John Oliver: How to Get Rich with Pyramid Schemes

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1. Akademos says:

   November 25, 2016 at 12:20 pm

   http://pyramidschemealert.org/analysis-amway-accused-of-fraud-pays-150-million-wheres-the-ftc-and-doj/

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2. Akademos says:

   November 25, 2016 at 12:23 pm

   https://www.ftc.gov/public-statements/1998/05/pyramid-schemes

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   • Akademos says:

     November 25, 2016 at 12:24 pm

     Amway, just barely legal and under investigation as of 1998. Still a pyramid scheme, though.

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3. Akademos says:

   November 25, 2016 at 12:30 pm

   Amway 2015
   A personal experience
   http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-1620-amway-5-realities-multi-billion-dollar-scam.html

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4. Lloyd Lofthouse says:

   November 25, 2016 at 12:53 pm

   Amway is barely legal. This I agree with, but not all MLM companies are alleged frauds like Amway is. I’m tempted to name one that I have been involved with since 1997, but will not do that here. Back in the early 1980s, I was recruited into Amway by my night job boss. That’s how I know about Amway, and its alleged scheme to bilk money from gullible people who have no idea how hard it is to be a door-to-door salesman.

   The unnamed MLM company I’m defending, unlike Amway, does not require the purchase of a large amount of inventory to start or anytime for that matter, and that company will refund products bought for personal use if the customer wants to return them. That company also allows customers to buy its products without needing to sell the products. Anyone can become what’s called a preferred customer, who does not sell anything to anyone else, and get a discount for every purchase with the same return policy everyone is offered.

   Like Amazon, when you sell something for this unnamed company, the orders are shipped by the company directly to the customer. No need for any inventory stacked in a spare room or garage.

   The Better Business Bureau offers advice on how to tell the difference between the Amways of the world and MLM companies that operate with more transparency and honesty. That doesn’t mean it is any easier to be a salesman. I worked for Fuller Brush for one summer in 1968, after being honorably discharged from active duty as a U.S. Marine. Going door-to-door selling Fuller Brush products was not easy, and the commission for sales was small, very small for the long days walking sidewalks from house to house.

   The same thing goes for anyone who is selling good and/or bad products for an MLM company.

   http://www.bbb.org/phoenix/news-events/consumer-tips/2015/03/opportunity-or-scam-multi-level-marketing-vs.-pyramid-schemes/

   I urge you not to smear the entire MLM industry. Judge each MLM company individually based on what you learn about them by due diligence like fact checking, etc.

   The unnamed company I still buy products from for my own use still pays me for the few years I actually attempted to find customers, and I did find a few to buy their health products. I stopped selling the products back in the 20th century. I repeat, the few customers I introduced to those products are still taking them all these years later, and no one I signed up wanted to sell the products. They only became customers, that’s it. After that, the products had to sell themsevles to keep the customers who never wanted to sell them to anyone else.

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   • Laura says:

     November 25, 2016 at 2:24 pm

     Why are you reluctant to share the name of the MLM that you are a part of if it’s not a pyramid scheme? Why hide it?

     My experience with MLMs include watching two immigrant families get ruined by their participation with MLMs. One was Herbalife and the other was a company that I can’t remember the name of. These MLMs prey on immigrants who are vulnerable and eager to be a part of a community and to have the “American Dream.” The family that was involved with Herbalife ended up homeless. That family spent every weekend at Herbalife meetings and thought that they had friends and a community. Where were those “friends” when the family couldn’t pay their rent and ended up homeless with three young children?

     The other family tried to recruit me into their MLM which sold poor quality household products for prices far above what you can purchase them for at Target. I went to one of the “meetings,” and each participant had to pay $15 just to attend and be brainwashed for an hour. They were told again and again that they just needed to “sell more” (i.e. “you’re poor because you’re just not working hard enough”). The members had business cards that listed their names and said “small business owner.” It was all a mirage, but one can understand how the father of a family with three very young kids working without papers in a minimum-wage paying job (actually, I’m not sure he was even making that) would fall for the lure of if he could just sell more, he could give his family a better life. It was heart-breaking.

     MLMs are pyramid schemes and cultivate a cultish mentality. I have zero respect or patience for them and would like to see them all shut down. I don’t understand why companies like Herbalife are still allowed to operate.

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     • Lloyd Lofthouse says:

       November 25, 2016 at 6:41 pm

       Why was I reluctant to name the MLM, that from about 20 years of personal experience, doesn’t fit the profile of a scam?

       First, because I don’t agree that the MLM I won’t name is a fraud and scam. And if I named the company then I would be promoting it. The instant I promoted that company by naming it, someone would condemn me for promoting it because I named it. This is a no win situation. Unless I refuse to name that company and I’m doing just that.

       Second, you mentioned how MLM’s go after immigrant families to rob them blind, but the unamed MLM I believe is transparent, ethical, and honest operates in countries around the world: Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, The UK, the Caribbean, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Mexico, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, France, Belgium and the United States where the company started.

       Third, there is no evidence that the MLM I continue to belong to as a customer and support has ever defrauded immigrant families by making false promises and requiring them to buy tons of products like Amway and other MLM companies do that these people then have to sell out of their garage. How do I know this? Well, I was once an associate back in the late 1990s, and I never went broke buying the products that I personally used and still use, and the company never required me or anyone else to buy products to stock on my shelves to resell. Any product I sold were ordered directly from the company to ship to the customer. No inventory. No garage filled with costly products.

       Here’s a piece from Forbes that explains why MLM’s are not all bad, and you won’t discover the name of the company I will stay with as a customer to continue taking their products for as long as I live unless they decide, sometime in the future, to go over to the dark side, the world of Donald Trump, the Waltons, the Koch brothers, DeVos, Gates, etc.

       http://www.forbes.com/sites/chicceo/2012/09/27/is-mlm-a-bad-word/#7be9a1c37e60

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   • Laura says:

     November 25, 2016 at 2:27 pm

     Also, in pyramid schemes, there are winners and losers. It sounds like you’re on the winning side of the MLM you participate in. But it is impossible in a pyramid scheme for everyone to win.

     It’s like saying, “I’m safer because I have a gun.” But what about the people who get shot by your gun? Someone wins and someone loses.

     MLMs are built on an abusive dynamic where only some can “win” and the rest “lose” as a prerequisite for any winning that actually does happen.

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5. howardat58 says:

   November 25, 2016 at 1:24 pm

   Next up “This a charter school”, maybe by John Oliver as well.

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6. Jon Awbrey says:

   November 25, 2016 at 7:44 pm

   http://www.eclectablog.com/2016/11/dick-and-betsy-devos-avoided-paying-school-taxes-on-summer-home.html

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