Is UpCrowdMe a Scam? – Facts Tim Bentley Doesn’t Want You To Know!
UpCrowdMe has recently gone through some major changes and is now known as UCM Social.
Starting as a crowdfunding platform, UCM Social now presents itself as a program that will help you “turn your FB profile into a $103/day money-making monster” for free!
And while Tim Bentley, the creator of the program, says that the recent change is for the best interests of its 15,000 members…
I believe its to keep the program alive despite its shady operation, which we will discuss in detail below.
In this UpCrowdMe review, you will learn what this program is really about so you can make an educated decision whether it’s something you want to get involved in.
Let’s dive in.
Review Summary
Website: upcrowdme.com
Founder: Tim Bentley
Price to Join Opportunity: Free up to $1,200
Overall Business Opportunity Rating:
Quick Summary: The first thing you need to know about this program is that your primary source of income will be through recruiting people using your social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
I’m assuming this is the reason why Tim Bentley was forced to changed the name of the program after only a few months since it was first launched.
But it doesn’t end there!
If you join for free, you will never earn money with UCM Social (formerly UpCrowdMe). The only way to make an income with this program is to become a paid member.
You’re income will also be based on your affiliate level so its falls to your capacity to pay for higher tiers to earn a meager $5 a month or to earning $1,000 in a single sale – a Pay to Play system.
UCM Social uses a 2 Pass Up System on which your first and third recruit will be passed to your sponsor, thus, you won’t earn any commissions from them.
And finally, the so-called products that cost hundreds and thousands of dollars aren’t really worth your money and I will explain why below.
Recommended? No
What is UpCrowdMe?
UpCrowdMe used to be a crowdfunding platform created by Tim Bentley from which you send (donate) someone money so you, in turn, can receive money from other people.
To join UpCrowdMe in the past, you will need to donate a minimum of $5, with various “optional” upgrades offered that allow you to earn bigger commissions.
UpCrowdMe started making noise in mid-2019 when it’s training that’s supposed to teach you how to get consistent donations from Facebook caused an unprecedented growth of its members… More than 15,000 in less than four months!
But what really happened is that members are forced to use their FB account to recruit other people and promote the program using their affiliate links.
UpCrowdMe didn’t have any products, and members are basically paying money as “donations” to take part in the program to earn money from new members.
This is what is called an illegal cash gifting scheme.
So it’s safe to assume that after taking a lot of heat and criticism from people aware of this illegal practice, UpCrowdMe was forced to rename as UCM Social to shake off some of the bad rep it got.
As a matter of fact, UCM Social was forced to change its payment options from PayPal to Stripe and Bitcoin because, according to one of its members…
PayPal shut down UpCrowdMe’s account as they (PayPal) feels UpCrowdMe is running a suspicious business model.
I don’t know about you, but that’s saying a lot about the legitimacy of this program.
Also, amidst the hypes on the video, what happened was that many members of UpCrowdMe have their FB account banned for spamming their affiliate links.
It is the reason why at the moment, UCM Social offers free training on how to get leads from Facebook the “correct” way without getting your account banned.
Moreover, UCM Social now has different services offered included on its affiliate membership packages.
How does UCM Social Work? – Is it any better?
UCM Social presents itself as a Done-For-You (DFY) social media management and branding service.
Tim claims that they decided to change the program because they “listened” to their 15,000 members, but as I already discussed above, this isn’t really the case.
Alright, pardon me if I’m giving off such a bad vibe about this program.
But I promise you it’s not due to some baseless reasons. Because while it’s true that UCM Social now has some semblance of “products,” they are created not for your best benefit.
Furthermore, even if it’s possible to make money with this new program, the way you are getting paid as an affiliate is almost identical to how the members are paid in UpCrowdMe.
Though I’d have to admit that the services UCM Social offers could provide you a little value, it doesn’t make this program good.
But don’t take my word for it and let me show you what I mean.
Cost to Join UCM Social (Isn’t it free?)
There are 7 different affiliate membership levels in UCM Social, and your income depends on what level you joined in.
1. Facebook Training (Free)
This is the free level that you can join in.
As a free member, you’ll be given access to training that’s supposed to teach you how to get leads from Facebook the “correct” way without getting your account banned, including how to create your brand.
UCM Social also claims to give you free access of its FB Eazy Auto-Posting Software that automates your daily posting online, even if you’re not around.
However, you cannot earn money or commissions on this level whatsoever.
You will only have access to the training and I’m guessing that’s not what enticed you to learn more about this program.
2. Affiliate Level 1
To become an Affiliate, you’ll have to pay $10/month, and it will give you the right to promote the UCM Social affiliate program to other people.
Please take note that at this level, there is no product being sold.
You are merely promoting the affiliate program (aka recruiting), and when people join and pay $10/month as well, you earn commissions. The more people you recruit, the more money you earn.
But isn’t this exactly how illegal cash gifting scheme works and probably why UpCrowdMe changed name in the first place?
Nevertheless, out of the $10 affiliate fee paid by your recruit, $5 will be paid to you, and the other $5 will go to the company.
You will continue to earn $5/month from your every referral as long as they keep paying their monthly affiliate fee.
But you would think that you will immediately earn $5 after your first recruit, right?
Unfortunately, not. It’s because UCM Social is using a 2 Pass Up System for commissions.
UCM Socials’s 2 Pass Up System
In this pay plan, your first and 3rd recruit will be given to your sponsor, the person who recruited you to UCM Social.
Meaning, you cannot earn commissions from them as they will be passed up to your sponsor. You can only earn commissions from your 2nd, 4th, 5th, and the rest of your recruits.
But first, a quick reality check.
Say you recruit four (4) people to join the program the first month, your net income will still be zero.
It’s because you paid UCM Social $10 a month to become part of the program, and your first and 3rd recruit will be passed up so you will get no income from them.
You’ll only earn $5 from your 2nd and 4th recruit for a total of $10 a month.
Therefore, the only one who is making money here is the company, Tim Bentley and his cohorts because whatever happens, they will get $5 from the four persons you recruit, and another $5 from you!
On the plus side, part of the recent update is that UCM Social will now give you 500 leads so you can start recruiting people immediately. Quite generous of them.
But the question is, where are these leads coming from? Also, will they be giving 500 unique leads to you, or are these the same leads shared by multiple affiliates?
These things aren’t made clear by the company, so before you pay that $10 monthly fee, be sure to ask your sponsor about these things.
And what about the “products” on other affiliate levels?
3. Level 2 (Logo) – $40 One-time
You will need to pay a one-time upgrade fee of $40 to unlock this level.
Of the $40 you pay, $20 goes to the company as a processing fee to create your personal logo.
The $20 will be given to your sponsor as a one-time upgrade commission.
Only Level 2 affiliates can earn Level 2 commissions. If your recruit upgraded to Level 2 and you are still at Level 1, you won’t get paid anymore.
Your supposed commissions will be passed onto the next qualified affiliate above you.
Now, UCM Social calls this a Roll-Up, but this is what’s more commonly called a Pay to Play system.
You will have to pay money to join the system (play), pay more to earn more money and keep paying so you can keep earning.
If you join this kind of program, you will be pressured to upgrade your membership to higher levels because it just makes sense; so you won’t “miss” any commissions.
4. Level 3 (Website) – $200 One-time
Of the $200 fee for this upgrade, $100 will go to your sponsor, and the $100 will go to the company.
To earn commissions for Level 3, you must be at least a Level 3 UCM Social affiliate yourself.
In exchange, you will be given a custom WordPress website, including life-time paid hosting, as long as you keep paying the affiliate fee.
But a website for what? What will you sell on your site, right?
There’s a high chance that you joined UCM Social because you thought you only need to do some easy stuff on Facebook.
And if you are completely new in online marketing, its safe to assume that you don’t know anything yet like driving traffic to your website or having any product to sell!
What good is paying for a website then? In all likeliness, your website will be used just to promote UCM Social as well.
And while the company is said to provide you with pre-made graphics and contents, this kind of website that is Done-For-You won’t be effective in the long run because of the so-called Law of Diminishing Returns.
When more people are using the same duplicate contents, the same marketing campaigns, and the same graphics, people will lose interest, and you will have trouble converting your marketing campaigns to sales.
The Law of Diminishing Returns is the reason why DFY systems like Yoonla, Global Affiliate Zone, and My Online Startup don’t last very long.
And much like UpCrowdMe, most of these programs changed their names to stay in business when the initial hype and excitement fades.
But it didn’t end there!
5. Level 4 (2 Socials) – $300 One-time, optional $100 monthly fee
This is the first of the social media management services offered by UCM Social.
To become a Level 4 affiliate, you’ll need to pay a total of $300.
The $200 will be paid to your sponsor, granted he/she is a Level 4 affiliate, or else commissions will be given to the next qualified affiliate in line.
The $100 will be paid to the company for a Personal Facebook Page and a Twitter account with pre-made themes and marketing templates.
You also have an option to automate the activity of your FB page and Twitter profile by paying an additional $100/month on top of your $10 affiliate fee.
UCM Social will handle the daily activities of your accounts, including adding a “Learn More” button that will redirect your visitors to your personal website.
Your sponsor will earn $30 monthly commissions from this monthly subscription on top of the $5 from your affiliate fee. But is it worth it?
In all honesty, you can create an FB page or a Twitter profile in less than an hour without paying anything.
Even if you haven’t done this thing before, you can get the same kind of information for free elsewhere. You surely don’t need to pay a one-time $300 for this.
Besides, I personally wouldn’t pay someone $100/month to manage my daily posts on FB and Twitter.
I can do them in less than 5 minutes. But that’s just me.
Unless, of course, you are merely paying the upgrade fee to become eligible to earn commissions from your recruits.
And that is precisely one of the bigger issues of this program.
The UCM Social affiliate program is designed so that you will be forced to upgrade your affiliate level if you want to make more money.
Upgrading affiliate levels are just for the sake of making money more than the benefits of the so-called “products” itself.
And guess what you will be promoting in your FB page and Twitter account?
Bingo! You will be promoting non-other than the UCM Social!
6. Level 5 (4 Socials) – $660 One-time, optional $150 monthly fee
Out of the $660 upgrade fee, $500 will be paid to your sponsor or the next qualified affiliate above you, while $160 goes to the company.
On top of a personal FB page and Twitter account…
UCM Social will create your personal Instagram and LinkedIn account, giving you a total of 4 social media accounts.
But I doubt creating your Instagram and Linked account cost a one-time $660 fee.
And much like Level 4, you have the option to let UCM Social take care of all the daily activities of your 4 social media accounts.
The company will post updates, videos, images and marketing campaigns on your FB, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts, by paying $150 per month on top of your $10 affiliate fee.
Your sponsor will earn an additional $60 passive commission if you choose to subscribe to this monthly service.
7. Level 6 (6 Socials) – $1,200 One-time, optional $200 monthly fee
This is the highest affiliate level of UCM Social, and it will cost you a one-time $1,200 investment.
The $1000 will be paid to your sponsor or to the next qualified affiliate while the $200 will go to UCM Social.
They will then provide you with a Pinterest account and a YouTube channel.
The company will also provide you with training on how to get viewers on Pinterest, how to get 1 million subscribers on YouTube, and how to run YouTube ads.
But again, for what? What will you be promoting and posting on these social media accounts?
Either way, you’ll have an option to let the company manage all your 6 social accounts by paying a $200 monthly fee on top of the $10 affiliate fee.
If you subscribe to this service, your sponsor will earn an additional $75 monthly commissions granted he/she is Level 6 as well.
Additional Services
All the social media levels (4-6) comes with the Social Ninja Inbox.
It’s what allows you to automate the activity of all your social media accounts, such as posting videos, images, offers, etc.
So if you’d rather create your own social media accounts without paying UCM Social, you can manage them all in a single dashboard with the Social Ninja Inbox for $69 a month.
To verify any of the information above, here’s a video from a founding member of UpCrowdMe and UCM Social.
Based on the things I’ve discussed above, do you think the so-called products and services of UCM Social justify the cost of the affiliate level cost?
Because they certainly look overpriced to me.
I personally wouldn’t pay hundreds, much more thousands of dollars, just to get 6 social media accounts created for me when I can do them for free.
Although some may provide some value, like the logo or the free training, the rest are mostly overpriced for no real reasons other than making you eligible for commissions.
What happens to the old UpCrowdMe Affiliates?
If you are a previous member of UpCrowdMe, you will need to pay the affiliate fee of $10 to earn residual commissions from your recruits.
And since you can also only earn commissions from your current level, you’ll also need to upgrade your affiliate level to earn bigger commissions.
And if you are a new FREE member, you won’t become a Level 6 member just by paying $1,200.
To become a Level 6 affiliate, you must pay the fees for:
Level 1 ($10), Level 2 ($40), Level 3 ($200), Level 4 ($300), Level 5 ($660) and of course, $1,200 for Level 6 for a total of $2,410!
Now, that’s a lot of money for a “free” program that promised to turn your Facebook account into a money machine!
Is UCM Social (aka UpCrowdMe) a Scam after all?
I don’t want to be “that” guy who sees negativity in all things.
But while UCM Social isn’t an outright scam, per se, the so-called products and services are geared to promoting the program itself.
And if you take a moment to think it through…
Not only is Tim Bentley and the people behind UCM Social is asking you to pay money for inferior products, but they’re even using you to make more money for themselves!
They are basically making you to pay so you can help them promote their program to other people using social networks.
And while you can earn monthly affiliate commissions from your recruit’s subscriptions, your income will greatly rely on recruitment.
Let’s say this program stops accepting new members today, for argument’s sake.
Do you think the people who joined at the bottom can earn money at all?
Conclusion: Should You “Get Yourself Out There” with UCM Social?
Based on the things I’ve shared above, you can probably guess why I won’t recommend this program.
Other than the fact that it is a Pay to Play program, it also dangerously resembles an illegal cash-gifting scheme.
There is little to no value on the services that you pay for, and your income will mostly rely on you recruiting new people to join your team.
But I understand that these things might also not matter to you, seeing that it’s possible to earn huge bucks with UCM Social.
Nonetheless, I do believe that you’ll choose to do the right and moral thing.
An Ethical Way To Make A Passive Income Online…
One of the downsides of the UCM Social is that you are promoting no products other than the program itself.
So how would you like to promote any product that you want and earn commissions without recruiting a single person or worrying about any affiliate levels whatsoever?
Would you be interested in that proposal? If you are, I highly recommend that you check this out.
It is the program that taught me and thousands of individuals to turn our passion into a full-time passive Income generating online business. Here’s my story and proof.
Anyways, thank you for taking the time to read this UpCrowdMe, aka UCM Social review.
If you think this could help other people too, kindly share this information with them. As they say, “Sharing is Caring.”
Until here and whichever path you take towards your financial goals in life, I wish you all the success in the future.
Your friend,
Jack