MLM Bot Watch 27 - The Yazoo iis past iits use by date, but we have a massive #lardon: Tragiicomic cultiic wampum floggiing scamalangadiingdongs liike Forever Living, Ariix, Herbalife, Younique, Juice

[acatcalledjohn]

Still going strong here at bot watch HQ on MN!

Previous thread here

Botwatch on Wordpress and on Facebook

Timeless Vie on Wordpress and on Facebook

Eyespeying's Blog aka #manhun, even if he's been banned by MNHQ

Hommetepreneur on Facebook
www.lazymanandmoney.com/is-every-mlm-a-scam
We have our own regularly returning bots.

Glossary:

Bots: our affectionate name for victims of the MLM racket

MLM: Multi-level Marketing schemes - essentially pyramid schemes that are just legal because you sell a product. Reliant upon constant recruitment despite there not being enough people in the world to go beyond about 12 levels if everyone recruited 6.

Downline/Upline: the people you recruited and those who recruited you (going up and down the pyramid inverted funnel)

Timeless Vie: Parody of MLM schemes (though you might spot one in particular) that also carries out fearless investigative work. Flogging the amazing skinny lard and now carbonated lard. The arsenic is not the evil Victorian stuff. #TeamDannii #gettingalardon

Hommetrepreneur: also excellent parody site focussing on the menz

BotWatch: Rather more serious, keeps an eye on what the Bots are claiming next, particularly in reference to health and income claims. Also fearless.

Inverted Funnel: Timeless Vie is NOT a pyramid - it's an inverted Funnel, OK?

Eyes: Our former member Eyespying who knows LOTS about MLM schemes. He's still our very own #manhun.

Send them a pitch - they could do with hearing the other side.

Thanks cozie. I'll have a look later....

And yes, BS, that's active in the U.K. So out of all the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people who joined, only 6000 roughly are doing enough to be paid any team bonus. The rest are either just retailing or have quit 😳

I'd probably send them a link to botwatchblog and ask if they would like a rebuttal piece, Toobusy. It rather sound as if they need to be brought into the loop on this one - especially after the FTC ruling. We don't need individual journalists putting up pieces without proper work on it.

sounds

Interesting to see that a lot of the FL "business owners" may be getting smaller cheques this year. Wonder how they are going to spin that

I didn't know that. Interesting.

I noticed that Aldi, there's a definite drop in the number of CCs being done by the people at the top - and in some cases quite a big drop!

There sure is. I'm interested to see how that works out in $.

Are people heading to potentially less aware/saturated markets - e.g. Overseas - to compensate at all?

Looks like it to me, Cozie.
Top bots have new virgin territory in Australia, for example.

An old article but an interesting and still relevant one:
www.mlmwatch.org/04C/Nikken/letter.html

That Nikon letter is so sad. Everyday people finally accept that they have been duped, that every penny spent, every hour worked, every friend lost will not make them 'financially independent' or give them the cars & holidays on their 'dream board' or even earn them enough to be able to stay at home with their babies.

It's the false hope of dreams that I hate most about MLMs. It's heart-breakingly callous.

It is heart-breaking. I've said before that I think It's a sign of strength to walk away and not weakness. I still believe that. I feel such respect for those people who manage to do it.

Has anyone read this article about how the government in the US is going to affect MLMs?
www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2017/02/the_trump_era_will_be_a_boon_for_multilevel_marketing_companies.html
I did wonder what effect Trump et al would have on the industry

It could backfire on them badly - which I trust the MLMs realise?

So very sad. Reminds me of gamblers who keep chasing their losses in the hope they will finally win big. Spurred on by the few who know how to play the system and are really profiting from playing the game.

You don't beat the house for long, Van. Win on too many occasions and you won't be allowed to play anymore.

The house won't lose in the long term.

Neither do MLMs.

Very true Cozie - the house always wins. Even those not making a loss are only taking the losers' money - the house isn't putting its cash on the line.

Are people heading to potentially less aware/saturated markets - e.g. Overseas - to compensate at all?

Yes and no, I don't actually think the UK is all that saturated/aware despite the flood of botness on Facebook. There are still a lot of people who think it's "just like avon ladies in my mums day". A lot of people see it as annoying but harmless and don't believe it has such a rotten core, I'm not talking about actual bots i'm talking about non-bots.

The problem is, if you attack MLMs it's made to look like you're attacking the bots, the "mums working for their kids"…………..

Its a great set up the MLMs have, they've made it so that if expose them YOU look crazy and mean!

Oh bum

The bots are all reposting that Huffpost article.
Gah

vancity thanks for the link to the Nikken letter.

It's an old familiar tale.
Those Nikken distributors had the guts to admit they'd been seduced by MLM and big enough balls to warn others not to waste their time and money on such BS.

Nikken did not officially acknowledge seeing our letter, but they responded by terminating our distributorship! We received quite a bit of written abuse by several of the leading Dutch Nikken distributors (as one would expect) but no one has been able to refute any of our claims. Probably because they cannot. Figures don't lie.

Vancity that link to the Nikkon story is compelling. This couple clearly tried their hardest to make it work and be successful. They loved the company and had met and married while in it, and believed in the ideals is promoted.

Their analysis can be extended to include any MLM (just delete 'Nikkon' and insert most other MLM company names).

How interesting that the company never refuted their analysis but merely deleted their distributorship. As the couple pointed out, they couldn't refute the damning analysis because ultimately it was true .

And this was more than ten years ago.

*Nikken

Nikken is alive and well in the UK, their HO is registered in Milton Keynes .

Yes, I don't know what I put in Google that brought it up but I was struck by just how astute his analysis was and how clearly expressed. His 3 conclusions on the marketing model and his question about bot morality I found particularly pertinent.

I really hope Too Busy can get a Huff Post article published to balance out the bot piece - we all know how much the bot's want reporting to be "balanced".