By JUHA SAARINEN

"Do you want financial freedom? Welcome to Cashevolution, where we give you the means to control your financial destiny."

Siren songs like this, aimed at the unsophisticated and unwary who flock to the internet in increasing numbers, are a common ploy for pyramid scheme operators overseas.

But this time it's Auckland-based Cashevolution.com that's playing the Pied Piper's tune.

The Cashevolution scheme run by directors Craige Mayo and David McQuoid started on the internet in May this year.

Mayo says the scheme "was created to help ordinary and unsophisticated people to understand business".

Inspired and "deeply moved" by an episode of the Oprah Winfrey chat show about many people in the United States living below the poverty line, Mayo says he and McQuoid have a "philanthropic vision" for Cashevolution.com.

They "wanted to create a programme that would not only provide the means to create extra income, but to retain it".

But the Commerce Commission, which is investigating the scheme, has found little evidence of philanthropy.

In July, chief adviser Janet Whiteside said it breached three sections of the Fair Trading Act - those dealing with "referral selling, misrepresenting certain business activities such as those carried on from a person's home, and pyramid selling".

Whiteside's emailed opinion is now circulated on the internet.

Mayo says the message "has created controversy" but "it is not an accurate account".

However, he acknowledges the commission has issued a notice that Cashevolution may be at risk of breaching the Fair Trading Act.

Mayo says the website Cashevolution.com was rewritten in response to the warning, but since August 8 the scheme has been listed by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs on the pyramid selling section of its scam watch website.

Mayo insists that Cashevolution.com is "a viable network marketing company, and not a pyramid scheme, that offers a valuable product to the market".

The product it sells is a "subscription to education", says Mayo.

Asked if the Commerce Commission warning is damaging for the scheme's credibility, Mayo says no action has been taken since the warning was issued in July, and he believes that Cashevolution is "compliant with the Fair Trading Act".