Richard Harrold, burdened by $200,000 in debt and facing foreclosure, launched an advertising scheme called ProShare on September 14, 2011. The New York resident registered the proshare.info domain while $45,000 behind on mortgage payments, his home headed for auction. He had also depleted his 401k and owed the IRS $9,000.
Harrold lost a $100,000 annual pharmaceutical job after a drunk-driving conviction, which cost him his license for three years. Online posts from Harrold admitted his situation was his own fault. He pleaded for assistance. Before ProShare, he promoted cash gifting schemes, programs often linked to legal issues for operating as pyramid structures.
ProShare offers no actual product or service for sale. Members join without charge, but once inside, they buy $10 advertising packs. These ads supposedly appear on a ProShare-controlled network, featured on the company's own website. This constitutes the entire stated business model.
The compensation plan centers on recruitment. Members earn a 10% commission when their direct recruits buy advertising packs. They receive 3% from the purchases of recruits' recruits and 2% from the next level down. The company's FAQ mentions "profit-sharing" but provides no details on how it works or what generates the returns.
Buying advertising on the ProShare website does not generate revenue for members. The ads lead nowhere. They sell nothing. They simply exist on a website most people have not heard of. Without a clear profit-sharing system that pays members from company revenue, these advertising purchases become investments in a scheme. The only way to make money is by recruiting others to buy the same ads.
The ProShare website lists no owner or operator information. Only domain records identify Harrold's involvement. This lack of transparency, combined with his history of cash gifting schemes, his severe financial distress, and a compensation structure focused entirely on recruitment over retail sales, presents a specific picture.
ProShare appears designed to take money from desperate people by selling false hope of easy commissions. The missing business fundamentals and Harrold's background suggest its intent. This is not an entrepreneur building a legitimate business. This is a man in financial freefall creating a machine to funnel money upward through recruitment commissions.
Members joining ProShare do not buy into a business. They fund someone else's mortgage payment through a structure that benefits only those at the top.