Pyramid Scheme Pariahs

[SU 390]

I feel we should switch this topic from just Vemma Douchebags to people who run pyramid schemes in general. I already have a new name for this thread: Pyramid Scheme Pariahs (and I mean pariahs in the sense that these assholes run these schemes as to compensate for the fact that they have little to no friends whatsoever)

Good thread name indeed. Good job

 

[Descent]

I had two co-workers get involved with Monavie, which is this Acai berry juice shit that can do anything including fix Autism and Diabetes*. They tried to get everyone at work to buy from them and got super pissed off when I told everyone it was a pyramid scheme. I asked one of them if the juice was made with snake oil and she asked me what that was because she's an idiot. One day she was bragging about how she made $80 in one day! Next day she was wearing a Monavie hoody that I guarn-fucking-tee cost more than $80. I see a few vans around my town with Monavie stickers on them.

Also, my city has this carnival/fair/celebration thing with rides, games, candies and shit and a room with booths setup by members of the community. Someone had a Cutco Cutlery booth setup next two equally awful booths.

*My mom had someone try to sell her Monavie when she found out her adopted son was severaly Autistic and my best friend was told it would cure her Diabetes. Her Diabetes she was born with.

 

[Sweet and Savoury]

There is a simple rule in life:

If it seems too good to be true then it is.

Anyone who gets sucked into a pyramid scheme has only their own greed and ego to blame.

 

[Fialovy]

I had two co-workers get involved with Monavie, which is this Acai berry juice shit that can do anything including fix Autism and Diabetes*. They tried to get everyone at work to buy from them and got super pissed off when I told everyone it was a pyramid scheme. I asked one of them if the juice was made with snake oil and she asked me what that was because she's an idiot. One day she was bragging about how she made $80 in one day! Next day she was wearing a Monavie hoody that I guarn-fucking-tee cost more than $80. I see a few vans around my town with Monavie stickers on them.

Also, my city has this carnival/fair/celebration thing with rides, games, candies and shit and a room with booths setup by members of the community. Someone had a Cutco Cutlery booth setup next two equally awful booths.

*My mom had someone try to sell her Monavie when she found out her adopted son was severaly Autistic and my best friend was told it would cure her Diabetes. Her Diabetes she was born with.

Sounds exactly like Xango another pyramid scheme, but instead it is overpriced Mangosteen juice that is marketed as some sort of cure-all even though I can bet you anything you can buy mangosteen juice at a health food store for less and without all of those ludicrous and completely exaggerated health claims

The ones that cash into the whole "natural" craze are the worst. I mean, just because something is natural doesn't mean that it is good for you or safe. I mean, look at hemlock or belladonna or pretty much any poisonous mushroom or heck, even venom from animals is natural! The weight loss schemes are also pretty bad too. I remember Arbonne which had both... overpriced cosmetics that supposedly have less crap in it, think Avon, but catering to the more chemical-concerned, well, there is a weight-loss line that has these taffies made with all-natural ingrediants and all that jazz and you are supposed to suck on them... they are really just ordinary low calorie candies and the weight loss is really nothing more than just the placebo effect. Other than that, their make up is just... meh, again, a health food store is probably more inexpensive if you want the make up that they are trying to sell you, it's probably even moreso depending on the brand.

Mary Kay is another one and I been to a couple Mary Kay parties when I was younger via being dragged by my mom and... well, I don't know what that stuff is that is in that Velocity face wash from them marketed to young people, but I was about 12 or 13 when I received it from my mom's friend and it made my face break out really bad and pretty much went back to my neutrogena which fixed the issue in a matter of days. Heck, one of those Mary Kay ladies I knew? She was a well-known mom at my high school who took charge of the make up in theatre and most of the make up except for the really over-the-top and costumey stuff was... Mary Kay, even... yes, that Velocity face wash... I made sure I brought my own stuff to wash my face with. I didn't care much about the make up since it would only be for a few hours then when I got home it could be washed.

I will admit though, I never heard of Vemma until now... a lot of these schemes I have not heard of

 

[Wakaranai]

Draining wallets and ruining friendships. Horrible people.

It's a little depressing that people don't know enough to not fall for this kind of stuff by now, though. The news, guidance counselors, and employment advice books/pamphlets/articles are constantly warning against scam jobs, and "never take jobs that require you to pay your employer" is the one item that *always* makes the list.

 

[Ariel]

I got roped into direct marketing when I was 18. I lasted about 4 days. This guy showed us a motivational video of somebody higher up the the pyramid who owned (leased more like) a Ferrari with funds earned selling those Oxfam charity memberships, so I left.

 

[Thelostcup]

There is a simple rule in life:

If it seems too good to be true then it is.

Anyone who gets sucked into a pyramid scheme has only their own greed and ego to blame.

While this is true some of the time, a lot of the people I've seen get sucked in by MLM are kids fresh out of high school desperate for a job and unaware that there are dickheads out there looking to take advantage of their naivety.

 

[sm0t]

I've had two people try to rope me into a pyramid scheme, both of them total strangers that I encountered at my place of work at the time, so I guess it's not just unemployed kids that these scumbags target. I can't remember the names of the companies they worked at, but they both sold cruises and travel packages.

The first one was from when I worked as a bathroom attendant at a high-end nightclub. This woman managed to sucker me into giving her phone number and she gave me her business card, which had the address to her company website. When I looked up the website, the only thing I was able to access was some recruitment video talking about how awesome it is to work for this company and how much money these kids were making and all the fancy shit they were able to afford because of it, and how they got all these awesome deals depending on how many people they recruit. All the talk about recruitment raised my first red flag. Every other link on that website required a login, which was my second red flag. Then she called me and put my on three-way with another woman, and they both started talking at length about pretty much everything the video said, and they got down to the part where I had to pay about $250 for training. I told them I didn't have that sort of money, and then they started getting really determined to get me to pay up. They talk about how terrible the economy is for keeping women from making money, but then it devolves into them suggesting that I use a credit card or even borrow the money from someone I know, saying that's what other people have done to get in. Because everyone knows someone charitable enough to drop $250 for a friend to get suckered into a pyramid scheme right? But thankfully the interaction was cut short after my phone died from these two bottom-feeders talking my ear off about how awesome this job is and you too could afford 50 BMWs if you could just harass total strangers into joining our scam great establishment and empty your bank account into ours pretty please.

The second time, I was working at the nation-wide pet store chain That-Shall-Not-Be-Named. This guy started asking me questions about ferrets, and then after I answered all of his questions and chatted up a little he said that he was going to call the store later to tell me how awesome it was. But I guess by later he meant as soon as he stepped foot out the door because I get paged to answer the store phone (which has never happened for as long as I've worked there) maybe 20 minutes after our interaction. I answer the phone, and it's the same guy talking about how he thought I'd be a great fit for his job. As he's talking I couldn't help but notice how similar his verbage was to the video and the women from the previous story. Not wanting to deal with this bullshit again, I gave him a deactivated number and wished him a good day before hanging up. My husband researched the company while I was still at work and his findings did confirm my suspicion that it was a pyramid scheme.

 

[Some JERK]

I'd never heard of this shit, but I just spent an hour down the vemma rabbit-hole.

you have to buy the shit, then find people who will sell the shit to other people who will find people to sell the shit? and it all gets marked up through the fucking roof so that the dude on top still gets his cut? That's not a pyramid scheme, that's a fucking drug cartel.

 

[Android raptor]

Oh man, a friend of mines dad totally loves this shit. I remember some years ago he got suckered into Vemma and there were cases and cases of that energy drink bullshit lying around his house until we got fed up and threw them away (by that point the shit had expired anyway).

 

[Globe]

While this is true some of the time, a lot of the people I've seen get sucked in by MLM are kids fresh out of high school desperate for a job and unaware that there are dickheads out there looking to take advantage of their naivety.

Yeah, I don't really find victims of pyramid schemes to be greedy or egotistical at all, most of them are kids who are naive about how the job market works, or people who are really desperate for some form of legit employment.

The worse part is that when it inevitably goes south, a lot of them are compelled to feel like it's their fault, like they didn't try hard enough or didn't tow their end of the line, not that they got suckered out of a couple hundred dollars by some amoral sleezeball "company" that never planned on them selling any merchandise to begin with. Really the only shameful people involved in these rackets are the dirtbags running them.

Like several people here, I was invited to a group interview with Vector when I was 18 and just about to graduate high school. Being a pretty naive kid myself, I didn't know what pyramid schemes were, though I did know that all commission sales were a nightmare that had to be avoided like the plague, so my first red flag was there being zero mention of any sort of base pay. Second red flag was when they said we have to shill out 200 dollars for their silly little demo kit. The final red flag was when I told the interviewer in private the I couldn't drive and wasn't sure how I'd be able to sell anything and he said something to the effect "pay for the demo now and we'll help you figure something out". They were WAY too insistent on getting the money for that kit. I told him I'd have to think it over. They called a few days later and I told them I wasn't interested.

 

[Beef Thunderpants]

I'd never heard of this shit, but I just spent an hour down the vemma rabbit-hole.

you have to buy the shit, then find people who will sell the shit to other people who will find people to sell the shit? and it all gets marked up through the fucking roof so that the dude on top still gets his cut? That's not a pyramid scheme, that's a fucking drug cartel.

One of the other angles these people use is that you can return whatever you can't sell, so there's no risk. When you get the starter pack and merchandise, they recommend you open it up and try it out, so you can familiarize yourself with what you're trying to sell. Then, when you find out you can't sell any of it, the company says they won't take it back because it has been opened (as they suggested).

 

[plautistic]

A lot of these schemes have a cult undercurrent, and then there's Neo-Tech/Nouveau Tech/The NeoThink Society/etc. Their current spokesperson is "Mark Hamilton." He looks like a B-movie villain and wants to save the world.

Spoiler: meet your mentor

I first encountered Neo-Tech when our company test driver, who canvassed flea markets and garage sales while out in the Georgia countryside on assignment, brought in a copy of The Nouveau Tech Package Of Inside Secrets. Opening this hefty volume (~$140 MSRP), I was immediately struck by the almost indecipherable word salad, with neologisms like "neocheaters." On the surface, it was a modified form of Objectivism, but as I leafed around, I saw some bizarre deviations, such as a timeline of history if we had followed Aristotle's philosophy instead of Plato's (we would have spaceships and extraterrestrial colonies by now). For a group that preaches the evils of "mysticism," this struck me as odd. Then I hit the big one: biological immortality.

That's right, they want to (1) get rich, (2) screw a lot, and (3) literally live forever. How do you do this?

You join their pyramid scheme, of course! Sadly, the book our driver brought back was one of the "heirloom" versions. If you look at the Amazon link, you'll see that these are "personalized" with boilerplate pasted to the front cover. This copy was addressed to what I believe was an older man, promising him that his children and their children, etc. would continuously treasure the book and appreciate its secrets. I imagine this poor person was scammed, died, and this useless possession sold at the side of the road.

Anyway, while Neo-Tech is not terribly crazy on the surface, it gets pretty scary the more you look into it. Unless you're a fan of great 80s music.

 

[Some JERK]

I saw some bizarre deviations, such as a timeline of history if we had followed Aristotle's philosophy instead of Plato's (we would have spaceships and extraterrestrial colonies by now).

I've heard this argument before, and there is some merit to it on the surface, but really, Aristotle could only directly argue his ideas while he was alive. I don't care how respected or charismatic you are, I've never seen anyone get directly shut down by a dead guy . If people decided to keep following Aristotle's path in the face of conflicting information after he was dead, then that's on them.

 

[Surtur]

My brother got suckered into one of these, ACN I think, its fronted by Donald Trump, so you know its trustworthy.

 

[Uzumaki]

Draining wallets and ruining friendships. Horrible people.

It's a little depressing that people don't know enough to not fall for this kind of stuff by now, though. The news, guidance counselors, and employment advice books/pamphlets/articles are constantly warning against scam jobs, and "never take jobs that require you to pay your employer" is the one item that *always* makes the list.

Dude, people are still getting their palms read. They still go to tent-style faith healers and John Edwards-style cold readers and send all their money to an Aryan super model working in Nigeria so she can buy a plan ticket to come see them.

Every scam works forever.

 

[A-Stump]

Mary Kay preys on vulnerable women. Those recently out of rough divorces, older women who have never worked before, young women fresh into the workforce, they are terrible fucking people who would (and have) ripped off cancer patients for a profit.

http://www.pinktruth.com/

As with all things for the world weary skeptic you should check out James Randi, he deals with MLM along with all the psychic and paranormal bullshit and is an incredibly learned man.

 

[Beef Thunderpants]

All it takes is a couple people out of the tens of thousands of emails and fliers you send out to buy into what you're selling and you are going to make money.

Once they do get a sucker, the scammers will keep on them until there is nothing left. One of the subjects of Intervention was on pain killers and got conned into sending somebody money, and they would call him for hours a day to talk and were constantly weaseling more and more money out of him.

There are a lot of elderly people on my street, and we get a lot of those energy supplier people coming through, they get ahold of seniors or immigrants and promise a low rate, and then send huge bills and hope it takes them a while to cancel, and I tell them to leave the neighborhood or somebody will end up calling the police. I ended up calling the non-emergency line after one of the nosier neighbors called me asking what they wanted and told me they actually talked their way into a real elderly person's house. I have much more of a problem when you prey on the elderly and people who are otherwise unable to work their way out of a mistake like that. You get some college kid for a few hundred bucks? You probably taught them more than their college education that cost 40 times as much.

 

[Artard]

Ever heard of the White Van Speaker Guys?

That's actually what the wikipedia entry calls them.

I see them a few times a year, leaning out vans and shouting that they have speakers or some other stereo equipment they need to get rid of. Fast.

It works on one of the most brilliant and time-tested scams there is: the implication that they're selling you a valuable (but stolen) product at a very cheap price.

Greedy people (which is somewhere between 95 and 99% of the population) believe they're paying knock-down prices for high-end equipment, when in fact they're paying inflated prices for shitty knock offs from China that would retail at about $20 if you could find anyone that would sell them (you can't). An ex of mine had them walk away with $300 of her money for a complete "audio system" which I think is probably their average take. If you look on Craigslist under some of the common brand names you'll usually find people who have been scammed trying to sell them for the best offer.

Many people have run into White Van Speaker Guys, but had no idea this is an international scam. It seems way too specific and random, but it is. I actually saw White Van Speaker Guys in Australia when I was on vacation there. There is allegedly a pretty formidable international organization(s) behind it, considering how intricate some of the supporting materials are.

Where I live, Irish Travellers used to be behind a large number of White Van Speaker Guy scams though I've seen all kinds of people involved in the scam over the last five or six years.

Quite a few videos on youtube of them, people tearing down the speakers, silly attempts at "stings" like this, etc.

 

[homerbeoulve]

Pyramid scam you say? Ask Bernie Madoff:

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