On July 3rd, Jeff Long informed Abundance Network affiliates that merchant providers had severed ties, citing serious concerns that the operation functioned as a pyramid scheme. This move left the gifting scheme without crucial payment infrastructure after only four weeks in business.
Long initially attributed the changes to "drastic" shifts in SMS marketing laws, offering no further explanation. He then disclosed the true reason: the messaging used by Abundance Network caused "major concern" for both payment providers and cellular carriers.
Multiple companies had already shut down Abundance Network services. Cash App, Venmo, Twilio, and Nexmo were among the named providers who labeled the operation a pyramid scheme and ceased support. Long declined to identify one additional provider.
Abundance Network operated as a gifting scheme, relying on voice and SMS messaging to recruit new participants. Potential victims called a number promoted by existing affiliates. They heard a voice message pitching the opportunity, then gifted money directly to current members if they chose to sign up.
This payment qualified the new recruit to receive their own Abundance Network number, which they then used to promote the scheme further. Payments moved exclusively between participants. No product or service was ever marketed or sold to retail customers outside the network.
Long maintained that Abundance Network was "breaking no laws," despite its structure as an illegal gifting scheme. He vowed to continue the business through a new, unnamed provider. Instead of addressing the fundamental fraudulent model, he blamed the public perception of multi-level marketing.
"The MLM world is pretty much hated by the mainstream business world," Long wrote to affiliates. He claimed PayPal frequently shuts down anything MLM-related and that many providers "throw the book" at "pyramid scheme people."
His proposed solution involved removing elements that made Abundance Network resemble an MLM. This specifically meant ditching the "pass up" compensation plan. Under the prior model, participants passed up gifting payments from their second and fourth recruits to their upline. Those recipients then did the same with their own second and fourth recruits, creating a chain.
Long argued that without the pass-up system, Abundance Network would appear "as legit as legit gets AND we don't come off as some schemey, weird, 'pyramid thing.'" However, payments within Abundance Network would still be direct gifts between affiliates. This direct participant-to-participant gifting model, lacking any genuine product or service, qualifies as an illegal pyramid scheme under federal law, regardless of its specific compensation tiers. The absence of a "pass up" system does not alter the scheme's fundamental illegality.
To prevent affiliates from leaving after the residual component disappeared, Long promised additional payment tiers. This would allow existing Abundance Network affiliates to extract more money from those they recruited directly.
The timeline for these changes remained vague. Long did not commit to a specific deadline, stating he wanted to "make sure we will meet or exceed the expectations we set with you." He estimated they would be "back up full swing within 2 weeks" after developers outlined the full scope of work.
The development aligned with the pattern of other short-lived schemes associated with Long. Abundance Network announced on August 6, 2019, that it would relaunch with a revised compensation plan.