Multi-level marketing/pyramid schemes and the people who fall for them

[Cosmos]

Maybe, and I say maybe, it could be a good idea to start monitoring those MLM and "be financially emancipated" Facebook and social media pages on a dedicated thread in Community Watch.
I was thinking about starting it, but it wouldn't be correct towards @AnchuentProphecy and @Cosmos , since they had the idea first, plus I lack materials.
I know the other thread is already in Community Watch, but it seems dead as of December 2017.
Maybe it would be the case to merge, or move this one?

I wrote this thread intending it to be put in the Community Watch forum, but a moderator moved it to General Discussion because they said I wasn't talking about a community.

 

[Monika H.]

I wrote this thread intending it to be put in the Community Watch forum, but a moderator moved it to General Discussion because they said I wasn't talking about a community.

Okay, I understand then.


Gsearch material

For this one, I'll take shit that didn't happen for 1000.

 

[MysticMisty]

Never got why MLM was so big, anyway.

Because people love the idea at making lots of money for minimal effort. Pyramid schemes always target this by promising more money than can be earned at conventional jobs for no education and minimal effort. This also easily allows them to spin the blame on the sucker when they inevitably fail to make money. They didn't make money because obviously they didn't care enough to try, not because it's incredibly rare to make money, let alone in substantial amounts, in pyramid schemes.

 

[Nehelenia]

My parents and seemingly all of our family friends were selling (or trying to sell) Advocare for a couple of years. They were also really big on the cleanse programs Advocare had and tried to get me to do one once (I gave up like hours into the first day because I just felt really sick, though). Their drink mixes didn’t taste like anything special (and probably didn’t have anything special in them, either).

They still insist that MLM is a legitimate way to do business and not a scam (seriously). I just remember seeing boxes of the shit sitting around the house all the time, going nowhere fast.

 

[Monika H.]

 

[Bugaboo]

Scentsy and whatever the fuck else (essential oils especially) consulting is all the rage in the trashy eastern side of my town. Everyone who does it is a woman age 20-25 with 3.5 kids, a deadbeat husband who hops from job to job, no car or license and AT LEAST 3 dogs or cats (or a mixture of the two) who are not spayed or neutered and may or may not be abandoned at the local spca at any given time to be replaced with new animals from kijiji

This sounds oddly specific, but there are at least 3-4 dozen women like this in my city.

 

[JustStopDude]

I was supervisor in USN. On my ship, I keep hearing about some bullshit Amway style company.

Many of my guys not smart financially. For most, the military is first job so credit cards and debt causes problems.

I find out it is senior electrician trying to sign up my mechanics. I tell him to stop. Asshole does not and I end up sending him to mast.

His fucking defense at captains mast is he owes so much money he needed to squeeze my kids for cash. I wanted to fucking punch him.

 

[ASoulMan]

There used to be a MLM called Vemma that specialized in selling shitty overpriced energy drinks that the drones claimed could cure cancer and other bullshit. I was brought into it by a friend back in 2014, but thankfully got out of it after about a month after finally figuring out it was all a sham. I remember talking about it in great detail in the other MLM thread back in the day. The best part was hearing about the company getting sued up the ass and having its business model gutted as a result. I haven't heard anything new about them since late 2016, but I'm pretty sure at this point the company has faded well into obscurity.

 

[AlmightyMagichan]

A couple months ago I spent a few days at a voluntary insurance company. It was a weird little experience. The office building they had was very bare. They said that was because they had just moved into the area and said that the table in the meeting room had just been installed a few days ago. I think there were about 6 people working in the sales department, 3 who had been there for about 7 months and 3 who had been there for only 2. (I couldn't help but notice how that contradicted the comment about the office table.)

Tuesday-Thursday were field work days, and Monday and Friday were office days. I went around with one of the senior guys and it was very amusing. The goal was to make 40 "drops" everyday, which means you go into a store and bug the people working there until they tell you to leave. It was pretty funny, this guy had to stop constantly to make phone calls for potential leads he had. It was always about how they didn't want to meet with him, or we'd show up to an appointment and the owner wouldn't be there. He smoked a hell of a lot of cigarettes throughout the day too.

I found out that none of the three newer people had made any sales yet. One of them was a slightly older woman who had to use a cane to get around. Even with those pity points she still couldn't get anything rolling. On the office day you had to make 120 phone calls to your drops and try to set up appointments. They kept track of it on a big board. There were some other people working there too. Apparently they were veterans who didn't need to go out on drops because they already had a huge customer base and made their money through renewals. I never saw any of them really doing anything. There was also a guy who sat at the front desk, but no one ever came in to the office. They had to prop the door open because every office in the building required those scanners for badges.

Don't know if that was an MLM scam, but man did I see a lot of red flags.

 

[Russian Civil War]

What sucks is that I really like those essential oil diffusers, because they make my room smell nice and dandy, but that industry seems to be overrun by shady motherfuckers.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

I was supervisor in USN. On my ship, I keep hearing about some bullshit Amway style company.

Many of my guys not smart financially. For most, the military is first job so credit cards and debt causes problems.

I find out it is senior electrician trying to sign up my mechanics. I tell him to stop. Asshole does not and I end up sending him to mast.

His fucking defense at captains mast is he owes so much money he needed to squeeze my kids for cash. I wanted to fucking punch him.

You know, I bet you really regretted not being able to flog that son of a bitch. Or keelhaul him.

Amway on a fucking Navy ship. Good grief.

 

[Kiwi Lime Pie]

A couple months ago I spent a few days at a voluntary insurance company. It was a weird little experience. The office building they had was very bare. They said that was because they had just moved into the area and said that the table in the meeting room had just been installed a few days ago. I think there were about 6 people working in the sales department, 3 who had been there for about 7 months and 3 who had been there for only 2. (I couldn't help but notice how that contradicted the comment about the office table.)
(...)
Don't know if that was an MLM scam, but man did I see a lot of red flags.

Agreed that it's hard to tell whether that was MLM, but the operation definitely sounded shady. In looking to see what "voluntary insurance" was, I came across a big name company that offers it. I really hope it, and the other legitimate companies that offer it, don't use the setup you described.

 

[Kiwi Lime Pie]

I can't seem to edit my previous post to avoid double-posting, but I just saw this image on social media where someone claims adding lavender essential oil to a foot spa can supposedly remove toxins from the body.



This reminded me of a similar product that made similar claims, only to be proven fake.

Spoiler: Do you remember Kinoki foot pads?

At one point, late-night TV was inundated with ads for Kinoki foot pads. By sleeping with them on your feet, they would supposedly remove toxins and other icky things from your body as you slept. The proof being offered was the fact the pads were dark when removed the next morning. Eventually, someone debunked these foot pads as nothing more than woo (link*); the pads darkened at any trace of moisture coming into contact with them, even from holding them in front of boiling water!

The link mentioned in the above story even states, "Detox foot baths should also be regarded as fakes." Goodness forbid people be told their MLM woo doesn't work, though.

* My attempt to archive this page with archive.is failed with an error. Also edited to correct spelling.

 

[snuffleupagus]

 

[Monika H.]

View attachment 490438

This made me laugh so hard, I legit lost my glasses and cap

 

[snuffleupagus]

This made me laugh so hard, I legit lost my glasses and cap

Yeah I’m stealth facebooking in the office (damn Saturday work to catch up) and I got busted because I started laughing. I held it together until the last panel but #bossbaberaptor sent me over the edge.

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

Does anyone know what the obsession with "toxins" in the woo crowd is? I remember being half-drunk and watching infomercials at 2AM (I have one of those schedules) and hearing some guy talk about an enemic that purges (what else) "toxins" from the body. Every time I run into the essential oils/organic food/natural living/woo crowd, that word always crops up.

 

[Cosmos]

 

[Stephanie Bustcakes]

Does anyone know what the obsession with "toxins" in the woo crowd is? I remember being half-drunk and watching infomercials at 2AM (I have one of those schedules) and hearing some guy talk about an enemic that purges (what else) "toxins" from the body. Every time I run into the essential oils/organic food/natural living/woo crowd, that word always crops up.

People want to believe there is one simple cause of their health problems and if you remove it you'll be healthy and all your troubles will go away.

 

[Monika H.]

View attachment 490478

Well, selling meth would be far more honest, plus you'd be giving your customers something they actually want.