FSMSmart is certainly keeping interesting company here.

The Reputation Laundering

Rogue Reputation agencies use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking clients to allegations of tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking. Most of these reputation agencies are based offshore, mainly in Russia, India, and Eastern Europe, and they do not worry about complying with US-based laws.

The content in all of the articles for which the fraudulent DMCA notices have been sent relates to allegations of criminal allegations, including corruption, child abuse, sexual harassment, human trafficking and financial fraud against businesses and individuals with ultra-high net worth.

In addition to the misuse of the DMCA takedown process, there is a notable absence of enforcement concerning perjury violations. The statutory requirement related to perjury is designed to deter copyright holders from submitting fraudulent or knowingly false takedown requests, as they may face legal consequences for making false declarations under penalty of perjury. However, to date, there have been no known instances of any individual being prosecuted for perjury in connection with the submission of false DMCA takedown notices.

This lack of enforcement has emboldened copyright holders to exploit the DMCA takedown process to suppress dissent, criticism, or other unfavorable content, without fear of legal repercussions.

Some of the people and businesses who have employed this tactic to remove legitimate content from Google illegally include a Spanish businessman-turned-cocaine-trafficker, Organised crime, an Israeli-Argentine banker accused of laundering money for Hugo Chávez’s regime, a French “responsible” mining company accused of tax evasion, child molesters and sexual predators. Alyx Union is in great company ….

What else is Alyx Union hiding?

We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [Alyx Union] + {Negative Keyword, such as Scam, Fraud, Complaints, Lawsuit, Sanction, etc} on Google. It’s likely if you scroll down to the bottom of this Google search results, you’ll stumble upon this Legal Takedown notice (pictured below)

To make such an investigation possible, we encourage more online service providers to come forward and share copies of content removal requests with industry experts and researchers. If you have any information on Alyx Union that you want to share with experts and journalists, kindly email the author directly at [email protected].

All communications are strictly confidential and safeguarded under a comprehensive Whistleblower Policy, ensuring full protection and anonymity for individuals who provide information.