{"id":423083,"date":"2026-05-12T00:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T00:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/423083\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T00:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T00:52:07","slug":"sfcvibe-rating-alleged-pyramid-scheme-member-says-platform-feels-like-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/423083\/","title":{"rendered":"SFCVIBE Rating alleged pyramid scheme: Member says platform feels like scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

They said every member who joins is placed under one or more managers whose role is to \u201cguide and help members use the platform\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, they said the focus quickly shifted away from simply rating videos, with managers instead pressuring members to recruit others into SFCVIBE Rating.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been a huge focus on recruiting more people rather than simply completing tasks,\u201d said the person who wished to remain anonymous. <\/p>\n

\u201cManagers constantly pressure members to recruit others into the platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said they had explained multiple times that they had invited people, but those invited declined because they did not have enough money to join.<\/p>\n

While they respected the decision of those they had invited, they said managers told them they were \u201cnot putting in enough effort\u201d and that there were \u201cno excuses\u201d.<\/p>\n

They later discovered their account had been reduced from three daily tasks to only one task, despite paying for the package that included three.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found this extremely suspicious because the real issue seems to be that we were not successfully recruiting enough people into the platform,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like members are punished when they are not bringing in new people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis made me seriously question why there is so much pressure to recruit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy does the company constantly need more people joining? In my opinion, it is because the system relies on new people bringing in money.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said there was also a nationwide SFCVIBE group chat where many members had openly complained about being pressured by managers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen concerns are raised, the head department usually responds by saying members simply need to \u2018communicate better\u2019 with managers and that it is all a misunderstanding,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother thing I noticed is that many people have recently been removed from the group chats by admins.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome members questioned why people were disappearing, and admins responded that those removed were \u2018spreading rumours\u2019 that the platform is a scam.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said admins had posted \u201cstrict warning messages\u201d, telling members not to spread rumours, avoid discussing unrelated topics, and warning against suspicious behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it feels like they are trying to control what people say inside the groups,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

SFCVIBE Rating has been approached for comment. <\/p>\n

SFCVIBE Rating holds weekend recruitment events while under Commerce Commission inquiry<\/p>\n

Last month, the company said it would still go ahead with two recruiting events in Auckland and Christchurch for paid members and their families.<\/p>\n

Ronald Vaz, director of SFCVIBE Rating Riccarton, told the Herald at the time the events are a \u201cthank you\u201d from the company, with raffle tickets and prize money to be given away.<\/p>\n

Vaz also said that a select few people using the service had created fraudulent accounts, which had flagged the firm as an alleged scam and sparked the Commerce Commission inquiry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not somebody from outside the system who\u2019s saying that this is a scam,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[They] were creating fraudulent accounts and were making problems for the company.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said 1400 people are making money on the platform, but 150 people working under a certain supervisor went \u201crogue\u201d, attempting to siphon money out by using different usernames on the platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis full team was put under investigation. That is the whole reason this whole thing has come to light,\u201d Vaz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOtherwise, since September, everybody\u2019s been working, and everybody\u2019s been making money and just having a peaceful time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe advertisement for the SFCVIBE Rating Mt Wellington event promoted kitchenware as prizes.<\/p>\n

Commerce Commission head of fair trading and product safety investigations Simon Pope said the company appeared to be operating in multiple countries, including New Zealand, where it has several offices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scheme attracts users by offering high payouts for completing basic digital tasks, such as rating and reviewing movies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scheme involves the recruitment of others. It requires new participants to join via a referral link and to pay a subscription or deposit before starting work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe strongly advise anyone who comes across SFCVIBE Rating to exercise caution; if what the scheme offers seems too good to be true, it probably is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They said every member who joins is placed under one or more managers whose role is to \u201cguide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1554,1970,138,2562,7123,35964,217088,12898,302,13840,1329,111,139,69,1642,1523,3545,15483,175431,16156,68689,312,1461,3170,217087,8229,8238,3912],"class_list":["post-423083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alleged","tag-believe","tag-business","tag-claims","tag-current","tag-feels","tag-functioning","tag-investigation","tag-its","tag-like","tag-member","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-online","tag-over","tag-platform","tag-promising","tag-pyramid","tag-quick","tag-rating","tag-says","tag-scam","tag-scheme","tag-sfcvibe","tag-they","tag-under","tag-wealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}