Pyramid schemes, MLM companies, and Ponzi scams.

[EricZombie]

With the economy in the state that it is, I've been seeing an uptick in scam companies looking to make a quick buck of the average consumer. Some can be innocent enough, like Passion Parties, Mary Kay, and Tupperware, but some are much more insidious. There's Amway, Herballife, Gifting Circles, and now I've seen a "communications" company called "ACN" that's spreading through Seattle at the moment. ACN works on the same basic multi-level marketing structure as many scam companies in the past. A system like the one that ACN uses, is unsustainable in the long run, meaning a few people will get very rich, and many people will suffer.

While "A fool and his money" could be applied here, I've had a few personal friends get suckered into this scam. And while it's business related, and not religious or scientific, I still feel it falls withing the boundaries of this forum.

ACN "representatives" take over whole coffee shops, using them as if they were private offices, to induct new recruits into the company. I've watched as they forced the new recruit to call up friends from a list, speak a short ditty about a "new money making opportunity that a friend told me about", then hand the phone over to the recruiter to reel in the sale.

And this is supposedly legit, because Donald Trump "endorsed" the company.

I've made my own fake company with a real website, real business cards, a real number to call, and real advertisements, so whenever I see someone beginning the recruiting spiel, I slyly drop a business card on the table. I'd love to have more fake representatives to come "work" in my company. If you'd like a share in an imaginary company that never intends to make any money, let me know!

You can check it out here: http://pocketlintincorporated.110mb.com/

 

[5810Singer]

ACN "representatives" take over whole coffee shops, using them as if they were private offices, to induct new recruits into the company.

Really?!?

You mean that certain people who knowingly occupy a hazy zone between entrepreneurship and organised fraud, are deliberately co-opting public spaces in order to avoid paying business rates, or having a traceable address, and are duping hardworking people into working for their semi-legal "company", at reduced wages if not for free.

Wow...it's almost as though you're describing people with no moral compass, empathy, or honour, who are totally fixated on possessing as much money as possible.

 

[e2iPi]

Wow...it's almost as though you're describing people with no moral compass, empathy, or honour, who are totally fixated on possessing as much money as possible.

So, in short, Republicans?

 

[JustBusiness17]

As a marketing management student specializing in entrepreneurship, this is just the thing that could help me establish credibility in the business world... Count me in!

:roll:

Donald Trump did say something about going into MLM if he was starting fresh in todays society (sans reputation, etc) but I doubt he's endorsed an MLM phone service company. If he has, he's def receiving compensation...

I worked for an MLM company several years ago purely for the sales experience, but they're shady as hell. They promoted it as if it was an easily attainable business that would provide a lifetime of residual income. Not the case...