My cousin is about to give up her career as a teacher to join a pyramid scheme

[OurHouseInTheMiddle]

AIBU to tell her that she is insane? I cannot cope with her Facebook posts anymore either! She has honestly become brainwashed.

I've been targeting lots on FB this year as I work in the travel industry, and lots of travel people are really struggling at the moment. I know quite a few self employed travel agents (real ones not inteletravel!) that have been sucked in to this and its awful to see them potentially losing even more money. One new recent development is being approached on LinkedIn, which shows the sorry state of employment prospects just now. I'm trying to answer with a polite no thanks but some are very pushy. This is one conversation I had this week. I know I sound like an arse with the 'good job' reply but when someone's said no its surely time to leave it alone.

"No, you can't ask."

or

"Because it's a thinly veiled pyramid scheme and I'm not stupid enough to waste my time and money on something designed to make me fail."

You were very restrained @EnglishGirlApproximately.

It’s such bullshit, the vast vast majority of people I know, if they want makeup or perfume etc will just want to buy it in a legitimate shop. No one I know would ever want knock off perfume, who are they selling to is what I want to know. It can only be their friends and immediate family buying it to do them a favour, not cos they want the products

@acatcalledjohn its difficult tbh. I have loads if sympathy for people who are trying anything to stay afloat as our industry has been decimated but using LinkedIn for pushing an MLM is just too much!

Someone I work with is flogging that skinny coffee stuff - from what I can see, you buy sachets of hugely expensive instant coffee and drink that whilst following a very restricted calorie controlled diet.

Amazingly, people are losing huge amounts of weight - and it's all down to the coffee, of course, not the fact they are eating less than 1000 calories a day.

Lots of people I work with have put weight on during lockdown and currently she is doing really well.

How long before people twig it's a con?

I've tried telling people to look in depth at the product she's selling - but no-one will listen, and some of them are signing up to sell the bloody stuff.

I had a message from someone who follows me on Instagram a little while ago, don't know her in real life, trying to sell me the huge benefits of Arbonne.

I haven't replied yet. I don't know whether to just ignore it, or make some kind of statement about wanting nothing to do with MLM schemes and send her on her way . I'm thankful though that I'm a bit educated on them and not in a perilous financial position, I think I could easily have been taken in by it otherwise.

MLMs are just terrible. You could try to pointing your cousin to some documentaries on them. No one really makes money apart from those at the very top and most lose money as they end up with a garage full of useless stock.

@fridgepants

You can make literally the same coffee by putting butter in a mug of instant coffee. It's what people on keto have been doing for years.

Skinny coffee isn't even that. It's just sachets of instant coffee. I think originally it contained some kind of amphetamine, but the company Valentus had to stop that. Now it's just Mellow Birds probably

www.scam-detector.com/article/skinny-coffee-money-loss-not-weight-loss/

I think one of my biggest wins as PTA chair was banning these organisations from our christmas and spring fayres.

Maybe suggest she does it for 12 months and only if she's bringing in 80% of her teaching salary should she give up her job.

I can't believe people fall for this stuff!

Ahhh yes Valentus lol....my son had a Valentus bot on his Instagram...he was howling at her desperate efforts to sell that shite....someone commented on one of her posts saying it was a pyramid scheme....she replied with 'oh no its not a pyramid scheme hun'....we laughed for ages

I think one of my biggest wins as PTA chair was banning these organisations from our christmas and spring fayres

Well done, RaspberryCoulis ... it won't completely stop them pestering other parents, but every little helps and all that and they'll be happier events for not being infested

Ahhh yes Valentus lol

I'd never heard of them, so just looked at their website

Barely literate garbage

I’ve seen forever living in burton queens hospital but iabu because burton barely acts as a hospital anyway.

@Ohalrightthen

The snarky bitch in me says that if she's daft enough to fall for that bollocks then she absolutely shouldn't be responsible for educating children.

But that doesn't really help you. I'd find info online and do your best to dissuade her.

I knew a lovely young teacher, super at her job, who got embroiled in Arbonne a few years ago (signed up by another teacher apparently ) and for a while she wore lots of makeup which only served to mask her lovely complexion and looked weird. She also posted lots of heavily filtered pics on fb which didn't even look like her . Thankfully, after a few months she stopped. Phew!

I have a friend who gets sucked into one after another. I think it must be a bit like gambling addiction.

Just a thought, can people say they are self employed doing this and then claim stuff like universal credit or tax credits? I heard they had done away with the minimum income floor with UC due to covid. So might it be a way of claiming that perhaps, the full quota and being 'self employed'?

“My Friend Wants Me to Join Her MLM” by Kat Crow link.medium.com/dCGOcERPkbb

That's pretty good, unfair on hyenas though

Minimum income floor doesn't apply to the first 12 months of new self-employment anyway (though you are right about the covid relaxation). However I'd be surprised if a MLM scheme would count as gainful self-employment.

A 'friend' of mine has been doing FM stuff since the summer. Endless gushy posts so I unfollowed. But I had a look at the prices today
I don't know why she does it. Doesn't need the money (I don't think) as they live in a very big house. Maybe they've over-committed. Sad if so as she's likely to lose money with this.

I can't remember tax credits asking for much info about self employment in the past. If your profit is low wouldn't be paying tax anyway. Hmm just a thought.

Just some resources here which (from my quick skim through the posts) I don’t think have been linked to. Here’s the link for the excellent BBC docu on MLM. Secrets of the Multi-Level Millionaires: Ellie Undercover, Secrets of the Multi-Level Millionaires: Ellie Undercover: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p076n2hg via @bbciplayer
Articles and experiences of MLM here: mlmtruth.org, also Timeless Vie and FB page MLM Lies Exposed

A teacher at my children’s old school got sacked for mixing her MLM up with her contact with parents and a subsequent misuse of parent data. TBH I, like others on this thread, questioned whether she was up to a teaching job if her judgement was so off. Your cousin is going to get stung in a saturated market, in an industry where the only way to make any money at all is to recruit. You ADNBU to tell her she’s mad but I doubt she will listen - just try and get her to keep good financial records so she can see the stark reality sooner rather than later.

Leaving teaching isn’t a one way road. You are able to get back into teaching by getting a job if whatever you left for doesn’t work out!

@PoodleJ

Leaving teaching isn’t a one way road. You are able to get back into teaching by getting a job if whatever you left for doesn’t work out!

Yes, on the face of it that’s true but MLM is cult-like and it’s often hard for people to reconnect. It depends on the damage you’ve done to your reputation, finances and self esteem. From what I’ve seen, getting involved with MLM can set people onto a one way road where, by the time it’s finished with you, you don’t have the confidence to proceed as before.

Once people leave there’s often a huge sense of shame. If someone lives in a small community where they’ve been a nuisance with their MLM then that can cause them problems when they want to leave the experience behind them. If I was recruiting a teacher and it was clear there was a gap in their CV filled by MLM then I’d find it extremely difficult to get past that, as it demonstrates a lack of judgement and frankly I’d question if they were smart enough to be in charge of any child’s education.

YouokHun
I agree with you, except for the last bit.

MLMs are predatory. They look for women and pray on their guilt and insecurity. Teaching isn't family friendly in mny schools and I can see how someone on maternity leave could be approached because (in their mind) even a drop in salary is better than the ridiculous workload, missing out on family events, etc. It would give me time with the kids and I could work around them. I'd not have to pay for childcare.
There's a reason many people who sign up do so with young children. That's who they target. I don't think I'd be comfortable deciding that because someone had their fears and emotions exploited thay they weren't smart enough to teach.