To think my friend is being scammed?

[chesarasara]

She’s been trying to get me to join her work from home business for a while and after looking into it for a bit I’ve politely but firmly said no. But she won’t let it drop asking why I won’t join her and now I’ve bluntly told her that I think the whole thing is a pyramid scheme style scam and she’s throwing her money away.

We’ve been good friends for years but she has changed so much since she joined this MLM business 6 months ago. Constantly posting inspirational memes on FB and boasting about how much money she’s making. But I know she’s lying as my DH and her DH are also friends and he’s confided how much debt they are in. I’m both so worried for her and worried that our friendship won’t survive if I don’t fork out the £200 for the business in a box and join her.

[TwatTheNinja]

I was a temple spa consultant, and I agree some of the way its structured is very familiar.

But as a company, they really aren't as brain washy pushy, you are told to only do as much as you want and to set your own targets.

Yes you can take it further and become a team leader blahdy blah, but after your initial lay out for stock (which most people only buy and become consultant just to get their hands on the products at a ridiculous discount and not at all fussed about being a consultant) you pretty much just do how ever many classes you want, the only 'pressure' you get is you can see on a league table what everyones else has sold each month. It's broken down to your team then local area. With the top ten sellers nationally.

It didn't bother me were I was on the table as I took it on as extra income.

In a way it was easy money, because the products are good and sold themselves as everyone gets to try everything on the night.

I would have paid £150 for my pack which had everything in, to start doing partys. But I couldn't afford it, I couldn't even afford the moisturiser I wanted. I went to every party that my friends were having, just so I could get a free facial so the consultant paid for the starter pack then did my first party for me to get the me the best commission she earnt me £90, then I did two more myself gave her what I owed her. Kept the rest.

From there getting new partys was easy, if I booked 2-3 from each party, it meant you kept the ball was Rolling, and moving into new networks,


What they did encourage you to do was to use your data base of customers, you'd email them with the latest offers, they then order through your website(which came part of the starter pack) you get the commission.

The people who founded temple spa are the same people who set up virgin V partys.

They did have "inspirational" days which after the first I couldn't be bothered to go to.

I only gave it up due to circumstances changing at home.

Don't ask what the commission was I can't remember sorry

Don't get me wrong there was plenty of extra things I could have bought to show people. But I only bought Christmas specials as they were what I wanted so I could use them after, and they always brought orders in, because people wanted to buy gift set for presents.

[Ta1kinPeece]

£900 a month. Ha ha. Less than two days proper work a month then

[GarlicCake]

Jen's obviously living the dream, earning up to £900 a month. She still has her day job, which is probably just as well, given her Temple Spa earnings of under £11k a year.

[GarlicCake]

Eddie - This looks rather familiar "I give girls the opportunity to become a consultant."

"JEN, WHO CAN EARN BETWEEN £250 AND £450 A MONTH AS A [Temple Spa] CONSULTANT, HAS NOW MANAGED TO DOUBLE HER EARNINGS BY RECRUITING AND THEN BECOMING A MANAGER." (Their capitals, sorry.)
www.justforhermilitarymag.co.uk/how-to-succeed-in-network-marketing/

[EddieStobbart]

Have just googled more and answered my own question - looks like a proper company, I can't afford it though!

[EddieStobbart]

Is Temple Spa anything like this or is it normal? I was asked one day at the school gates if I'd like to join someone who was just heading to a TS party. I was a little bemused as this never happens to me but I looked it up and the company does have a webpage where the products can be bought - wow, it's expensive!

I'd never heard of it before but then I buy moisturiser from Aldi so that doesn't mean Temple Spa isn't a good business/great product - it's just the sudden party invite that surprised me.

[Jux]

stopfaffing's libk to the John Jacob book is interesting. I didn't think I'd be bothered, much actually it's strangely fascinating. I am soooo glad I never really got on board with any of the silly schemes that I've come across. Lucky that I just don't like that sort of highly-charged moticational atmosphere, and that I like proper answers to questions.

[whataboutbob]

That Alison Woodley is a scary woman. And an arch manipulator. I can imagine many a customer would have bought products just to get her to shut up. Is a bot a salesperson?

[Bovnydazzler]

FL bots are trained to manipulate and push in order to get their goals.

For example, these two standard videos from Senior bots shows general level of pressure applied:


So much pressure for bots to achieve the 4ccs monthly (and also for large amount of personal usage and related cost)- 6 mins in she talks that bots should be using circa 25 products a day!!
m.youtube.com/watch?v=zwJEUhw8rZ4


Getting new sign ups to call their friends there and then at the first sign up meeting (40 mins in)...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NDtUuqRR_aY

[whataboutbob]

the ability to construct a perfect life and bombard your contacts with updates on your every success is vastly amplified by Facebook which in turn facilitates the FL mongers. It's a symbiotic relationship between pyramid selling and social media.

[UntilTheCowsComeHome]

I have an old school friend banging on about FL on FB. I love reading the tripe she posts about her great life knowing full well it's bullshit.

My DH plays football with her DP so I know that the brand new executive house wasn't bought with the money she made from FL, it is rented. Her white range rover is the same. Her constant posts asking for recommendations for a new cleaner/ironer isn't because hers is on holiday, it's because she doesn't bloody have one but thinks it looks good on FB.

I did piss her off a couple of times. Once when she posted a photo of someone who'd lost soooo much weight doing the 'clean plan' and I commented "isn't it amazing what breathing in can do"

And the time she posted a photo of a close up of her eye commenting "35 with no crows feet. All down to FL aloe face cream" so I posted a pic of my eye with the comment "35 with no crows feet. All down to good genes and Tesco value moisturiser"

Funny that she didn't block me really.

[GarlicCake]

Do you remember when we were kids, people bought things out of catalogues like Freeman's and Littlewoods? If you were an agent, you handled the paperwork and took deliveries, etc, and you got a bit of commission on what your friends bought from you. It was the same with the football pools (Littlewoods and Vernons, iirc.)

I wonder whether people think of these MLM things as much the same? Do they realise it's not about selling products but about recruiting - and the vast majority of products sold are to new recruits, who will then be harassed? It's basically a cascade of harassment, not a small retail business from home.

Littlewood's now owns brands like Very, working on their old principle - which makes them look like Father Christmas compared to MLMs and, say Brighthouse.

(The Parliamentary Group reported on rent-to-own in February, if anyone's interested.)

[trinitybleu]

slinky that made me proper

[rayofhope]

Also if you can, hide your friends list on fb, as once your FL person has gone through their list of prospects, it's been known for them to start contacting your friends. Some people have been recruited this way.

[fastdaytears]

Osmior the Avon business model has changed over time. There are people who just sell and don't recruit, but they make much (should that be even) less money

[sminkypink]

at least Younique make up looks to me to be slightly cooler than Sonya by Forever Living. (Ok apart from the spider leg mascara).
Some of the Sonya range reminds me of scrabbling around for Cover Girl in the Woolies bargain bin in 1983. So nasty! Yet so expensive!

[IveGotAGoldenTicket]

Can we add Younique to the list ? A friend of a friend on FB is a little obsessed by it

[SillyOldElfBackToYourself]

Is Arbonne a scam? I wondered about it. A Corrie actress is always going on about it on Facebook and has recruited one of our Facebook friends. Now they are both banging on about how amazing it is!

[Hamsolo]

I've got a friend who has done the Arbonne Vegas trip twice. We hardly have any contact anymore. All her meet ups are Arbonne related. I think she has lost a lot of friends.

I do use actual aloe Vera - but I get it in a tube from Holland and Barrett for £3. And it's organic and 99.9% pure which is more than you can say for Forever Living.

[Elendon]

I've lost a good friend through this, though I'll happily meet if she needs help. Every time we lately met up she would hassle me (yes, it was hassle), to join the scheme. Despite me telling her it was basically a pyramid scheme under a different guise.

It's sad but do not join. Keep your resolve. And reconnect when the penny (which is all she is going to be left with) drops.

[sminkypink]

Just look at how many people get taken in by the other crap on Facebook - supermarket voucher phishing scams, Mark Zuckerberg giving away his shares in Facebook. It's only too easy, show some people a photo and suddenly it's true. In the case of the FL X factor style rags to riches spiels the ones drawn in really want to believe it is true, they then do all this mindset training where they are taught to wish and dream and it will come true. It's all a bit Disney Princess isn't it?
I have a hard time doing web admin as people are forever posting up photos and making up a story to go with it that turns out to be crap. People have even been thumped due to others being provoked into reacting to photos of them that come with a made up story. So it can be really dodgy.
A photo tells you nothing at all. Photos of giant cheques, of cars, of holiday resorts, people being photographed infront of a photo of a yacht (that one always slays me) - meaningless, tells you nothing.
Maybe if we all have our photo taken infront of a pile of tenners we will attract abundance or something? Because that's what their cod 'business coaching' teaches, pretty much.

[kali110]

When i was looking for a new job i had someone try to recruit me. I don't understand how people can't see it's a scam?
'All you have to do is get two couples, then they just have to each get two couples..' Erm pyramid scheme anyone?
My thought was what if noone wanted to buy any of this crap?

[sminkypink]

To be honest, the pay is so low I doubt whether most of them get anywhere near their tax threshold. There are some lies spread about tax and Fl, though, wwe saw one bot saying you don't pay tax until you get to £35k. Oh really? Would love to hear what my accountant would say about that!

[BlueThursday]

Oh don't even talk to me about Avon. There's a girl who goes about my area looking for new reps. She's approached me twice.

The first time I said not for me thanks, I couldn't be annoyed doing a SA to which her response was well just keep it to yourself and the taxman doesn't need to know...

The second time I was actually just strolling down the street and she pulled up to me in a car asking I be a rep. I remembered her and told her if she came near me again I'd report her to HMRC (tbh I've no idea how )

The areas I was in are hugely deprived and I can see women falling for these things very easily. One day some poor soul will be the one caught evading income tax on the say so of this girl