Peak USA LLC offered a workaround when Zeek Rewards shut down its direct customer sales in March 2012. The lead generation company, operating under the domain zcustomers.com, kept the same fraudulent practice alive by acting as a middleman.
Before March 2012, Zeek Rewards sold customer lists directly through its 5cc co-op. Affiliates bought these customer names to assign VIP bids, artificially boosting their VIP point balances and reported returns. Zeek Rewards then abruptly stopped this practice, citing new FTC regulations.
After the shutdown, affiliates could still acquire identical customer lists from the same sources. They simply routed their purchases through Peak USA LLC. The underlying practice continued without change.
An affiliate, identified as "MB," decided to test the new system. He spent $400 on 200 customer leads from ZCustomers, paying $2 for each name. Not one of these leads purchased a bid over the following month. MB also had 20 additional "retail customers" in his sponsorship report with the same result: zero conversions.
MB contacted ZCustomers to question the suspicious usernames. A representative explained that Zeekler created the accounts and sent emails to the leads with login details and free bid offers. The ZCustomers FAQ section confirmed this arrangement.
ZCustomers claims on its website to be "not affiliated with ZeekRewards or Zeekler." This claim raises questions. Zeekler created customer accounts and sent promotional emails on behalf of a company it said it was not affiliated with.
No legitimate third-party lead generator would receive such direct cooperation from Zeekler without a formal agreement. But ZCustomers also advertised that it was "the same company that provided customer prospects (affiliates) received in the (5cc company co-op." This statement directly contradicted its claim of no affiliation.
The contradiction exposed the scheme. Either ZCustomers lied about its independence, or Zeekler gave special treatment to an outside vendor for unclear reasons. Both scenarios indicate Peak USA LLC and Zeek Rewards acted as coordinated partners, continuing to sell fake customers to affiliates.
MB's experience revealed the deception's core. The customers generated through this pipeline were not real prospects. Zeekler itself created these phantom accounts. They gave the illusion that affiliates had built legitimate customer bases. The emails MB received and the zero conversion rate exposed the scam.
Zeek Rewards did not exit the customer-selling business. It outsourced the operation, creating legal distance from the same fraudulent activity under new management.