Friend trying to recruit me into her MLM scheme

[reasonwith]

posting for traffic

I have recently been made furloughed by the company I work in as the job role I work in is struggling to pick up work for employees. DH is working but has taken a 30% pay cut so finances aren't strong at the moment. I have a friend who has devoted her life to home working in the last year but quit her job in January to work as an MLM 'team member' whatever that is.

I am fairly active on social media, and so is she, on several local Facebook groups. I run one group where it is rather a safe space for members to post - excluding MLM schemes and any other schemes that exploit people. My friend is a part of the group and usually is a compliant poster. However recently she has been messaging me, asking me if I'd like to join her MLM team. She is a recruiter so makes money from recruiting other people and when they pay in, she gets a percentage. I have refused, and she has kept on insisting. Today I logged onto Facebook and saw that she has now tried to recruit my group members and I immediately deleted the post and got rid of her.

She sent a grovelling message saying it was 'totally unfair and rude as MLM offer good working incentives in this current situation'. I retorted back and told her that she is exploiting a lot of furloughed people and unemployed people to pay an absurd money so she gets money!! After that she stopped replying. However, another friend of mine sent me screenshots of my 'friend' ranting on multiple groups about me, and calling for people to troll me and send me death threats.

She's even sent me a bloody invoice of the monthly payments you have to pay in for the MLMs. I have now blocked her and anyone who is associated with her so she can't use them to get into my head. I am livid. Please share any stories you have of MLM recruitment, so I can feel better.

Surely she was BU about this as she is trying to force me to sign up?

Juiceplus is a pile of crap. I went and did my research on that, followed the links in the mlm threads in money matters a few years back. The ingredients are nothing special. And the wild claims they made at the time were ridiculous.

Given that it's illegal to make medical claims about a product in this country without some cast iron research backing it up, I'm always surprised when I see bots from any MLM making claims.

I have noticed that the mlm uplines are good at hanging their bots out to dry when these medical claims get investigated, and distancing themselves from any fallout.

MLMs really need to be banned.

Ah ... the bot flounces! My MLM bingo card is full.

As for Arbonne - what is going on with the UK corporate side of Arbonne? According to Companies House they haven’t filed their accounts for several months. There’s something seriously amiss.

What this woman did to you is bang out of order and scrams desperation. One of the other replies knocks all MLM’s and that’s sad. I used Tropic products and loved them and decided to become part of them as an Ambassador. I sell them because I love them. I’ve helped so many people with their skin concerns. I’ve never been pressured to sign anyone up and I really can’t be bothered being responsible for anyone else. I like doing my own thing and earning a little on the side whilst genuinely helping people and not polluting the planet with gunk. Anyone who thinks that’s wrong you need to take a long hard look at yourself. Do your research before tarring them all with the same brush. I have no targets, no contract and love the informality of it. It’s also great I’m making a difference in a usually mainly female industry.

Ooh BSintolerant I'm interested in this, until last year I knew absolutely nothing of mlm's then a close family member joined Arbonne I barely use any social media and initially the way she described it didn't sound too bad but now I've done my research! I've tried to gently warn her but she's hooked, initially I thought as she's a very, very driven young person she'd be one of the few who makes a good living but now I know that's impossible. The stuff she posts makes me feel so embarrassed for her

It really is a dreadful 'company'. She's convinced she'll retire at 30 and soon own a white mercedes (even though she'll be paying the lease!! - a quick Google tells you that)

She has invested soooo much time in this rubbish and what really annoyed me was when she recently started requesting that folk send her a tenner so she can make 'care packages' for the NHS

It makes no sense, she's a pretty academically gifted graduate!

From what I've seen its extremely cultish. She's convinced these people she's only known for 5 minutes are friends.

And Shamrock I wasn't sure if you were a wind up either, that was very rude what you said to youokhun about not sounding like a psychotherapist!

Also, that is all she gives as Christmas presents now, so having sampled a few products I can say they were rubbish

My question to those on here who are part of MLMs, like YouTubers and social media influencers, if your job roles as distributors and recruiters slow down and one day cease, what career line would you go to?

@Firecarrier a few of us are waiting to see what’s going on with the UK limb of Arbonne. Hopefully it will shrivel up and drop off soon.

The good thing about Companies House is that you can see what’s really going on behind the facade. A number of Forever Living bots are crowing about being debt free and enjoying financial freedom when their company accounts show a very different story. Some accounts show huge directors loans (£700k would make my eyes water) and at least one of them is insolvent. They don’t like it when you point such things out to them.

If anyone is interested in the murky world of MLMs this is the documentary which someone mentioned above - if you’re outside of the UK you might need a VPN to be able to watch it:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p076n2hg/secrets-of-the-multilevel-millionaires-ellie-undercover

This is undercover journalism at its finest. It lays bare the facts and figures and the underhand ways bots manipulate people into joining such schemes. The interview with an expert on cults (whose name escapes me) is fascinating. It shows how anyone can get sucked into these horrible MLM schemes. I just hope that as many people as possible get to see the documentary because these money-grabbing predators are desperately seeking people they perceive as vulnerable right now in the hope that they’ll piss their furlough money up the wall on an impossible dream of limitless wealth.

@Neilpool you do have a target with Tropic, there’s a minimum spend by the Ambassador to stay active as an Ambassador. Signing up to Tropic is a contract. Lots of people struggling with Tropic as it’s so expensive that it’s hard to keep the volume of sales high enough to make decent money (unless you’ve got rich friends or are propping it up with a legit beauty business as a lot seem to do). I know a lot of Tropic Huns who’ve dropped out as they just couldn’t get enough volume as people just don’t need beauty products often enough and at that price point have brand loyalty elsewhere.

I’ve done years of research and so have many others and the conclusion we all come to is that they all deserve to be tarred with the same brush because they are all, one way or another, scamming people.

You’re right you have to put an order on each month for £250 to stay “active” but being active is only for promotions and incentives. If you don’t sell anything then nothing happens. This is not something I’d do full time (although some people do). I’m happy enough with what I do part time each month. I never have to scam anyone and people continue to shop with me and are not all rich as you speculate. They just recognise the quality of the products and how they’re better for their skin and the environment. That’s the research I’m on about. They’re the facts that I know them as with no scam or intent.

Exactly right @BSintolerant. Forever Living Huns using “attraction marketing” to try and sell the Aloe dream as a real possibility when they themselves owe hundreds of thousands of pounds on directors’ loans they can’t pay. And waving those massive cheques around in photos from half a decade ago.

I see Arbonne has now submitted their confirmation statement to CH, overdue (a criminal offence) but still not their accounts ... you’d hope that anyone poised to sign up would look at the company’s state of health and also at this:
The maximum average earnings for 65% of Arbonne NZ sign ups was around $500 a year before expenses, 95% earned less than $5k a year before expenses, and we know this is the best spin Arbonne can put on it, the reality is worse, loads of people who don’t get through the first year and drop out having lost money aren’t even included here.

Arbonne is very naughty. The Federal Trade Commission has sent Arbonne (and other MLMs) a sharp note about their bots who have been making health and earnings claims relating to Coronavirus:

www.instagram.com/p/B_YBGXDH4A7/?igshid=k8ilnk9jtp8n

Someone kindly posted the link on the MLM Bot Watch thread.

@2020Shamrock and @Steffijo44 how much do you actually make, profit wise, after expenses?

No MLM member ever seems to want to answer but given your fierce defence of MLMsand the anonymity MN provides I thought you might like to share that information with us?

Yeah, I wonder how far "industry regulation" of MLM bots will go with a president speculating on the efficacy of bleach to cure COVID.

What is with MLM lovers and refusal to use paragraphs?

Have you ever thought how much you pay to have a job? Don't say that it cost nothing: you pay for travel to work, perhaps uniform or part of it depending where you work, you might be baying stationary staff too for yourself, using your phone for work etc. We just not used think that job is an investment too

How do we feel about Body Shop?

I have a well educated friend who has started up selling BS stuff, who is very defensive about them. Goes to all their conferences etc.
She said that the person above her does get a bonus on what friend seems, but that she is very supportive and that it's her full time job.

Have you ever thought how much you pay to have a job?

I don’t need to spend any money to do my job. Yes, I pay petrol but I could have got a job within walking distance of my house. I never use my phone for my job. Anything I buy myself is my choice and is not an expectation or a pre-requisite to me being able to do my job. I can claim that money back. I’m a teacher.

I buy things for my class because I want to. I buy resources to make my life easier (three glue sticks between 30 is doable but wastes so much time!) but I would be able to do my job without them.

Bodyshop is a MLM just in the same way as the rest of them. In fact it's worse, because if you really want their products you can just order direct. SOmeone I know does it too and bleats on social media about supporting small businesses and the "sisterhood". Her lifestyle is supported by her and her husband's professional jobs, not by a MLM.

Bots often come out with "oh but every organisation is pyramid shaped" and "paying to work is the norm". It's straight out of the training they give them. If you sit on the till at Asda on minimum wage you get your uniform supplied, they train you, they pay your salary and make NI contributions if you earn enough, they contribute into your pension, you get sick pay and paid holiday, you work set hours and get breaks. Before you even GET the job you have to prove you can read and write and have a basic level of skill, they don't just say "pay us £50 hun and the job's yours!" And the key point that is that you are not expected to rush out and convince all your friends to work for Asda too, with your rate of pay based on their salary.

MLM is a cult. It brainwashes people. When people finally come out of it they are ashamed and embarrassed by how they behaved. But when they're deep into it, and surrounded by people telling them to ditch the haters and that all they need is a positive mindset they just can't see what's going on.

@2020Shamrock and @Steffijo44 how much do you actually make, profit wise, after expenses?

You will not get a straight answer to this. Ever. You'll either get downright lies, or they will quote sales rather than profit. Many huns do not seem to realise that in order to work out how much they're actually making they really should take off expenses from their sales...

I know BS is an MLM but she keeps saying it's more ethical than other MLMs and that my objections are unfounded.

I know BS is an MLM but she keeps saying it's more ethical than other MLMs and that my objections are unfounded.

They all say that. "Oh we're not like all those other MLMs, we're ethical, we fund treatment for abused women, we take care of our "ambassadors", our founder was on the Apprentice, we dish out white Mercedes, our products are better, we don't recruit..."

All total bullshit.

I unfollowed a children's entertainer yesterday who has been doing Facebook and Instagram lives of her telling children's stories with puppets etc. Quite enjoying them during lockdown. However, she posted about an MLM yesterday that her mum sells. One with juices maybe as she was drinking something. Instant unfollow from me.

I have been uncomfortable with one on my fb over covid. She's used to do a cookery one, and she was good at that, never pressurised anyone but did enough to have a bit of pocketmoney-and she was quite open with that.
Then she's changed a few years ago to a cleaning one. Still not much on SM, occasional "I can't believe how well this cleans" but not much.
Since Covid though we've had "buy a handcream for the NHS" (at huge price for a tiny thing) and loads of "disinfect your house" "I am so glad my house will be covid clean because I use..." "if you use this then you can guarantee..." etc.

@Trintukas posts "Have you ever thought how much you pay to have a job? Don't say that it cost nothing: you pay for travel to work, perhaps uniform or part of it depending where you work, you might be baying stationary staff too for yourself, using your phone for work etc. We just not used think that job is an investment too".

I do not pay for my uniform or laptop or phone for work, nor training weekends at hotels, nor work stationery. I get paid holidays, healthcare, pension too. How about you? What does your MLM give you?

Also, do you consider yourself a 'business owner'? I suggest that you own nothing about this business but shoulder the expenses of running it. You have NO autonomy to make decisions about products sold whatsoever. It is the worst of all worlds, it really is. That is why there is a growing anger from people who have personally suffered or seen close family and friends suffer from the toxic effects of MLM.

It is a flawed business model where the downlines pay their money to the uplines right to the top.

Exactly @Goldenkelpie

Don’t forget that if you work if the UK you can even claim tax relief for cleaning and repairing uniforms, work clothes and tools. You can tax relief for all sorts of things:

www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/uniforms-work-clothing-and-tools

Perhaps a bot will enlighten us as what expenses they can claim back from their uplines or from the billionaire CEOs at the top of the relevant corporate MLM pyramid.

you can even claim tax relief

This is true. But bots will rarely be breaking even, never mind earning enough profit to pay any tax.