Can't Stop Won't Stop - MLM Botwatch (11) Now Featuring MLMers who don't answer questions, jokes, posts by eyes, questions about Forever Living, Ariix, Itworks, Younique etc as scambralamas978

[Melaw21]

continued discussion of mlms!

People are raised to be 'nice' to others, Annie. Friendly, warm, thoughtful etc etc etc - all those good things - so Yes, most people can be easily manipulated by someone who observes none of those 'boundaries'.

(That's actually not quite the right word but I'm sure someone else can say it better.)

Annie65 It's dead easy to manipulate people: you just tell them a lie which they want, and/or need, to believe is true.

At the risk of sounding sexist, I find that it's generally easier to explain the basis of mental manipulation/brainwashing to women, rather than to men; for if a woman approaches a man in a bar, no matter how ugly, smiles at him and tells him that he's handsome, he will invariably believe her.

It is frightening but fascinating at the same time. These people that do the manipulating are clever but not very nice people. I just couldnt do it. It must take a certain kind of person to even do it, or are these people manipulated too? I think Im beginning to understand it more now and can "sort of"understand the shill-bots and their reasoning that they are helping people. I still couldnt do it though and admire the people can came out the other side, very brave and shows that you realised what was going on in the end.

Spy, yes I think us women have all got it in us to flirt to get our own way lol. Please dont have a go at me sisters. If a man came upto me and said "you're beautiful", I would tell him "whatever you want, you're not having it".

It's incredibly difficult to come out the other side, Annie. You're right. (Or to come out the other side in one piece which might be different.) I have such admiration and respect for those who do.

You'll have your own weaknesses though. We all do.

Can I ask about figures? I know FL have trotted out the 2.6 billion dollars turnover before but I can't find any evidence to back that up. I'm currently shredding an advert of theirs to bits for the Botwatch blog. Do we think they might be saying 2.6 billion total for the whole 38 years?

Some charts here of MLMs giving different turnover figures. One has them under 50th but earning over 100 million, the other not even in top 100 so must be turning over under 63 million?

www.networkmarketingcentral.com/top-50-mlm-companies-global-revenue/

directsellingnews.com/index.php/view/2015_dsn_global_100_list#.VtmHVYkgGc1

Another similarity to the way the Nazi party operated is the 'divide and rule' principle. Where the Nazis turned children against their parents, families against their neighbours and so on, MLMs generally keep their 'lines' apart. As a bot you are told not to 'crossline'.
You are divided from your friends, your family (unless you have managed to recruit them) and from any meaningful encounters with others in the same business.

Pressed enter too soon.
The reason bots go along with this is that they are told/we were told that this was the way to get a top bot interested in helping you build your business. So you play along, do as you're told, to get the promised help.
Of course the help is useless, but that's how they do it.

I doubt anyone would be ensnared if they lived permanently in a turret without contact and levelled a double-barrelled at anyone who came to the door.

The difference is that people want to live and it's in the cracks of relevant interactions that they squirrel away.

Finding a balance is a difficult endeavour.

It does make me cringe to see all the bragging on Fb. I know why they do it but it goes against everything I was brought up with. When I was at School and I'm the same now I would be embarrassed if I had anything new and would keep it under wraps. You could get beat up at my School for showing off.

My favourite are the attempts at showing off that are inadvertently funny though
Like the hand-delivered nandos 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Annie65 Notice how all these 'MLM' cults have been tailored for specific groups of victims: 'FLP', 'Younique', etc. for women. 'Vemma' & 'Wake Up Now', etc., were for students. The first 'Mormon MLMs' were designed to ensnare 'Mormons,' but they now go after anyone and everyone.

The original 'Nutrilite/ Mytinger and Casselberry' racket seems to have been tailored for WWII US war veterans, and 'Amway' first went after White Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the Bible Belt.

'Herbalife' has lately been targetting Hispanics in the USA.

'MLMs' are a particularly dangerous form of affinity fraud.

I was at my most vulnerable when I had to go back work after having my first baby, I hated it and would have given anything for the chance to stay at home with her. I understand why, for this reason, they seem to go after new mums. Its horrible. Thank goodness I never encountered anything like this then. I feel so sorry for the people sucked into it. Anyway got go out in this atrocious weather now to pick up my GS. Catch up with you all later.

It's arguably just more efficient to target groups with known 'hooks' where your training investment is lower compared to the returns. I'm sure that marketing people do similar all the time.

Now be fair, Cubic. Not everyone is Platinum Penguin material!

Perhaps someone more knowable about FL than me might like to pop over to this thread to give advice

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2584818-Annoyed-at-this-woman-spilling-toddler-group-for-me

Thanks for that, Squeegy. Maybe someone could go on that thread and post the links to the Timeless Vie site and this thread for that OP?