I was sucked into the forever living cult, wanted to earn a bit of pocket money but stay at home with the kids, was doing Avon but somehow got duped into going with forever. I'll give you a bit of insight into how these companies work, you start off with a fairly reasonable commission rate, on the products you sell but the more you sell the higher your commission goes, you then get bonuses for recruiting people, and then once they're recruited you earn a bit of their commission too, and if they recruit, you get a slice of each of their downlines commission, and so the pyramid starts, also, if you have a customer that pays for something that costs however much it is to qualify for joining up, then you can offer that customer a 15% discount on all products there after for being a vip customer, what they dont realise is actually they are now a downline, not expected to recruit but for everything they purchase they'll be contributing to there uplines commission. Now in terms of these big fancy meetings etc, You actually pay for those, and you are expected to pay for everything, you get a ticket which costs £25 plus, then you pay for your own travel, your expected to dress smartly, preferably in a suit, and if there is a meal you pay for that too. all horrifically over priced, and fake it til you make it is a thing.
The way they get out of oh its not a pyramid scheme is because they do sell products. Albeit a small range of horrifically over priced products, but they actually have a physical product to sell, so its a loophole on the typical pyramid scheme.
You'll also hear a lot of cars being given away, car plan etc, this is a massive scam, firstly, you need to be making the company a lot of money through recruits and sales, then, you need to stay there, then they'll "buy" you a car, on finance, but if you don't stay or improve at that level (earning tens of thousands for them) then that really expensive mercedes you've been given, you need to pay for or send back.
The biggest thing is the fact they will trounce well known companies through the mud, forever living do it with quite a lot of well known cosmetic companies, saying they test on animals etc. When I joined forever living, I got a massive info pack explaining all the good it can do according to this doctor and that doctor and this VET and that VET, yes I said vet. For a company who pride themselves on never having tested their products on animals, they recommend using a hell of a lot of their products on animals. Toothpaste for dogs, deoderant for horses eyes, sprays and gelly for sores and rashes on animals.
And dont get me started on the clean 9. My upline, was also someone who i thought to be a good friend, In just 1 year, she had done 4 clean 9 cleanses, and lost 10 stone, she was a forever celebrity, her ad was used all over the place, everyone who had an flp friend saw her semi naked and going from large to slim after just 4 clean 9s. It turns out she was a big fat liar and had actually had a gastric band surgery, which was why she lost so much weight.
I spoke to an ex arbonner who told me she had "invested" over £1000 in two years on products to show case. she made £100, in the entirity of two years.
These scams need to stop.