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.

Incidentally, the relation that sells it barely gets involved now but still makes an income from the sales of her many, many recruits.

Aloe Vera is great. I don't use any products but I give plants as presents.
:)

A few years back I was when a work colleague suddenly started wittering on about how I had (allegedly - but it seemed unlikely to me...) once remarked on her good complexion () so I would doubtless be interested in hearing about the wonderful products she used.... I fled, and I now realise she was probably about to tell me about Arbonne. Thankfully she knew a lost cause when she saw one

A friend once tried to give me the hard sell. I'm an auditor. My response didn't go down well. I'm qualified in financial accounting. I can't turn shit into fairies as much as I'd like. Silly cow blocked me. Her look out!

It's when the distributors harp on about the products being amazing and making you feel great. Well I tried the FL clean 9 and by day 3 I was meant to be feeling amazing.... No one told me alone Vera gel was a laxative and I hadn't eaten for 2 days. I've never felt worse in my life. They are all liars!

Come And find "timeless vie" on Facebook!

It is a spoof of MLMs like Forever, set up by another mumsnetter. It is funny but also helps point out all the pitfalls and different aspects of these scams schemes

flora yes similar here, I am a corporate lawyer by background so could see quite quickly how terrible a scheme it was, but nonetheless it has a very cultish aspect, and they tend to be encouraged to focus on the most vulnerable (eg mums on maternity leave/ recently made redundant etc)

It is awful seeing otherwise intelligent people get sucked in

Looks like I'm not alone in thinking its a scam then.

The stories of friends who give up on these cults and comeback to the real world give me hope. How long do people stick with it, my friends only 6 months in and totally believes success is just around the corner.

It's that old saying really isn't it. If it looks too good to be true, it probably isn't.

I did look into uw - wasn't really aware of it but on the back of the mn threads I thoroughly checked the terms and conditions of the free lightbulbs my fb friend was promoting. And I then politely declined

I actually feel a bit ill, a old school friend does FL, tried to get me on board but took no for an answer after a month! In any case she's posted yesterday on FB about her relief at finding one of the FL products she uses in her 94 yr old grandfathers fridge as she forgot hers. 94! How on earth can she feel good about herself?!

A friend of mine went to some convention at the previous Dallas Southfork Ranch at the height of her indoctrination. Apparently FL owned it or summat!!

I met her for a friendly lunch once and she produced a sales pitch flip chart thingy. Really put me off my cheese plough persons.

Don't even know if she does it any longer as I'm not on FB but she never mentions it.

plough persons!

I used to be with FL but I had my eyes opened recently. I'm just going to reiterate what everyone else is saying. Do not join your friend, but just be there for her when she decides she's had enough. It was all I ever thought about and I felt like no matter where I was or who I met, I had to be mentioning FL. It made me quite stressed and anxious.

Yes, you can sell products and make a little money, I had a few customers (and some of the products are good) but the big money is in recruiting. You'll be put on a plan to get you to manager and it involves contacting your friends and family to see if they want to join you. But as you've been recruited by a friend, she will undoubtedly have already contacted a lot of your mutual friends, so this is why so many people get annoyed as they keep being contacted to join. It may work for you, but be aware you will not make £1000's a month on 5-15hrs a week. The top people in forever are working a lot of hours, but they say they work hard now so they are able to retire in 5 years.

There are 10 million FBO's (forever business owners) in the world. There is a big global rally in April each year where the top guys get a chairmans bonus cheque. This year (april 15) nearly 1000 FBO's got CB cheques. These ranged from $1.2 million (rolf kipp) to $4000. This is on top of what they earn each month. Those are fantastic bonuses and these people have worked very hard to achieve them.

But look at the figures. It's stacked against you. So world wide 0.01% of FBO's got CB this year. It maybe slightly more this year due to growth but it will still be a tiny %

95% of people who join MLM (not just FL, but juice plus, arbonne, herbalife, younique, nuskin, actiderm, stella & dot, utility warehouse, amway, kleeneze, oriflame, it works, to name but a few that are in the UK)

Just realised I didn't finish my last sentence.......

95% of people who join MLM (not just FL, but juice plus, arbonne, herbalife, younique, nuskin, actiderm, stella & dot, utility warehouse, amway, kleeneze, oriflame, it works, to name but a few that are in the UK) give up mlm within 2 years of starting

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

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!

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?

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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!

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