MLM Bot Watch 21 - chat about Utah based tragicomic cultastic racketeering scamalangadingdongs like Forever Living, Ariix, Herbalife, Younique, Juiceplus etc etc etc

[Twunk]

Links etc to follow!

Welcome all to the new thread

Don't worry, I won't be going near any of them, I'm just bracing myself for more of my so called friends to get brainwashed again involved!
Realised there are two blog posts so I've got them both bookmarked, nearly finished the first one.

Oh I've lovely link for you toobusy - will send it now

Timeless Vie and Bot Watch posts are both really interesting. Thank you. LTW doesn't seem that big around here yet, but I think the premise might appeal to some of my friends and relatives, so I'm trying to absorb as much as I can now.

My latest craving is officially Yazoo. Turns out I'm more suggestible than I thought

toobusy I think it's £222

A litre bottle for £1.50 at Sainsbury's if I recall, Rae. Seems a better bet.

Twunk, thanks for the link.

I have just put together another blog post, this one is on the realities of being in an MLM. I'm hoping this will act as a warning to people. It is a bit sad.

botwatchblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/03/mlm-expectation-vs-reality/

I came across a recent advert for FLP by a high-up person. Yet again stating that all you need is wifi, 5-10 hours a week and "a dream"

Having seen Botwatch's post (thank you toobusy and the contributors) and an explanation video of the marketing plan/compensation scheme it's all clearly not true that all you need is Internet and a few hours. You need a huge amount of time, great energy, balls of steel, exceptional self-esteem and a huge amount of luck.

But of course they don't have to have "balance" do they?

It was indeed sad, Toobusy. Great blogpost but I'm still aghast after seeing it all laid out like that.

Many thanks to the brave and steadfast people who contributed their stories and to BotWatch for putting it together.

Great blog, I have liked it, couldn't do the crying emoticon thing. Sad indeed. All the costs get brushed under the carpet I think, a coffee here, a pro planner there, does anyone actually add them up like in the article? I doubt it, their uplines probably discourage them. The lack of time with the children is the worst bit though.

Rargh. Every time I flick between this thread and FB an advert about bloody Eric Worre pops up! Be gone, scam artist extraordinaire.

It's good to know that someone in India recognised MLMs for what they were back in 2010: in.news.yahoo.com/blogs/opinions/problem-multi-level-marketing-20100818-021524-550.html

A couple of new ones popping up for me:

www.optimaskpro.com/ro_official_gj1/ (it's in Romanian)

Sorry the picture one is "profitico"

Wow, the blogwatch article is so sad , powerful stuff though.

That eye mask, I notice that there is no medical evidence to back up their belief that it does what they say, including "improves vision" .

Great blog post toobusy

Great articles toobusy. I hope they Help others involved to see what it's like and get out and also hope they deter people from joining in the first place.

My DSis has gotten involved with a jewellery MLM. Her facebook feed is now awash with recruitment pleas and highly confusing offers. Most confusingly, she is now advertising a 'gift' and 'prize' giveway, which first requires my DSis to receive $250 in orders, then she will enter the names of people who ordered into a raffle, then the person who 'wins' gets to choose a 'gift/prize' from a preselected list AND has to pay $19 for it. It is so convoluted, but in my mind, it's not a gift if you have to pay for it, both for the gift itself (no matter how discounted), and the cost of the full-priced jewellery to contribute to the $250 monthly order total which enables you to be entered into the raffle to win the gift.
Even worse, I've been invited to a Ladies Day Out, where there will be Arbonne, Scentsy, PartyLite, Younique, Jamberry, Bohemium Venus, and Love Intimo, all in one small room. I haven't made my excuses yet, but I have no interest in going. I just don't want to upset my DSis though.

Welcome Playdough, wow that ladies day out sounds like sheer hell! Think you need something really urgent to crop up on that day that you can't get out of! Sorry to hear your sister has been sucked in, hopefully she won't be doing it for too long.

...I just don't want to upset my DSis though....

I wonder how often those (or similar) words will be repeated this week? Friendship and kinship networks are a primary MLM target, Playdoughgirl. You'll now be part of your DSis's 'warm list' of contacts for her new business.

Cast your mind back to your last contact. What was she like? Did she seem the same? Did she show interest in you as a person and as a sister?

Oh - and Welcome to the thread.

She is the same sister when we are together and still lots of effort to get together with no mention of the business, but her facebook feed is unrecognizable. She has a post-grad level uni education FFS. She also has skills that she could offer Saturday morning lessons for (think similar to tutoring), so she could earn $80-100 for one hour's work from home. Surely that has to be more financially viable than a MLM, and would only require 1.5hr/wk input.

Thanks for the welcome I've been following along since the first thread, and was disappointed that I had no bots of my own. I never imagined DSis would be the one to get involved.

Anyone can fall into MLM activity, higher education or no I'm afraid. (In fact, having higher education arguably almost makes you worth more effort to inculcate because you might seem to others to have more 'authority' or 'clout'. You get an 'If even X thinks it's worthwhile.......' thing going on.) And family and friendship structures are so important in these early stages.

Have you read the 'People who care about you are worried' piece from BotWatchBlog? (It's been linked to upthread.) It might be worth your while personally even if it's likely too late to influence your DSis.

Welcome playdoughgirl and I'm sorry about your DSis.

I'm thankful I managed to warn my sister away from the first bot I ever got (he admitted stalking her when she was about 14 - 20 years ago - and tracked her down via FB although I think he found me first). She's a perfect target market. Single parent. Two children. Low income (thankfully we both share the same cynical gene).

He is a gym instructor/personal trainer but his posts on FB were what made me start looking into all this stuff. I actually blocked him before I found out the name of whatever MLM he's trying to sell.

And you don't want bots. They clog up your FB so you can't see posts about cute kittens