Pyramid schemes

[Charlie1986]

Need some really urgent advice

This morning my mate who works for BP on the rigs has sent everybody a message through whats App

Hello mate. How's things? I thought I'd send you a message to see if you might be interested in getting involved with this new company about to launch in the UK which is already massive worldwide and everyone involved with it is making st loads of money. Jumping on now means being at the top of the tree - especially in a few months time once it's picked up momentum. The guy that got me involved is making $1800 a week and has only been with it for 4 weeks. Getting more and more each week. The 5 product lines are absolutely phenomenal but all you really need to do at it's base level is get 4 members involved in your team. What do you think? Fancy taking a look? I'll send you the video if you are. I have tried to rip this apart for 2 weeks - but found it to be watertight and a genius team at the helm running it. If you fancy taking a look I will send you the video explaining everything if you are interested. Extra cash as a side earner but can turn into a full time business in a few months if you recruit enough members Sent from my iPhone

so ive played along with it all, ive just emailed his dad who assured me it all genuine and has spoken to him over the phone and been assured its a great deal.

How can you stop it? it seems his account has not been duplicated and in fact just being plain stupid over it. but as a mate I need to try and make him see sense

[Vaud]

Pyramid scheme, or more like Amway (a "a tiered distribution and remuneration model")?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amway

There are subtle differences.

[Aphex]

Delete him from facebook and be prepared to be treated as a potential sale rather than a friend

[Charlie1986]

So there legal?

hes admitted paying £1000 and made £900 in the first few weeks. But just when you sense something isn't right it normally is not

[Super Slo Mo]

It's multi-level marketing rather than a pyramid scheme. Small detail maybe but the difference between being legal and not legal.

The only people who really make money are the founders and the first handful of tiers. Everyone else just makes a few quid that may or may not recover the initial investment. It stands to reason really, it doesn't take many tiers of people involved before the market reaches saturation point.

My sister's involved with one, peddling dodgy makeup to friends and family, I don't think there's a lot of profit left after the up front fees have been paid. Not only that, but think about how massive the markup on the individual products have to be to be able to pay commission to umpteen levels of participants in the chain.

My suggestion would be to stay away and not get involved. Let your mate try it, it might be a massive success, chances are though that he'll just about cover his costs and then get fed up with it.

[southendpier]

I knew someone who ran one of these and many other friends put in.

My questions was "if it's so good how come you keep needing new money from other people?" Never answered that one so it was all too obvious to keep clear.

He is now waiting for his day in court after well over 7 figures of people's hard-earned went up in smoke...

Edited by southendpier on Thursday 26th November 11:59

[sidekickdmr]

Why are you trying to stop him?

Just say "no thanks bud, not my cup of tea and sounds a bit dodgy to me, but good luck"

I know a couple that deal in this "forever living" rubbish and they both quit well paid jobs and now do it full time and earn a decent wedge it seems.

[Charlie1986]

im trying to stop him as he is easily led in to things and mates look after each other

This is someone who is on 50k+ and looking to earn that little bit extra. doesn't add up

[southendpier]

it almost sounds like you are fishing for business!

[Charlie1986]

yep please pay it all to [e-mail]

that's £800 please

[Devil2575]

I'd avoid it and him. It may not be illegal but it is certainly immoral. The key to this is that the business model is not to sell more products, it's to recruit more sellers and make money out of the fees they are charged.

[L4CON]

I remember reading something not too long ago about MLM schemes, if i recall correctly a US government organisation found that over 90% of people involved in Herbalife lost money.

[98elise]

Doesn't sound at all like a pyramid to me.

This is more a 3 dimensional wealth demi-rhombus which is completely different and genuine business model.

[JustinP1]

sidekickdmr said:

I know a couple that deal in this "forever living" rubbish and they both quit well paid jobs and now do it full time and earn a decent wedge it seems.

I've seen that too as my sister in law has a friend who quit a job to do it too, and asked me about it.

What you find is that the employee uses Facebook to effectively advertise their lifestyle, paid for company car, and relink photos of the free holidays given to the top people in the pyramid.

Oh, and sell aloe vera body wrapping stuff, but that's secondary.

What the employee actually wants is to expand their team under them.

But, the whole thing simply doesn't add up. Even on a ridiculous mark-up on the tat, there is not the sales turnover to be paying top employees six figures, people who have been doing it a year £30k and a company car, and still a decent chunk for the mugs actually leveraging their Facebook 'friends' for sales.

Then, when you look at what they are actually doing - everything is a sales pitch to be recruited. That's where the money is - their corporate website isn't an online shop to buy stuff its selling a lifestyle to potential employees. I use the word lifestyle deliberately.

What you don't see on Facebook though are the 95% of people who realised after a few months that they are yet to break even despite all of their work. And, of course, the only way it might work is if you can recruit 5 friends and pass them on the curse of being at the bottom of the ladder.

[Charlie1986]

98elise said:

Doesn't sound at all like a pyramid to me.

This is more a 3 dimensional wealth demi-rhombus which is completely different and genuine business model.

This isn't a scheme they have found a loop hole of how to make money and not be caught

This is what he is telling me now

[JustinP1]

Charlie1986 said:

This isn't a scheme they have found a loop hole of how to make money and not be caught

This is what he is telling me now

scheme

noun
1. a large-scale systematic plan or arrangement for attaining some particular object or putting a particular idea into effect.

2. a secret or underhand plan; a plot.

verb
1. make plans, especially in a devious way or with intent to do something illegal or wrong.

[Tom_C76]

Charlie1986 said:

This isn't a scheme they have found a loop hole of how to make money and not be caught

This is what he is telling me now

Is there physical product sold as part of this? If so it's MLM and legal, though as said above only the upper tiers make much. If it's solely passing money up the chain it's a pyramid no matter what they call it. Even if they call it a religion like the scientologists do.

[TankRizzo]

One of my former friends does Forever Living. She alienated everyone on her Facebook list by pestering them with it. Unsurprisingly, her main focus seems to be on "building a team" rather than actually selling the overpriced tat. They're all robots following a script: post inspirational quotes & pictures, post pics of you in the garden saying "this is my office today xxx", post how much time you're getting with the family, and lastly post about the amazing benefits of aloe vera.

I have Type 1 diabetes and she even told me that drinking aloe vera gel would help me control my blood sugars. I blocked her afterwards.

[TankRizzo]

Charlie1986 said:

This isn't a scheme they have found a loop hole of how to make money and not be caught

This is what he is telling me now

It's recruiting others who recruit others who recruit others, cascading downwards.

A bit like a triangle-shaped object.

[ozzuk]

That's a shame, I quite like the idea of my own Pyramid. Cold I bet though.