Friend trying to recruit me into her MLM scheme

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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?

Ariix, Arbonne, Advocare (no not that one, that’s been declared a pyramid scheme, other MLMs to follow!), ACN (thank you Trump for this one), Alcone ... there are lots @Asuitablecat ! Have a look on mlmtruth.org as there is a master list there and there may be something on the one your bot is in. They avoid naming the product as most business is done on FB personal pages which it isn’t supposed to be. Basically they all have similar high failure rates whatever they say and however obscure they are.

Amway! Who could forget the scammers of the lot. They are very careful to keep their name out of things while they’re drawing people in.

I was self-employed for 3 years (working as an HR consultant) and met loads of them through networking - all "entrepreneurs" and "business owners" when actually MLM bots and learnt to avoid them like the plague. Systematically block any of them who contact me now. I'm a single parent and they all try and suck you in with promises of extra income, fabulous lifestyles etc - it's all bullshit, and based on the concept of using your network ie pestering your friends and family to buy your products. They prey on vulnerable women and are really exploitative and I hate all this boss babe etc jargon. Also they are super persistent and once they've got on to you literally harass you, which is why I block them. The worst was the Arbonne rep who did an entire presentation at a networking meeting about how we were all tired cos we had leaky guts and that the only solution was to do the Arbonne 30 day cleanse which worked out at something like £800 a day.

Is the perfume FM business a mlm? 2 ppl
I know have joined this and have claimed to make lots of money, but they have said they didn't have to pay to join, so is it not a mlm then ?

FM is an MLM and they claim that their perfumes are the same as the fancy brands like Dior, Chanel etc. They are not. I can assure you that those friends are definitely not taking it in.

#fakeittillyoumakeit

Ok thanks for replying. She does have a lot of school mum customers and photos of the school mum products that they have brought from her. The mums I know so they have brought products off her. I dunno if she is rich as she claims tho even from the school mum customers

Eugh, one of my friends who I previously thought a lot of, has started selling Tropic. Her Facebook posts are cringy as fuck. Instead of homeschooling her children, she’s decided to teach them ‘business skills’ and her DD appears in her videos, talking about the products, it’s awful and comes across as very cult-like

Instead of homeschooling her children, she’s decided to teach them ‘business skills’ and her DD appears in her videos, talking about the products

Ugh this made me full body cringe!

I'm watching this thread with interest, one of the school mums I know seems pretty high up in the Arbonne UK structure, she's got the white Mercedes and seems to do a lot of the 'training' though there's less product pushing these days. She started what I now see were recruiting tactics in Reception (the 'get to know you' coffees, house party/coffee morning invites etc). Fortunately, thanks to the wise sages of Mumsnet I spotted it for what it was but she suckered a couple of people in. I watch from afar now with my popcorn and am waiting for the fall of MLMs to come.

@BSintolerant Interesting what you say about Arbonne UK accounts, I'll keep an eye on that (from a pure popcorn watching the fallout persepective of course ). I also wondered how the Uber ruling might affect MLMs? If 'self employed' Gig economy workers are entitled to holiday pay/ sick pay etc then why wouldn't MLM bots be? It'd be an interesting test case brought by a Union or charity backed disgruntled bot I bet.

@rosegoldfever Bots are taught to save empty boxes and take pictures of them and orders (generally of their own stuff) to fool people into thinking it's in demand and making money

@Paintingtheroseswhite you’re right, it would be an interesting test case but litigation is expensive. Most bots don’t have a pot to piss in despite what they’d like us to believe.

Oh I know which A it is😀 It sounds like a pate. It is interesting that no one seems to be getting sucked in. I'm waiting to see where it goes.

Is this am mlm as I have been recommended it by someone in another mlm. They have associates and seem to sell by referrals. Does anyone know about them?

I’m watching a local Arbonne Hun with interest, she is a ENVP ( this is the highest level I think ) and has a large FB presence. The way she has worked it is absolutely fascinating and i can help watching her videos and tactics to get interaction with non suspecting people. it seems she is in fact making very good money and has the Mercedes. She claims to make a average monthly income of £10,000 a month but I think she probably pays half of that out on product!

Isn't Arbonne the one with £25 shampoo? She must be selling a bloody lot of shampoo to earn £10k a month. I don't really get why people buy some of this stuff- if I was going to spend that money on something I'd be going with a brand I can buy at a shop. I read Elles poonique blog last night after being asked to join Younique last week by a friend. I wasn't interested at all but was intrigued and now I just feel so sorry for y friend I could cry.

I'm still watching my Younique bot with a morbid fascination....seems she got her daughter in law to buy something now....other buyers include other family members and other bots lol...
I look at it as free entertainment during the lockdown.

Have you read Elle's blog @myusernamewastakenbyme it definitely makes sense of what goes off behind the silly hashtags and motivational quotes.

Yes I have read it....the thing is I can't believe there is anyone out there who still thinks these scams are credible or that they will make any money from doing it...
I cringe when anyone posts on fb stating that they are now a 'presenter'....'consultant' or any other stupid term....can they not see that everyone is laughing at them???

Me neither it's absolutely shocking- I spoke to my DH last night about my friend and he said we should lend her some money if she's struggling- I flat out refuse because I know she'll just put an order in for that crap and line someone else pockets! The stuff is so overinflated I don't understand who would buy it- I'd never heard of some of it. If it was Avon, which wouldn't be my first choice, at least I could buy a few bubble baths or an eyeliner and feel I'd like I'd supported her without taking food out of my kids mouths (slightly dramatic I know but I literally logged on and was like WTF can I buy for £10 to show my support and be done and there was nothing under £25!)

She must be selling a bloody lot of shampoo to earn £10k a month.

The successful bots who make the very big money (around 1% of sign ups) make that money through recruiting. Building a big downline is the only way to make big money. The victims are the ones tricked into believing they can make money by selling product. Ranks and promotions are paid on purchases, uplines make their money on what downlines purchase (not what they sell). So it’s not surprising the downlines are under pressure to buy all the time. It’s not a surprise either how much product ends up on eBay as those victims at the bottom try to claw back something from the unsaleable products they’ve lumbered themselves with. Have a look at the BBC documentary Ellie Investigates the Multilevel Millionaires.

Exactly YouokHun, she has got herself a huge downline but I can see that even though she seems to be living the MLM dream she must be like a swan all cool on the top and peddling like hell under the water! Every time one of her massive downline drops out, or becomes inactive it’s like a Jenga block that needs replacing or it could all come crashing down. I can tell by the way she eats, breaths and sleeps it that she can’t take her foot off the pedal for a minute! And it’s very very cultish

I just can't believe that even if she had downline of 100 people she can be bringing home £10k by selling overpriced shite. I'm not saying you're wrong I'm just totally dumfounded that people buy the crap they're selling month in month out to keep it up- haven't they run out of people to con? I've read about the white Mercedes before- thats a con too. They get them to lease it from the dealers personally but give them a credit towards it- if they drop out of the scheme they lose the credit but are still in contract with the dealership so have to keep up the payments so they tie them in to the scheme because presumably they couldn't afford to keep it up without it.

Fivesecondrule I don’t have any facts to this except what she is saying herself, I’m scratching my head as much as the next person. I believe she has far more than 100 people under her more like a 1000 but still those people will have to be shifting some crap, that’s why I’m so fascinated by it all and I’m keeping a watch. I’ve tried to find her on company’s house because if you are making that kind of income I would of thought she would be a ltd company but I can’t find her

It is genuinely quite fascinating- I think I'm hooked lol

It is!! It’s like watching a soap opera lol