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.

*WhenLove" so sorry about your mum but totally fuming about her response when you told her . It does show clearly that she's lost the plot though because when they're sucked in and brainwashed, often their morals go out of the window in the ceaseless, desperate desire to make sales.

Omg when - I'm so sorry, that's so out of order....

This is what I don't understand is how previously reasonable people can't see that their behaviour is unacceptable?? It would have been way more appropriate to apologise profusely... not make it worse...

'Friend' has just posted a graphic on FB that says...

One day I'll be a mascara millionaire.

No, you're really not.

It's almost as if the top part of their brain becomes all 'busy and shallow', P1nk. They seem to live in that part entirely.

I think that's a very accurate description Cozie. They can't access the parts of their brain that control critical thought, self awareness or appreciation of their impact on others. They become totally tunnel visioned and led by their leaders. They are desperate and manipulated.

Wow When. I. Annoy believe her response. A normal more appropriate response would have been 'I'm so sorry, I didn't think. I'll be thinking of you and your mum' but she was still using is as a sales opportunity. That's so low. So I'll say it to you. I'm so sorry to hear that you lost your mum. I hope you have many wonderful memories to keep you company on Mother's Day 💐

As for WHY she said it, it's all part of the brainwashing. You are told to 'let go of the outcome' of any negative conversation. And by that they mean, ask literally everyone you know or meet for their number and talk to them about products or business. If they are negative, ignore it and move onto the next person. You are told that negative people have either never been involved in MLM so how can they judge it. Or that they have been involved but weren't successful, so they're bitter. Not true. Just many people want to expose MLM for exactly what it is!!

Is it really possible to let go like that, though, Dora? (At least by yourself and without 'touching base' with a mentor for.........reassurance.)

Unless you have no heart, it's impossible not to take on the negativity. It gets to you, definitely. You're encouraged to become a person who doesn't care about other people's opinion or thoughts. o empathy or feeling. Just a 'robot' who loses all emotion when it comes to your bizniz!!!! I couldn't be that person. I genuinely care about other people and their feelings!!

@DoratheExplorer17 that's actually oddly reassuring. I've been dropped/had to stop contact with my bot-friend. At least that way I can blame the cult for her lack of empathy and hope to wait it out.

I'm sure it wasn't meant to be, but it is.

Good luck then, Domestic. I hope that one day she'll 'come back to you'.

Dora

Have you found that you can re-connect with old friends since leaving? Out of interest.

Reconnecting with ex bots: a friend who became a FL bot was the reason for me finding these threads in the first place
She was fully botted and really committed
She unfriended me on FB when I asked gentle questions but I could still see her business page and her Instagram
Anyway she seems to have disappeared completely from social media, her FB accounts are deleted and she hasn't posted on Instagram for months
I hope she's OK

Have you thought about (gently) reconnecting, Sponge?

Thank you Dora.

I woke up today, with a FB message from 'friend', encouraging me to become part of her team. Even after me sending her all the information about the 'dark side' of MLM schemes, and clearly trying to steer her away, she's trying to sign me up. I'm not even going to reply.

I don't want to give up on her yet, despite the upset over the whole mom thing, because she's one of my oldest friends. I've taken the initial step of stopping her posts appearing on my FB wall, and I'll see how that goes.

I've done a lot of reading on these MLM schemes, but I will never understand how so many seemingly intelligent people, get sucked in so easily.

I have just spent an interesting 30 mins on FB.
I searched for my friend and although her account was deleted she comes up in posts she was tagged in ages ago.
There was one I remembered from Sept 2015, a photo posted by her upline of the 'top 20' in her downline that month (my friend was number 4)
So I decided to search a few of those other names in the list
I haven't looked for every single one, probably about half so far
Guess what. Not ONE of them has anything about FL on their page. So looks like they all dropped out.
Meanwhile the upline leader bot's page is full of photos of new people she's helping start their business.

Oh I've found one who has a FL thing in her profile but last post mentioning FL was in Aug last year

Looks as if they 'churned' then?

When

As you'll have seen us say on here before - there's not one of us who couldn't be 'caught' if the time and the person were 'just so'. It's true as well - although, I grant you, some people would present more of a challenge than others. You may seem intelligent, together and without care but that doesn't always mean it's so underneath. It's very sad.

Yeah I'm sold, who can resist such a professional pitch

Oh Dear.

Someone please explain what 'adaptogenic' means?
Presumably it means it's OK to give to a baby and a toddler
(Be your own best customer)

sponge 😂

How can I tell if there are outside factors activating my heel when I didn't even know I'd deactivated it in the first place?

As for the second "elephant in the room" post, can someone give that fat beast a C9 so it'll turn into a gazelle?

No, really. I'm beginning to think the foul-tasting aloe gel is a practical joke (sent from HQ) which the lowly bots haven't figured out yet. Imagine Bossbot in the boardroom somewhere in Arizona: "Listen up y'all! If fleecing vulnerable folk doesn't leave a nasty taste in bots' mouths, our aloe gel will soon cure that."

Think on this you bots! Every time you post about how evil the aloe gel tastes, how you're swallowing instead of spitting, not to mention necking the stuff with great gusto and feeding it to your children, the top dogs in Arizona are pissing themselves laughing. All the way to the bank.

Eeeek, etc.

Adaptogens or adaptogenic substances, compounds, herbs or practices refer to the pharmacological concept whereby administration results in stabilization of physiological processes and promotion of homeostasis, for example, decreased cellular sensitivity to stress.

The chicken pox post is bollocks too. Propolis cream? How about calamine lotion instead? £1.55 in Sainsbury's.

Omg this reminds me one of our admin at work who is a FL bot.... about a year ago she tried to suggest one of our psychiatrists should recommend it to clients - (a lot of who are extremely vulnerable and have very little income) fortunately he managed to tactfully dodge that one by stating he couldn't recommend something that wasn't recommended in NICE guidelines, but I have to say I was surprised by the brass neck!!

But then I'm not sure she hasn't bought into all these ridiculous health claim and thought it genuinely might help people... it's so hard to tell (but then I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt).