In the middle of August 2012, the Securities & Exchange Commission shut down the very popular and controversial Zeek Rewards program, labeling it a $600 million dollar ponzi scheme. Upon it's shut down, chaos ensued. Over one million members of Zeek Rewards were lost and didn't know what would happen.

All the money they had made or had hoped to make turned out to be a fraud. How did this happen? Well as the SEC claims, the company operated under a point system. Every time a new member would join it, the amount of money they invested into it would be transformed into points.

After that the new member had 3 different ways to make money with this company:

1. They could promote the company to their friends/family/strangers through an affiliate program and get a percentage of the investments anyone they signed up would take part in. The amount affiliates made via promoting the program would then be added into their total point pool.

As a quick example: Member A invests $1,000 into the company. They then get 1,000 points to use as they please. They then refer Member B through their affiliate link who invests $1,000 of his own money. Member A would then get 10% of Member A's investment which would be added to his/her total point pool. As a result Member A would now have 1,100 points.

The point pool was supposedly designed to help members redeem points for money. Every point is worth $1 and this is where the alleged deception occurred.

2. Members would place daily ads for the company and get points in return for their participation. Placing daily ads from every member allowed the company to get extra exposure on the internet, thus providing potentially more revenue each day.

3. After a day's profits were tallied, 50% would be taken and distributed amongst all of it's members. This would be added into each member's total point pool which they could then redeem for money.

Now the part where the alleged ponzi scheme comes into play: The SEC claims that the company used the point system as an artificial means to cover up the fact that there was no daily profit occurring and the money and points being made was actually from member's investments and only that, thus the ponzi scheme allegation.

Now even though the company has been shut down, former members can file a complaint to have their investment returned. The process is long, but it's the only thing they can do at this point. As for other opportunities, which there are, caution must be exercised. There are a lot of copycat companies sprouting as a result of this company's fall. You have to know how to identify them and be able to tell if they are legitimate or not.