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!

lucky escape!

Re:Roomie - her eldest son is her dh's child from a previous marriage isn't he?

I've noticed that Roomie appears to have fallen out with a mutual friend (they and their youngest dds were very close) so I found this odd. But the mutual friend appears to have left FL.

oooh I think I might know who you mean by the friend - Roomie used to tag her all the time but you're right, there's been no mentioning of her for ages.

A quick look at the friends profile and there's no mention of FL (just a vague "Business Planner" in her Intro).

"Friendships" (if you can call them that) within FL seem to be very intense for relatively short periods of time and then just end abruptly. Look at Yawn and Roomie, there's a classic case.

It must be difficult for the kids as they make friends, spend lots of time together (whilst the mums network/train etc) and then the next minute they're gone.

Anyone notice Salon is now just a “business owner” and not a sparkly superflappy diamond international business coach”?

Yes we are talking about the same person! But she was friends with Roomie before Roomie got into FL. They were close a long time before all that. I wonder what happened?

They aren't friends on fb any more. 'Business planner' isn't the sort of person to fallout with anyone 🤨

An MLM causing a fallout between friends?

I've never seen such a thing.

I cannot get over how cold Yawn is about her MIL's passing. Posed photos with her husband in them smiling, which she has obviously asked him to pose for. It's so cold.

The husband and wife I mentioned earlier are no longer fb friends with Roomie either.

It's all so cold and calculating isn't it.

Bots love bomb their new recruits, treat them like they're the best thing since sliced bread, that they're genuinely best buddies and then dropped like a hot potato and culled from fb.

Thanks @CurlsandCurves that’s genius! Plant pot will work!

Although I feel I should say something like “it’s ok to quit”/hand her a link to timeless vie with it

Just read former Welsh down line that has moved into dodgy book start up, recent post.
Someone has rattled her.
Well we are not fans, we are just tracking all your failed businesses and dodgy no.1 best selling author start ups.
If you read this just get a normal job and stop fleecing the vulnerable.
Ps what happened to the Maserati that was being flaunted everywhere for a short period of time?

I’m guessing Elegant designer fragrances is another mlm?

A mum i know has recently joined up with Arbonne. She runs a beauty business, which is how i know her, and was looking for something to sell alongside it to make a bit extra. For the first few months, the products sat in the corner of her studio, and it was all fairly low key. But now she's been to a couple of conferences, posts daily on her facebook, has stopped taking clients one day a week so she can attend online training and is talking about recruiting a team. She moaned that one of her clients told her it was a pyramid scheme "it cant be, they're illegal".

I fear she's been sucked in and is spending out more than she's getting in. Is the penny likely to drop, or is she doomed?

Oh dear

She may be full metal botted I’m afraid.

That ‘it can’t be a pyramid scheme, they are illlegal’ is straight out of the network marketing scripts

Do you know what pisses me off the most about MLMs?

It’s the way they portray themselves all all about empowering women, women lifting other women up, creating friendships, sisterhood etc etc

When the bare naked truth is the opposite. It’s women exploiting other women, recruiting them into schemes and making money from them.

SO horrible

Oh dear Do i just wait for the eventual fallout?

It's worse than that @Spongebobette - while MLM victims and perpetrators participants are overwhelmingly women, the people making the real money, i.e the founders, CEOs and owners of those companies are pretty much all men.

This is also true of the parallel parasitic brainwashing 'business coaching' industry set up to milk more money out of the victims by charging them ridiculous amounts to tell them that the only reason they are failing is their mindset. These bastards are almost inevitably men.

My friend has posted this weekend that her manager, i think, has taken her to a spa for the day. And then today they are in meetings or something, but as you mentioned the big wigs seem to be men. One selfie is of her with an older looking couple and them and has a diamante arbonne broach on. I fear she is too far down the rabbit hole and sincerely hope it doesn't go tits up for her, but its like watching a car crash in slow motion if all I have read about MLMs is true.

I’ve always wondered who these people are that decorate their houses to look like an explosion in a Santa’s grotto on the 1st November. The answer, apparently, is Homeschool.

@Spongebobette MLMs were developed to keep Mormon wives at home and out of the workplace by giving them something to occupy themselves. They were developed for the convenience of men who wanted their wives restricted for their convenience whilst giving them the illusion of a career. They are the absolute opposite of empowering for women.

A journalist is asking for people who were involved in Nu Skin if they would like to talk about their experiences whether they be ex-distributors or have been approached by their people. It can be done in confidence but as you can see from the image attached the deadline for submissions is looming.

Any lurkers on this forum who would like to help, please get in touch with him.

I have a new Bot. She is #morethanjustamum!! Because only people who are in MLM can have a life aside from being a Mum(!) She once earned almost £8000 per month and earned over £5000 for around 6 months but now she is barely managing £1800 which after expenses....well you know the rest!

She has a history of doing horrible team videos where she walks away from her crying children and once shut the door and left her toddler alone in a room crying so she could do her live.

Had an Audi and a Range Rover but 'upgraded' thebrange Rover and now has no Audi.

Her house always looks so bare and just like Yawn she appears to have no life outside of FL.

@Arbunnehun

Yes absolutely and it is maddening to see how brainwashed the women involved in MLMs become.

One look at ANY of them will reveal that they are owned by men (mostly Mormon, in Utah) and all the power and profit is tightly controlled by them

I wonder how many Forever Living FBOs are aware that their adored, fêted leader gives money to anti gay causes?

Or is a major donor to a university notorious for silencing women who dare speak up about sexual abuse or harassment they suffer and is, by the account of a senior UK bot, a notorious groper...