The front page of IBOCore.com features a picture of three men. None of them has features; instead, everything is pixelated.
The website calls these people founders. Yet none of them has a name.
What the three anonymous founders are selling, though, is laid out in plain English. For $1,999 down and $4,499 a month, a buyer in any country can walk away with a real American to front their e-commerce business.
The American they hire comes with paperwork – a functioning LLC in their name, a working bank account, and a residential US internet address, so every login looks like it comes from the US.
And why would they want Americans? It’s simple. High-risk international merchants can buy the Americans to hide their risky business.
“You’re Actually Getting Paid To Just Live Here?”
IBOCore is on the hunt for Americans who want to make a few bucks by setting themselves up as merchants.
The videos that are now all over Facebook might sound enticing to someone looking to earn a few extra bucks in “passive income” each month, but they’re also a trap that could land them in serious hot water.
In exchange for giving their identity and bank accounts to some random high-risk merchant overseas, they’re promised a cut of whatever the merchant can process through the accounts in their name.
The AI videos they generate are wild. A surprised man says, “They’re paying you just to exist here?”
A Live Inventory Of Shell Companies For Sale
The site has an inventory page. It shows partially redacted shell company names sitting on the shelf, ready to be bought.
Most of the names follow a pattern. They include the words “MARKETING,” “AD SERVICE,” “DIGITAL,” or “ECOM STORE.”
The FTC has flagged these vague names before. In a recent case, regulators wrote that fraudulent merchants tended to describe themselves with generic terms such as “marketing and advertising” to slip past underwriting.
IBO Schemes Are Not New
I wrote about these IBO schemes last year after I started receiving emails from victims across the US.
Hundreds of innocent, well-intentioned people are being ensnared in a scheme that is promising them thousands of dollars for doing little more than helping merchants expand.
They are recruited to become straw owners of “ghost companies” that high-risk merchants use to hide their own high-risk activity. Those merchants often sell high-risk merchandise such as weight-loss plans, unproven drugs, or questionable subscription services.
When their fraud and chargeback rates get too high, banks simply shut them off, effectively putting them out of business.
To solve this problem, unsuspecting people are recruited to become Independent Business Operators (IBO’s) that help those risky merchants and advertisers accept credit cards online so they can stay in business.
IBO Schemes Are Rising As Visa VAMP Takes Hold
The timing of IBOCore’s big recruitment push is not a coincidence. Visa rolled out a tougher fraud-monitoring program called VAMP, which raised costs for any acquiring bank that lets merchants run high chargeback or fraud rates.
Banks have responded by tightening who they will sign up. A foreign dropshipper with a sketchy product menu used to be able to shop around for a US merchant account. But that is getting harder,
So IBO schemes are making a return.
One advertisement claims that “E-commerce stores are begging me to help them find more merchants”. He’s offering $700 for anyone who will help him.
If the bank won’t approve the merchants, they find an American who has good credit to stand in for them.
Over 20 New Sites Recruiting Americans To Act As Shell Companies
Using GROK, I uncovered a rash of new websites operating this scheme.
I found over 20 different sites quietly recruiting Americans to be passive IBOs or straw owners. Most of them use the same copy-paste pitch (“$500 to $1,000 a month, hands-free, we build it for you, you cash the checks”)
Watch Out For IBO Schemes
IBO schemes like these ultimately hurt everyone. The recruits who fall for the scheme often end up blacklisted or, worse yet, held responsible for chargebacks.
Here is a helpful infographic to explain what the scam is and how to avoid it.
