Why are MLMs/ Network Marketing 'businesses' a scam?

[Spongebobette]

This is the 44th thread in a long series about the dangers of network marketing/ MLMs such as Forever Living, Ariix, NuSkin, Arbonne, Younique, Valentus, TS Life, and MANY MANY more!
Posts here will give examples of the lies told by 'top bots' who portray luxury lifestyles in order to lure in new victims and of the other techniques and brainwashing used by MLMs
Over 90% of people who join an MLM end up LOSING money. Always bear that in mind when considering paying money to join!

No no no sponge MLM uplines make charts to help their downlinked because that is what they like best about their business - helping others achieve the same lifestyle as them...

Because no normal boss cares about staff development or helping their team get promotions, bonuses etc.

It is actually a sad indictment about employment in general (particularly for women) is such that people agree with that statement when I am being sarcastic. I am very fortunate to have mainly experienced employment with supportive and flexible management but I can see that for many people their experience is things like zero hours, restrictive holiday policies, fixed shifts, horrible bosses, low pay etc and the MLM dream must be hugely tempting in conparison. Until there is a wholesale overall of attitudes to what a job 'ought' to look like then MLMs are going to remain popular in some quarters.

I find it quite sobering reading all these statements about normal jobs that it is just assumed people with recognise and agree with.

Yawns post about ripping out that beautiful stained glass window has disappeared

My guess is that someone dared tell her what a twattish thing it was to do and that she was possibly breaching listed building/planning/building regs.

We know she can't take anything that could be deemed as criticism without throwing all her toys out of the pram or removing the post.

It is in comments on a post not a post of its own right. As in the information that there is modern stud walling so it is highly unlikely the glass is in an original location. It is a bit unfair to suggest someone is breaking listed building regs without knowing the listing details for their house or anything about the interactions they have had with planners.... Even if her interior design isn't to my taste!

Yes to be fair it does look modern stud wall and the stained glass doesn't look old and certainly not to my taste

Agree. This is becoming more of a yaw watch than a bot watch and in danger of losing its original focus

*yawn watch

I think wig, sleaze, bbl, messiah and others get as much attention as yawn.
Those who are the worst perpetrators in pyramid schemes deserve to be brought down. They try to bring others into their scams using their open social media. If others use this to show they are lying and con artists then that is their fault.

What about bloodsucker then for worst perpetrators. Busily redesigning her (no doubt lucrative to her) training for 2019. I've absolutely no time for someone who exploits the developing world as she does especially when it comes with a veneer of world traveller/feel so at home in Africa/publicly displayed charity. Reminds me Victorian colonialism. And no danger of the bonus cheque drying up next year even if it is reduced. Also note that she's been at FL for decades now yet it totally allows you to retire early right? Does she just love helping people so much she can't stop? Or does she love the lifestyle (because she has made millions) so can't stop because residual income is bullshit and this is the only way she keep the lifestyle? Me thinks the latter...

Bloodsucker’s ‘training’ is just

Prospecting
Duplication

That’s it in a nutshell

Definitely bloodsucker. I just didn’t think of her at the time.
Castle and welsh too. So many of the parasites around.

After 6 months or so it's clear that you can't make any serious money selling products.

So after that it's all about recruitment, I refuse to believe that anyone still involved in MLM is that brainwashed not to realise the truth after 2 - 3 years.

After that they know it's a scam and are fully complicit with it.

Just saw a bot raving about having an "accountablity buddy" who wakes her at the crack of dawn to get her in the proper mindset for the day ahead.

Nothing like sleep deprivation to keep the brainwashing process on track.

Culty McCultface

Wow. Wig is being very profound about working practices and referring back to a pre-industrial socio-economic model.

Yes Wig. People did work out of their homes, in family units. They also lived completely hand-to-mouth, had high infant mortality, no plumbing or sanitation and abandoned this idyllic way of life in their thousands when industrialisation occurred.

But sure, try to justify your pyramid scheme by romanticising a time when people starved, shat in holes and died of typhoid.

Agree Yawn is awful but personally I would like to see the top spectacularly fail

1. Bloodsucker - not likely in a hurry as she has diversified into Africa (appalling)

2.Uber - still has a couple of years of depleted cheques to come

1. Castle - going down
2. Welsh - I reckon the new build barn will be put on market within a year

Yawn is just so much more transparent than these and they deserve a lot more telling out than they do at present

Former Welsh down line are the cartoon characters of the MLM - I just need to pop over daily and see what utter shite mindset training the husband is delivering and it puts a smile on my day. Particularly when no one is engaging with him.

Sorry I forgot Home School bot ....... There are no words

Paddy, I do agree with your 4 definitely.
They are far cleverer in how they use their social media and their lies. Yawn is so brazen and constant that her lies get noticed so often and we say something on here.
Bloodsucker is despicable how she has gone for the African market.

It's definitely clear that FL is on its way out here luckily, but what about other mlms? Juice plus doesn't seem to show a lot of signs of slowing down at the moment?

Ive heard Younique is on it’s arse, but will admit Juice Plus is a concern. It’s been quite noticeable that they’ve reduced the amount of health claims when advertising and it’s mostly now being marketed as a lifestyle product alongside bots like BBL’s velour tracksuits, filler enhanced lips and gym visits.

Nu Skin is allegedly on it's arse as well in the UK, Several of the top one percenters have "relocated" in the last 12 months indicating that the well has dried up and are looking for fresh blood elsewhere. Seen a few bots targeting South Africa recently.

I won't be happy until there is legislation requiring MLM companies to disclose the average earnings of all their 'business owners'. Not just the active ones, mind you. They should publish how many people in the last year/ 2 years/ 5 years bought into the business and how many are still active etc.

If they do currently publish figures (I've seen some for Arbonne) they look pretty dreadful even though they've made them look as good as possible by only counting active reps, only income not profit etc

I take DD to a local branch of a national chain of toddler gym classes. They have a magazine they give out every couple of months - it must go to thousands of people. Anyway, I was flicking through the latest issue when an advert caught my eye. It stood out because of how unprofessional it looked.

Reading it rang all the MLM alarm bells - the fact it didn’t mention the company name was the biggest one. So I looked the woman’s name at the bottom up on Facebook and, sure enough, she’s in Forever Living.

I wonder if I’ve stumbled on one of the top bots discussed here? I know who a lot of the bots are (yawn, castle, uber) but not all of them. She says on her FB she’s been doing it for 17 years and there’s a picture of her with a cheque for $101k in 2016.

She clearly doesn’t have young children herself so she must be deliberately targeting mums by advertising in a toddler magazine.

That is a TERRIBLE ad. The font & layout are making my eyes bleed.

Nu Skin are deffo on their arse. A “Blue Diamond” power couple I follow seem to be really struggling. They didn’t qualify for the big trip this year, and having made a sales pitch for years about how their business enabled him to “retire” from the army... guess who is back to being a soldier?

They live in a massive rented house. Lease expensive cars. It’s looking like a real mess may be about to unfold.