Contents page

Featured by botwatchblog, posted in contents

I have written a few posts and it is sometimes hard to find the one you want. Here is a list of some of the most popular/ useful ones and a quick summary. I hope you can find what you are looking for.

Follow Bot Watch on Twitter (@MLMBotWatch) or Facebook to keep upto date.

Why Network Marketing is a bad thing. This is an introduction to Multilevel marketing/ network marketing. It explains why it is not the innocent small work from home type opportunity people say it is.

How to leave an MLM This helps people who are in an MLM and want to leave but are worried about how they should go about it. It can be a stressful time. This is also useful if you have already left and are grappling with the emotions that are left.

Network Marketing is a cult. This title is not as mad sounding as you think. It provides an analysis of what a cult is and how MLMs fit the criteria. This is quite a stressful read if you have been involved but things may make a bit more sense to you after reading.

MLM and the Enterprise Allowance This is a continuing investigation which is nearing completion. The article lays out the problem and the beginnings of my sleuthing. More progress has been made and it will be updated when completed. The Enterprise Allowance is a government scheme that funds new businesses.

You are not an independent Business Owner A quick look at what these words mean and how ridiculous they sound when applied to someone involved in MLMs. Quite funny, and a good one to link to in an argument with someone involved in MLM!

Directory of MLM information This one provides general MLM information and then gives an alphabetical list of some of the MLMs we have come across and details on them. I need to update it a bit to reflect some of the companies failing and creating new scandals, but it is a good place to start looking for information.

How to help someone in an MLM. This is a good read if you have a fried or relative involved in an MLM and you are at a loss as to what to do. You may be worried about damaging your relationship with them. This article will help you through the difficulties and offer practical advice.

In need of an alternative/ extra income? This is a resource for people who are in need of earning some money and need an alternative to MLM. This could be useful for someone who has been considering an MLM or people who are leaving and are still left with the problem of wanting to make money at home. I gain nothing from any of the links in this article. No affiliate marketing going on here.

The things MLMs say (or MLM Bingo) People arguing for MLMs will always come up with the same tiring arguments all the time. Here, they are laid out and explanations given as to why they are not true. If you get in an argument with someone in an MLM, refer them to this piece.

MLM Expectation vs Reality This was produced in partnership with someone who was quite high up in Forever Living. She spills the beans on what she was promised and what actually happened once she joined. The themes are relevant to all MLMs. It is quit an eye opener.

Forever Living using sick children, Great Ormond Street Hospital and a charity to make unsubstantiated health claims. This is an investigation that exposed some lies that some people were caught telling. The title tells you all you need to know.

People who care about you are worried A good one to link to if you have a friend or relative who has become embroiled in MLM but you don’t know how to approach them. People have actually sent this to people and had good results. It could also help you get your own thoughts together and working out why you are worried.

Are you or someone you know in an MLM? Having doubts? Aimed at people who have just joined an MLM and are thinking ‘what on earth have I got myself involved in here?’ Maybe it was going well at first but now the doubts are creeping in. Read this to find out what is happening to you.

Making False Health Claims. Part 1 and Making False Health Claims. Part 2 These explain the laws around making heath claims for products in the UK. This covers medicines, herbal remedies and any products that claim to alter the body’s functions. Seen an advert for a product that can cure diabetes or help you lose weight? These articles help you work out if those claims can be made, and if not, what you can do about it.

Directory of MLM information.

Featured by botwatchblog, posted in Useful advice

If you are worried about someone in an MLM and want to know what is going on with them and how you can help them, have a look at these links-

How to help someone. Explains how to research MLMs and how to speak to people in an MLM.

Having second thoughts. Aimed at people who have joined an MLM, might help them see the truth.

Someone who cares about you is worried. Explains to people why you are worried about them being in an MLM.

Expectation versus reality. Aimed at people considering joining an MLM. Information from ex MLMers about the truth of what really goes on.

Watch this You Tube film by Ethan Vanderbuilt that has some advice.

This Skeptoid article gives you three options on what to do if someone you care about has a worrying belief in ‘woo’, whether that be a ‘cure’ or a financial trap. Well worth a read.

MLMs in General

Elle Beau’s story about her real life experiences whilst in Younique, or Poonique as she calls it. Many people have said they can relate to her story. It shows you how people can get sucked in and what really happens once you join an MLM.

Are All MLMs Scams? By MLM Alert.

Is it a pryamid scheme? by TINA

MLM bingo, what they all say. By BotWatchBlog

Lazy Man and Money explains why MLM health products don’t work.

10 big lies of MLMs by MLM Watch.

How to identify a product based pyramid scheme by MLM Watch.

The Talented Ladies Club has written an article on ‘The seven lies an MLM rep will tell you- and the REAL truth you need to know.’

Albania had a near civil war with thousands of deaths in 1997 due to the collapse of pyramid schemes. New York Times article about it.

Assess an MLM to see if it will make you money or if it is a scam. A simple 5 step assessment with explanations for each point. Written by an expert.

The Anti MLM Coalition is a group of people fighting MLMs and supporting ex reps and reps who find themselves in difficulty. Bot Watch is a member. We aim to provide a lot of information and collect people’s personal stories to share.

Timeless Vie- Facebook page and Blog. They are an MLM parody site that aims to educate and support people on all things MLM, with the aim of stamping out MLMs. Contact them with your questions or experiences.

Bot Watch- We have a Facebook page too if you want to contact us in confidence with questions or just ‘like’ us and keep up with information. Follow us on Twitter (@MLMBotwatch) for developments. There’s always something kicking off in the MLM world.

Information on specific MLMs

If you know of any more MLMs or have any links or information, please contact us at Bot Watch and tell us about them.

1st Phorm

Their website. They operate in the US.

They sell sports clothes and supplements aimed at sporty people. Their sports leggings cost $60.00. They have a ‘110% guarantee’ where they will refund 110 of the retail price if people are not happy with their purchase. This only applies to proper customers though, not the reps.

Their reps are called ‘Legionnaires’ and ‘sponsored athletes’.

Founded in 1999 by Andy Frisella and Chris Klein.

Short discussion about them on this bodybuilding forum.

In 2013 the company were sued by someone who used one of their diet pills and suffered a stroke. News story here.

There are many contraindications for using the products- being under 21 or over 55, having depression, seizures, psychiatric disorders, thyroid problems, diabetes, enlarged prostate, glaucoma, difficulty urinating, kidney disease and recurrent headaches. They shouldn’t be taken with antidepressants, NSAIDS, MAO inhibitors, aspirin or drugs containing stimulants.

Possible side effects include chest pain, dizziness, irritability, nervousness, tremors, severe headaches, irregular heartbeat, nausea, and shortness of breath

2xtreme Performance International

Shut down in 2000 by FTC. They found that their earnings claims were not realistic and people would not make what was promised. This caused the FTC to label it a pyramid scheme.

For further links on this MLM, have a look at this website.

4life

Their website. They sell supplements. Policies and procedures. They operate in many countries.

Their income disclosure statement shows that approximately 80% earned nothing. 20.9% earned less than $59 a month on average, before expenses. A very very tiny amount of people earned anything decent. Their figures add up to over 100%.

They are members of the DSA.

5linx

Their website. They sell loads of different types of products (security, business products, coffee, health products)

Pissed Consumer have numerous bad reports about this company.

Details about lawsuit and fraud allegations against 5linx’s ex President.

7 Minute Workout

31 Gifts (see Thirty One Gifts)

100% Pure

A Bit Rude

Australian MLM. They sell adult products.

I’d tell you more about this MLM if I could remember the password to get the child lock off the internet rude filter.

Abby+Anna’s Boutique

They sell clothes and accessories. In USA only. Their website.

They operate in Puerto Rico, USA and Guam. They hope to expand to Canada in 2018.

Abundant Health Ltd

ACN

Their Canadian website has some earnings figures from 2010. Why 2010? Are their figures worse now? ‘Not all IBO’s make a profit’. How many don’t make a profit? They don’t tell us. Their figure of $500 a year earnings only include active members that earned money. What about all those that didn’t earn any? I think they are relevant! IBOs have to make a yearly payment to remain members of US$149 and purchase training materials and attend events at their own expense. Source.

Ethan Vanderbuilt says ACN is a legal scam. This website has a very comprehensive breakdown of ACN and the facts behind it. Well worth a read if you want to know more about ACN.

Some researchers have found that participants lost on average $605. Fewer than 1 in 200 people will recover their initial investment.

ACN have been linked with Donald Trump. The National Review discuss how Donald Trump associated himself with ACN for years and made millions of dollars from it. He then denied knowing anything about the company when he started his presidential campaign.

IBOs in ACN are not allowed to solicit customers from cold markets. They have to persuade friends, families and other people known to them to buy the non-competatively priced products.

An ACN whistleblower’s story.

ACN Policies and Procedures. From the policies-

“B. Eligibility for Compensation. In order to receive compensation, IBOs must maintain a minimum number of phone points per ACN’s Compensation Plan.” This means that you may make an investment, put time and effort in, gain customers and make sales but still get paid nothing.

The policies also state that, should a disagreement occur between the IBO and ACN, the IBO/exIBO is not allowed to sue ACN in a class action suit. Also, IBOs have to agree that, should a disagreement come to court, they have to waive their right to a trial by jury!

Undercover investigation into the ACN product.

Acti-Labs

“Surgery like or medically inspired treatments for use in the home.”

Used to be called Actiderm. They just changed the name in 2016 to take into account that they are introducing non-skin products. In America they are called Acti-labs Paris. Some of their products still have Actiderm on them.

Compensation plan.

Here’s someone who has used their wraps on their arms. Do we think the results are down to the wraps or from turning her arms round?

This is a British company registered first as Aesthetimeds Ltd. and then Acti-Laboratories UK Ltd. Aesthetimeds was set up in 2006, buying beauty products made in France and selling them using traditional methods. In France the manufacturing company seems to be called Cosmetic Research Group, with the brands Soskin Paris, Tom Robbin and Hellionature. In the UK Aesthetimeds started using a multi level marketing scheme to sell their Actiderm products in 2011. Aesthetimeds Ltd changed its name in Dec 2015 to Acti Laboratories Uk Ltd. It is owned and run by Christopher Hillyard-Miller and James Hillyard-Miller, chemists.

This Actilab blog seems to imply that the French company Cosmetic Research Group and Actilabs are the same company but I can’t find out who owns the Cosmetic Research Group. It looks like a French company make lots of different types of cosmetics, including a line called Actilabs that is sold in the UK and now USA through MLM.

Related companies that have been set up and dissolved by these people are-

Aesthetimeds research group Ltd– opened and closed in 2010.

Institut Soskin Ltd opened and closed in 2007.

There is no income disclosure statement available which should be a red flag. They say they will be opening up in Canada soon so maybe there will be one then, as it is required by law there.

Addlife

Adjuice

Adornable.U

Advance Finance Inc

This pyramid scheme was shut down and the owner sent to prison for 5 years. Gary A. Eisenberg was the owner who conned a lot of his family and friends. Los Angeles Times news report here. His scheme involved getting an ‘investment’ from people and he used the money to loan to companies. He used the new investment money to pay interest to the older members.nds will not be available for 6

Advita Energy

Advocare

Website against Advocare called Advocarefacts

Advocare is mentioned in this New York Times article on the Olympics and supplements.

FB group against Advocare- Advo-Truth

Lazyman and Money’s assessment.

Another article criticising Advocare. You just need to ignore the pop ups and promotion of the author’s own scheme.

TINA’s investigations into illegal health claims made for the products.

Bottlesoup do a financial analysis on the earning potential.

Income Disclosure for 2015. These figures are annual payments. Let’s hope your team managed to buy $500 of stock every month to make you eligible for payments.

Aerus Elecrolux

Agel Enterprises

Akasuka

Alice’s Table

All’asta

Reps arranged auctions for their own and party hosts’ things. They also seemed to have a catalogue and stock? It’s all a bit confusing. They called their reps ‘Independent consultants’. Review here.

It won the DSA’s 2015 ‘Rising Star Award’.

Their twitter account was last updated August 2016. Clicking on the links doesn’t work. Their website domain is available to purchase. It seems to have gone without trace or explanation.

Alliance In Motion Global/ AIM Global

Their website. They sell Natura-Ceuticals supplements.

They predominantly operate in Asia and the middle East. One of the products they sell is a skin lightening cream.

They hold a world record

Like many Asian MLMs they have a hand signal.

Allysian Sciences

Aloette Cosmetics

Aloe Vera of America

Bought out by Forever Living Products.

Alphay International

AlurVe

Their website.

They sell anti ageing beauty products.

They seem to have problems with their website or they have shut down. When I clicked on the link to see the products, there were none to be seen. When I clicked on ‘opportunity’, I was redirected to a page telling me I could buy that domain name. The date on the website is 2016, is this when it closed? Why no message saying it is closed? Why no explanation. These schemes just seem to go bust and abrubtly disappear.

Amare Global

Amazon Herb

Ambit Energy

Their website.

Member of the DSA. They sell gas and electricity. They operate in the USA and Japan. Started in 2006 by Jere Thompson Jr and Chris Chambless.

Lots of complaints from disgruntled customers on this website. Along with glowing reviews from reps. Complaints include cheques bouncing, bills being put up after a year, poor customer service. A few people are saying that if you don’t renew your package after a year ( as a customer), you are put on the highest tariff and end up paying $50 a month extra. If you try to leave the company they charge you $199.

Pissed consumer website has a lot of unhappy customers.

Amega

American Income Life

Ameo

Ameriplan Dental Plan

Amore Pacific

Won a DSA award in 2018 for being number 35 highest ranking ‘direct selling’ company.

Amsoil

Amway

Merchants of Deception– a free book about one man’s experience in Amway. Most MLMs these days seem to be based on this MLM.

A Polish subtitled video from 1997 that exposes Amway for what it is. Actual footage from meetings. Former members share their experiences.

An investigative undercover program looking into Quixtar/ AKA Amway.

FTC proceedings against Amway in 1979.

David Brear’s assessment of Amway. David Brear’s website, The American Dream Made Nightmare.

The Finance Guy analyses the financial figures for Amway and finds the average person lost $1176 in 2010.

TINA’s investigation into illegal health claims made for Amway products.

If you look up Amway on Companycheck, you will find AMWAY (EUROPE) Ltd is worth £223.8 million. There are many other Amway entries in Companycheck where sellers have registered themselves when they joined Amway. You can see how well they have done. There are 45 companies with AMWAY in the title. One of them has earned money in addition to Amway (Europe) and that was a freight company, nothing to do with AMWAY. All of the others say N/A for the figures or show a loss, here’s some examples-

Annique

Annmarie

Ann Summers

Unusual for an MLM, in that they have shops and sell products to the general public.

Go Compare investigate the earning potential and interview a party host. She points out that people only want parties at the weekend and it is only really possible to arrange 2-3 parties a fortnight, not the promised 3 a week. The poor woman blames herself for not trying hard enough.

The Guardian Explore Anne Summers as a career. They find that most people are supposedly (no evidence given) able to earn £80-£120 gross a week, but out of this comes their expenses and rental of the equipment.

An ex-Ann Summers party planner asks for advice at The Consumer Action Group after finding herself not earning money and ending up in debt.

AnRan

Apiori Beauty

Apollo

Aquasource UK

Their website.

Nutritional and skin care products sold in UK, Greece, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Croatia, Bulgaria and Macedonia. Owned by homeopaths David Howell and Robert Davidson.

Member of the UK DSA.

Arbonne

What you can expect to earn. Their income disclosure statement. and here, on their canadian site. Their British website.

The earnings here are particularly poor. The independent consultants line at the bottom is only including 20% of the ones that bought/ sold enough stock to get a payment. AVERAGE EARNINGS OF ARBONNE PARTICIPATNTS IS $60-$500! A year.

Here is the USA income disclosure–

The above chart only contains the payment details of the top 13% that actually earned a payment by selling/buying the qualifying amount. I have worked out from this what the real average earnings are.

Total amount of people in the chart are 23000. Total payments made= $146,293,340. Total payments divided by the full 175,500 consultants= $833.58 a year. This figure still doesn’t take into account the people that joined and left during the year. The churn rate would need to be known to calculate more accurately the actual earnings. It is likely much less than the $833.58.

Compensation Plan. It is very complicated as product costs are converted into points and these points are accumulated to qualify for earning percentages of purchases and downline purchases. There is a minimum spend to qualify for payments but I haven’t got the time or sanity to calculate what it is. If you know and can explain in a few simple sentences, comment and I can update my information. Thanks.

An undercover Mirror reporter investigates Arbonne. He finds it costs about £1500 to get started. One quote from this piece- “I’m a traditionalist and prefer jobs that don’t involve buying stuff from the company I work for – and ones that come with a salary.”

Ethan Vanderbuilt classes Arbonne as a scam.

TINA’s investigation into illegal health claims made for Arbonne products.

Arbonne’s financial statements at Companies House in the UK.

Ardyss

Ariix

Also cryptically known as ‘The Opportunity company’. The symbol of Ariix is two infinity symbols, because

The ‘width and depth’ they are talking about here is the dimensions of the pyramid of people underneath you. There are not infinite numbers of people. Their statement is non-sensical.

A critique of some Ariix research.

Some background on Ariix’s doctor.

A person associated with Ariix giving a ‘nutritional talk‘ about a medical condition at a hotel for people with cancer.

Average earnings statement for Ariix sellers. A clip from that document-

In the UK, this equates to £814.06 Gross. For an entire year. Of course, some people at the top of the pyramid will earn more so people joining at the bottom will be earning a lot less than that. According to Ariix’s website, there are costs involved in order to be eligible for bonuses-

1PV seems to be $1. so it costs $150 to start with the company and $75 every 4 weeks to be eligible for bonuses. Over a year, this adds up to $1125. Take off the average earnings and the average person earns $69 in a year.

Timeless Vie interview an Ariix escapee.

Dr Fred Cooper, one of the founders of Ariix was still president of USANA when he started up Ariix, directly breaking the rules of USANA.

Arsoa Honsha

ASEA

Their website.

They think their products can stop aging at a genetic level?!?

They operate in UK, Denmark, USA, Spain, France, Hong Kong, and many other countries.

Their ‘science’ consists of trying to scare people with facts about ageing. Science Based Medicine looked at their science and found it to be very funny. Their article on it is worth a read.

The ingredients for their main product are listed as water and salt!

Their income disclosure shows the earnings of ‘executive ranks’ in 2014. It doesn’t say how many there are of these or how many there are in the company that are below that rank. I suspect there will be a lot of people they are not including in this chart.

If you search online for false health claims, there are LOADS! Here is someone claiming that ESEA products saved him from cancer.

Lots of information about ESEA from Lazy Man and Money can be found here.

Aspire/Digital Altitude.

(See entry under ‘Digital Altitude/Aspire)

Athena’s

Athome America

Atomy

Their website. They sell skincare products. Established in 2004 in South Korea by Han-Kil Park and then spread to America and the rest of South East Asia.

The countries where they operate-

This review of Atomy has an interesting discussion at the end where contributors are either defending the company or accusing it of being a pyramid scheme.

Ava Anderson (see Pure Haven)

Ava Rose Designs

Avon

MLMs will use the fact that Avon is an MLM to legitimize the whole system. Everyone has heard of Avon and assume it is a good company. It used to be a direct selling company but has more recently become an MLM. Becoming an MLM has complicated things for them and tarnished their reputation. Have a read of Pyramid Scheme Alert’s analysis in this article – Has MLM corrupted AVON?

Costs involved in being an Avon rep- Can you make money selling Avon?

The Pink Truth’s article on AVON. It is worth reading the comments at the end.

There are loads of people complaining about AVON on Complaints Board. Here is a detailed one that highlights some bad business practices.

AVON have announced they will no longer have a presence in Australia.

A personal experience of an AVON rep is described on the Anti-MLM Coalition’s website.

Azuli Skye

They sell jewellery. Started in 2008. Members of the DSA.

Banners Broker

Shut down for being a Ponzi scheme. They were pretending to sell advertising.

Before they were exposed as being a Ponzi, they were accepted by the MLM community as being a normal MLM. One of their members was listed on a ‘top 100 earners list’, alongside other MLMs.

Simon has gone on to form his own company ( The Advert Platform) that is pretty similar to the Ponzi where he made loads of money. It sold advertising. More recently, it moved into cryptocurrency. As of April 2018, there seem to be problems paying the members.

Most recent legal papers. Tara talks gives a summary of all the legal proceedings and lots of links.

Ethan Vanderbuilt looks at the scam.

Open letter sent to affiliates-

Bamboo Pink

They sold jewellery.

Founded in 2011 by Frances Gadbois, Jude Steele and Debbie Millar.

Barefoot Books

Their website. They sell books. In America and Canada they are MLM, in Europe they just sell to bookshops and libraries.

The reps are called ‘ambassadors’. People in Canada can join by buying starter kits for $99.99 or $179.99 and pay a yearly fee of $49.99. There are no minimum amounts to spend to be ‘active’.

The founders are Nancy Traversy and Tessa Strickland.

Truth in Advertising investigated their false income claims and found quite a few. You can view them and the letter TINA wrote to them asking them to stop.

Bath.ologie

Their website. They call their reps ‘bathologists’.

People make their own bath products at parties (Blending Bars). The guests then make their own label.

Stacey Madsen founded Bath.ologie in 2011. It only operates in the US.

They had started applying for a trademark but this application was abandoned when the company stopped responding or were late with their paperwork.

May 24th 2018 it was announced that Bathologie were shutting down. They gave their reps one day’s notice to shut down their ‘businesses’. MLM News Report give the details here. Here is a screenshot from the email the company sent to their reps. As of 25th May 2018, their website is still up as normal and there is no public sign of the company closing.

Beachbody

Beachbody website.

Analysis by Lazy man and money.

Ethan Vanderbuilt says it is a scam.

17 Beach Body coaches describe why they left the MLM in this reaction to an anti-Beachbody blog post.

BearCere’Ju

BeautiControl

Their website.

They belonged to Tupperware but were sold to Youngevity in 2017.

Beautycounter

Beauty Society

BeCAUSE Cosmetics

Their website. Founded 2017.

They sell make up (unsurprisingly!) They claim to be cruelty free but they do not have Leaping Bunny certification.

Become International

Bedroom Kandi

They sell adult products

Beever

*snigger*

They sell hair care products. Launched in 2008 by Steve Beever, hairdresser, they initially sold products through traditional methods to hair salons. Since 2016 they have been following the MLM model.

Their website.

Registered at Companies House as Beever Haircare Ltd in 2014. Paul Hammond and Steven Beever are the secretary and director.

Beijo

Belcorp

Bell Lifestyle Network

Bella Branch

Sells jewellery.

Bella Vintaj

Bellaroma

Beyond Organic

bHIP Global

Big Planet

Biltmore Inspirations

Bioceutica

Biometics

BioPerformance

They sell fuel additives.

Biopro Technology

Blessings Unlimited

Established in 2006. They offered ‘Christian and inspirational products’ in the home décor market.

This is what their Twitter account says “Blessings Unlimited is a party plan business founded in 2006 by DaySpring Cards. Mission: To pursue the heart of God and bring blessings to others.”

Dayspring cards have a website.

The Twitter account hasn’t been used since 2011. When you click on their website link for blessingsdirect.com, you are directed to Mary and Martha, another MLM.

This rep has posted a link to the website where it is saying it was a member of the DSA.

There isn’t much information out there about them. They seem to have just fizzled quietly out.

Bod·ē Pro

Body Alive

Body By VI/ Visalus

This MLM sell meal replacement shakes. There has been much criticism of these shakes, namely that they do not encourage healthy eating, their healthy diets are flawed, and there are some bad ingredients in the shakes. These two websites look at the MLM and analyse them.

Health Living, Heavy Lifting. This site looks at the shake and the marketing.

Graham Thomas Online. This blog post looks at the supposed science behind the products. There isn’t any.

Their compensation plan is mind-boggingly confusing.

Their arguments supporting the facts that Visalus is not a scam are

They give to charity.
Big companies have a hierarchical structure.

There is no income disclosure statement, even on the Canadian website. They don’t want you to know how much their sellers earn. Multilevel Marketing Madness is a website that has analysed the claimed earnings.

Body FX Direct

Body Shop at Home

Their website. They sell cosmetics, soaps, lotions etc. They have high street shops.

It was established in 1976 by Dame Anita Roddick and bought by L’Oréal in 2006. The Body Shop had prided itself on its high ethics and non cruelty to animals. The takeover by L’Oréal was seen as controversial by many customers. 1994 The Body Shop branched out into MLM and The Body Shop at Home started.

BBC video on The Body Shop story.

In 2017 The Body Shop was bought by Natura with high hopes for returning to its ethical roots.

An ethical website looks at the ethical issues of the takeover. http://www.ethicalcorp.com/how-brazils-natura-can-enrich-not-exploit-body-shop

Timeless Vie tell the story of one woman’s experience in this MLM.

An informant tells us at Bot Watch about what happened to her when she was a consultant for TBS at home.

Daily Mail story about a Body Shop at Home consultant and a questionable tactic of using children to get money out of.

Body Wise

Boisset Collection

Bookwise

Boresha Coffee

Boston Finney

This MLM had people selling the opportunity to buy electricity. Except they didn’t have any electricity to sell.

The California Public Utilities Commission shut them down. San Fransisco Chronicle details the case here. They report how reps were claiming it wasn’t a scam because they were getting paid.

Bounce Life/ Bounce Network

Their website. They sell insurance. They call their reps ‘bouncers’. They go on a ‘bouncing journey’ as they join up and try to earn money and recruit. They only operate in the UK.

They name their levels in the pyramid after jewels.

They don’t have an income statement.

Brain Abundance

Bud Star

Canada only. They sell marijunana products

Burn Lounge

Founded in 2004 and supposedly sold music online. In 2007 the FTC sued them for being a pyramid scheme. Here is the FTC’s website with details of all the legal stuff.

Press release from FTC about the money they have retrieved from the pyramid scheme to give back to the fraud victims.

Analysis of the case by False Profits website.

Buskins Leggings

Buyezee

CAbi Online

Their website. CAbi stands for Carol Anderson By Invitation. Started in 2001.

They sell clothes. They call their reps ‘stylists’. They operate in the US, UK and Canada.

Known as CABI Experience Ltd in the UK. Companies House has this entry. This is interesting-

This is on Companies House in March 2018.

It looks like they were going to be subject to a compulsory strike off but the company managed to avoid it. They were only set up in 2016.

It will be interesting to see if they do publish their figures, and if they do, how well they are doing. Watch this space!

Stylists refer to each other as cabi sisters.

It’s difficult to work out how much people earn as they don’t have an income disclosure. I found this though-

How much do shipping and postage cost? Let’s say $300. The rep then pays for nibbles, invitations, drinks, leaflets etc for the show ($50?). Outlay is $3100.

After the season, if reps do well, they might sell $3000 of stock. They are then $100 out of pocket.

Then the next season begins and it happens again.

If a stylist fails to sell a certain amount, they are not allowed to sell the next season. They have to attend two conference trainings a year which will add to their costs.

There are no details anywhere about how much UK reps spend. It is illegal for them to spend more than £200 in the first two weeks. Information is very sparse for the UK and Canada.

2015 Fortune article about CAbi.

Cal Nutrisciences

Cambridge Weight Plan, formerly Cambridge Diet

Members of the UK DSA.

Their website.

This is a diet company based on a keto diet. A bit like Weight Watchers but on an MLM model.

Captain Tortue

Their website.

They sell French clothing for women and girls. Members of the UK DSA.

Carico International

Cashback World

See Lyoness

Celadon Road

Celebrating Home

Cellements

Their website. They sell 3 different types of sprays that come in credit card sized containers.

They are based in Estonia and started by Anders Karlsson. He was a big earner in Vemma.

Behind MLM review.

Chalk Couture

Chalky and Co

Chandeal

Charle

Charlie’s Project

Chaum

The Chefs Toolbox

This MLM went into liquidation 15th November 2018.

Their website.

Australian company selling cooking stuff. Founded by David Mills in 2003.

This Product Review website documents complaints about the products. As is usual for MLM companies, there are 5 star and 1 star reviews, with not much in between. A common complaint is that when the products fall apart, the customer is told they weren’t using the product properly.

Chez Ami

Chloe and Isabel

They sell jewellery.

Christian Bling

Faith inspired jewellery.

Cieaura

ClaudiaG

Jewellery and bags.

Clever Container

Their website. They sell containers. They operate in the USA. Started in 2006 by Karen Eschebach and Jennifer Weaver.

Member of the DSA. Stephanie Merrick Blaser is the president.

Close To My Heart

Cloud 9 Parties

Coastal Vacations

Color Street Nails

Their website. They sell nail polish strips. Based in New York. They operate in the US only. Their terms and conditions.

Color by Amber

Their website. They sell jewellery and are environmentally friendly.

There is not much information about this company.

There is no income disclosure.

Color Me Beautiful/ Colour Me Beautiful

They call their reps ‘consultants’ and their parties are called ‘Beauty Hours’.

Their website. They sell clothes, jewellery, cosmetics and bags. It was founded in 1988 by Mary Spillane. They do not have ‘Leaping Bunny’ status to show they are cruelty free. This does not stop the reps from claiming they are ‘cruelty free and no animal testing’. Have a look on EBay to see what their reps are claiming. There’s plenty of unused stock being offloaded there.

I cannot find an income disclosure for this company.

The book ‘Colour Me Beautiful‘ came from this MLM that explains their theory on how to work out what colours suit you.

Conklin

Cookie Lee

They sell jewellery

Cookie Lee founded the company in 1985 and it became MLM in 1992. It operated in the USA only and was a DSA member.

2013 the company was sold to a real estate company.

Compelling Creations

Member of the DSA. They sell jewellery with faith inspired messages.

The Coral Connection

Country Gourmet Home

Country Scents Candles

Country Suds

Cosway

Their website.

Based in Malaysia. Member of the DSA. They sell ‘health and beauty’ products.

Cprime

Creative Memories

Credit Repair USA

Crunchi

Cryptonian

Cutco

Their website. The sell knives and kitchen equipment. They started in 1949

They call their reps ‘specialists.’ People can have home parties and recruit people under the company name ‘CUTCO at home’.

Vector Marketing are part of CUTCO. They have Direct Selling reps that just sell the products and are paid a fee for seeing customers. See this Wikipedia article about it.

The company targets college aged people to sell for them and they have been accused of employing very deceptive tactics. There have been a number of law suits against them.

A group called SAVE (Students Against Vector Exploitation) was set up by someone who successfully sued Vector for breaking labour laws.

In 1990 they were sued by the Attorney General in Arizona.

In 2008 they were sued in a class action for failing to pay wages and tricking people into joining up. (Harris v Vector Marketing Corp) The case was last in court in 2010 when the court said the case could go ahead. It is about the company not paying their employees for the two days of training they have to do.

CVSL

Dakomodo

I’ve not found out much about this one. Komodo is a cryptocurrency.

Damsel in Defence/ Defense

DasCoin

Launched in 2015.

DasCoin is the cryptocurrency associated with MLM called Coin Leaders/ Net Leaders. Reps have to purchase a ‘licence’ from Netleaders to participate. It is this licence and membership into the group that is sold.

John Pretto is the owner of Net Leaders. He was high up in the One Coin scam.

Discussion about them in a forum here. They discuss how ‘education’ packages have to be purchased and that people are rewarded for recruiting.

Behind MLM wrote about Dascoin in a less than positive light. It claims that it is a Ponzi scheme.

Twitter account @DasCoinScam are ‘outing the DasCoin scammers one at a time’.

Ethan Vanderbuilt reviewed the company. He says it is a scam.

Dazzle and Daze

Demarle at Home

Detech

Diana

Digital Altitude/ Aspire

Founded by Michael Force.

Their website.

From their website-

It’s not strictly an MLM, more like a scam aimed at people who want to do better in MLMs.

They have been found to be making false income claims by TINA. They found more than 100 of these claims!

The FTC filed an injunction against them and this was approved in March 2018. For a discussion about the case, see TINA.

From TINA-

Dione Cosmetics

Direct Cellars, sometimes referred to as DC Nation

An MLM wine membership club. They operate in US, UK and Australia.

Companies House information.

Their Facebook page.

Their website is Directcellars.com.

Owned by Peter Sperling and opened in America in March 2017. UK company details held at Companies House. Incorporated in the UK on 25th March 2016.

Their income disclosure and compensation plan.

There is no retail commission. Participants are paid purely for signing up reps. They have to pay a monthly fee. 40QV has to be spent by the rep each month to remain eligible for payments. This seems to be £88.95 ($125.16). Over 12 months is $1501.92. Add in expenses, and the rep doesn’t earn much. They will probably make a loss.

Discovery Toys

Divvee

Launched in 2016.

In 2018 they rebranded as Nui. They have a very confusing history, changing names and what they sell. Review at Behind MLM.

Do TERRA

Analysis by Lazyman and Money.

Bottle Soup website looks into the financial details to work out how much money can be made in Do TERRA.

DoTERRA have claimed their essential oils have CPTG certification or that their oils are FDA certified. They are not FDA certified. CPTG is a mark made up by DoTERRA, it means nothing. These points are covered in this article.

DoTERRA recommend adding their products to food or drink. (12-24 drops a day). That link has changed since I initially put it here. Here is another link to look at. Here is an image from their website.

Don’t add essential oils to food or drink. It will make you ill or kill you, according to this well researched and informed article by an aromatherapist. They explain how it can be used safely. Here is a statement by the Alliance of International Aromatherapists on using essential oils internally.

CNN news article about the FDA issuing warnings to DoTERRA regarding their claims that their essential oils can cure Ebola.

The FDA warning letter in full to DoTERRA regarding numerous false health claims being made.

This article in the New Yorker is about Young Living, but if you read it, you will find some information about how DoTERRA came into existence and some dramas they have experienced.

Science Based Medicine have looked at DoTERRA a few times. Have a look at these articles here, here and here. Needless to say, DoTERRA and their reps do not have a good grasp of science.

This article is written by someone who was in Doterra. She explains why she thinks it is a pyramid scheme.

Do You Bake

Dot Dot Smile

Their website.

They sell clothes for girls. Their reps are called merchandisers.

Founder is Nicole Thompson in California. Started in 2013.

Dove Chocolate Discoveries

See Mars

DS Max USA Inc

Du North Designs Ltd

Their website.

They sell clothes, with an emphasis on leggings.

DubLi Network

Dudley Beauty

Their website. This can only be accessed in countries where they operate. I have been unable to look at it. They operate in USA, Bahamas, Brazil, Canada and Zimbabwe.

Their Facebook page. The company seems to be aimed at black women/ African Americans.

Started by Joe Dudley in 1957 in America.

Member of the DSA. They sell make up and beauty products. They have salons, a beaty school and a ‘cosmetology university.’

TINA found that Dudley reps were making false income claims.

DXN Holdings Berhad/ DXN Global

Dynamic Essentials

This MLM shut down in 2003 after a class action law suit brought about by the FDA. This was related to illegal and misleading claims for their seaweed product called Royal Tongan Limu. Court papers here. Discussion about it on Casewatch here.

NBTY were the parent company of Dynamic Essentials. NBTY was formerly known as Nature’s Bounty.

E-conomize

Their opportunity website. Their customer website.

They sell shares in the company to distributors or they can ‘earn’ them. The plan is to recruit 2-3 people and get them to recruit 2-3 people etc etc. They say recruitment is easy, you just need to show a video to your prospect, you won’t need to sell, the opportunity will sell itself.

They sell energy, insurance, water, phones, financial products. Most of the sections have ‘coming soon’ written over them. The things they do sell come from a company called Utilico.

“The company was established by two experienced entrepreneurs Andreas Papaiacovou and Ababil Sher“- according to their website. The website claims they had seen many network marketing companies fail to deliver on their promises, but this one is different.

The company was registered in September 2016. The two company officers named on official documents are Andreas Papaiacovou and Matthew Postlethwaite. Andreas is the director of Utilico, a series of businesses that provide the services being sold by e-conomize.

Ecosway

EcoWarehouse

Electrolux USA

Elk River Soaps

Ella Tina

Their website.

They sell leggings for women and girls.

Elli Kai

Elvacity

Their website. Their website is full of health claims, and the usual disclaimer that they don’t make health claims.

They sell Elevate coffee. They also sell vitamin patches, skin tightener, skin mud and anti-aging serum. This diet website looks at the coffee and discusses some concerns they have.

Joining initially costs $49.97, then there is a $25 fee every month.

Elysee Cosmetics

Emerald Essentials

EmGoldEx

Empower Network

Enagic

See Kangen

ENERGETIX Bingen

Official name is ENERGETIX GmbH & Co. KG. Registered in Germany.

Their website. They sell magnetic jewellery. Apparently millions of people buy the jewellery because they like it and they want to be near magnets????!!!!!

Roland Forster is the sole shareholder and owner. Founded in 2002 as ENERGETIX.

They operate in Peurto Rico, Australia, Eastern Europe, UK, Turkey and Mongolia.

Members of the UK DSA.

Kevin Costner modelled for their catalogue.

Energy Release

EnerSource

Behind MLM did a review on them. Launched in 2016 and sells nutrition products.

Enhanzz

Their website.

Currently in pre-launch (As of May 2018).

Their website is full of scenic pictures and bland statements that don’t mean much or identify what they are actually selling. This is from their website-

“A movement with a mission can hold extraordinary appeal, especially for the younger generations who are reshaping the world’s social landscape. Enhanzz is a Swiss-based company, and proudly so. Switzerland is the global icon of quality, precision and reliability. And by identifying as Swiss, we are making our own commitment to exceptional standards in every aspect of our company’s products, operations and appeal. Our outstanding opportunity is designed to add to the increasing amount of worldwide conversations about happiness. There’s an open invitation to everyone, of every age and every background, to join our mission of empowering people and enhancing happiness“.

Enjo

Their website. They sell ‘chemical free cleaning products’!

Members of the UK DSA.

Eniva

ENJO

Entrenet

Enzacta

Epicure Selections

Epxbody

Equinox International

Sold water filters and vitamins. Founded in 1991.

2000 the FTC declared them an illegal pyramid scheme and shut them down.

In 1996 it was listed as one of the top 500 fastest growing companies in the US by Inc Magazine.

Bill Gouldd was the president. He was barred from having anything to do with any MLM for the rest of his life.

Esbe Designs

Sells jewellery by Sarah Blaine.

Essante Organics

Launched in 2009.

Their website. They sell supposedly toxic free products, including essential oils ( known to be toxic), cleaning products, bath stuff and the pseudoscientific pH alkaline nutrition.

Essential Bodywear

Etcetera

European Grouping of Marketing Professionals/ GEPM

Set up by Jean Godzich, a former member of Amway in 1988.

Also known as ‘The Business’ by the followers. The headquarters were in France.

In 1995 the company formed ‘The Grouping’, a team of professional cyclists. These included Luc Leblanc, Ronan Pensec, Pascal Lino and Graeme Obree.

It shut down in 1995 after its members increasingly complained that it was a cult. Wikepedia covers the controversial MLM. The French authorities investigated it.

The former members of GEPM formed a new MLM called AKEO, to be taken over by a company called NOAO.

European Home Retail

This is the company that owned Farepak, the Christmas savings club that went into administration in 2006.

Other subsidiaries were Kleeneze; eeZee TV; I want one of those.com; kitbag.com.

Evanescence Network

EVER Skincare

Evergreen Life Products

Evolution Travel

Their website.

They are an online travel agents. They charge a very low fee to do a course and then issue certificates so that members can sell holidays. 80% of the commission earned is kept by the ‘agent’ and the rest goes up the pyramid.

The company very much emphasise the importance of recruiting. Their compensation plan is very very heavily reliant on recruiting. Their compensation plan talks of selling ‘PTAs- Professional Travel Agent’ packages. This is the package new recruits buy. Thus, members are paid for the number of people they recruit. Agents have to pay a monthly fee to be active and ‘earn’ money.

Evolution Travel are not covered by ATOL or ABTA. Agents claim they will be covered soon (claims made in March 2018) because Archer Travel who provide the holidays have bought out Barrhead Travel in the UK. Barrhead were actually bought by North American Travel Leaders Group. News story here. In fact, Archer Travel are members of the Travel Leaders Group. How this relationship will affect the ability of UK agents to claim ABTA and ATOL remains to be seen.

EvolvHealth

Exfuze

Express 2 System

Faberlic

Fakebake

Their website.

The jury is out on this one. There is a joining fee, starter kits, parties at home and offers for hosts. There are recruitment posters. There is a promise of flexible working and a career opportunity. What is not so obvious is the compensation plan, success days and ‘build a team’ focus. If anyone has any thoughts, please comment.

Family First Life

Family Heritage Life

Fantasia

Fgxpress

Fibi & Clo

Fifth Avenue Collection

DSA member

Financial Finders

Financial Halo

Financial Prosperity Alliance

Firebird Management

First Fitness Nutrition

FITTEAM

Their website.

They sell supplements aimed at people trying to get fit. They call their reps FITTEAM brand partners.

Their income disclosure can be found by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.

Here is an extract

They were founded in 2015 so they should really have data to make a proper income statement now. Please let me know if you see it updated so I can update the above statement. $500-$2000 a year isn’t much of an income. I wonder how much people have to spend in order to be eligible for these payments?

Reps have to sell/spend $46.99 a month to be eligible for their commissions and bonuses. If they don’t spend/sell this much two months in a row, they will lose their downline. The payment structure can be accessed by clicking on ‘compensation plan’ at the bottom of this page.

You see where I put sell/spend in red? That is important because it means you don’t need to have any customers. You could just buy products and recruit. Your recruits could just do the same. If there is no need for genuine outside customers, this is a huge red flag. It could mean the company is a pyramid scheme under US rules.

Here is a picture on their website illustrating the ‘opportunity’. This type of picture has been banned by the FTC in their ruling on Herbalife where they were telling them how not to be a pyramid scheme.

A review of the products by a supplement website. They discuss the ingredients and dosing.

Five Star Autoclub

People paid into this to try and get their dream car on lease. Here in one rep’s website explaining how it all works, describing the earning potential, ranks, commission etc.

Legal case here. The FTC said they were a pyramid scheme and that the members were misrepresenting the amount of money people could earn. They were shut down in 2000. The people who set it up were banned from participating in future MLM companies. They had already been involved in quite a few. Mr Sullivan, the main owner, was found to be legally responsible for all the false advertising that was put out by the reps. This was despite him saying he couldn’t be.

FTC timeline of the case.

Flamingo Paperie

Flashnet

Flavon USA

Fleuresse

See Kyani

FM World

Their website

A perfume website called Basenotes has a forum discussing the products. They describe the perfumes as not-so-cheap knockoffs. They essentially copy well known brands. Then some FM advocates wade in and exclaim it is not at all pyramidy (yawn).

Food Service Professional

For Days Co. Ltd

For Every Home

For Your Pleasure

Forbes Lux

Force Fuel and Engine Conditioner

Forever Green

Forever Living

Scandal of Forever Living using Great Ormond Street and a children’s illness to sell their products.

Why Forever Living cannot make health claims.

TINA’s investigation into illegal health claims made for FL products.

Newspaper story in Sunday Times about Forever Living targeting health care staff.

Newspaper story in Daily Mail about Forever Living misusing Barclays Bank facility aimed at helping local businesses.

Another Daily Mail article, this one showing what the realities are for people in FL. A follow up piece by Timeless vie about the abuse the whistle blower was subjected to, as well as support from others in the same situation.

A whistle-blower’s story exposing Forever Living and their dodgy practices.

ASA ruling on a Forever Living rep’s advert.

Reality versus expectation in Forever Living- stories from a few ex FL whistleblowers.

Avoiding tax. How some companies funnel money around to avoid tax.

Newspaper article on FL’s owner paying a huge amount of money to an anti gay-marriage campaign.

A whistleblower’s testimony of what happened when they stood up to conflicting advice from Forever Living.

A mother’s story of how she and her team faked success.

For Tails Only

Sells dog treats/ supplies.

For You

Forex Enterourage

Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing

This MLM was declared by the FTC in the USA to be a pyramid scheme and was told to shut down a lot of its operations and pay compensation.

TINA have an article on it.

The FTC’s statement about it.

Forum Technologies

Four Corners Alliance Group

Fox

France Lux

Fragrant Jewels

Fred L. Hansen Corporation

Free2Live

Freedom Equity Group

FreeLife

Free-Mart

Freeway To Success

Frezzor

Friendly Home Parties

Friends United Network

Fuel Freedom International

DSA listed

Full Life Products

Fuller Brush

Fun Unlimited

FundAmerica

Formerly known as Arctic Island. Went bankrupt in 1990 after accusations of it being a pyramid scheme. A lot of the company’s money was allegedly sent to two companies by Robert T. Edwards, the president of Fund America, plunging the company into debt. The Los Angeles Times said

“FundAmerica’s two largest creditors are the same overseas entities that its current management has said received $11.3 million in electronic-fund transfers from company founder Robert T. Edwards, who resigned shortly after his July 19 arrest by Florida authorities on pyramid-scheme charges.

No one in FundAmerica management claims to know what the company’s relationship is with Theta Ltd. of the British West Indies or Acheteur International in Amsterdam. Edwards wired millions of dollars to the two entities in the months before his arrest.”

FuXion Biotech USA Corp

G and S Total Rejuvenation

Gano Excel

DSA member

Ganolife

GBG

Gel Moment

Founded 2014.

Gemstra

Genesis Global Network

Genesis Pure LivePure

Gia Wellness

Giffarine

Gigi Custom Jewellery

Gigi Hill

Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle

Global Domains

Global Dynamics

Global Health Trax

Global Information Network

Global Innovations

Global InterGold

Global Legacy International

Global Online Systems

Globalpreneurs

Global Prosperity Group

Global Wealth Trade

GNLD International/ NEOLIFE

Members of DSA UK.

Based in Sweden. They sell supplements, skin care, home care, personal care and weight loss products.

Their website. This is the website for NEOLIFE. It is where you are directed when typing ‘http://www.gnld.com/ ‘.

Review at Best Company. The review says that there is no money back guarantee, there are poor Glassdoor ratings and you cannot find out any prices unless you enquire with a rep. A person says in the comments that there is a money back guarantee. The Glassdoor ratings are much better now.

Go Foods

GoDesana Organics

Going Nuts

Going Platinum

Gold Canyon Candles

Golden Pride

Golden Sun

Good Life USA

Grace Adele

Grace and Heart

Gray Enterprises

Great Lakes Jump

Great Lif

Green Mountain Energy

Green Organics

Green Valley Plant Rentals

Green World

Greeting Cake Company

Grubby hands

Analysis by Timeless Vie here.

GT

Gus Presents

GVO

H2O At Home

Hanky Panky Parties

Harmony Green America

Harris Global Marketing

Harrison F. Luke, For Profit Motive

Hart2Hart Distributing

Harteis

Hawaii Grown

Hayward’s Gourmet Popcorn

Healing America

Health Mor (HMI Industries)

The Health Network

Health Resources

Healthy Coffee Business

Healthy Habits Global

Their website.

Based in California, USA. They sell hot drink powders with three herbs in that are alleged to have lots of health benefits. They also sell a substance you can put in your car’s fuel. Founded by Ted FitzGerald (formerly from Gano Excel).

There are 4 levels of joining packages, ranging from $99- $999. People get different access to payment levels depending on how much they pay in.

Science Based Medicine looked at the long list of health claims made for the products in this MLM in 2015.

Here is an example of one of the health claims on their website as of August 2018.

Here is another claim that is ridiculous.

Their income disclaimer says that there is not enough information to be able to give an accurate income disclosure and that one will be produced after a year of operating. This is on their website in 2018. HHG have been around since 2013. Their ‘estimate’ of earnings is between $500 and $2000 gross a year.

A lot of the videos are not working on their website. It is not clear on their website what countries they operate in. Some of their spelling and overall presentation is a little odd and amateur looking.

Behind MLM have reviewed this company. As usual, the comments are worth reading.

Healthy Peach (The HealthStyle Emporium)

Healthy Pursuits

Heavenly Chia

Helix Education

Helo LX/ Helo Globe

This is the ‘wellness band’ of wor(l)d. Their website.

It is like a fitbit. Except the product claims to test blood sugar, blood pressure, respiratory rate, alcohol levels, ECG (electrical cardiac activity) and mood. This video shows how it is worn. You cannot test these parameters with a wrist device. You would need a cuff to compress an artery, blood samples and sensors attached on the chest.

HempWorx

They sell CBD oil. This is a cannabis product.

In 2018 Canada decreed that Hempworx had to stop selling their products in Canada as they were illegal. News article at CBC describes the situation. From the article-

The article reports that the company have not been truthful with the reps. From the article- “The company told affiliates the shut-down to the Canadian market was “due to the increasing demand to bring HempWorx products to Canada and our commitment to compliance.”

Hendrix

Herbalife

The FTC’s rulings on how Herbalife have to change the way they operate in the US. Made in July 2016. Briefly, they have to pay $200 million in compensation for all the people that lost the most money, they have to ensure that there are real customers (not just Herbalife workers buying stock), there will be an independent compliance auditor ensuring the new rules are followed.

Well acclaimed documentary called ‘Betting on Zero’ about Herbalife, the people it has harmed and the financial battle being fought that is a big threat to the company. It has a 100% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. It is available here, along with a trailer.

Facts about Herbalife scam

Free short video showing experience of Herbalife victims.

A Herbalife victim speaks out.

A selection of articles by TINA about Herbalife.

Brenda’s story. Brenda left Herbalife. Here is her story.

UK income disclosure. 2014. Initially, it looks like the average person earns $5,456 a year, but that is disregarding the 87.1% of people who earned nothing (80%) or the 7.1% that earned on average $48. I think all members should be included in this calculation, after all, it is unfair to include just those that are doing well.

Total people in chart- 554,353

Total money paid out- $392,210,128.

True average yearly payments= $707.51.

Sales and marketing plan.

Herbalife were going to be sponsoring The Great North Run in the UK but there was a Twitter campaign and a petition and Herbalife were dropped. For more, see here.

Heritage Makers

Hillarys Blinds

They appear at number 60 in this list of top MLMs in 2016. Their website doesn’t seem to show any evidence of being an MLM now. I have tweeted the company to ask if they are an MLM.

Holiday Magic

Started in 1964 by William Penn Patrick and shut down in 1974.

Cosmetics company that was accused of using dirty tactics.

AVON sued them because they claimed that AVON were using fraudulent tactics.

They were investigated and taken to court for being a pyramid scheme. SEC vs Holiday Magic in 1974.

There were numerous schemes operated that charged Holiday Magic members fees to improve their ‘business’. These included Mind Dynamics; Sales Dynamics and Leadership Dynamics.

Hollywood Eye Magic

Their website.

Their sign up form and terms and conditions.

They sell one product- a serum that claims to remove bags under eyes, whether that is due to tiredness, old age, jet lag, allergies, stress, sodium, medication. Reps pay an autoship to get regular products.

Holzman Diversified

Home Interiors

USA division bought by Celebrating Home and still operating in mexico.

Home Land Mortgage Corp

Home Travel Agent

Home Travel Discount Cards

Homegrown Eatery

Homemade Gourmet

HomeTec

HTE USA

Huis Clos

A French MLM.

Hy Cite

Hybridorporated

Hyten

I Love Healthy Chocolate

I T P Travel

Iamaa Direct

Ideality

IDlife

Ignite

Igniting Passion

Based in Canada. Sells adult products.

Imarkets Live

IMatrix

Immunotec

In a Pikle

Income-Advantage

Independent Executive Recruiters

India Hicks

Based in UK. Sells Jewellery and accessories.

Infinitus

Number 5 highest revenues on the DSA’s top 100 list for 2018.

Information Research Center

Initial Outfitters

Initials Inc.

DSA listed

Inkd Up Nails

Innerlight

Innovative Management

Innovative Technologies Corporation of America

Innov8ive Nutrition

Their website. They sell supplements, shakes, energy drinks.

CEO is Heidi Whitehair. They call their reps ambassadors. Launched October 2016.

Interior Design Nutritionals

International Heritage

International Silver Network

Their website.

Their income disclosure states that because the company has not been trading for long, they do not have accurate figures for earnings. They state that after their first year they will do a more detailed survey on pay. As it stands, they estimate that earnings will be $500-$2000 a year.

ISN was founded in 2010. I would have thought they have had enough time to put together an income disclosure by now. Could it be that they don’t want to? Or have they done it and decided not to share that information?

There is a review of ISN by Behind MLM. They look at the compensation plan and the cost of the silver. Essentially they conclude that the compensation plan is unclear and over complicated (33 pages) and their products are cheaper elsewhere. There is a monthly fee and an obligatory purchase to make. They conclude that the commission is biased towards the number of people you recruit and the amount of autoship payments paid by these recruited people.

Internet Lifestyle Network

Internet Opportunity Group

Intimate Expressions

Intimo

Based in Australia/ New Zealand.

They sell adult products.

InTouch VOIP

Ion Cosmetics

Isagenix

Isagenix- cutting through the crap This is a blog post I did on Isagenix, including financial and product analysis.

TINA’s investigation into illegal health claims for Isagenix products.

This is their Income Disclosure. For analysis of this, see the above link. 0.36% of members earned above the poverty line. And that isn’t taking into account all the stock, expenses and tax, which can be hundreds or thousands of dollars.

This Australian article looks at the business model, a member’s account, and an analysis of the products.

An article by a well qualified nutritionist explains why the ingredients in the products aren’t what they seem. The article is called “How Isagenix Lies To Its Distributors And Consumers About GMOs, Preservatives, And Artificial Ingredients”

A doctor who fights against health frauds has written about the absurd health and science claims that Isagenix claim. Some of them are bizarre. Here is one quote

“The claims on the Isagenix website are a mishmash of pseudoscience, myth, misrepresentation, and outright lies. For example:” She goes through quite a few of these silly assertions that Isagenix make.

Ethan Vanderbuilt analyses Isagenix here.

Iscentu.com

It Works

Dr Bill Sukala (an exercise physiologist) reviews the products.

Truth in Advertising (TINA’s) evaluation.

Lazy Man and Money’s assessment of It Works.

Income disclosure statement. This shows the average earnings of its members is $189 / £128 and that this does not include expenses which run into hundreds or thousands of dollars each year.

This Fitness columnist has written a really informative article on It Works entitled “The Secret Of Weight Loss Wrap “It Works!” Is That It Fucking Doesn’t”.

Iwowwe

Izumio

J. Elizabeth

They sell women and children’s clothing.

J. Hilburn

They sell custom suits.

J P Mailing Profit

J.R. Watkins

See Watkins Incorporated

JAFRA Beauty/ Beauty

See Vorwerk Worldwide

Jamberry

A Jamberry escapee’s tale.

Another story of a Jamberry escapee.

Bottlesoup have analysed the earning potential for reps.

A follow up post about the above article and the fallout from it.

UK company information at Companies House.

Income disclosure statement on page 2 of their compensation plan. They only include people that have been in the company for a year. That is excluding an awful lot of people from the statistics. In MLMs, it has been shown that 80-90% of people leave within the first year. The earnings shown below are from the people that have persevered against the odds.

Terms and conditions. These state-

Here are the points for individual items.

An application kit costs £12.50 Sellers buy at wholesale price of 60% which means they need to spend £75 a month or sell £125 of stuff. This adds up to £900 a year of personal product costs. In CAD$, this is $1061. For someone earning $36- $998 a year, this is not great. (disclaimer- the pound is undergoing a massive flux in value due to the Brexit drama so these comparisons may be different in a few week’s time.)

PEOPLE HAVE TO SPND MORE THAN THEY EARN IN JAMBERRY. The only money to be made is by selling the products bought. Good luck with that. Or of course, attempt to recruit loads of other people and getting them to recruit loads of people.

Timeless Vie interview a Jamberry escapee. The £600 sales targets they talk about there are to remain a consultant. The £900 I mention is to qualify for bonuses.

Jamie At Home

They sold kitchenware

Janice Collection

This is a brand under Gemstra. They sell wax burners.

JapanLife

Java Momma

They sell coffee

Javita

JBloom Designs

JD Promotions

Jerky Direct

Closed and reopened under new management with new products and structure — Beef Jerky Products.

Jeunesse

TINA’s evaluation.

Income disclosure. 86% earn less than $213 a year.

Lazyman and Money’s assessment.

Class action being taken against Jeunesse for being a pyramid scheme, as reported by TINA.

TINA’s list of illegal health claims for their products. It’s a long list.

Jeunique

Jewel Kade

Purchased by 31 gifts. They sell jewellery and handbags.

Jewelry in Candles

Sold scented waxes and body products with jewellery. Shut down. Reps directed to Gemstra.

JewelScent

Brand under Gemstra. Scented candles with jewellery.

Jewelry In Candles

Jewels By Park Lane

JGO

Jimon

JK Apparel

Based in Canada. Sell women’s clothes.

The Job Marker

Jockey Person To Person

John Amico Haircare products

Jordan Essentials

Make up, skincare and home products. Founded 2000.

JoyMain

JuicePlus+

This company is actually called NSA which stands for National Safety Associates. NSA is on all their paperwork. It seems NSA is the company, Juiceplus is the product. In the past they have sold fire safety equipment, water filters, air filters and children’s books. NSA was founded in 1970 by Jay Martin, who is still the CEO now. In Europe, the company is registered in Switzerland.

Oncology journal article warning against using Juice Plus during chemotherapy.

Review of their so called research. Juice plus people bring out this research to back up any and all claims they make about their products.

A critical look at Juice Plus by MLM Watch.

You can be promoted or demoted by your upline, which is quite unusual in MLM circles apparently. This pro-MLM website explains it at the bottom of the post.

An article in the Independent about Juiceplus and other MLMs. It is from 1995 but it is still relevant today.

The Juiceplus starter guide. How to prospect people, how many you have to recruit and how much to sell/buy to earn any payments.

Juiceplus do not provide an income disclosure statement so we cannot accurately see what expected earnings can be. The Canadian Juiceplus website has this image. It isn’t very detailed but it is the best I could find. Which should be concerning in itself.

Juiceplus run a child health study that provides free Juiceplus capsules to children aged 4-18 if they take part in a survey. As long as an adult commits to buy Juiceplus for themselves for a year. At a cost of £246- £693. And they fill in 6 questionnaires. This is not very free.

Juiceplus’ doctor, Dr Mitra Ray recommends pregnant women take Juiceplus tablets-

Pregnant women should not take any supplement that have vitamin A in, as well as avoiding too many foods with naturally high levels of vitamin A. Doing this could damage your baby. This information is from the NHS website.

There is vitamin A in Juiceplus products-

Just Jewelry

Jusuru

Juuva USA

K and REnterprises of Ol jump

K and K Designs

K Par K

A French MLM.

Kaeser & Blair

They sell promotional products. Established in 1894.

Their website. They call their reps ‘Business Owners’. At first this looks like just a direct selling model but upon scrutiny, you can recruit people and earn off their sales. They describe their recruits as having a ‘sub business.’

They don’t have an income disclosure statement.

Kalo & Co

Kang Ting

Kangen water

The assumption made with Kangen water is that your body works better if it is alkaline. A very basic understanding of human physiology will show you that everybody has to have a blood pH of 7.35-7.45 for you to stay alive. Changing it outside of these small parameters will kill you. Luckily, drinking alkaline fluids will not change your body pH. It may affect the pH in your stomach though, which is supposed to be about pH2. If it is made less acid, you can’t digest nutrients properly. But, as ever, the danger with MLM isn’t with the pseudoscience, it is with the financial aspect and the effects being in an MLM will have on you and your relationships.

Lazy man and money’s assessment.

Kangen water is made by a Japanese company called Enagic.

Enagic in hot water in Japan. Story on false claims made for Kangen water and their ‘opportunity’.

Kangmei

Kannaway

Karatbars

They sell gold. Head office in Germany, gold products made in Turkey. Founded in 2011.

Their website.

Karemor

Karl Jacobson

Kasly Ju

Kaszazz

KEEP collective

Their website. They sell jewellery. Their reps are called designers.

Jessica Herrin formed this company, the same Jessica that started Stella and Dot.

Keep Me Safe Organics

They sell make up.

Kele N Co

Kelti

Kemp Enterprises

Keoke

Kilambe Coffee

The Kirby Company

Kitchen Fair

Kitsy Lane

KK Assuran

Kleeneze, also referred to as Klife

BBC report on the company going into administration in April 2018. The article says 5000 reps and 114 employees will lose their positions.

Their website.

They have a catalogue that distributors deliver to people’s door and then collect payments for orders. There are no territories though so sellers could end up competing with each other.

Distributors have to pay for catalogues.

This blog lists all the problems with Kleeneze and compares it to a cult.

A newsletter for Kleeneze. (https://dsa.kleeneze.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/dsa-Team-talk-sept-2015_TT-sept-15-new.pdf) Spot all the persuasive messages to entice people in and keep them trying to make money.

Kobold

Kohlman

Koritnik and Associates/ Shaklee

Koyo-Sha

Kuol Cat

Kyani

TINA’s evaluation.

Kyani in trouble about lies they told about their products. They made numerous false health claims.

Lots of illegal health claims for Kyani made in the USA, compiled by TINA.

37.8% of active distributors earned more than $10 or more in a year. Here are their earnings.

L’Bri Pure N Natural

They sell cosmetics and skincare.

L Paige Lipstick

La Bella Baskets

They sell gift baskets, charms, candles.

Lady Godiva Beauty

Landmark Forum

Their website.

This company isn’t strictly an MLM, although members are expected to recruit people into this self-improvement group. It promises to improve your life- at a cost. Have a read of this person’s experience when she and her friends went to a meeting about it.

Latasia Beauty

Latoka Engineering

Lavylites

Le Reve

Le-Vel

Le-Vel’s website.

Iron Beaver analyses Thrive from a fitness perspective.

Truth in Advertising’s analysis of Le-Vel.

There is no income disclosure. They do not want you to know how much their people earn.

Information from TINA on adverse health effects from Le-Vel’s products.

Advertising Standard Authority‘s ruling against Le-Vel. It is interesting to read in the ruling how Le-Vel treated their rep.

Lazy Man and money‘s article about Le-Vel. For which they are suing him. He won his court battle.

Lean Java Bean coffee (product sold by Vitae Global)

See this analysis in a Botwatchblog post about this MLM.

Their coffee is billed as ‘clinically proven’ to help weight loss. It is nothing of the kind. The post above analyses this research and looks at the ingredients.

I am currently investigating this company. More to follow in due course.

Legacy Designs

Brand under Gemstra

Legacy For Life

LegalShield

Their website.

This company sell legal cover. There are a network of lawyers that customers can contact if they need legal help. Their reps are called ‘associates’.

They operate in the US and Canada.

Their income disclosure. This is for 2015. Their figures show that only 2.5% of their associates managed to make a sale in that year. It cost $249 to join, plus the cost of becoming licenced. The information provided about earnings only relate to the 2.5% that made a sale.

Ethan Vanderbuilt believes it is a scam.

Legging Army

Their website.

A complaint about the product and customer service.

The website does not use https so transactions are not as secure as they can be.

Lemongrass Spa

Founded 2012. Sell make up,essential oils and skin care.

LEO

Member of UK DSA.

Their website.

They sell products to ‘help’ the entrepreneur. They also sell gold. Their reps are called trainers.

Let Us Close

LG Household and Healthcare

Based in South Korea.

Bought out AVON Japan for $96 million in April 2018.

Lia Sophia (Outlet by Lia Sophia)

Do you remember Victor Kiam? He is the man that was in the Remington adverts and said that he liked the products so much, he bought the company. In 1986 he bought a company called Act II and called it ‘Lady Remington’.

Victor passed on Lady Remington to his son, Tory and Tory’s wife Elena Kiam. They renamed it Lia Sophia. They sold costume jewellery in America and Canada. Reps were called ‘advisers’.

In 2014 the company shut down. Read a newspaper story about it at the time.

When you go to their website now, you get this message.

This is the website where you can put in a claim if you ever bought a starter kit from this company. The deadline for applying was April 9th 2018. On June 6th 2018, there will be Final Approval hearing. See the previous link to follow any developments.

Here are the legal details of the case, obtained from the above link. The document says that a settlement was reached after extensive legal battling where the company was accused of

The reps were upset because the lifetime guarantee on the jewellery was revoked, and because the owners knew they were going to shut down but continued to encourage recruitment and purchases for 6 months.

Lia Sophia were members of the DSA (Direct Selling Association).

There were concerns about the business when it was running. This Consumer Affairs article addresses the problems of lead being an ingredient in the jewellery (including the children’s lines), overly expensive prices and poor quality of the items.

Life’s Abundance

Life Force

Life Plus

Members of DSA UK. They sell nutritional supplements. This seems to be a ‘referral business’ instead of an MLM. People get a fee when someone buys a product and mentions the referrer.

Their website.

Life Leadership

Life Plus

Life Shotz/ Oxyfresh.com

Life Tree World

Update- 10th March 2017.

Lifetree World has now been liquidated, leaving many creditors. A lot of members had purchased goods and never received them, and many had bought into programs that promised more profit for them. They have all lost their money now. The only assets the company had when it was closed down was a car that still had finance on and some pretend money in a ‘Gateway’ account. This amounted to -£885 in assets and a total of £454,319 owing to everyone. Companies House have all the documents if you want to look at the details.

We won’t have heard the last of them though. Previous players in this company have gone on to form another MLM and another MLM team which moves people from MLM to MLM, ensuring a few of them will always be at the top of a pyramid somewhere. More on this in future blog posts.

Life Tree World have not been accepted by the DSA as members. They have disappeared from the prospective list.

There was a dispute between LTW and a supplier, culminating in court action. A petition is due to be heard on 11/07/2016 for insolvency, brought about by a company called Per-Scent Ltd. I am told they agreed to pay the company in instalments and they were not shut down at that time.

Payment scheme

Overview of LTW

‘Prize car’

Netmums discussion– This discussion has now been deleted by Netmums.

LIFEMAX

Lifepharm

Lifestyle Innovations

Lifestyles USA

LifeVantage

Their website.

They are a ‘wellness and personal care company’. They claim “we’ve done studies”.

Their studies can be found here. A lot of the studies were written by Joe M McCord, who was a well paid employee (Director of Science) of LifeVantage. Wikipedia report that McCord earned a fee for each time Protandim was sold. Wikipedia has a very thorough account of Protandim and the controversial issues that surround it.

In 2017 LifeVantage got a warning letter from the FDA for making many, many health claims that they had no business making.

Science Based Medicine have written numerous posts about Protandim and the pseudo health claims. They take a close look at the research and also write about reps’ reactions to the analysis they performed.

For financial analysis of the company on the stock market, read this. Here are their profits over the last years in this order 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013.

Their income statement.

Here is a quote from that document-

“There were approximately 63,000 total U.S. Distributors during the period, with approximately 48,500 U.S. Distributors paid in the same period.
Note: These figures do not represent a Distributor’s profit as they do not consider expenses incurred”.

This means 14,500 earned nothing at all, before expenses.

This chart shows that 23 % earned nothing and 58% earned less than $79 a month. That’s 81% earning less than $79 a month before expenses.

August 9th 2018, TINA report that LifeVantage are facing a lawsuit claiming they are a pyramid scheme.

LifeWave

Lightyear Wireness

Lilla Rose

Limitless Worldwide

Limelight by Alcone

This MLM sells makeup and is based in New York. Their reps are called Beauty Guides.

Here is their website. They only operate in the USA. You can read their terms and conditions if you get to the application stage. You don’t have to give any information to get to this stage, you do need to choose which starter kit you want.

There is a monthly charge to maintain the third party site the guides get paid through, and a charge for withdrawing money from it. There are yearly renewal fees. There are monthly fees for having a company website to sell products from, this is not optional.

Pissedconsumer website lists some complaints about this company. Some issues- problems with orders, reps lying, cosmetics not as free from nasty chemicals as claimed by the company.

Excellent blog piece here that asks the ten questions you should ask yourself if you are thinking of joining Limelight by Alcone. It could apply to a lot of MLMs.

Limu/ The Limu Company

Lindt chocolate RSVP

Yes, this is Lindt, as in the nice chocolate that you can buy in shops.

This blogger had a Lindt party after the company sent her the products.

They shut down in 2013 due to ‘low sales and the high cost of business’. Story here on the closure.

Linen World

Lipsense

This is the product sold by the MLM known as SeneGence International.

Liquidity

Liv

Live Bionic

Live Body Coach

Live Green

LivElite

Livesmart 360

Livingston Avenue Community Empowerment

Livv

The Longaberger Company

Owned by JRJR Networks.

Longrich

Lorraine Lee Linen

Love What We Do

Loveast

LOVEWINX

Adult products.

Loving Works

LR Beauty and Health/ LR Health and Beauty

Based in Germany.

LuLaRoe

This is an MLM that, thankfully, is not in the UK. It seems to just be in the US. They sell leggings. Some issues with this company are-

Their leggings have been criticised as very poor quality, with them ‘ripping like wet tissue paper’. Many people are unhappy about them and trying to get refunds. Reps are refusing to refund because it will cost them.

They are in trouble for charging people tax in some states where tax should not be charged. This is the subject of legal action.

The reps don’t get to choose the patterns on the leggings. They just buy a batch and hope they are good ones that will sell well.

This is the consultants’ contract. Some information for consultants who want to leave-

Income disclosure statement. Here is a snippet “The average annual bonus payments made by LuLaRoe to ALL U.S. Consultants at all ranks (which includes Eligible and Ineligible Consultants) in 2015 was $91.65, and the median annual bonus payments made to ALL U.S. Consultants at all ranks in 2015 was $85.80. ” YEARLY bonuses of $85.80! And that’s not taking into account of the losses they most probably made buying the products. 87.04% of reps did not earn a cent. The document states that costs can be hundreds to thousands of dollars.

There is now a 2016 income disclosure that, on the surface, looks better as “The average annual bonus payments made by LuLaRoe to ALL U.S. Independent Retailers at all ranks (which includes Eligible and Ineligible Independent Retailers) in 2016 was $2,064.77. ” Look closer though, and you find that most people don’t get paid any bonus, and of those that do, they don’t get much. As usual, it is the very few at the top that earn anything decent, pushing the average figures up.

The above table shows that only about a quarter of people in Lularoe earn anything, and of those that do, 99.84% earn $5103 a year before expenses. They have a lot of expenses.

For stories, have a read here-

news article with links.

Lulaoe say no Twitter account highlighting latest news.

Scary Mommy Blog post about the refund problem.

Bottlesoup have doe an analysis on the earning potential for reps.

Truth In Advertising’s summary of Lularoe’s problems.

Mommygyver on twitter is campaigning for LuLaRoe’s reps trying to get refunds when they leave the company. Many people are left thousands of dollars out of pocket. LuLaRoe are taking legal action against her to get her to reveal her sources for her stories.

3rd December 2017 another lawsuit commenced against them. This one accused the whole company of being set up to con people and is responsible for making many women losing everything while he owners made hundreds of millions of dollars.

This is a really well researched Businessweek article on what goes on in LuLaRoe, from the lowly people struggling at the bottom, to the top ‘mentors’ who experienced troubling things.

LuLu Avenue

Lyf

Lyoness (also known as Lyconet in places)

Article by Behind MLM.

Dragons’ Den Canada where someone tries to pitch Lyoness to the Dragons. They don’t get the funding. Watch it from 25 minutes in.

Income disclosure statement.

The figures in this chart are abysmal. ‘The median income of all members was $0.04’. The median is the middle number if all the numbers are lined up in order. It is what most people earn. 4 cents a year is horrendous!

January 2018 Lyoness have been told to stop operating in Norway due to them being a pyramid scheme. The government found out that income was mainly made up from recruiting people, and not sales. This article is in Norwegan but you can use Google translate to get the gist of what is being said.

An analysis of lioness and the link to cults is discussed in detail at MLM The American Dream turned nightmare.

M.network

Their website. Mr Kerry Brown is the founder of this MLM, his title is ‘headmaster’! Launched January 2017.

They sell ‘hydration and weight loss products’.

Their compensation plan.

Their Facebook page.

The Supplement Police looked at the supplements and find the ingredients are the same as energy drinks but without the calories. They express concern that there are no clinical studies available even though the company claim their products are ‘scientifically proven’.

M.O.M. Team

Maakoa

Maddy Moo Creations

Maddison Handbags

Magnabilities

Magnolia and Vine

Main Street Auto Repair

Man Cave

Now closed. Sold things to do with cooking meat. Featured in a Penn and Teller documentary about pyramid schemes in a series called Bullshit! The episode was called easy Money and you can watch it if you have Amazon Prime.

Their home parties were called MEATings.

They operated in America only. Their compensation plan and other information is on the MLM Legal website.

Video here on the ‘opportunity’.

Man Cave seem to have somehow evolved into a different entity altogether, no longer selling through the MLM method. They now seem to be called ‘Mighty Spark Food’. They sell food products in shops and donate a meal to the poor for each item they sell.

Manna From Heaven

Mannatech

mark.

Market America

Their website.

Something to do with online shopping-

“Market America’s UnFranchise Business is a proven plan for your financial success. Market America Worldwide provides systemization, standardization, state-of-the-art management systems, merchandising and marketing tools, growing visibility & the opportunity to own multiple business locations”. I hope that’s clear.

It seems to be a scheme where you shop through their website and earn commission.

Started in 1992 by J R Ridinger. Operating in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

According to one MLM reviewer– “There is an initial set-up fee of $130, a monthly fee of $20 and a $99.95 yearly fee. In addition, you are expected to purchase hundreds of dollars of product from Market America at the start, and ongoingly to keep up your personal business volume.”

This scathing review on Pissed Customer tells how a woman joined up and became so involved in it, the marriage crumbled and finances were destroyed. Here is an extract

“If your spouse is getting involved with this, do everything you can to get them out of it before it’s too late. If your friends are getting into it, tell them you aren’t interested. If some random stranger approaches you in a coffee shop about it throw hot coffee in their face and walk away.

Seriously, this company is a scam and a cult. It’ll empty your bank account before it puts anything inside of it.”

Bot Watch does not advocate throwing hot coffee in people’s faces.

Marketing True Residualome

Marly Ray

Maruko

Mary and Martha

Mary Kay

Their website.

Pink Truth, a website dedicated to exposing Mary Kay and also touches upon other MLMs.

Ten reasons not to join Mary kay. Number 5 is that you have to wear a skirt to all company events!

Pink Truth Discussion board. See what people are saying.

Earnings disclosure from their Canadian website.

The above statement is only counting people who have been involved for a year or more. Most people leave MLMs within a year so the vast majority of people in this scheme (29,614) have been totally disregarded. These figures apply to people who have spent $2700 on products over the year. 47% of them earned over $100. Not great.

A website called Families Against Cult-Like Expoitation in Sales has a bit about Mary Kay.

Stories from victims of Mary Kay.

MaskCara Beauty

Their website. Founded by someone called Cara. Hence Maskcara.

Founded 2017. Their reps are called Beauty Artists.

Matsumoto Noella Hauoli

Max

Max Sales

Medifast

Megan’s Pantry

Mega$net

Mega Holdings

Melaleuca

Merris

Merro

Metabolife

Products contained ephedrine and was used for weight loss.

2006 they shut down as it was made illegal by the FDA to sell ephedrine for that purpose in 2004.

Wikepedia entry.

Matilda Jane

Max and Madeleine

Maxwell Clothing

Medifast

Their website. They sell meal replacement shakes aimed at weight loss. Founded in 1980 by William Vitale.

Take Shape for Life are what the MLM arm are called.

Medifast have been accused of being a pyramid scheme. Medifast sued the accuser for defamation but the courts did not uphold the claim. Read about it here on Fraud Files. Further details of the case here.

The reps are called coaches.

Mona Ameli was appointed to the DSA board in 2015. She is the president of DSA member Take Shape for Life.

Melaleuca

Menard Cosmetics

Metabolife

This company sold supplements but when there was a ban on ephedra, the company went out of business.

In 2002 the Justice Department investigated the company for lying about adverse effect reports made by users of their products. The document says that there were 2000 adverse reports but that Metabolife had told the FDA there were none. The report in the link is quite scathing of the company and accuses them of acting with indifference, with little regard for people’s lives. This USA Today story details the FDA concerns about the company and the product and an individual person in Metabolife.

2005- This little sentence appears in a newspaper article about Metabolife and the tax evasion they were being accused of-“Metabolife co-founder Michael Ellis still faces weapons charges and charges that he lied to federal regulators about the safety of Metabolife 356.” This newspaper article describes how Ellis was a convicted felon (drug charges) and was being prosecuted for owning weapons and ammunition that he shouldn’t have had.

The San Diego Source describes how “Michael Blevins, 54, a high school friend whom Ellis made a Metabolife board member was indicted in 2003 for federal gun charges. Like Ellis, Blevins was barred from possessing weapons for his role in the same 1988 meth lab bust. Blevins served time in prison; Ellis, who worked as an undercover FBI informant, received probation.” The article gives details about Ellis’s gun charges.

2006- William Bradly, a co-owner of Metabolife was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to 6 months in prison. This San Diego Union Tribune story covers the issue. An extract from the article- ‘According to assistant U.S. attorneys Phillip L.B. Halpern and Kyle W. Hoffman, Bradley used various schemes to avoid paying taxes, including diverting corporate profits, improperly classifying corporate income, failing to report personal income from his towing company and using a charitable foundation to conceal income.’

This website lists links to Metabolite news stories with a summary for each one.

Mi Lifestyle

Their website.

This is an Indian company that sells supplements.

MiA Bath and Body

They sold customised bath products. Set up By Steph Appleton in 2012, after she left Bathologie. Bathologie accuse Steph of stealing their concept and set up a FaceBook page to publically show everyone their evidence.

Mia Bella Scent Sations

Mia Mariu

Mialisia

Michael S. Brown

MICHE

This company sells handbags with changeable covers.

Their website. They were founded by Michelle Romero and Annette Cavanness in 2005.

They sued Thirty One Gifts (another MLM) for copyright infringement in 2011. The courts decided there hadn’t been a breach. See entry under ‘Thirty One Gifts’ for links to the case details’ and links.

They went into liquidation in 2016.

MICHE are still active in Canada and Europe. They host parties and have reps that earn commission but I am unsure if they are still an MLM company.

Micorp-Jobs

Mid American Opportunity Research Enterprises

Miessence

Miki

Mile High Management Systems

Millenium Innovations

Miller Marketing South

Mineral Resources

Modere

Their website. A Utah company that believes in ‘living clean’ and avoiding ‘bad chemicals’.

Some of their reps have been selling their products under the pretence of helping people with cancer.

Moja Works

MojiLife

Momentis

Mommy 2 Work

Mon Ami Gourmet

MonaVie

Their income disclosure statement

At first, this income disclosure doesn’t look too bad. $1,536 yearly income is quite a look for MLM. Then, look at the small print underneath.

The above chart only includes people who have managed to recruit someone, spent money within the last 8 weeks, and worked enough to receive a bonus. 87% of people have not achieved that, and presumably their earnings are going to be close to $0.

Lazy Man and money has a lot to say about MonaVie.

“What I’ve found is tons of irrefutable evidence supported by reputable third parties that MonaVie is a grossly overpriced product, with little nutritional value, wrapped in a poor business opportunity that appears to be illegal pyramid scheme, supported by nonsensical “scientific” studies and illegal medical claims.”

In 2009 Oprah Winfrey’s company sued MonaVie over claims that her and Dr Oz’s names were used to promote the products.

This juice website compares Monavie products to an apple. Guess which one is better for you?

Law suits and FDA warnings.

Their website says that Mona Vie is a Jeunesse product.

Monat

They sell hair products.

Their website.

Their policies and procedures.

I have been unable to find an income disclosure for them.

They have a lot of ex-reps and customers not happy about customer services, refunds or shipping arrangements. The BBB has quite a few complaints. So does Ripoff Report.

There have been lots of reports of Monat producs damaging people’s hair and reps telling them they are using the products incorrectly. This stylist blogger explains about why the products are harmful.

This article looks into the claim that Monat products were tested at Princeton University. They weren’t.

Class actions are being made against Monat for the damage they claim has been done to their hair. Some reps have been saying they are FDA approved. They aren’t. News story here.

TINA found that MONAT have been making lots of false income claims.

Morinda Bioactives

Motives Cosmetics/ Motives by Loren Ridinger

Their website.

Unsurprisingly, they sell cosmetics. They operate in America, UK, Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia.

Motorclub of America (MCA)

Moxxor

Multi-Level Marketing Inc

Multi-Media

Multiplex Systems

Multipure

Mustang Marketing

MPB Today

MWR Life

MXI Corp.

My Amelia James

My Club 8

My Daily Choice/ MDC

Their website.

Their products list health claims and then say at the bottom that their products aren’t intended to treat anything.

Some of the ingredients they use- deer antler fur, emu oil, coral, apple stem cells. Some of the health claims- ‘balances pH levels, reduces risk of chronic illness, combats anxiety’.

One of their products has melatonin as an ingredient. This cannot be sold in the UK unless there is a prescription and it is sold in a proper chemist. There are only a few circumstances where this drug is appropriate. It is illegal for people in the UK to sell it, even via a website. Anyone seen selling it this way can be reported to the MHRA/ Trading Standards.

They have a line of products called Hempworx which contain CBD oil derived from cannabis. The psychoactive substance THC is removed. CBD oil is readily available in high street shops like Holland & Barrett.

There is no income disclosure statement.

My Freedom Grocer

My Fun Life

MyEcon

MyNyloxin

This is an MLM that sells Nyloxin, a homeopathic ‘pain reliever’ made from snake venom. It is made by the company Nutra Pharma Corp.

This is their ‘research’ supporting their assertion that their product helps with pain. The papers are from Chinese papers that look at venom. There is no evidence offered at all for the homeopathic remedy at all. Homeopathy is where an ingredient is diluted until there is no ingredient left, it is just water. So the research means nothing.

Review on Behind MLM.

MyVideoTalk

My Secret Kitchen/ Your Inspirations at Home

Owned by JRJR Networks.

In liquidation.

N4U International.

Boyd Wathen cites in his LinkedIn profile that he was a co-founder of this company. He was the man who invented Plexus’ pink drink.

Nanci Corporation

Nancy A Laplante

Nancy serba CPTG Essential Oils

Narges Valikhani/Mazeh

Naris Cosmetics

National Alliance For Insurance Education and Research

National Safety Assocates

Became JuicPlus+

National Wealth Center

Natura

Natural Health and Nutrition

Natural Health Secrets II

Naturally Plus

Nature Direct

Australian company selling essential oils.

Nature’s Bounty

See Dynamic Essentials.

Nature’s Sunshine Products

NatureRich Distribution Center

Neal’s Yard Remedies

Neal’s yard exposed as selling an illegal remedy for Malaria on Quackometer.

Their compensation plan is not available to view until you join up. Likewise, there is no information on how much their people actually earn. Why hide this?

Neese Enterprises

Nefful International/ USA

Neolife

Nerium International

TINA list many, many problems with this MLM. There are false health and income claims listed on TINA’s website.

TINA found that the DSA gave Nerium an award in 2016, despite it breaking the DSA’s own ethics code.

For updates on the Gerdo v Nerium court case, check out this website.

January 2019, Nerium started rebranding as Neora. See TINA article about this.

Network Marketing

Nevetica

New Earth

New Spirit Naturals

New Success Network Group

New Wave Financial Marketing and Investment

Neways

Newbet’s Choice

Nexgen3000

NHT Global

Nikken

NL International

This is a French MLM that sells products with the name ‘Laboratoires Beautysane’.

Noevir

Nomades

Noonday Collection

North American Power

Norwex

This MLM sell cleaning products for the house. They are against ‘chemicals’.

Their website.

Terms and conditions.

Ecofriendlymama reviewed their products and found that they aren’t as eco friendly as they claim.

That link to the product manual doesn’t work. Try this link.

There is no income disclosure from this company, which is always a concern. When you get companies openly disclosing that their sellers make £100 a year, how little must they be making for a company to keep it a secret?

Nouveau Riche

This was an MLM that worked by providing training in a ‘university’ about real estate investment. The students were encouraged to invest in property which turned out to be a higher risk than was promised.

In 2011 The Arizona Corporation Commission fined Nouveau Riche for operating a fraudulent investment scam.

Novus Era

NSA

Nspire Network

Psudoscientific products with ridiculous claims like ‘chemical free’. Their website.

Their Twitter feed.

An actual advert they use.

Incoporated April 2017 in the UK. Details at Companies House. It is listed as a non-trading company.

Ntime

Nucerity International

Nu Life

Nu Med

Nu Skin

Nu Skin fined for breaking FTC’s rules. Again.

A Nu Skin whistleblower’s story.

Interesting link between NuSkin and Olympic drug cheats in this New York Times article.

Analysis of earning potential of Nu Skin by Dr Taylor, Pyramid Scheme Alert.

MLM The Truth’s analysis of NuSkin.

Cultish behaviour at a NuSkin convention from MLM The Truth.

An ingredients analysis of NuSkin’s toothpaste.

TINA’s investigation into illegal health claims made for NuSkin products.

NuSkin released an income disclosure in 2011-

These figures use the numbers of current members, discounting all the people (probably a large number) of people who left during the year. The figures show the amount earned by active distributors only, which make up just 41.61% of the total. And of these, only 12.68% actually got a cheque. This means that only 5.28% of people in NuSkin in 2011 actually earned any commissions. Half of these lucky few got paid $492 a year.

A document that shows how NuSkin has attempted to discredit its main whistle blower. Dr Jon Taylor. He provides arguments against their statements.

Nucerity

Numis Network

Bought by World Ventures

Nuriche

Nupro

Nutrient Foods

Nutrimetics

Based in New Zealand/Australia.

Nutromix

Nuverus

NWB Guardians

NXIVM

This was an MLM that supposedly sold self improvement courses. It turned out to be a cult that was involved in people trafficking, slavery and sex abuse. Smallville actor Allison Mack was involved and her court case is pending.

News article here.

NYR Organics

Ocean City Network

Ohana Health Wellness

Omnia

Their website.

Omnilife

Omnitrition

OneCoin

video about onecoin

article about onecoin

Ethan Vanderbuilt article on Onecoin organisers arrested in India for running a scam. His website has many other stories on this scheme.

A blockcoin expert describes how Onecoin is a fraud

on Ethan Vanderbuilt’s website.

OneHopeWine

OPN The Opportunity Company

Optavia

Their website.

Sells prepackaged food, meal plans and uses ‘personal health coaches’.

Originally was Medifast weight loss food sold through ‘Shape for Life’.

Dr Wayne Scott Andersen was the founder of Shape for Life and was the medical director for Medifast. He is listed as being an anaesthetist and critical care doctor who has written books about dieting. His facebook page gives lots of information about him.

Opulenza

Orenda

Organo Gold

Their website.

Their income disclosure statement.

They sell coffee and other hot drink powders, many containing Ganoderma Lucidum. This is a mushroom that has no allowable health claims in the UK and can be very harmful to a few different groups of people.

Reps selling this coffee often tout it as a weight loss product. Which it really isn’t. They also claim some ridiculous things as here-

In 2014 Organo were in trouble with the DSA for pretending to be members. The FTC weren’t happy with them for making inflated income claims and health claims of their products.

Oriflame

They sell beauty products. They originated from Sweden.

They recommend buying ten catalogues every three weeks.

Information from their website.

There is no information on actual average earnings.

This comment is a little concerning- “The compensation plan awards recruiting more independent consultants higher than that of selling the company’s products“. This is from a Best Company review page where people rate the company they work for.

Oriflame were shut down in Tehran in 2010 for operating an illegal marketing scheme and evading tax. Story from the BBC. Oriflame said it was because they employed women and was no different from any other business. This news report about the Tehran incident makes the case for Oriflame being a pyramid scheme. There is an Iran Oriflame Facebook page now so maybe it is up and active again? Although the last post was in February 2016.

This is one bit of a Glassdoor review. It is a theme that crops up a few times.

“Cons
Top Management: Most of the mangement have been having same or similar positions on the top for 10-15 years. The men have normally never worked at any other company except for Oriflame and just rotate each others’ chairs despite the company performing poorly for several years.
Sexist: there is definitely a glass ceiling at Oriflame. If you are an ambitious, young woman, there are much more equal opportunities at other FMCG companies. Do not waste your best years here, no mater what they promise. All but a couple of the MDs are men and in top mangement there is only one woman.
Micro management: it is an extremely top down company.
Wavering priorities: the company never stick to their decisions and will change their mind on decisions including company strategy .”

Origami Owl

OXO Worldwide

Oxyfresh Worldwide

Ozeanity

Their website here. Distributor agreement here. Section 5 says you must generate 50 points every 28 days. There are no prices given on the website for the products.

This MLM has an odd mix of products. At first it was bedding, now they have added dried fruit powder!?

Amandeep Rajput is the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer). You may have spotted him before. He was one of the people that ran Lifetree World but left before it was liquidated. Link to his current status at Companies House.

Other people involved that are listed at Companies House are

Myrja Oketch, who owns Akom Ltd, a non-specified wholesale company. I can’t find anything about this company.

Harrison Oketch is listed as the Director.

They have both been involved in a dissolved company called Stirling Academy Ltd, and are both now involved in Citizen 2000 ltd which seems to be an educational institution. Myrja is Head of Academics and Registrar and Harrison is the principal. Their website gives information on how international students can apply for Tier 4 visas so they can come and study. Unfortunately though, they were investigated for visa fraud and this status has been revoked, according to The PIE News, an international education website. Here is an article about the investigation and fraud. This page gives a business analysis of Citizen 2000. It seems they may have shut down.

P.E.E.L.

Pacific International Credit

Paid 2 Save

Their website. The founder and CEO is David Hart. He was previously involved in an MLM called Waiora as a Diamond club member.

This company sell memberships to have access to discounts. Reps have to be members of this discount club themselves. There isn’t an actual product. It is ‘pay to play’. There is no mention anywhere what discounts people can get or who the discounts are through. It is all a bit vague.

Review by Behind MLM.

The Pampered Chef

Pangea Organic

Paparazzi Accesories

Their website. They sell costume jewellery and all their items cost $5.

Information about the 4 founders here. They are Misty and Trent Kirby and Chani and Ryan Reeves.

Their compensation plan explains that to be eligible for bonuses, a ‘consultant’ must buy 25 items a month (50 PV).

That is a lot of jewellery to collect.

This would explain why reps end up with massive piles of stock like this

This stock and presentation equipment must have cost quite a bit.

There is no income disclosure statement.

Paperly

Owned by JRJR Networks

Park Lane Jewlery

Partylite

An MLM company selling candles and accessories. They are owned by Blythe Industries that are in turn owned by The Carlyle Group.

Business guide with all the rules and earnings structure.

Sellers only get bonus cheques once they have sold more than $2,300 worth of candles. The bonus is only 7% of the sales each month. That’s a lot of candles to sell. $14.95 a month is payable to be able to use Partylite’s IT systems. Starter kit $250.

There are monthly sales amounts to achieve.

I cannot find an income disclosure statement anywhere which s always a red flag as it means the company are not willing to disclose what your realistic earnings are likely to be.

Party Time Mixes

Passion Parties

Bought by Pure Romance.

Paw Tree

Paycation

Peach (formerly called Zyrra)

They sell clothes. They call the type of clothes they sell ‘athleisure wear’.

Their reps are called stylists.

Review by BehindMLM.

Pearl Chic

Perfect

Perfectly Polished

Perfectly Posh

Their website. They sell soaps and seem to just be operating in the USA. Their policies and procedures. Their commission structure.

One person’s real life experience of being in PP, as told to my partner page The Anti MLM Coalition.

Bottlesoup have analysed the company and found people need to sell at least $550 of product a month to break even. And that doesn’t even take into account expenses.

There is no income disclosure. Here is their excuse-

FDA sent a warning letter to Perfectly Posh for false health claims made for their soaps!

2017 Andrew McBride was terminated from the board. He was a co-founder. Video here. Andrew’s facebook post about the issue. Loads of Facebook posts of infighting between Andrew McBride and Ann Dalton, with a lot of comments from reps. Andrew went on to found BeCause Cosmetics.

Perium Health

PGI

Pharmanex

Phillips Health International

Phoenix Trading

PHP

PhytoScience

PIE Transfer

Pink Papaya

Pink Zebra

Piphany

Founded by LuLaRoe’s founder’s twin. See this Businessweek article for a mention. The origin story for this MLM is exactly the same as LuLaroe’s, according to the article.

Platinum Payout

Plexus Worldwide

Their website. They sell dietary supplements in the USA. They sell the ‘Pink Drink’.

Income disclosure statement–

82.41% of reps earnt $301! The median annual commission earnt by all reps was $172.

Lazy Man and Money review the company.

Ethan Vanderbuilt looks at the company.

See the anti-MLM Coalition’s Plexus info page for information.

Pinkdrink is a person who was once in Plexus and is sharing her experiences on her website.

Truth IN Advertising investigated Plexus for their false, rule breaking health claims.

This blogger examines the drink and the ingredients.

Plunder

PM International

POLA USA

Polaris Global (PMG)

This BehindMLM article has a lot of information on them. There are links at the end of the article for many other articles on the subject.

Poofy Organics

They operate in America and were founded by Kristina Gagliardi-Wilson (CEO) and Nella Gagliardi in 2006.

They sell organic beauty products, essential oils, home cleaning products.

They use testimonials and health claims to sell their products. Check out this eczema cream.

Not all their products are certified organic. Make sure to check each individual product’s details.

Their reps are called guides. There is a monthly fee of $9.95 for the website reps need an a sign up fee of $39.95. Guides are encouraged to spend $200 on products when they join. Hopefuls have to complete training before they can join. Reps have to buy/sell $200 a month to be eligible for commissions and bonuses.

Their terms and conditions.

They do not publish an income disclosure statement. The only information I have been able to find is info put out by people selling the products.

Pola

Power Pops

Prai Beauty

Pre Paid Legal Services

Premier Business Systems

Premier Designs

Prepare Then Share

Primebuy Network

One rep’s website promoting the opportunity. They seemed to sell licences for websites and sold things through the websites.

There was a class action by reps accusing this MLM of being a pyramid scheme. Case papers here. Shut down in 2001.

Primerica

Their website.

They sell insurance and investment products to the North American market. Some reviews by customers and reps here.

Ethan Vanderbuilt declares it is a scam (in his opinion). He alleges that a common ploy these reps engage in is setting up fake job interviews to reel in new prospects. More on that issue on this Consumer Fraud website.

This blogger describes how he was contacted by a Primerica rep to attend a fake job interview. There are over 1000 comments on this post that are worth a read.

This information about earnings is provided on their website section entitled “Important Disclosures. “From January 1 through December 31, 2015, Primerica paid cash flow to its North American sales force at an average of $6,119 per life licensed representative. Average cash flow includes commissions paid on all lines of business, and reflects combined U. S. and Canadian dollars remaining in the local currency earned by the representative. Exchange rates fluctuate daily and could impact the average.”

They only give payment details for the ‘life licensed representatives’. There seem to be other types of products they sell that do not need any licensing. I wonder how much they make? Or what the real average of their whole salesforce is?

Costs incurred by the reps- “The IBA fee is $103.95 (including applicable sales taxes) and the monthly Primerica Online fee is $28.00.” IBA stands for Independent Business Application. This is a total of $439.95 in the first year. Also, take into account other expenses such as stationery, travel, phonecalls etc.

This is mentioned on the Canadian site– “Any cash flows stated represent gross income only. All commissions are subject to Deferred Commission Account withholding and applicable taxes, and Representatives are responsible for their own business expenses.”

This Seeking Alpha article explains some of the issues. They explain how Primerica have 28% of the licensed reps in the country and only 1.83% of the market share. Also, they say that Primerica were vocal in objecting to rules that made companies sell products that are in the best interests of the customers.

This page gives financial information about the company. On it is this chart-

Look carefully at the figures. in Q4 2015, there were 106,710 life licensed reps. In Q4 2016, there were 116,827 reps. This is a net increase over a year of 10,117 of life licenced sales people.

We can see that each quarter there are about 11,000 new life-licensed recruits. (11,144 if we take the average of the quarters provided).

This means that in the 4 quarters of Q4 2015 and Q4 2016, there were 44,576 new life licensed reps (LLR) joining the company.

So in Q4 2015- 106,710 LLR

Between Q4 2015 and Q4 2016 44,576 LLR join up.

This makes 151,286 LLRs in total.

Q4 2016 there are 116,827 reps remaining.

This means 34,459 LLR left the company.

44,576 joined and 34,459 left. For every person that joins, 0.77 leave. That is quite a high churn rate. And this is only counting the reps that made it as far as qualifying for their license.

I wonder if they left because it was too difficult to sell the products? The stats show that life licensed members made on average 0.22 sales per month, equating to less than 3 policies sold in a year.

On Twitter, follow @whatsprimerica or @PriParodyRep for some light relief on the subject of Primerica.

Princess House Inc

Their website.

They operate in the US, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada and Australia. They sell homewares. Their reps are called ‘lifestyle consultants’. The company started in 1963.

Owned by Ray Chambers. CEO is Connie Tang.

In 2017 TINA found that Princess Inc were making false income claims.

Privilege Car Club

Registered in the UK at Companies House.

This scheme started in August 2017 in the UK and ended in May 2018. The idea was that people would join up for £199 and pay £50 a month (plus £199 yearly). Then they start recruiting. Once there are 81 people in the downline who have been paying £50 for a number of months, the person is eligible for a car, as long as the people below keep paying in.

Here is a slide from one of their presentations.

As of 3rd May 2018, all evidence of this MLM/ Ponzi/ pyramid is rapidly disappearing. This message has been widely circulated by members of the club.

Although the ‘club’ were saying they were a ‘crowd funding group’, they were operating in just the same way as a Ponzi scheme does. I will keep an eye on any ‘regulatory issues’ as they arise.

For reviews of this scheme, see Behind MLM. The author says in the comments that members of this scheme are saying the website is down temporarily and it has not collapsed. They are still presumably hoping they weren’t involved in a scam.

They seem to be operating in the USA and Panama.

Pro Step

Pro Travel Network

Profitable Sunrise

Shut down in March 2013.

Pro-Health

Prosper With Integrity

Prosperity Team

Protégé Marketing Team

ProtravelPlus

PRP Promotions

Pruvit

They operate in the US, Singapore, Malaysia, Macau, Hong Kong, Canada and Australia.

Their website.

Income disclaimer. They say they expect their ‘pruvers’ to earn between $500- $2000.

Their policies and procedures.

Here is their selection of research and articles that support a keto diet. This is a diet that omits carbs so that the body has to break down fats and proteins, releasing ketones as a byproduct. It is quite a leap to assume you can get the same benefits by eating a normal diet and just take ketone supplements. Some research is now showing that taking ketone supplements can worsen athletic performance.

Truth In Advertising show how Pruvit are making illegal health claims, including one of the co-founders, Rob DeBoer. Rob had been ordered to pay compensation for his part in the pyramid scheme ‘Burn Lounge’. The website shows how Rob has been saying his products can help with autism.

Pulse Cosmetics

Pure Alternatives

Pure Haven

Formerly known as Ava Anderson

Pure NRG fx

Pure Romance

Adult products.

PUREly

Formerly known as Simply Aroma. They sell essential oils, beauty products, nutrition and household products. They claim their products are ‘pure’ and ‘natural’.

Purium

Qnet

Formerly known as Questnet, Goldquest and QI Ltd.

QSciences

Quixar

See Amway

Rainbow Vacuum

RBS Life

Red Aspen

RED Safety

RengaLife

Launched April 2018 in California. CEOs are Jason and Eunjung Cardiff. They own Redwood Scientific Technologies as well. RengaLife sell Redwood Scientific Technology products.

They sell medicines that are contained in strips that dissolve in the mouth.

Reps have to spend $200 a month to be eligible for commissions. There is a mandatory autoship.

BehindMLM review.

Regal Ware

Reliv International

Members of UK DSA. They sell nutritional products.

Their website.

Rena Ware International

Revital U

Another weightloss coffee MLM. Their website.

Their coffee ingredients

They call their reps ‘Brand Influencers’. Reps get paid bonuses for recruiting people. Here is their compensation plan.

Active in Canada, UK and USA.

Amy and Richard McWilliams are Americans that are listed as the directors in the UK business at Companies House. The company was incorporated in May 2017. Amy is the registered owner in Texas, USA. Launched in Texan in September 2017.

There is no income disclosure statement.

Rexair

RIWAY

This MLM sells capsules containing deer placenta for improving your health!

They operate in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philipines, Taiwan and Singapore.

Their Twitter account hasn’t been updated since 2015.

A website analysis shows very poor social interaction and almost all of the site visits are from Russia.

People interested in cults might like to look at the opening video on their website.

Rodan and Fields

Their website. Their policies and procedures in America.

Is Rodan and Fields a scam? By Lazyman and money.

There are lots of entries on the consumer site ‘pissed consumer‘ for R&F products and the behaviour of the reps.

Income Disclosure statement.

Rodan and Fields are being sued over an ingredient in their makeup. There is controversy over whether the ingredient should be classed as a drug. Story here. The story from the lawyers who are suing.

Picture from law firm’s website.

Bottlesoup have analysed the earning potential for reps.

An experience from someone who joined R+F, as told on the Anti-MLM Coalition website.

Rolmex

Royal Tongan Limu

This was a seaweed extract product sold by Dynamic Essentials. Misleading and illegal claims were made about this product which ended with the FDA and other authorities shutting down Dynamic Essentials.

Ruby Ribbon

Saba

Sabrika Jewelry

Their website. They call their reps ‘consultants’.

Founded by Karin Mayr.

Safgirl

This company didn’t do so well as an MLM so the owner changed it to a more traditional business model. The company has since gone into liquidation. The below information has been left in case anyone wants to see what it was all about. It is outdated information now though.

Their website.

Their Twitter account is @safety4girls. It is an odd mix of crime statistics, Labour party support and information about and from charities that support victims of crimes.

Their product catalogue. You can only purchase these items through contacting a rep or joining yourself. They sell an odd range of products- rape alarms, car crash escape kits, child locators, red dye spays for spraying at attackers, carbon monoxide detectors, to name but a few. They charge £18 for a 125 decibel gaudy pink attack alarm. This is double the price of alarms found on Amazon that are a lot nicer looking.

As with all MLM products, there is a high markup on the products. Take their ‘Red in the Face spray’ for example. Shown below is Safegirl’s product and the original product.

Companies House information about this company (Safegirl Ltd) shows the officers to be Andrea Clark, Christopher Shipman and Samantha Shipman. They are also involved in Safegirl Holdings Ltd which is a management consultancy business. Both businesses were registered in November 2016. The Safegirl website mentions Andrea and Samantha but there is strangely no mention of Christopher.

They are a prospective member of the DSA which does not really mean much as it is just a trade organisation.

Safegirl terms and conditions. It describes how Safegirl Sisters (the title reps are given) have to purchase the products and sell them on. It says that profits are only made on sales and there are no monthly obligated purchases.

There are two ways safegirl sisters can join the business-

Sister level- you buy products at 25% discount and sell on. You buy £100 of products and sell for £125, making £25. If you purchase £300 or more in a month, you get a 5% bonus. So if you bought £300 of product, you would get £15 in bonuses and would then have to try and sell it all for £375 to get a further £75 profit. That’s 20 personal attack alarms to sell in a month for £90 profit. Attack alarms that can be obtained much cheaper or free of charge elsewhere. It is worth noting here that if you sold an item to someone online, presumably, you would have to purchase the item and pay the P&P to send it to your customer. This would nibble into your profits a bit. Then there’s taxes and expenses too, of course.

Sponsor level- You will earn a small percentage of your downline’s sales as long as you purchase £300 of products in a month.

I do wonder if this company is being discriminatory by naming their sales reps ‘safegirl sisters.’ There seems to be no provision for men who want to join. This Telegraph article discusses research and expert opinion that found feminized job descriptions actually encouraged discrimination against women. It says the job holders were perceived as less professional and devalues women. This is at odds with a company that claims to ’empower women’.

Saivian

This MLM has been popular with people leaving Lifetree World.

It is supposedly a cashback scheme where you register your top 10 retail sites and a pay method. You then have to send copies of receipts to Saivian to get 20% cashback. You have to pay $128 every 28 days to be a member in this scheme. This means you have to spend $625 every 28 days to break even. Never fear though, just recruit people to earn money off them. You can just recruit people and pay your fee, you never need to use the cashback scheme at all. Hmmmm. It is only available in the USA. Everyone else can just join the global option where you get cashback for travelling.

A review by avertscams.

Behind MLM review looks into a bit more detail about the compensation plan and the organisers. They conclude it is a pyramid scheme. It is worth reading the comments at the end of that article for what happened to the company. It looks like Saivian are no longer operating in the US. There are some serious problems discussed in the comments.

They shut down in October 2017, blaming ‘rampant fraud perpetrated against our company’. Their website comment explains.

The BBB page for Saivian gives a link to the American website. When you click on it, this is the page you get.

Salad Master

Sanki Global

SAS Spurilla

They have been found making false income claims. Check out this TINA page where they show them.

Scent-Sations

They sell candles and car air fresheners. Their website. They sell Mia Bella products.

There are some serious accusations levelled at the company on this Ripoff Report website.

Scentsy

Their website. They sell fragrant waxes that you burn, soft toys and cleaning products.

Operates in US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Austria, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Luxembourg, Australia and New Zealand.

‘Tiff” tells her story on the realities of being in Scentsy in this blog post on the Anti-MLM Coalition website.

They call their annual conference a ‘family reunion’.

Income disclosure for 2014 for the US. They have quite a high churn rate. About a third of their members left in 2014 and were no doubt replaced continuously.

This chart shows that 102,973 out of 105,192 active reps earned less than $1870 a year.

A 2017 UK income disclosure.

How much does it cost to remain ‘active’? You need to pay £85 to join and pay a fee for the website of £10 a month (free the first month). This costs £196 (plus local tax and shipping- about £17 tax and £10 shipping), so the first year costs £223 just to be in the company.

How much do they need to sell/buy to be eligible for any commission/ bonuses? Their website says this “Scentsy Consultants must generate sales resulting in 200 points or more in PRV in at least one month within any contiguous three-month period. The 200 points in PRV can come from individual customer orders, party orders or online orders made through your Personal Website (PWS).” This kind of makes it hard to work out exactly what it costs to earn anything, a tactic used by all MLMs. It was 150 PRV but was increased to 200 in March 2017.

This rep has a page on her website on how to achieve 200PRV a month and she says 1PRV is about $1. A lot of her tips are to buy it yourself. This would add £570 minimum a year if you were to spend equivalent $800 a year ($200 every 3 months) to your costs.

Total spend- £793 in first year, plus marketing materials, P&P etc.

Average amount earned- £602

Loss of at least £191

(2,379,465 earned by group 1, 1,518,692 earned by group 2, total amount earned 3,898,157 by 6,466 people.)

Truth in Advertising looked at their false income claims and found quite a few. Click on this link to see them.

Scout and Cellar

Seacret Direct

Opened in 2005 in Scottsdale Arizona. It was set up by two brothers- Izhak Ben Shabat and Mordechai Ben Shabat. Their products are Dead Sea products. They operate in USA, Korea and Australia.

There are some pretty damning reviews on Glassdoor, with some interesting observations of the owners.

Their reps are called Seacret Agents.

Lots of complaints from people who were approached by sellers when they were selling products in mall kiosks.

Send out cards

They have been found to be making false income claims. Check out TINA’s web page where you can view them.

SeneGence International

This is the MLM that sells Lipsense.

Their website.

Their reps’ titles are Princess, Duchess, Royal etc!! Their downlines are called Dominions.

Joni Rogers-Kante is credited by the company as starting SeneGence and travelling round the world with scientists developing amazing makeup with anti-aging properties. Her husband and son help run the company.

This snippet is how Joni describes one of their products in The Direct Selling News. “As the product line grew, the company also added an anti-aging benefit to the products. “SenePlex Complex is the proprietary anti-aging formulation exclusive to SeneGence,” she says. “All SeneDerm and creamy SenseCosmetics contain this one-of-a-kind kinetic enzyme that fights the signs of aging by renewing your skin from the inside out an average of 23.3 percent more rapidly, which in turn reduces fine lines and wrinkles by an average of 55 percent for 100 percent of our consumers.”

I’ve heard of skin renewing faster than normal, it’s what happens in dandruff and psoriasis.

I have tried to find the clinically proven research paper to analyse. I love a good bit of analysis. SeneGence give this information. Lots of charts and numbers and assumptions. No reference, no author or paper title. I’d like to look at the actual research. I have tweeted Senegence for the details (15th May 2017). I will keep you updated.

There is no income disclosure statement anywhere, not even on the Canadian website.

There are problems with products at the moment. The distributor packs that people purchase to start their business are currently out of stock. But that’s ok, you can still pay to join up and recruit others. The reviews at Glassdoor indicate there have been stock issues for a number of months now. There is an allegation of bullying by uplines, frontloading being encouraged, cult-like behaviour and lying.

The Complaints Board Website is full of Senegence complaints. People complaining they can’t get stock, customer services unhelpful, still recruiting when no stock available, ‘senecash’ not working, refunds not being given, many, many problems.

This blog post is by someone who left SeneGence and she spills the beans. She explains that distributors have to spend $200 every 6 months on products, the website costs $300 a year, you are encouraged to get a credit card to pay for products and to build up an inventory. The $55 join up fee has to be paid every year, you have to buy hundreds of dollars of stock each month to be eligible to earn from your dominion. This is one of the gems in the comments by someone in this MLM ‘nothing comes easy when its you being independently earning money next time you try something like this out give it some time and keep your optimism you could have reached those goals had it been something you really wanted to do. its really that simple if you dont want to put the work and time in then obviously you wont get the return you expected’.

A blog post where someone describes how they were terminated by Senegence. She was a Crown Princess and tells what it was like. She has started a Facebook Group for disullusioned Senegence people- “Anyone wanting to join Verbal Release Therapy, message me on my facebook; Robyn Elizabeth Berry (I’m the one from Canada).”

A blog post on Crownless Princess that lists blogs to do with Senegence members and their experiences.

Bottlesoup analyse the earning potential for reps.

Sevenpoint2

“The world’s first alkaline movement”.

This MLM have been criticised by TINA for making false health claims.

40 examples of false health claims are detailed by TINA here.

Shaklee

Sherlock Nation

Shopping Sherlock

Shrimp and Grits

Signature Homestyles

Silpada

Silver Icing

Simple Man

Simply aroma

Simply Said

Simply Fun

DSA member

Simply Success Elite

Sisel

Sitetalk

Sitting Pretty

Sisel International

SkinnyBodyCare

Their website.

This very detailed blog post evaluates SkinnyBodyCare. The blog looks at the ingredients in the products, the people behind the company and financial information.

Details on this blog of a court case against SkinnyBodyCare.

BBB rating of F. They have not responded to 10/12 complaints.

They have no income disclosure statement. They do not want people to know what small amounts their people earn.

Sky High Party and Pizza

Skybiz 2000

Small Business Marketing

Smart Circle

Smile Enhance Network

Their website. Started by Rebecca Moorfield.

They sell toothpate and tooth whitening products, including a ‘detox’ kit for teeth. They also sell CBD oil.

I tried to look up the ingredients in the products. There is no listing on their website. I looked at the products in their products section and clicked on ‘purchase’, hoping it would open up a box with more product information. The website then prompts you to register with them. There isn’t even a price on the website.

The smile enhance products are made in the UK, according to sellers.

On EBay there are lots of Smile Enhance products. They list the ingredients there.

Solavei

Founded in 2012 by Ryan Wuerch in America. They ran a mobile service using T-Mobile. They shut down in 2014 after filing for bankruptcy.

On 18th November 2015 the company was still promoting its activities on Facebook.

This is the last message they posted-

They didn’t post more announcements.

This mobile phone website announced that Solavei were ceasing operations on Dec 4th 2015. They said it was due to the company being unable to recover after bankruptcy.

This Geekwire Report article describes what happened when it shut down. The announcement mentioned on Solavei’s Facebook page is accessible on that article.

Sophie Paris

Soul Purpose

South Hill Designs

South Pacific Islands Inc

South Western

Southern California Star Systems

South Hill Designs

Southwestern Advantage

Southern Living at Home

Sozo

Spa Girl Parties Inc

Speciality Products

SpiritLife

Sportron

Spring Rainbow Enterprises of Oklahoma City

Springtree

SPX Nutrition

Sseko Designs

Stahr Meridian

Stampin’ Up

Stanley Home Products

Starlight

Steeped Tea

Stella and Dot

Their website

How much money can you really make in Stella and Dot? The Talented Ladies Club investigate.

A 2013 article on the CEO and creative director of S&D, Jessica Herrin and Blythe Harris.

Income disclosure statement for 2014

In 2016 their income statement was a bit worse

A review on Glass door website. “You have to buy all your won products and displays. Which never ends because they are constantly discontinuing certain lines so you have to buy more each season. They run promotions to earn credit for free jewelry or qualify for 50% off but it’s a scam. As a stylist if your jewelry breaks to bad that “we want the customer to always be happy” doesn’t apply to stylists. You have to buy it again and at full price. The company makes money off the stylists not customers. If you want to make money you will be working more hours than any sales job I’ve ever had. And if you have stylists under you and you don’t make your required dollar amount those stylist get out under the person above you and they make the money not you. There is little support for stylists each team is very different. Very little training. They sell stay at home moms on oh you just have to throw trunk shows with your friends and for and for a few hours a week of work you can make great money. It’s a total lie. They want you to use an iPad with their app but you have to buy it. Most will spend more than they ever make. They keep expanding the line so you have to buy more and more and more products. Jewelry, purses, bags, makeup, scarves, glasses…..“

An example of emotional manipulation used to entice mums to join Stella and dot-

The Financial Times looked into the earning potential of Stella and Dot in this thorough article. The article points out that the company are willing to boast about profits from a few years ago but won’t talk about recent earnings. And that the company think it is different to others and more ethical because they offer buy back of unused stock. They fail to mention that this is actually a legal requirement in British law.

Stemtech

Sterling Bay

Stiforp

Stokes Associates

Strategic Resources

Stream Energy

They were sued in a class action and by TINA for being a pyramid scheme. For links to documents and a timeline of the case, have a look at TINA. March 2018 an agreement was reached between the parties.

Stream Gas and Electric

Streamingomes

Strongbrook

Success Connection

Success Is Not An Accident

Success Through Advertising

Success University

DSA member.

Sunrider

Member of UK DSA. Started in Utah by Dr Tei-Fu Chen in 1982. They sell supplements. They also own shops.

Their website. Their compensation plan.

Forbes list Dr Tai-Fu Chen as a billionaire. He was the 43rd richest person in Taiwan in 2017. He dropped out of Bingham Young University. He has a degree in ‘pharmacy‘, but I can find no mention of a PhD or medical training.

Details about the lawsuits claiming Sunrider is a pyramid scheme can be found on TINA’s website.

Sunset Gourmet

Sunshine Empire

Shut down in 2009 for being a pyramid scheme. It was based in Singapore.

Sunstar AAA Product and Profit

The Super Affiliate Network

Superlife

Surge 365

Sweet Minerals

Swift Marketing

Swissgolden

SwissJust

Symmetry Corporation

Synergy Worldwide

Syntech

Tahitian Noni

Take Shape For Life

Talk Fusion

A member of the DSA in America. At least, they are as of May 2017.

Their website. They say they provide video communication products.

Their compensation plan. You have to sign up 3 recruits in a month to be eligible for a bonus. Within this compensation plan is the income disclosure-

69.54% earn nothing! 11.93% earn less than $50 in a year. A further 12.31% earn less than $250 a year. This means 93.78 earn less than $250 a year. That’s pretty poor. Note that 0.015% at the top earn over $200,000 a year. They have been in the scheme for 55 months. The lower earners who pay into the scheme and leave fairly quickly don’t earn anything. This demonstrates a continuous recruiting chain of people entering, paying money, not getting anything and leaving, while people at the top profit from this.

This pyramid scheme alert post explains how Talk Fusion are being sued for being a pyramid scheme in America.

Ethan Vanderbuilt discusses the case here. He outlines the points being complained about and has the actual court documents that you can scroll through for yourself.

Taqueria Santa Maria

Tastefully Simple

Tavala

Based in Utah, USA. Founder is Boyd Wathen. He is the creator of Plexus’ pink drink.

Behind MLM review.

They sell weight loss products.

Tealightful

Teaporia

Team In Focus

Team National

Telecom Plus

DSA member

TelexFREE

Went bankrupt in 2014.

2016 The US Attorney’s Office reported that TelexFREE were found to be running a billion dollar pyramid scheme.

Reps thought that it was an MLM at the time. The company seemed to be operating as an MLM to the untrained eye. Much as many MLMs are today.

Merrill was sentenced to prison for his part in the scam.

Behind MLM looked at the case of TelexFREE shutting down.

Behind MLM describe how the SEC said that TelexFREE looked like a cult. There is a long discussion in the comments on this article.

TelexFREE sponsored a Brazilian football team called Botafogo.

Tempo Wireless

Ten Fu Tenmax

Their website. Owned by Chairman Lee Rie Ho and started in Taiwan. The products are supplements, with an emphasis on tea extracts.

Terra Biotech

Thermomix

Thirty One Gifts

Their website. They sell bags, jewellery, scarves and some home décor items. They are only in America and Canada.

The company was started by Cindy Monroe in 2003.

Their income disclosure statement. for 2015.

This shows that 14% earned nothing at all. Of those that did earn something, 92.1% earned an average of $548 in a year. Their disclosure shows that expenses ‘can be several thousand dollars annually’.

In 2010 another MLM Miche Bags sued Thirty One Gifts for patent infringement. They alleged that Thirty One Gifts copied their bags with changeable covers. The court found that there hadn’t been an infringement. The court denied Thirty One’s request for compensation because they hadn’t bothered to respond to the suit or even to turn up at the original hearing.

Thrive

See Le-Vel

Thrive Life

Thrivent Financial

Tianshi Health Products

Tiber river

Tickle Your Fancy

Tiens

A Chinese company with a UK branch.

They sell supplements, cosmetics, vegetable washers and ‘complementary health products’.

This investigative documentary exposes the company and how they operate in Uganda, specifically with false health claims.

Member of UK DSA.

Tiscali

Titalwave Select

TLS Weight Loss Solution

Their website.

This product is sold through the MLM Market America (see above under M)

TML Group

TOCARA

Tomboy Tools

Owned by JRJR Network.

They sell three different types of products-

Longaberger products. These are baskets that cost upto $6,000!
They sell tools for women. Really!
Paperly- not sure what this is. It is just one photo of a desk and no info.

Their website.

The tools include pink items, including hammers, wrenches, power tools, gloves and tape measures.

Tom Gibbons Exec. Buying Service

Top Companies

Top Notch Distribution

Top Rank Business Associates Group

Total Health and Wellness

Total Life Changes

Ethan Vanderbuilt says it is a scam. He concludes it is a product based pyramid scam.

There is no income disclosure from TLC. They do not want you to know how much their people earn.

Their products offer dubious claims and have dangerous ingredients in them. (according to Ethan’s assessment in his blog).

Touchstone Crystal

Their website.

They sell jewellery. The business is part of the Swarovski company.

Founded in 2009. DSA member.

Joining costs $139 or $299. There is a $9.95 a month fee for the website.

See my article on traditional companies that turn MLM for more details.

Touchstone Essentials

Traci Lynn Fashion Jewelery

Trades of Hope

DSA member

Traffic Authority

Traffic Monsoon

Andrew Pennman exposes this scheme as a scam.

Facebook group for people who have been scammed by Traffic Monsoon.

Tara Talks, a website that highlights Ponzi schemes.

A Digital Marketing website explains how this sort of scheme works and how bad Traffic Monsoon is.

Traffic Monsoon is in trouble with the authorities. Tara Talks and the Salt Lake Tribune report. The Salt Lake Tribune report how most of the victims came from poor countries, including Morocco and Bangladesh. Some people lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The money earned by some was 99% from joining fees of new people. Classic Ponzi.

Traffic Swarm

Tranont

Their website.

CEO Lorne Berry formed the company in 2014. Tranont offers services in financial, legal and health provided by third party merchants.

Behind MLM website reviewed it and found it to be very confusing.

Reps have to pay $125 monthly subscription fees.

Transynd

Traveling Vinyard

DSA member

TraVerus Global/ Travel

Trek Alliance

Trevo

DSA member

Triad Search Marketing

Tristar Enterprises

DSA member

TriUnity

Trivani Online

TriVita

Tropic Skincare

Their website.

They sell make up. They call their reps ambassadors. Susie Ma won The Apprentice in 2011 and set up her Tropic business with Lord Alan Sugar, with him sharing the business 50/50 with Susie.

Lord Alan Sugar and Susie Ma.

They don’t have an income statement but they do have this-

Let’s see if we can work out the average income. We can assume that a few people started in 2011 and the numbers grew year on year. We can also assume that a lot of people joined and then left. Let’s try and cancel these facts out and assume there were, on average, 8000 people from the beginning and no one left the scheme. In reality, the number of total reps, past and present, would be more so we are being generous.

If there were 8000 reps and they earned £13 million between them, each one will have earned £1,625 in total. If you break this down to a yearly amount, it is £232.

Roughly then, each rep will have earned on average £232 a year, less expenses. Even if these figures are wrong by a factor of 4, this would still be a very poor earning potential.

Registered at Companies House.

There is no information on their website about how much it costs to join. A rep in a webchat stated in 2011 that it costs £120 to join.

Tru Dynamics

TruIntegrity

The Trump Network

TRUTH Niagara

Their website.

They sell bath products. They claim to be cruelty free but do not hold Leaping Bunny status.

TruVision Health

TS Life/ Team Strong Life

Set up by Caius Hale after he got dropped from Vida Divina.

This is an image from Caius’ Facebook page. There is a ‘TM’ there which indicates the name of the company is Trademarked. I searched the American and British databases of Trade Marks and there is no evidence of a Trade Mark being granted. I have hyperlinked the search facilities for these databases so you can check yourself.

In this video, Caius explains the company with Jade Coyle. In the background, there is a copyright symbol instead of a TM mark?!

September 1st 2018 will be the launch date in UK and Ireland. USA, prelaunch Nov 1st.

They are planning on having 5 products but are only showing three of them.

Caius says in his live above that there are leaders setting up for prelaunch. Some of these leaders apparently have ‘incomes’ and are working providing training and support to get people’s mindsets right before launch.

Tupperware

See this article I wrote on why companies turn MLM. Tupperware features in it.

Bottlesoup have examined Tupperware in some detail in this article.

Tvi Express

TWH Network of Companies

Twin Dynasty

Tyra Beauty

Their website. Unsuprisingly, they sell cosmetics.

U Design Jewelry

Ultimate Profits Network

Undercoverwear

Unicity Int.

They sell food supplements.

They allow people to order more than £1000 worth of products when signing up. The legal limit in the UK is £200. See the law on this matter.

Their income disclosure for 2015

Reps have to spend $125 on products each month, or $1500 a year. The above figures show

21% earned some money/ 79% earned NOTHING.

10.5% earned less than $125 a year/ 89.5% earned less than $125 a year.

2.1% earned more than $2300. Take into account the $1500 a year they spent on products, this means they earned $800 A YEAR.

How many people signing up will be concentrating on the last little statistic of ‘1% earned more than $46,000’? This is 1% of 21%, remember. That is 0.21% of participants.

Truth In Advertising (TINA) found that Unicity reps were making many false health claims for the products. There are links to the health claims on the website.

United Freedom Team

United Sciences of America

MLM Watch‘s year long investigation into this MLM.

They sold meal substitutes and supplements. FDA regulatory letter warning about false health claims.

1987 they filed for bankruptcy after being sued by Attorney Generals in three states for being pyramid schemes.

United Warehouse

Univera

Univera Lifesciences

Unlimited Network of Opportunities

Uppercase Living

Owned by JRJR Networks

USANA Health Sciences

Their website.

Their compensation plan.

They sell nutritional supplements, body care and related products.

Income disclosure for 2015. The average income is US$859.

USANA is on the stock market. See here for how it is performing.

A Forbes article detailing some criticisms of USANA. Subjects discussed are Ponzi accusations, product criticisms, legal problems. USANA replied to the article.

TINA’s list of illegal health claims made for USANA products made by the sellers.

Usborne/ Usborne Books and More

Usborne are an unusual MLM, in that their products are mainstream and sold in high street bookshops and Amazon etc.

There is a Twitter campaign against them, have a look at @uzzieuncensored. They have a website here. They accuse Randall (the owner) of falsifying figures. They allege that any negativity or criticism from reps and they get fired. They offer evidence of these accusations.

This patronising blog post was written by an Usborne rep. However, she has since left them. The comments at the end are worth a read.

Information from Usborne about the ‘opportunity’. There doesn’t seem to be an income disclosure statement on this MLM. What are they hiding?

EDUCOC are how Usborne are known on the stock exchange. Some financial documents about them on the US EDGAR system.

This blog post details why MLM is not a suitable platform for books to be sold through. Their reps are untrained and should not be offering the advice they do.

USI Tech

Their website.

Their Twitter account hasn’t been updated since Jan 1st 2018. (@USITechBitcoin)

It is registered in Dubai and no one seems to know who the owner is.

A company that supposedly trades bitcoin using revolutionary technology. It has shut down suddenly in USA and Canada, following multiple investigations by financial authorities there. Investors have been unable to get their investments back and many have lost a lot of money. As of Jan 2018, they continue to trade in other countries, including UK and Australia.

Here are details of British Columbia Security Commision’s findings.

Here are details about the Texas cease and desist order against USI Iech.

I wrote an article on USI Tech after people contacted me who were worried about family members who were involved.

In the official letter to investors in the US, they were told that the company was having to shut down due to the actions of a few members, not because of a problem with how the company was operating. Direct Selling Report discuss the letter that was sent.

Ethan Vanderbuilt looks into the issues. He concludes it is a scam.

Behind MLM looked into USI Tech.

Blogger Bare Naked Scams has invested some money in USI Tech and is documenting what is happening to his investment. His computer screen is showing a huge rate of profit but there are problems. Many of the videos he has linked to have been deleted. He thinks he has made money but he hasn’t tried to withdraw any of it yet. I will be watching.

Utility Warehouse

David Brear explains Utility Warehouse here.

Sellers have to sign up 6 customers before they get paid any commission.

Financial statement from Utility warehouse contains this-

According to their figures, 11,100 distributors joined in a year. By the end of the year, there was only a net increase of 1,737 people. That’s quite a high churn rate.

The Guardian published an article on Utility Warehouse and how their numbers don’t add up.

The Mirror Newspaper revealed in 2016 that UW were charging 94% of its customers too much money.

They got in trouble with OFGEM and ordered to improve the way they dealt with complaints handling. The report is from January 2017.

The Advertising Standards Association upheld a complaint about UW’s online advert for their phone deal in April 2018. The advert claimed they had the ‘UK’s best value mobile’. The ASA disagreed and ordered UW to remove the misleading advert.

V Stream TV

Valentus

This MLM sell coffee that is billed as ‘the healthiest coffee in the world’.

Ethan Vanderbuilt says Valentus is a scam in his opinion.

5 of the 7 levels require members to arrange an ‘autoship’- setting up a monthly order of products.

There is no income disclosure document anywhere, despite the terms and conditions saying that it must be provided anytime any sort of income claim is made.

Their terms and conditions include the following points- You have to recruit, you’ll probably lose money, you have to purchase products each month to get bonuses, Valentus can use you image, words, story as they like and you can’t refuse or approve it, most members spend more on products than they earn.)

Valentus are being sued by Vitae Global- who supplied their coffee beans and are now their rival, selling Lean Java Bean Coffee. A counter claim has been put in by Valentus which contains many damning allegations. It got very ugly very quickly.

Review by Behind MLM, an MLM positive site aimed at people who are involved in MLMs. The review of Valentus is not overly positive.

This is one of their products

One of the ingredients (phenylamine) is a type of amphetamine and should only be used occasionally. There are some conditions and medications that make this drug very dangerous. It can be addictive, increases blood pressure and blood sugar levels. For more information, have a read here. The maximum recommended dose is 500mg. How much is in Prevail? The dose is not on the packaging or website.

Vanguard Enterprises

Vantani

Vantel Pearls

Their website. They sell jewellery made with a pearl from a pearl party. This is where people open up an oyster and find a pearl inside. There is some controversy about this type of activity.

Joan Cabral is the founder and CEO.

As of 26th April 2018 they are closed to new people joining. They give the reason that they are trying to improve shipping and customer service.

Their policies and procedures.

Members of the DSA.

Vasayo

Vault Denim

Vector Marketing

DSA member

Velata

Vemma

Their website.

Raided by the FTC n America in August 2015 for being an illegal pyramid scheme. Vemma fought back and have been allowed to trade but they have to follow strict rules to keep them legitimate. As a result, they have not done so well. Read TINA’s (Truth In Advertising) article on recent developments.

Lazy Man’s article on Vemma.

Vestige Marketing

Vfinity

viaONEHOPE

Viaviente

DSA member

Vida Divina

Their website.

Watch out for false health claims from this company.

Botwatchblog article on this MLM is called ‘Vida Divina breaks the law‘.

Vie at Home

(closed — formerly The Virgin Cosmetics Company and Virgin Vie At Home) — Sold cosmetics, jewellery and homeware.

Viridan Energy

Virtual Financial Group

ViSalus

See Body by vi.

Visi

Vision

Vision For Life

Vision International People Group

Vita Craft Corporation

Vitae Global

The listing for this company is under Lean Java Bean Coffee (the product they sell.)

Vitality Extracts

Vitamin Power Inc

Vitamist

Their website. They sell vitamins.

Viviane

Viviant

Volo

Vollara

DSA member.

Vorwerk Worldwide/ USA

Votre Belle Maison

Votre Vu

Voxxlife

Waiora

Their website. They sell supplements and use phrases like ‘recommended by doctors, approved by moms’. They use words like ‘detox’ and ‘cosmeceuticals’. See here for their compensation plan.

Wakaya Perfection

WakeUpNow/ WUN

Started in 2009 in Utah by Troy Muhlestein. Picked up momentum in 2013 and dissolved in 2015. They sold loads of different things, mostly with the prefix ‘WUN’.

This 2014 Business For Home article describes how the company was losing drastic amounts of money and seemed to be failing. Their annual statement to investors was showing the losses they were making. Truth in Advertising dissect the case of WUN closing down. They discuss the way that the company sued a CEO named Kirby Cochrane and his family from making financial mistakes and being fraudulent. He has a history of being involved in companies that end up financially ruined.

Truth In Advertising gained a list of complaints made to the FTC by disgruntled reps.

When they shut down, the reps weren’t told the truth and believed their MLM shut down due to another company conning them. Look at this excuse given by a rep on a website that was supposedly reviewing WakeUpNow (the ‘review’ is really a cover for the author to sell their own brand of making money).

Ethan Vanderbuilt labelled them as a scam. He states that the discounts provided by the MLM are just that= discounts, not an investment. It is not money earned. Also, he shows how you can find all the products cheaper elsewhere and no money is even being saved.

Ethan discusses the Income Disclosure Statements. Here is their 2013 income statement.

82% of reps earned nothing in a year. NOTHING!

Let’s see how much it cost to earn $0 a year by looking at this very informative slide show from a rep who was with WUN at the time.

If you wanted to earn some money with WUN, you would have to spend a minimum of $779.40 a year. Considering 82% earned nothing and 14% earned $1213 a year, that would have been a very bad investment. That’s 96% earning $433.60. Take off other business expenses and you can see that hardly anyone was earning anything.

Walsh Industries

Watkins Incorporated

WBC Group

DSA Member.

WCM777

Wealth Generators

Wealthperx

Wealthy Affiliate

Weeconomy

The new face of Flexkom, a Turkish MLM company.

Write up by Lazyman and Money. There are some very detailed posts in the comments section about Flexkom. It looks like Flexkom took a lot of people’s money for franchise licences and technology, only to never deliver. Then they disappeared.

Wela

Weleda

Their website.

Reps are called ‘wellbeing advisors’.

Wellness Advantage Marketing

Wellness International Network WIN

Westbend

Whitehead Enterprises

Wholefood Farmacy

Wikaniko

Wild About Beyond Organic

Wildtree

Willing Beauty

Willow House

Winasun

Wineshop at Home

Woodberry Events

Work At Home United

World Book

DSA member.

Worldconnect

Wor(l)d Global Network

Their website.

Their income disclosure statement. During 3 months, the average participant was paid US$393.35 for Jan-March 2017.

This means that 58.79% earned nothing. Of the remaining 41.21% , 86.45% earned less than $1988 in 3 months. 86.45% of 41.21% is 35.63%. These figures add up to 94.42% not making much at all.

World Class Travel Network

Operated during the 1990s as a travel agent MLM.

1997 they were in trouble with the FTC. There was controversy about the training they offered. A settlement was made with the FTC and compensation was paid.

Article here on a travel industry website.

World Internetworks

World leadership group

Dissolved in 2008.

World Link Discount Telecom

World Marketing Alliance of Hawaii

World Financial Group

DSA member.

World Perfume

WorldVentures

Their website. They are online Travel agents.

Their income disclosure statement for 2016.

The small print explains how only 20.05% of reps earned anything. About 19% earned less than $1,125.

World Wide Equality

Worth Unlimited

WoTaBu

WSK Marketing

Xango

Medical advisor was Dr Templeman. There was some controversy about him. Check out the comment at the bottom of this article.

Their website. They sell fruit drinks. Xango seem to have been taken over by Zija in May 2017.

Xango were compared to Vemma by the FTC. Vemma was shut down for being a pyramid scheme.

Xango review from 2013.

Xerveo

See article I wrote about them. And this one, and this one!

They sold coffee with herbal extracts in them. The UK part of this MLM did not do very well. The company was being run from someone’s living room, products weren’t being received by buyers and many promises were made and not kept.

There is no trace of Xerveo now. it was rumoured that they were bought up by another MLM but there is nothing official or any statements out there. Xerveo just fizzled out.

Ximo

Xocai

Xoom Energy

Xooma Worldwide

XStream Travel

See TraVerus Global.

Xyngular

Yanbal International

Yanbal

Yandi

Yelloow

YEVO

Yofoto

Not to be confused with the Yofoto that prints your photos.

This Yofoto is a Chinese company that sells food, personal care and cleaning products. Established in 2004, they now operate in Russia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cameroon, as well as in China.

Chairperson of the company is Huang Jin Bao.

Ranked number 34 in biggest earning MLM in 2018, as rated by Direct Selling News.

Yofoto seem to be linked to a company called Replicel that are a science company. Financial analysis here.

Some facts about the company here. One of the facts is that the company says they are vegetarian but they sell fur seal oil?!

Yoli

Yor Health

Youdazzle

Young Living Essential Oils

Their website.

This company sells essential oils.

TINA (Truth In Advertising) have compiled a list of dishonest and illegal health claims made by sellers of Young Living.

Bottlesoup have done a financial analysis of the financial opportunity for reps.

The New Yorker wrote a good piece on Young Living. They examine the culture, money earned and the man behind the scheme (Gary Young). Here are some excerpts from the article about Mr Young

The article continues with many revelations which are worth a read. Here is another one-

I’d like to draw your attention to the top line there…

94% of distributers earn on average $1 a month. This doesn’t take into account the associated costs like ‘advertising or promotional expenses, product samples, training, rent, travel, telephone and internet costs, and miscellaneous expenses.’

Youngevity

They bought Beauticontrol from Tuuperware in 2017.

Younique

Their website.

Talented Ladies Club investigate the earning potential of Younique. They find the average rep earns between $9-$14 a month.

Bottlesoup do some analysis on earning potential.

An ex-Younique victim’s story from Timeless Vie.

Elle Beau The Antiblogger was in Younique and she writes about her experiences on FaceBook and on her blog. She is @ElleBeauBlog on Twitter. Elle is one of the Anti-MLM coalition’s members and we at Bot Watch work closely with her.

Chammy In Real Life is a blogger and she had an experience with Younique as well. Here is her story.

Younique’s website claims there are 734,924 presenters worldwide as of 9th May 2017, let’s see how that number changes over a year.

This excellent Timeless Vie blog post on the horrors of MLMs includes an analysis of Younique’s infiltration into an economically deprived British town. Really worth a read.

Younique do not provide an Income disclosure statement. Why?

Terms and conditions.

Use the hashtag #Poonique on Twitter for Younique critics.

Your Inspiration at Home

Owned by JRJR Networks

Your RX Help

YTB, formerly Your Travel Business.

Discussed in this Travel agents website.

Formed in 2001 under Scott Tomer, Lloyd Tomer and Kim Sorensen.

2012-2014 CEO was Andy Cauthen, who is now CEO of PlanNet Marketing.

Several lawsuits arose in 2008, one of them accusing YTB of being a pyramid scheme. A settlement was made that cost YTB $1 million. The Judgement can be read here.

“In 2007, the annual median income for those selling travel was $39.00, less than one month’s cost to operate the website. The majority of consumers who purchased YTB websites made no money through the sale of travel, and many lost money through continued website operations. “- from the Attorney General of California’s website.

YTB blamed their reps for their bad and unprofessional behaviour for their the company’s bad reputation in the travel industry.

Their website says that they are no longer recruiting new reps but old ones can still operate.

2013 YTB filed for bankruptcy with assets of $1.3 million and $7.1 million of liabilities. They were bought by Jamravel Inc who said they would call the new company YTB Global Travel. Story here.

Their website hasn’t been updated since 2015.

Yves Rocher

Zeek Rewards

A penny auction website scheme that was deemed to be a Ponzi scheme. Zeek themselves claimed to be an MLM.

Zeek’s MLM lawyer, who has also represented Herbalife and USA, among others, convinced members that the company was legitimate. More here about that on the False Profits website. The article discusses how Zeek Rewards is just like any other MLM.

Official announcements from the receiver about Zeek.

US Department of Justice updates given here about Zeek.

Zenith Petroleum Corporation

Zenzuu

Zermat

Zeropoint

Zija International

They sell supplements.

They took over Xango in 2017.

Zilis

They sell CBD oil.

Zinzino

Zippi

Zrii

Zurvita

Zyia Active

Zyntravel

Zyrra (now called Peach)

MLMLegal have information on this company. The website says they are DSA members but I cannot find evidence this is true.

Their website.

They sell bras. The reps take 10 measurements in 10 minutes and then order a custom made bra which arrives within 4 weeks. The company was set up in 2007 by Christi Andersen and Derek Ohly. They are now called Peach.

Action against MLM. Things you can do.

Report a dishonest or illegal advert to the ASA on this complaint form.

Complain to event organisers about an MLM stall using this template from Timeless Vie.

Report to Trading Standards if any of the following apply

The DSA are the Direct Selling Association. MLMs are members of this group and they value this membership because it makes them look legitimate. The DSA have a code of conduct that the MLM companies and sellers have to adhere to. You can complain to them if these rules are broken and the DSA can step in.

Here is a basic overview of the codes of ethics-

The whole code can be accessed on the DSA site for consumers and business conduct. If you are concerned that these codes have been breached and you are not getting a satisfactory response from the MLM company, contact the DSA to complain and they will step in to help.

How to help someone in an MLM

Featured by botwatchblog, posted in Useful advice

I have complied this factsheet in an attempt to help you understand what your friend or relative is going through and how you can best help them out of this situation. I have gleaned this information from reading books on the subject and background research on MLMs and cults.

A word of warning. This is a very difficult subject and people can be emotionally and financially tied up in these schemes and can be very vulnerable. If you attempt to help them and you feel you may be making it worse, back off. They will be vulnerable and you don’t want to make things worse. Just remember, you are on their side and want to help them.

Notes on this article

I will refer to the person in the MLM from now on as ‘your friend’ to avoid repeatedly having to say ‘friend/relative/colleague/person you care about.’

Some other sources of help.

Ethan Vanderbuilt has made this useful YouTube video of advice for people who have a friend or loved one in an MLM.

This article- “Emergency Handbook, what to do when a friend loves woo” is very enlightening. It covers MLMs as well as pseudoscientific products. It is from the Skeptoid website.

Your overall aims and objectives

You should not be aiming at ‘getting them out of the MLM’. Instead, you should be trying to empower them to understand their situation and to allow them to autonomously decide for themselves that they want to leave. They should not be emotionally blackmailed or forced to leave. You should be trying to give them back their lost powers of critical thinking.

Accept that this may take time and cannot be achieved with one quick meeting and a handover of facts.

Do not go in with the attitude that you know best and they are stupid. You could make them dig their heels in further and upset your relationship. Your friend has been subjected to some very clever techniques and we need to tread very carefully.

Take the time to educate yourself about what MLMs are and how they operate.

You need to understand what you are up against and to understand their responses when you talk to them.

Here is a good simple video called ‘How to spot a pyramid scheme.’ It describes how MLMs work.

Here is a video showing people’s experiences in Herbalife. Their experiences are relevant to all MLMs.

Some blog posts I have written explain the realities of MLM- Expectation versus reality. An analysis of the payment structure in one of the schemes here. A page on the things people in MLMs say and the truth behind them. This last one will be particularly useful to read before having a discussion about MLMs. Visit Bot watch on Facebook for links/ articles/ facts.

Have a look at Timeless Vie on Facebook and their blog and read about the bullying that goes on and some of the uncomfortable facts about MLMs. Here you will read about how vulnerable people are targeted, bullied and lied to. You will learn about some of the people behind the companies.

Visit Lazyman and Money for well researched articles on specific MLMs and more general themes that will give you some facts.

For a more detailed analysis of the workings of MLMs you could visit MLM expert David Brear’s website MLM The American Dream Made Nightmare.

Also, you might want to join in conversations or ask questions of people who can help you with answers. Send a message to Bot Watch, Timeless Vie or the anti-MLM coalition (of which I am a part of) who can advise or send you links that will help. Or join in the discussion on Mumsnet and jump right in. Go to the Money section there and select the discussion starting with the words ‘MLM chat’.

Look after yourself

It can be very distressing having discussions with people about their MLM. They will feel very loyal to their company and could get very defensive towards you. You will need to assess how much effort you are willing to put in. If you have been contacted by an old school friend and asked to join their team, just say ‘no thanks’ and then leave a link for them that explains your position. ‘People who care about you are worried‘ is a good one that lays out some facts explaining why MLMs are a bad idea. Whether you take it any further is up to you.

If you are trying to help a close family member or partner, you will need to be a lot more involved and seek support. You will need to involve other family members and good friends. Make sure they realise what the person is involved in. You will need a united front and you will need to help each other. It will be very stressful for you if you are so closely involved and you feel you are on your own. It may take time and some people may not see MLM as a real problem. It will be worth the effort though if you can all work together.

Be aware that your friend is not who they used to be.

Your friend will have been changed by subtle but clever techniques from the MLM. You may notice personality changes and strange behaviours that are out of character for them. This is what has prompted observers to call them ‘bots’. This refers to their robotic behaviours and scripted-style responses. They may start posting inspirational memes, being overly happy and optimistic, posting pictures on social media constantly saying how amazing their life is. They may be lying about things that you know just aren’t true. They are literally trying to change who they are and emulate the people higher up than them in the pyramid. They will have been subjected to ‘mindset training’ that tells them how to think and act.

Elements of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) are used to change the way a person perceives the world and interacts within it. They are trained to see the outside world as hostile and desperate, their MLM as amazing and a perfect opportunity. They think their MLM is benevolent and the products desirable. They become unable to perceive things from multiple points of view and can only see things as presented by their MLM.

They sometimes become addicted to working on their ‘business’ and gain warm feelings and reinforcement from any sign of success. See this person’s experiences on Timeless Vie.

To borrow Steve Hassan’s concept from his book ‘Combating Mind Control,’ the person changes from Mary-Mary to Bot-Mary. Mary has been partially taken over by Bot (Robotic) personality but it is still attached to the original Mary. She is still in there somewhere.

Do not criticise the company.

Your friend will take any criticism personally. They will see it as an attack on them and their dreams. They have had it drummed into them that their hopes and dreams can be achieved by this amazing company. People who stand in their way are just haters and do not understand how wonderful this opportunity is. By disagreeing with it you are criticising their choice and jeopardising their dreams. They genuinely won’t understand why you are trying to destroy their dreams.

The biggest danger of criticising the MLM is that you will be considered a threat to their success and could bring them failure. There are many, many instances of friends and family being cut off because of that. There have been divorces, lost friendships and family splits. This is a real threat, even if you had a very good relationship before.

Don’t buy the products and don’t join their team.

If you do, you will be giving your friend false hope and making them feel their MLM is legitimate. It might make them continue in it for longer. You may feel guilty and made to feel you are not being supportive but you are helping them really.

If you find yourself at a ‘party’ where products and the ‘opportunity’ are being sold, do not feel pressured to buy anything. Do not feel you need to give an excuse because they will just find a reason around that. Say something like ‘No thanks, I won’t be buying anything’ or ‘no thanks, it’s not for me’. Don’t feel guilty for being impolite, that is just a social norm that is being exploited by the methods used in MLMs. The system is banking on you making a pity purchase. Do not support this system.

If you are invited to one of these parties make sure you don’t take any money with you. Then you won’t be able to crumble and buy anything. You can confidently tell the person that you have no money on you. There’s not much they can do about that.

The stages people go through on their MLM journey

Understanding what phase they are in will determine what your approach will be. Also woven into this will be how close you are to them, so you will have to tailor your approach to your circumstances. This following bit is based purely on my observations, readings and speaking to people who have left MLMs.

Interested about the opportunity. Might ask for ideas/ advice at this stage. Tell them everything. Maybe show them something like Timeless Vie or the reality vs expectation information.
Invested in joining up and assigned an upline. First party booked. At this point they will be very excited and have spent money on the scheme. They are full of hope but will not have been changed too much. You might still have a chance here, but tread carefully and don’t criticise MLMs just in case they are deeper than you think and they cut you off. You could try some gentle questioning (see later point) here and react accordingly. Often at this point, they will be closely supervised by their upline so it could be difficult to have an opportunity to talk to them about it.
They will have invested a lot more time and money and not making much back. They probably will be being pressured by their upline to work harder and will be starting to blame themselves for their perceived failure. At this point they will be very vulnerable. They will be tired, stressed and financially stretched. Concern and support are the best things you can offer at this point. Be there for them and show you care for them. Do not be tempted to buy anything.
By now it will be painfully obvious to your friend that they are not going to make it in this MLM. They could well find that a piece of information at this time could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Tailor the piece of information you share with them to their own personal ethics or knowledge. Essentially here you are finding their ‘hot button’, the trigger that will get to them. Just like how they were targeted when they joined the company. There is plenty of information out there to chose from- facts about the top bosses, conduct of experts, targeting of vulnerable people, using sick children, illnesses and charities to sell products.

Presenting information to your friend.

Moments of doubt.

Your friend may express doubts about what they are doing. Don’t jump on this this and tell them you are glad they have found the truth and then proceed to tell them how dreadful you know the whole scam to be. It is very common for people to have moments of doubt but then return to what they were doing. You will then be seen as a threat and will be avoided. Their defences will be up when they are around you. See it as a kind of bad relationship and they told you they have split up. Then they get back together again. Your relationship with your friend would be seriously damaged.

Instead, be supportive and gently questioning. Ask them why they are having a wobble. Help them explore their feelings. Help them navigate around the issues but don’t tell them what to do or think. If they ask for your opinion, say you are not sure and look for the answers together.

Having discussions with your friend.

Connecting with the non-bot part of your friend.

Your friend may be thinking and acting as Bot-Mary as discussed previously and your aim is to connect with the old Mary-Mary. Try to steer conversation to interests you used to share. Invite them to a film you know they would have liked before. Talk about shared memories. Ask them about something you once did together. Don’t let the old ‘Mary’ disappear and be taken over by ‘Bot’ where everything is all about the MLM. You could use this technique to steer conversation away from recruitment attempts or sales pitches. Show your friend that you still value them and want to connect with them.

Helping your friend see things from multiple perspectives.

This can be difficult but if it can be achieved, can be quite effective. They have been trained to see things from just one perspective- that of the MLM. They have lost the ability to see things critically anymore. If you can get them to see their situation from a different perspective, they may be able to start making connections and think their way out of their situation. You could ask them how their old selves might have perceived something. E.g.

Time- “Wow, Mary! What would your old self have said if she knew you would be up at 3am posting comments on social media trying to sell a face cream?”

Person- “How is your partner coping with all this working that you are doing?” Don’t get judgemental, just help your friend explore how their actions might be impacting on others. Has anyone said anything to them about how their MLM activity is negatively impacting on them? “Have you had much negativity?” Maybe explore what negative comments they have had and where these might have stemmed from. Try to leave your friend with something to think about.

Non threatening but relevant topics.

Your friend may have been programmed to shut down and stop listening when their MLM is being criticised. You may be able to discuss other relevant issues though that they do not see as threatening to their ideals. Typically people will be able to see flaws in other MLMs. They feel able to criticise and listen to criticism of other MLMs because theirs is not being targeted. You could try to present information about other MLMs and get their take on it. Show them an income disclosure for another MLM and see what their thoughts are on it. They might agree that the MLM in question does indeed have a dreadful pay structure. They may well be left wondering what their own income disclosure looks like. Plant that seed. Pursue it as far as you feel able. It doesn’t have to be an income disclosure, it could be an issue you have seen on Bot Watch or Timeless Vie.

Conclusions

I apologise for not being able to give you a simple, step-by-step account of how to help someone in an MLM. Instead, all I have been able to do is give you some understanding and principles to work with. I hope that some of these tactics can be used to help your friend. Remember, your aim is to support your friend and gently try to guide them towards being able to make decisions for themselves.

I wish you luck in supporting your friend.

If you have lost someone to an MLM and you are concerned about them and have been unable to help them, would you consider talking to us to add your voice to the growing number of people who are telling their stories? You will be treated in confidence and your concerns taken seriously.

Please feel free to comment below with any insights you have on how to talk to people in these situations. What have your experiences been? Have you come out of an MLM? What was it that made you see the truth? There are so many people out there looking for ways to help their loved ones, any insights would be useful, thank you.

The Death of Lifetree World

January 5, 2019 by botwatchblog, posted in MLM explained

Do you remember Lifetree World?

They were the Multi Level Marketing scheme that I tried to warn people about in 2016 and 2017. They were based in Manchester and people who joined had to buy their shopping through them. They ended up buying stuff they didn’t want or need, and it was produce that had been discontinued.

There were delivery problems, scandals with the ‘prize cars’ and a lot of unhappy people who joined the scheme. Even while the scheme was falling apart, people were promising it was all fine and soon they would be selling fresh produce and delivering the next day. For a while they tried to sell cable packages, until it turned out they shouldn’t be.

I showed how the prize cars were actually hire purchase and couldn’t be given away. Defenders of Lifetree world explained I was wrong, despite the evidence. See the blog post I wrote in July 2016 with all the problems exposed.

People couldn’t get their bonuses from the company and I warned people not to put more money in. Lifetree world responded by trying to get people to put even greater amounts of money in so they could climb the pyramid more quickly. Some of the reps’ experiences are documented in this blog post.

People started leaving in droves, realising the company was doomed.

In March 2017 Lifetree World went into liquidation. You can see the documents at Companies House.

Dissolved

On 28th December 2018 Lifetree World was finally dissolved. You can access the documents at Companies House if you want to read all the details for yourself.

What sort of damage did Lifetree World leave when they disappeared?

The car

The Dacia Duster car that they had was returned to the finance company with more money owed on it than it was worth. This left the finance company out of pocket.

Suppliers

Lifetree World had a rocky history with their suppliers, one even sued them for non payment of bills. At least they managed to settle that before the whole company collapsed. When the company was liquidated £13,996 was owed to suppliers who will never see that money again.

The Landlord

The building that LTW operated from was a small building on an industrial estate in Manchester. Here is a picture of it.

There are many suites in that building and LTW rented Suite 2. They were unable to pay their rent and owed their landlord £3,000.

Taxes

LTW owed £30,600 in VAT and other tax. This is money that will not be able to be collected.

Gateway account

As with all MLMs, money is paid to reps through a complicated system. Instead of the company paying people direct into their bank account, they pay it via a convoluted system which usually ends up with the reps having to pay to get their money out. LTW used a company called Gateway. Towards the end, reps found they couldn’t get their money out. They were told it would be ok, it was just a glitch. Some worried reps speculated that the owners had cleared out the money and disappeared with it.

The liquidators tried to find out how much money was in this account. They didn’t have much luck.

Previously, the LTW bosses had told the liquidators there was £11,000 in the account.

Director/shareholder loans

A director loan is an amount of money that the owners of a company can pay themselves. They should pay it back into the company later. It is something to do with delaying a tax bill. Unsurprisingly, the directors of LTW had taken out some money when there was some. They had taken £281,746. There was no sign of this being paid back to the liquidators.

The reps

The people that signed up under LTW with the promise of earning huge amounts of money were owed £74,992. This amount consists of unpaid bonuses and unfulfilled orders. I don’t know how many people that would affect. Even if there were a few thousand reps, the average payment due to each one would have been significant.

The reps are the real tragedy here. They invested their money in products they didn’t need, waited days or weeks for them to arrive and many instantly regretted their decision to join. They had trouble leaving and getting any sort of refund. Often they recruited friends and family with lies of the success they could make in the scheme. A lot of them felt stupid and naive for getting involved in the scheme.

The only ones I don’t feel sorry for are the high earning professional MLMers who made a lot of money quickly by recruiting a lot of people, knowing most of them would fail. Once they left the sinking ship, they took their ‘teams’ with them to the next big promising scheme where they will continue recruiting and draining money from fresh victims.

The death of LTW should serve as a warning to anyone in an MLM or anyone who is thinking of joining one. They are run by people who are out to make money for themselves and often it all ends abruptly with no warning for the poor reps at the bottom of the pyramid. Time and time again we see these companies closing and people left out of pocket that still keep trying their luck with other similar companies. This is not how a responsible company should behave. They show no respect to the reps and no regard for how they are affected. The reps are the customers and they are paying money into the scheme to keep it afloat. I just wish they could see it.

Behind the headlines- analysis of a pro-MLM news article

January 3, 2019January 5, 2019 by botwatchblog, posted in Investigations, Uncategorized

I have become aware of a newspaper article that detailed how a woman had risen from being a desperate, poor single mum to a successful, rich business woman thanks to her involvement in a Multi Level Marketing (MLM) scheme. Regular readers of this blog will be aware of how unsuccessful most people are in this type of scheme. Was this woman one of the few real life success stories or was the article just regurgitating the MLM fairy story that is so often fed to new recruits?

Let’s have a closer look at the article. The link to the Daily Mail article is here. One of the principles of this website is to not make personal attacks so I won’t be identifying the woman involved by name, and I won’t make any disparaging personal comments about her. This article will just analyse the truth behind the claims that are presented in the newspaper.

cash strapped

The above snippet is at the very beginning of the article and, already, the inconsistencies are there. It starts by saying she is ‘turning over £1 million’ and also ‘on track to make £1 million a year’. These statements have quite different meanings. How long has it taken her to ‘turnover £1 million’? What does ‘on track’ mean? We have seen MLMers make ‘on track’ claims before. It just means it is what they are aiming for, what they hope to achieve. It is this hope that keeps them clinging to their MLM long after everyone else can see it isn’t working.

This exact same story has been repeated in The Sun and this is their headline-

sun

How successful is she really and what is the truth behind the claims?

She doesn’t have ‘a staff of 400’ for a start. The 400 reps are tied to The Body Shop At Home to sell their products and are reliant on the company for brochures, advertising, products etc. They are sales reps with no employment rights. Officially they are considered self employed contractors for the company. They do not work for the rep in the story at all.

Something that jumps out at me, and also to other readers (see the comments at the end of the article) are the inconsistencies. She claims to be nearly a millionaire, or at least owning a million pound business, or maybe just being in charge of some people who have sold £1 million worth of product, either way, she is claiming to have a ‘rags-to-riches’ story. She is boasting about being really rich. If she is so rich, why is she hoping to get on the property ladder? And why is she planning on getting married in 2 years time? If she is so rich and successful, why doesn’t she just buy a house and get married whenever she likes? She sounds like she is still financially behaving like a non-rich person.

Perhaps houses are really expensive in Aghalee and it is impossible to get a deposit for such an expensive are? A quick search on Rightmove, however, will show you that you can buy a 4 bedroomed house for £125,00 or £220,000.

purple bricks.PNG

If she had a million pounds, she could buy that house outright. Obviously she doesn’t have even £220,000, so she would need a mortgage. A mortgage could be obtained for this house with a £20,000 deposit. The thing with mortgages though is that you need to be able to prove a steady income, and MLM schemes would not count. The woman in this article seems to have been given a paid position in the company- managing the reps in the Northern Ireland division. Perhaps she is waiting until she has 6 months of payslips to prove her income?

If my theory is correct, the woman hasn’t accrued a fortune and anything she is able to afford now will be due to her paid employment, nothing to do with being a success in the MLM business.

The reality is more likely this-

Woman finds herself struggling for money, and out of desperation joins an MLM.

She finds it hard to make any money but realises her chances are better if she can recruit a lot of people. These people then spend money on products and starter kits, making profit for the MLM and raising the profile of the woman.

She qualifies for numerous incentive holidays with the company. I have tried to find out how much product people have to buy/sell to get this incentive but there are no details available anywhere. It is impossible to access any terms and conditions for the company. You have to express an interest on the website for a rep to contact you and then you can start finding out more.

She was successful in recruiting a lot of people.

Her recruiting got the attention of the MLM bosses who offered her a paid position.

Now, with a steady income, she is able to start saving for a mortgage deposit and then apply for one.

She can now start saving for a wedding.

My version of the woman’s story isn’t so exciting. Why would a misleading article like this be written in two different newspapers? The cynical part of me thinks that the ‘story’ was provided by the rep to the papers in an attempt to recruit more reps. One of the papers even has a video embedded of the rep explaining how great her ‘opportunity’ is.

In conclusion, this rep’s story is a non story and could result in more people joining an MLM scheme where 99.7% of people lose money.

If anyone wants to refute what I have said here, please comment below. Perhaps there is proof that the rep is actually very successful and has earned £1 million. If so, I would be very happy to look at it and issue a correction here.

What is happening to Forever Living?

May 16, 2018May 24, 2018 by botwatchblog, posted in Investigations

In this post I will present some facts and evidence to you but I will leave it for you to make your own conclusions.

People have been wondering what is happening to Forever Living for a while now. Timeless Vie speculated about its future two years ago. See what they had to say here and here.

Timeless Vie said that Forever Living were reaching saturation point. They said that a company approaching saturation point would either introduce new products, or new markets. At the time of their article, FLP were trying to sell aloe vera products to horses. Since then they have brought out a new beauty range and this year they have rebranded their most popular drinks. Also, members seem to be increasingly chasing foreign markets.

Timeless Vie described some new rule changes that had been made to make it easier to achieve ranks. This has continued to be the case.

Lifecycles

The lifecycle of any living organism always follows roughly the same trajectory, whether it is a colony of bacteria or a species of animals. MLMs have often used this trajectory to show how well their company is doing, and they encourage people to join based on where their company is right now.

Have a look at some examples.

Here is someone trying to recruit people into Pink Zebra

pink zebra

Let’s have a look at that chart

They are suggesting that all you have to do to be in the top 2-3% of earners, you just have to join at the right time. Research shows it is incredibly difficult to earn any money in an MLM, so reps will be doing all they can to get themselves any advantage they can.

The chart above stops at stabilisation. Let’s see what science has to say about population survival charts that this chart is based on. Here is a chart documenting the rise and fall of a colony of bacteria.

Here is what is happening to the human population in industrialised countries.

humans

In MLM terms, this means that initially there is a lot of excitement about a new company, loads of people join in pre-launch. They get more people to join and spend their money, they spam their friends and family and everyone gets bored of it. After a while the people who joined leave faster than the rate of people joining. This is the start of the death/ declining phase, or oversaturation.

I wonder where Forever Living Products are on this chart? Let’s look at some evidence. How has the UK company being doing financially over the last few years? Companies House has all the details we need on this. The money brought into the company is documented every year.

The 2017 report that looked at the company for 2016 has this to say

panic

This bit tells you how much profit they made in 2016.

profit

For a detailed breakdown of where the money came from, have a look at this

This shows the company earned a lot of money from things like success days and details

This shows that the company made a lot of money from success days, training materials and ‘delivery revenue’. The sales of goods has declined from 2015.

Let’s lay out the total turnover from over the past few years.

2011-£23,878,750

2012- £27,167,812

2013- £34,726,349

2014- £58,993,590

2015- £106,489,238

2016- £80,066,133

2017- we will find out in October this year.

That just looks like a load of numbers. I prefer charts and pictures to show what is happening. Here is a graph showing the above figures.

chart

I wonder what this chart will look like at the end of this year when the 2017 figures are shown? We can look for clues. One of the things that Forever Living do each year is share some of their profits with the top people who brought in the most money and recruits to the company. If the cheques are smaller this year, that would indicate a decline in profits.

What did those cheques look like in 2016? The evidence for them is everywhere, as it is a good way to lure in new recruits. It makes it look like people are successful and it is possible to earn loads of money.

2015 Global Rally in Singapore

There were 97 cheque earners from the UK in 2015.

This was on the cover of FLP’s magazine. This is the highest earner in the UK. We’ll call her number 1.

The following images are accessible from the FLP website and have been widely shared by a lot of reps in order to make their company look successful and to make it look profitable for people.

Another top earner, we’ll call her number 2.

This one of the mid earners. She’ll be referred to as number 3.

Number 4 is also a mid earner.

This one was number 8 in the UK in 2014. In 2015 she qualified for a cheque at the rally as the 11th biggest cheque earner.

yawn

There were loads more cheques presented, I have only put three here as examples. Another indicator of success of the reps is the amount of people being promoted up the ranks. In FLP’s magazine for April 2015 they have listed the people being promoted to Managers in March.

Here are the names that were promoted to Assistant manager-

ass

And these are most of the supervisors. There are about 250 supervisor promotions.

Let’s see what their success day looked like when everyone got back from their cheque sharing extravaganza. They call the trip abroad, the Global Rally.

2016 Global Rally in Johannesburg, South Africa

We would expect the cheques to be bigger for the three reps whose cheques we have seen. This is because the company’s revenue was much higher this year than the previous year. Let’s see what they were in 2016. The cheque details for all the money awarded can be found on this slide share website. There were 176 cheque earners from the UK at the 2016 event.

Here is number 1’s cheque. It is about $12,000 less than the previous year. Proportionately, it is about the same as 2015.

blood sucker.PNG

Here is number 2’s cheque. It is an increase of $325,054.54. That’s a massive increase of 48%.

Number 3’s image was taken from a website of an FBO trying to entice people to join based on the large cheques.

This cheque is a huge 1061.63% increase! Ten times her previous cheque!

Number 4.

yawn2

Number 4’s cheque has increased by a whopping $92,387 and she’s gone up a place in the cheque leader board. She must have been feeling pretty successful at this point.

These are the promotions for that month.

2016 promotions

supervisors1

supers

Again, there are about 250 supervisor promotions, the same as the previous year.

2017 Global Rally in Dubai

You can access the British cheque earners and their amounts at Forever Living’s own site. There were 108 cheques awarded.

Number 1’s cheque reduced.

Number 2’s cheque reduced

nat

Number 3’s cheque also reduced.

brit

Number 4’s cheque has also reduced and she has dropped down to number 18 in the cheque league table.

claire3

Let’s have a look at the promotions this year.

2017 promotions

Notice the massive drop in supervisor promotions. 2015 and 2016 both had about 250 promotions at this level. Now there are only 28! A massive drop.

2018 Global Rally in Dallas, USA

To see the cheques that were awarded this year, go to Forever Living’s website.

Number 1 must be very disappointed with her cheque of $756,687.82.

Number 2 got this

nheeley

Number 3’scheque is much lower than last year.

Number 4 qualified to go to the rally but she didn’t qualify for a cheque this year. She must have been pretty devastated at that because all her team will have been expecting her to get one. I think the expectation is that the ‘business’ should grow year on year and once you start earning cheques, it should really take off. The cheques and recognition process is so public that their decline is out there for all to see.

I tried to find a list of promotions but it seems Forever Living don’t publish them anymore. Have a look at one of their online magazines.

A Bot Watcher has told me that Bob parker, the UK and Ireland boss of Forever living publishes the reps’ names for their promotions. The most up to date ones are here-

bob

march ass managers.PNG

Some graphs

There is a lot of information to digest above. I’ll put it in some graphs to make it clearer.

Here is an illustration of the three people’s cheques from above.

global

Here are the number of promotions awarded in May of each year.

proms

‘Supervisor’ is the first promotion that a rep in Forever Living gets. The numbers have gone from a steady 250 a month, down to 28, and now 17. These are the bottom rung of the pyramid structure. Without enough of them, the whole structure won’t be able to support itself and could topple.

All of these bottom FBOs will be looking to the people at the top and will be watching them get their cheques. We know that the cheques are becoming smaller each year, but new joiners won’t necessarily be doing much research into the situation. They could well be being blinded by the cheques and aspiring to earn one themselves.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the cheque earners I have shown you above. FBO number 3 is actually number 10 in the UK. She is the tenth highest earner in Forever Living in the UK and as such, is considered successful. Her Facebook page has some inspirational posts. In the following images, she shares her thoughts on Forever Living’s future and her experience of it so far.

lies

lies2

Do we think things are getting better and better for Forever Living? How are things going for our person number 3? The tenth highest earner? She has registered her business activities with Companies House so we can go over and have a look at how successful she is.

Oh, she’s not doing so well. In August last year there was a meeting and a resolution was made.

special

Her company has been voluntarily liquidated. It went through the courts in May 2018 and a liquidator was appointed. Here are the last accounts that summarise what has been happening.

I’m no accountant (would love to hear from one), but it looks to me like a tax bill of £115,586.10 couldn’t be paid, resulting in the company being £63,078.10 in debt.

Whilst this person was in Dallas, holding a giant cheque and trying to recruit people off the back of her ‘success’, she was actually in quite a bit of debt. And this, remember, is the UK’s number ten in the list of earners.

I am not gloating at this poor person’s failure. I am sure it has been dreadful for her and extremely stressful. I feel more sorry for the unsuspecting people who might sign up under her, hoping to earn some money under her mentorship. What hope do they have of obtaining a promotion or earning any large cheques if one of the most successful people in the company is not earning anything?

Just one more photo before I leave you to ponder the direction this company are heading in.

A ‘success day’ from 2018, held in the London Paladium. Photos from this event show a less than half full room, or they just show the very front or corner, to make it look more full.

This would have been unthinkable in 2016 when there were events in 4 different major cities in larger arenas and better attended.

How do you think the company is doing? Are there another 40 years in it as they are promising?

Why do traditional businesses turn MLM?

April 19, 2018 by botwatchblog, posted in MLM explained

Multi Level Marketing generally differs from traditional business models. MLM has ‘independent contractors’ that buy the products and sell it to make a profit for the company. They often spend a lot of their own money on products to meet targets necessary to earn commissions. They pay fees to be members of the company and pay for ‘conferences’ and ‘trainings’, again, making money for the company.

It is common to find these MLM companies saying that they are cash rich and debt free. Of course they are, they have very little overheads as they leave the marketing and selling to these ‘independent contractors’. These MLM companies can sell products at an inflated price because it doesn’t matter that it is essentially an unmarketable product on the open market. They know the people caught up in these schemes will buy the products anyway. The product becomes just a way for the reps to earn a higher position in the pyramid.

We are used to seeing poor or average quality products being sold in MLMs. Which is why it can be puzzling to see a traditional business with well known, or even loved, products in an MLM way. Let’s have a look at some examples. Here, I attempt to research what the reasons are behind the MLM decision. Ultimately, this is an opinion piece as I attempt to draw conclusions from the evidence.

The Body Shop

The Body Shop was established in 1976 by Dame Anita Roddick and had solid ethical foundations. Then in 1994, it branched out into MLM and ‘The Body Shop at Home‘ was launched. I wonder why? I thought initially that the company might have been struggling financially, but this is not what Companies House information says.

bodyshop money

I have asked The Body Shop why they started an MLM branch. It does seem like quite a risky move to make, considering their strong stance on ethics, cruelty free products and their current marketing slogan…

Mars

Yes, that’s right. Mars, as in the chocolate company. It has an MLM branch called The Cocoa Exchange. They were formerly known as Dove Chocolate Discoveries. They call their reps ‘curators’. They talk about uplines, and amounts needed to sell to remain ‘active’. They sell online and do parties at home. They sound like any other MLM, except their product is a well known brand. They started in 2007.

Mars have their products all over the world and they can be found in any number of shops. Why on earth would they feel it necessary to follow the MLM model? I found this article in ‘Confectionary News.com‘ where they go some way in explaining the decision. They acknowledge that not many large companies have strayed into MLM and it admits there is a stigma involved in this type of selling. They say that this way of selling fits in with Millenials and their love of companies like Uber and Etsy. They say that there is a need for people to have an extra income. Because Mars don’t make money from the starter kit, they think that they are avoiding the pitfalls of most MLMs. They say they are different to other companies because they don’t promise to make people into millionaires.

Twice in their FAQ section on their website they mention earning a 6-figure income.

Mars claim that the aim of their MLM is to generate sales to customers of their products and to provide an income to the reps. They will certainly be successful in generating sales, but whether anyone apart from Mars makes any real money is yet to be proven.

choc

(Photo: Mars)

Neal’s Yard Remedies (Home) Ltd

Neal’s Yard remedies sell essential oils and beauty products. This company have high street shops, as well as an MLM arm. Again, I am surprised. Look at their ethical claims–

neals yard

The company started in 1981 and branched out into MLM in 2009, see Companies House for their details. It seems the UK company owns the Neal’s Yard company in the US. Peter Kindersley was director when the MLM branch started and he loaned the company £486,616 indefinitely.

Peter clearly has a very large influence over the company but I can’t find any previous links he has had with MLM. He has been involved in a lot of businesses, but they have all been in publishing or organic farming. I have looked into the actions of his wife, Juliet, and there is no sign of MLM in her history either. She is an environmental activist and is often seen working alongside her husband.

I wonder if someone sold the idea of MLM to Peter as an ethical and great way for people to earn money, empowering them and generally being a force for good? Neal’s Yard was doing well financially when the MLM side started up, so it wasn’t an act of desperation from a struggling company.

There are no income statements from NYR but the sales and profits continue to grow for the owners. I wonder how the owners would feel if they realised how badly their ‘consultants’ are doing financially, and how unethical their company really is.

Anne Summers

ann summers.PNG

Anne Summers was established in 1970 in UK. They sell lingerie and sex toys and have a high street shop presence. In 1981 Jacqueline Gold (current chief exec) started the MLM wing of the company. It is said that this is due to the laws relating to presenting sex-toys in a shop. A shop selling sex toys needs to be licenced as a sex shop. If the proportion of toys to other stock is low, it can be classed as a retail shop. By selling in people’s home, this technicality becomes irrelevant.

Jacqueline said in this interview that she came up with the idea of MLM for her company when she attended a Tupperware party.

Tupperware

Tupperware products were invented in 1946 and didn’t sell well in shops initially. Their website says that the products were so innovative, customers needed to see demonstrations to understand how the products worked. In the 1950s the concept of selling Tupperware in homes really took off and the company became very successful.

These days people know how to operate the products and they can be found in shops, alongside similar products made by other companies. It would seem that there would be no need now for an MLM side. I guess there is also no need to remove that aspect of the company because it has become so well known and it continues to make a very large income for the owners.

brownie wise.PNG

Brownie Wise, the woman behind the ‘party plan’ concept for Tupperware (from Tupperware.com)

AVON

avon

AVON are a very well known brand and are often held up as an example of why MLM isn’t such a bad thing. The company was started by a travelling book salesman, David McConnell. It was initially women selling perfumes door to door and earning a commission for their efforts. Technically, this is called Direct Selling.

In recent years they adopted the MLM model and allowed people to recruit into their team and earn commission based on their team’s performance. They were members of the Direct Selling Association, but ended this relationship in 2014, citing a fear of being associated with pyramid schemes. It seems AVON were concerned that the DSA were not worried about MLM companies having a low proportion of real customers, and that the real customers were the reps themselves. They have had many battles to contend with in recent years, see Pyramid Scheme Alert’s article here.

The article above discusses the fact that sales are falling but rep numbers are increasing, lending doubt to the legitimacy of the ‘business model’. Without the sales to the reps themselves, how well would the company fare? AVON are in a difficult position of being involved in something they find uncomfortable, but seem unable to extricate themselves from it.

(Photo credit to AVON)

Swarovski

The MLM branch is called Touchstone Crystal.

This company is known for the crystals they sell. They were founded in Austria in 1895 and turned to MLM in 2006 under Dan Cohen and Elizabeth Dipaolo. Dan is a descendent of the original founder of Swarovski. Elizabeth is described as being the Vice President in 2018.

This Direct Selling article describes the start of Touchstone Crystals. The article describes how in 2009 Swarovski started in MLM with kits where people made their own jewellery. The reason given for this venture was that the company were looking for innovative ways to make their jewellery more accessible to the public. Apparently this experience of MLM showed the company that ‘the opportunity was great’. I am assuming this means that it made money for the company.

In 2010 finished pieces of jewellery were introduced into he home parties. This is where Elizabeth DiPaolo was brought in to oversee the MLM side of the company. The Direct Selling 2011 article above says this of Elizabeth-

swarovski

All I have managed to find out about Liz is that she previously worked as Vice President for an MLM called Princess House Inc. She will have brought her knowledge of how profitable MLMs can be for the company.

It looks like Swarovski moved into MLM with reasonable intentions, ie to sell more products. When Liz became involved, it is probable that she explained how profitable MLM could be to the company. I guess we will never know if a discussion was had with Dan about how damaging MLMs can be to the people who participate in the scheme. There are no Income Disclosure Statement to show how poorly the ‘Glambassadors’ are doing financially.

(Image from Touchstone)

Usborne

Usborne originated in the UK as a publisher. It was founded in 1973 by Peter Usborne.

In 1978 Usborne books started being distributed in America through The Education Development Corporation. (Source) In 1989 Usborne started using the MLM model in the US. At the same time as having reps sell his books in parties and fairs, he was selling to Amazon and large chains of shops. This strategy started to fail and the business was in danger of shutting down in 2012. There had been 9 years of decline and the reps were not happy. They saw Amazon as unfair competition. In 2012 Randall White took the decision to stop selling to Amazon, and just sell the books through the MLM way and a few toy shops and specialist bookshops. See this Business Insider article about it.

This is what Peter Usborne had to say about the move to almost exclusive MLM selling.

“We weren’t involved in the decision,” says Usborne, who continues to do business with Amazon in the UK and elsewhere. “Randall just told me he’d done it. He quite likes a fight, and I think he was looking down the wrong end of a shotgun. It looked pretty grim for a while, but now it seems he’s the wind in his sails.”

After making the change the company started improving financially, reversing the downward spiral it was experiencing.

In 1992 the MLM branch was set up in the UK called Usborne Books at Home and School. This company is now showing as a dormant company, as it has from when it was set up. It seems to be trading as a subsidiary of Usborne Publishing Ltd. I’m not sure about the significance of this and would like to hear from anyone who might know what it means.

In 1993 The American Publisher Scholastic took a 26.25% share in Usborne Publishing.

In the UK Usborne books can be bought on Amazon, in bookshops and in supermarkets. The books are very easy to get hold of, which raises the question of why there is a need for an MLM section? Who would buy from a rep when there is more choice and less hassle, and possibly a cheaper deal to be had in a shop?

I have searched and searched for why Usborne is MLM in the UK and I cannot find any statements anywhere. What a wasted evening! All I can do is take a guess. The inspiration may have come from the US where Randall White was using the method to sell his books. It wasn’t going so well for Randall in 1992 so it couldn’t have been just that. Maybe Scholastic had a hand in the move, the dates would fit.

Whatever the reason behind the decision to go MLM, it is working for the UK. Peter Usborne said in a talk he gave that the Home part of the business was doing very well. The number of reps seems to be growing. This is despite the books being widely available in retail outlets.

(photo from Usborne)

Conclusion

Pyramid or Multi Level selling is a very good way for a company to make money. The company will very rarely lose when it adopts this way of selling its products to people who will buy products and market them for free. The only downside to this model of money making is the poor ethics associated with it. People are realising more and more how bad it can be for the people involved in it who are trying to make a living.

A company should have to answer for their decision to make money through potentially exploiting people and causing financial problems for thousands of people. Hopefully as MLM becomes more widely understood by the public, it will become less popular for traditional large corporations to dabble in.

Pyramid Schemes and Multi Level Marketing Explained

April 17, 2018April 18, 2018 by botwatchblog, posted in cults, health, MLM explained, Useful advice

I have just done a radio interview about pyramid schemes and why they are a bad idea. I only had ten minutes so I struggled to get in all the information. Click on the image below to listen to it. I am at 1.32.

Here, I cover the information I gave, with references and further information that I couldn’t cram in.

What is a pyramid scheme?

It is useful to think of pyramid schemes on a spectrum. Just before you get to pyramid schemes, there is Direct Selling. This is where people sell things and get a commission from the sales. Like a double glazing salesperson who goes door to door and gets a cut of the sales. That is perfectly legal, although it can be hard on the salesperson to earn money if they don’t sell much.

On the other extreme, after pyramid schemes, there are Ponzis. These are schemes where people pay a fee to join. They have to recruit to people and they recruit two people, and they recruit two people. When the pyramid is a certain size, all the joining fees from the people on the bottom rung go to the person at the top. They then retire with a large amount of money and everyone moves up a rung. To be successful and leave with money, 64 people would have to pay the fee. Quite often, not al the spaces can be filled and the whole thing collapses. An example of a Ponzi is the Airplane game.

Ponzi schemes are illegal in the UK. In Albania in 1997, there was a civil war due to a Ponzi scheme collapsing. Two thousand people died and a government was toppled.

Between Ponzi schemes and direct selling, you have pyramid schemes. These are defined by the Fair Trading Act 1973, under the section called ‘Part IX Pyramid selling and similar trading schemes’. The law calls these schemes ‘Trading schemes’ that have to comply with the pyramid selling regulations. It talks about the pyramid structure of the schemes. In 1996, when the Trading schemes laws were being updated, there was an attempt by Amway ( a large multilevel marketing scheme) to have the term ‘pyramid scheme’ defined as an illegal scheme. The Government stated that they saw the terms ‘pyramid selling’ and ‘multi level marketing’ as interchangeable.

It doesn’t sound very good though, to say that you are in a pyramid scheme. It would be very hard to recruit people if you said you were in a pyramid scheme. The Direct Selling Association (DSA) are a trade association and promote these schemes, trying t make them appear respectable. Of course, they wouldn’t want to put off people joining their schemes so they say this on their website.

I challenge them to show me where in law it says pyramid schemes are illegal. I believe in fact checking and looking at the evidence and I will be happy to change my statements if they are wrong.

So what is a pyramid/multi level marketing scheme? The 1997 consultation document makes this clear-

More simply, this means that people are in a trading scheme if they sell products, usually in their home, and recruit others to do the same. They can earn commissions from the sales of the people they recruit, and also get bonus payments. The structure is pyramid in shape. To be considered legitimate, they must adhere to a set of rules. These are The Trading Schemes Act 1996. The Pyramid Selling Schemes Regulations 1973 , and later The Trading Schemes Regulations 1997 lay out the conditions that a scheme must follow to be considered legal. If any of the conditions are broken, the scheme is illegal. Importantly, the law says that the definition of a ‘trading scheme’ remains the same as in previous legislation.

““trading scheme” has the same meaning as in Part XI of the Fair Trading Act 1973.”

These are the conditions-

Part 3. Adverts for the scheme must say the name of the company, describe what is being sold, and give the statutory warning.

Part 4. A written contract has to be given to anyone joining up.

Part 5. The contract can be cancelled within 14 days. People must be told of their financial obligations for the first year. Further minor contract details.

Part 6. When someone leaves a scheme, they are entitled to a refund for the products bought in the previous 90 days.

Part 7. Some technical rule about refunds.

Part 8. People in these schemes must be given receipts from the company for every transaction.

Part 9. Rules about commission payments once someone leaves a scheme.

Part 10. People cannot pay more than £200 in the first week of joining a scheme.

Part 11. People who join up are under no obligation to buy anything unless it was clearly stated in their initial join up agreement. They should not be tricked into buying anything.

Section 1, part 3 of The Trading Schemes Act 1996 says that trading schemes must provide products or services to external customers. The participants can’t just purchase products for themselves.

That is quite a list of rules that a company must adhere to be considered legitimate. You can see why it is difficult to determine if a scheme that is being presented to you is ok or not.

These schemes cause problems for people, regardless of whether they are legitimate or not.

These problems are-

Dr Jon M Taylor analysed the statistics of MLMs and found that participants typically lost money in 99.9% of cases. He concluded that gambling on roulette gives 286 times more chance of winning money than earning anything in Amway. These statistics were presented to the Federal Trade Commission.

Image from MLM-The Truth Website.

2. People lose money through paying for training, going to conferences, buying their own marketing products, petrol costs from driving everywhere, buying nibbles and drinks for in-house parties, buying samples, buying prizes for raffles, buying products for themselves, paying for stalls at fairs.

3. People in these schemes follow the Law Of Attraction where they are taught to believe that bad things happen if you have bad or negative thoughts. They also believe that good things happen if you exclusively concentrate on positive things. The Law teaches that if you want something, you can have it if you want it hard enough and visualise it enough, sending out the correct ‘vibrations’. You are encouraged to act rich if you want to be rich. The theory is that you acting all successful will attract success and will attract recruits who want to be like you.

Hence you see memes like this

People in these schemes become afraid to think of their failure and will not allow themselves to focus on the money they are losing. This type of dangerous thinking could be called a mind control technique. People stop themselves from being critical and lose the ability to be rational. This is a very dangerous state to be in. It keeps people in these schemes longer than they would otherwise stay.

Another side effect of this way of thinking is that people are encouraged to cut contact with people who are being critical. I know people who have lost brothers, sisters and children through these schemes. They were taught that the negative vibrations from these people would bring failure. This further isolates people and they surround themselves by other scheme members who are all believing the same thing.

A further problem with this type of thinking is that when people inevitably fail, they will blame themselves. They will have attracted the failure to themselves. This makes them feel ashamed and they will often try to forget about the whole thing, and not come forward to speak about their experiences. So the deception continues. When people leave a scheme, they often find themselves ostracised from the group, who now see the person as a failure who could bring them down. They are now left feeling like a failure, lost friends/ family and no support group. This can make people feel terribly isolated.

4. People in these schemes are often seen making false health claims for the products they sell. This is because the products are expensive due to the added amounts that are needed to be fed up the pyramid. The sellers become desperate to make sales so that they cam achieve their monthly targets and to earn money themselves. The products are nothing special so people will lie about how good they are, breaking advertising laws and encouraging people to ditch their medications in favour of their snake oil.

Truth in Advertising (TINA) have documented some false health claims they came across with MLM products. They found that of the DSA member companies in the USA“( 97%) have made or are making — either directly or through their distributors — claims that the companies’ products (which include supplements, as well as devices, clothing, and skin care products) can treat, cure, prevent, alleviate the symptoms of, or reduce the risk of developing diseases or disorders, in violation of the law.”

Who joins these schemes?

Anyone can be vulnerable to joining one of these loss making schemes. People who need money and are not getting what they need from their current situation could join. They are vulnerable because often it is a trusted person who approaches them to join and people don’t think their loved ones would lie to them. Often, people are promised that it is easy to earn money, just follow the system, recruit people and you will be successful. Examples are held up of the few people that earn large amounts of money.

Image from TINA.org

It is easy to see why people would want to try pyramid schemes when their current situation is less than ideal.

Intelligent people and professionals are sometimes targeted because they can lend credibility to the company. I have seen adverts on Facebook aimed at NHS staff, trying to recruit them to sell MLM products and the opportunity.

It is important to realise that anyone is vulnerable to being recruited. The best protection is to educate yourself. Stay one step ahead and be as aware as you can. If you are on Twitter or Facebook, follow me or the MLMtruth coalition. There are a few campaigners you can add to the people you follow. Keep these scams at the forefront of your mind and you may be better able to resist.

What to do if a friend is involved

This can often be a very difficult situation. Your friend may be asking for your support and may be desperate to make a success of it. They may not know of the full facts around MLMs and may not be willing to hear it.

I wrote a blog post full of tips that you can look at for ideas on how to deal with your situation. Have a read of it here.

If you have a friend who goes from one scheme to another, get them to read this article on how to choose their next one. You may not be able to help them leave just yet, but you might be able to stop them joining one of the more ridiculous ones.

If your friend is maybe open to the idea of listening to reason and they want to hear what you have to say, get them to read this or this.

If you would like more of an insight into what is going on with your friend, you would do well to read up on cults. Pyramid schemes have been described as commercial cults or greed cults. Once you read up on why they are cults and how they work, it can be quite concerning. However, it will give you a good understanding of the behaviours you might be witnessing. Have a read of Steve Hassan’s work. He has written two really good books on the subject called Combatting Mind Control and Freedom of Mind. Margaret Singer has a good book on the subject too, called ‘Cults in our Midst: The continuing fight against their hidden menace’.

Cultwatch explain how cults work, and they delve into commercial/greed cults.

Steve Hassan has a website about cults that you may find useful.

I have written a piece on MLM and cults with John Evans from Juice Plus Lies website.

How to fight MLM

Become a Bot Watcher and join the team. You might be able to help us or the coalition if you have any skills or experience that might be useful in our cause. Perhaps you could help with some research or advise us.

If you have had an MLM experience, consider telling us about it and we can get your story out there to warn others.

Write emails to complain if you see something dodgy going on. Complain to fairs that allow MLM stalls. Complain to schools if they allow MLMs anywhere on the premises. Write to your MP if you feel things need changing. I have some letter templates here to help you guide your writing.

Report dodgy health claims to the ASA and get the advert pulled. Blog post on understanding about health claims.

Order something from the coalition’s little shop to help our cause and help spread awareness.

Take the cup to work to spread the message. Keep cards in your pocket to slip to people that you might hear being prospected. Someone we know has been slipping the cards in library books aimed at MLM reps!

Please contact us if you need any advice with any of the issues discussed in this article.

If you come across a Ponzi scheme or a pyramid scheme that you suspect is an illegal one, complain to Trading Standards via their Consumer Line. You can also report illegal schemes and fraud to Action Fraud. They are part of the police.

All you need to know about Inteletravel

April 5, 2018March 23, 2019 by botwatchblog, posted in Uncategorized

Update- March 20th 2019 InteleTravel UK have been granted ABTA membership and are now pursuing ATOL membership. This Travel website has more information. Botwatch is glad that any customers of these reps will be properly protected now if their holiday goes wrong.

Update- since writing this article, Inteletravel have gained membership of IATA. I have left the old information in to illustrate what the situation was at the time of writing. This membership will have no bearing on U.K. reps.

We have been contacted by some very concerned people who have been involved in Inteletravel. Let’s call them Ian Cognito and Ivor Fakename. They joined Inteletravel because it looked like a great MLM to join.

That sounds good. Anyone can join, pay their fee and do a few hours of reading at home. They watch a little video, get given a website and call themselves independent travel agents.

Looks good doesn’t it? You don’t often come across an MLM that is risk free.

Let’s have a look at the Trust Guarantee.

guarantee

I guess that’s quite a lot of small print, but would be necessary to ensure that people really were putting in enough effort. It wouldn’t be fair if people joined up and didn’t try, just to get their money back would it? Except the guarantee isn’t fair because it is impossible for members to achieve these criteria.

Ian tried to complete point 3. He had to register with a preferred partner and sell one of their packages. Except that there is only a little booking platform and you cannot join it without being a member of ABTA. Ian wasn’t even allowed to register with them. Point 7 isn’t possible either because you can’t register with them without having ABTA membership. Ian says that when he phoned up Inteletravel to complain about this, they didn’t even know what he was talking about.

Here is an official facebook post on Inteletravel’s Facebook page in February explaining that people can’t book, or even contact the ‘preferred partners’ until they have ABTA membership.

tara1

They shouldn’t really be promising holidays like this then,

hot deals

ABTA, IATA and ATOL

ABTA are a travel association that have a code of conduct and protection for people who book holidays through ABTA members. If a person buys a holiday through an ABTA member and then, if when they are on holiday, the company shuts down, there is a process whereby the holiday maker will be brought home or their holiday can continue. Most holiday providers in the UK will only sell their packages through agents that have this membership. This ensures that the holidaying population are protected from being sold holidays by amateurs and scammers.

Inteletravel have been promising ABTA membership is coming soon. They have been promising this since 2015. See this email sent in early 2017. Their website still says they will be getting ABTA approval in 30-45 days.

abta

ATOL are the organisation that offer travellers financial protection for air travel. Recently, people who were customers of Monarch received help when they were abroad during its demise. Inteletravel are not ATOL protected.

Perhaps reps shouldn’t be posting adverts like this then

intellies

IATA protected? IATA stands for International Air Transport Association. See here for what membership gets you if you are a travel agent. You don’t have to have it to be a travel agent but it has benefits around offers and payment. It lends credibility to a company to have this membership. I searched their website and found Inteletravel are not members.

Which makes me wonder why Inteletravel have the logo on their slides.

join

And in this communication to reps

56B6CD3B-C2EA-41FF-9C96-D064B3328C87

In this group chat where reps are concerned about the IATA status not being true, the company explains it to them.

101

If IATA are ineffective and not needed, why are Inteletravel acting as though they are members? I would not be concerned about the IATA status affecting sales in the UK, but rather, why is there the deception around whether they are members or not? For a contemporary discussion of the issues, check out this forum for work at home travel agents.

Inteletravel used to be members of IATA but their membership was cancelled by IATA in 2007. I have asked IATA for a comment on why this was and what their status is now.

I am glad to see that members of this scheme are asking questions of Inteletravel and trying to ensure they are not being scammed. So many people were asking Inteletravel about ABTA membership that they issued this warning.

warning

That’s not very nice! Ivor decided he wasn’t going to be fobbed off and became suspicious of this warning. He told Bot Watch that Inteletravel informed their reps that ABTA wrote to them asking them to tell the reps to stop calling them. Ivor rang ABTA to check and was told that no such letter was written. Ivor found out that ABTA are having a committee meeting on April 13th 2018 to decide whether to allow Inteletravel membership. I have asked ABTA to clarify the situation. Watch this space.

However, Inteletravel are now telling people (before the committee meeting) that they have been given an ABTA number, they just don’t want to go public yet. The ABTA website shows that they do not have a number. This message is from one of the ‘directors’ (what they call the people high up in the pyramid) this April.

Reps/ Agents/ Scheme members

What should we call people in this scheme? They call themselves Travel Agents, the MLM world calls them reps or Independent Business Owners. What do Inteletravel call their members? Have a read of this exchange between a disgruntled ex-rep and the company.

stumped

Customers. I can’t say I’m surprised. People who join up spend £526 in their first year.

Dishonest advertising

Because reps have a limited source of holidays they can offer and they are desperate to try and sell some to make some commission, many of them are tempted to lie in their adverts. Ivor explains how these reps/customers bend the truth to make their deals look good.

Here is a price comparison for two room bookings, the top one with Inteletravel and the bottom one with Trivgo.

The room options for the Trivago option has been cut off. The Trivago option is for a more expensive room. This is not a fair comparison.

On this comparison, they have chosen a deluxe room for the online booking site. The Inteletravel price is not a fair comparison because this this could be for a basic single room.

This comparison is unfair because the rep has put up the price before the price has even been finalised. A room hasn’t been chosen. This will put the price up. Probably to more than £381.13.

PlanNet Marketing

If £142 and then £32 a month seems pricey for an MLM, don’t worry. You can join a different company that has ‘partnered’ with Inteletravel. PlanNet Marketing. With PlanNet Marketing, you can join for £16 and pay £16 monthly. You do not need to sell any holidays. You can just sell memberships in a ‘society’ made up of people who want to be travel agents. Payments are based solely on the people you recruit. Here is their compensation plan.

pyramid

Readers at this stage might be interested to read up on what makes a pyramid scheme an illegal scheme in the UK. Here’s a snippet. (Fair Trading Act 1973)

fair

This is a bit wordy but what it means is this- People are not allowed to recruit you and charge a fee with the promise that you can just recruit others and earn money from it. Anyone that does this is running an illegal pyramid scheme.

Have a look at their Income disclosure statement.

plannet income.PNG

97.65% of their reps earn, on average, $69.95 a year. Considering that it costs $239.40 a year to be a member, this doesn’t look like such a great deal. 23.07% of reps earned nothing at all.

What to do now?

If you have read the evidence and decided you still want to join, then go ahead. If you are already a member and you are happy, great. If you are currently a member or you have left and you feel you want to take action, there are things you can do.

If you were deceived into joining the scheme and found you couldn’t make money, complain in the UK to

safer jobs

This is a company set up by the police to investigate scams and job fraud.

action fraud

Action Fraud is a branch of the police that investigates fraud like illegal pyramid schemes.

Trading Standards can be contacted if you think a company has broken the law or acted unfairly.

001 If you see a misleading advert you could complain to the Advertising Standards Authority who will investigate and have the ad removed if necessary.

You could tell your story by commenting below, to warn other people that may be looking at this company.

The continuing saga of ABTA membership

On Friday 13th April 2018, there was a meeting at ABTA about whether Inteletravel should be licenced with them. The reps have been told before this date that they have their membership and will be announcing it on Super Saturday on April 14th.

They really believe it and have been telling everyone that they will officially be announcing their membership. There are posts on Facebook like this-

On Thursday 12th April-

sup

On Friday 13th April-

super sat

Does anyone really believe that Inteletravel will get their ABTA number? I have no doubt that all their reps thinks they will. What will happen if/when they don’t get it? How are they going to explain it to everyone? I for one will be keeping a very close eye on things on Saturday and will report back here. Watch this space.

Super Saturday

Here is a Facebook conversation with someone who was at the Super Saturday event on 14th April.

It starts with an optimistic picture.

sad2

Followed by an excited conversation. Red is at the event and her fellow reps are waiting to hear about it.

sad

They never got to hear about ABTA granting Inteletravel their certification. Because they didn’t get it. The meeting was held at ABTA yesterday and their application was denied.

What was Inteletravel’s excuse?

They are now saying their membership is ‘pending’ while their new UK manager ‘gets set up’. They are putting their faith in this one person to get them their membership. And they are saying they don’t need ABTA anyway.

They do need ABTA if they want to be travel agents in the UK. Come on Inteletravel agents, stop and think.

Sue’s Dalliance with The Body Shop at Home

March 26, 2018March 26, 2018 by botwatchblog, posted in MLM explained, personal stories

The Anti-MLM Coalition

Sue Denim (not her real name) joined The Body Shop At Home about six years ago in Australia, and had a less than enjoyable experience. She has kindly offered to share her story so that people considering joining can see what can happen. I am not saying this will happen to everyone who joins or that all ‘consultants’ are going through this. This is her story and she wants you to understand what happened to her. I have written my words in red, and hers in black, to make for clearer reading.

I was fresh on 19, and looking for work. I’d never heard of multi-level marketing before — sure, I knew some of the companies by name, but I didn’t know that they were bad or that they prey on the weak. It was November 2012, so all the usual MLMs were putting out advertisements for their Christmas gear…

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Crimes against science

February 17, 2018February 17, 2018 by botwatchblog, posted in Uncategorized

Here at Botwatch we respect science. We understand how important it is to look for evidence, evaluate it properly, and change your ideas according to what the research shows.

To be fully immersed in a Multi Level Marketing (MLM) scheme people need to be able to have a healthy disregard for science. They need to be able to ignore the cold, hard facts about their chances of success and to ignore any objectivity. They are encouraged to embrace a different way of thinking and to just ‘believe’ and ‘hope’ and ‘ask the universe’ for success.

An intelligent person will look for evidence and listen to objective criticism. A person in the MLM mindset will be taught to shut down any criticism and shun people who try to provide evidence that goes against their beliefs. Lazyman and Money investigated why MLM reps think their products work.

As discussed in previous posts, MLMs have overpriced products to enable the money to flow up the pyramid. This poses a challenge to the people trying to sell the products. They can only buy so much and stockpile a certain amount before they start to realise that they are wasting their money. They have to try and sell some product at some stage, or convince themselves their products are special.

In order to sell their opportunity or products, MLMs and the people in these schemes will revert to pseudoscience in order to back up their ridiculous claims. Here are some of the common scientific errors that people make.

Detox

The liver, skin and lungs remove toxins from our bodies. No amount of supplements will help this process. We do not need to detoxify ourselves. MLMs will have you believe otherwise. For further information read these articles from the Skeptoid, Guardian or just Google ‘detox myth’.

Here are some MLMs displaying their ignorance on ‘detoxing’.

Monat here are explaining that when people’s hair falls out and they get an itchy, flaky scalp, that is ok. It is just their hair ‘detoxing’. They say things like ‘as your pH balances equalize’- what does this even mean? Does any of this sound plausible to you?

Natural is good

Of course, natural is not good. Cyanide is natural. So is Ebola, volcanoes, scorpions, sharks, poison ivy. The list could go on and on. Just because something has come from a natural source (hasn’t everything?), does not mean it is safe. Take essential oils as an example. This is a substance that plants make to act as an irritant to put off creatures eating it. Essential oils are toxic and should not be consumes internally. But you will find people selling DoTerra and Young Living essential oils, saying you can drink it. It’s ok, they say. It’s natural.

Here is a statement from the organisation that advises and tries to regulate the use of aromatherapy.

AIA does not endorse internal therapeutic use (oral, vaginal or rectal) of essential oils unless recommended by a health care practitioner trained at an appropriate clinical level. An appropriate level of training must include chemistry, anatomy, diagnostics, physiology, formulation guidelines and safety issues regarding each specific internal route (oral, vaginal or rectal).

For more information, please visit the AIA site.

Science Based Medicine have looked at DoTERRA a few times. Have a look at these articles here, here and here.

This quote is from a Young Living seller

“Young Living oils are therapeutic grade A oils and are produced so that they are pure. Although applying oils to the skin and inhaling them can be beneficial, sometimes ingesting the oils is even more effective. The Vitality line of Young Living oil labels say that they can be taken internally.

People can put a drop or two of essential oils into milk to drink or drop into empty gel capsules and swallow. Empty gel capsules can be purchased from Young Living; 250 capsules for $9.87 retail.”

Chemical free

This Arbonne advert says the product is chemical free. How can anything be chemical free? Gasses are chemicals, so are rocks and metals. We are made of chemicals, and so is water. There isn’t a substance on this planet that isn’t made of chemicals.

How would you like a chemical free toothpaste? What on earth could it be made of I ask myself?

I’ll stop now because this could go on for ever.

Anecdotes are not proof

When there is no scientific evidence that a product can do what the seller claims, they often resort to anecdotes. They might have been told they are not allowed to make health claims as this would break the law. So they resort to saying that the product cured them of something. Or they share other ‘testimonials’ and, once a database is built up of these testimonials, it can look like there is lots of evidence for the claimed effect. Of course, these claims have not been researched properly and many are complete fabrications. I think this type of product promotion preys on people’s scientific ignorance and people’s general trust of what their peers tell them.

If someone tells you a product worked for them, question their motives. Are they trying to sell it? Are they allowed to make health claims? If health claims are not allowed, why?

JuicePlus+ reps have set up a testimonial facebook page where they can all share their stories, thinking they are getting around the law. This is very deceptive. The range of claims is astounding.

In the UK testimonials are not allowed to be used when selling a product unless very strict criteria apply. Check out CAP for the guidelines.

Interpreting scientific data

Sometimes you hear of an MLM company claiming there is proper scientific evidence for their claims. When you actually look at their claims though, they often fall far short of the evidence required to back up what is being claimed. The first company that jumps to mind is JuicePlus. They go on about the ’30 gold standard studies’ that prove their vitamin supplements can do the amazing things they claim. Have a look at the studies. They no way prove any of the claims made. In fact, the small improvements in any factors can be explained by the existence of the vitamins. In the EU it is illegal to claim that the results are as a result of anything other than the expected results of the individual vitamins. Have a look at the disclaimer they have to display on their website in the EU-

Disclaimer

* * Current EU legislation necessitates that health-promoting effects may not be attributed to the product as such (in this case Juice Plus+), but only to the specific ingredients.
** Mandatory information in accordance with Article 10 (2) of REGULATION (EC) No 1924/2006: As a general rule, you should aim for a varied and balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. The indicated health-promoting effects can be achieved by taking the recommended daily amount of Juice Plus+ capsules.

For more information on the interpretation of the research, read this very good blog of someone who painstakingly analyses the research.

I had a look at the research behind one of Ariix’s products and found it did not stand up to the hype its reps were creating.

Of course, to be able to understand the research, you first need to have access to it. Some companies claim to have evidence but won’t show you the evidence. They won’t even elaborate on where the research might be found. Many Monat reps, for example, claim that their products were tested at Princeton University for three years (or variations) and they concluded it was safe.

This blogger investigated where the claims might have stemmed from. There has been no official statement from the company clearing up the issue. I have found the ‘research’ on this website. All it shows are the results and methodology of the testing of some individual ingredients. They don’t test the products in their sold form. They don’t show where the research was published, who wrote it, any conflicts of interests or any evidence of peer review. In this form, the research is useless.

Fearmongering

Some MLMs provide scary ‘facts’ that, whilst true, do not support their conclusion that you need to buy their products. Take Ariix as an example. They make and sell some products like air and water filters. They explain how contaminated water can be really bad for you.

DRINKING CONTAMINATED WATER CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH

Of course it is bad. They then go to great lengths to explain how their filters can filter out these harmful things. They conclude that you should buy these expensive products for your health. What they fail to explain is that in the developed world our water supply is already free of these contaminants.

Our indoor environments are not as bad as the global picture because modern houses have ventilation, do not have indoor fires and people are generally not living in close proximity to other people and sewerage. The people living in conditions who would benefit from these filters have other things on their mind, like survival. They certainly won’t be in a position to invest in these filters.

Isagenix try to scare us into thinking some really strange things about cows and the milk that they use for their whey powder.

Dodgy ‘science’ experiments

Some Forever Living reps ‘prove’ how pure their product is compared to other aloe vera juices. They do this by mixing it with iodine. They claim that the iodine represents the impurities in our body. They add some of their aloe drink to the iodine and it goes clear. Wow! It doesn’t go clear with other brands. The reps say this proves their product is more pure and better at eliminating these dreaded ‘toxins’.

There are many of these ‘experiments’ on YouTube. Here is one, here is another. And another.

The reality is the colour change is just a chemical reaction due to one of the ingredients in Forever Living’s product. The chemical that is reacting is the ascorbic acid (vitamin C) that is used as a preservative in Forever Living’s liquid, but not present in the other brands. This chemistry page explains the reaction.

Young Living

Some people in Young Living have been doing ‘experiments’ to ‘prove’ that their household cleaning products are better at killing germs than bleach. They put some germs on agar in a petri dish and put in squares of paper soaked in various substances, including bleach, nothing, Thieves essential oil and other cleaning products. The experiment is described here. This is the type of photo people are sharing-

Their conclusion may not be all it seems. The essential oil that is used in these experiments is a pure essential oil and is therefore not a fair test. People do not clean their bathrooms with pure essential oils. That would get very smelly and very expensive. Someone questioned this in the comments on one of the blog pages where this experiment was published. They wanted to see what would happen if they used the actual Thieves cleaning solution. This is the conversation that ensued.

‘Healthy pH’

The human body is very good at maintaining its pH level. pH is how acidic or alkaline your body is and it regulates itself with the kidneys and lungs. In real life I have a very good understanding of pH and have personally measured, cared for and seen the effects of a pH that is outside of the normal range. Blood has to be between 7.35 and 7.45 and anything outside of this makes you very sick. You cannot adjust this number by taking any supplement or by altering your diet. It just isn’t possible. And even if you could adjust it, you wouldn’t want to because it would make you ill.

These basic biological and easily verifiable facts do not stop MLMs from spreading misinformation to sell their products. Here are some offenders-

Ariix

Cleanshield

A human body with ‘a pH near 7.0’ is a near dead human body.

Thrive from Le-vel

Complete disregard for biology

This is not how under eye puffiness is formed. Here is an article on the reasons scientists think eye bags are formed. There is no mention of tear ducts pooling.

That pseudoscience has it all- biological nonsense, pH levels, health claims, and a claim that they use ‘evidence based documented evidence.’

Law of Attraction

This belief is rooted in the thought that bad/ negative thoughts will bring bad consequences. Likewise, good and positive thoughts will bring good consequences. The evidence that is presented for this pseudo theory is that ill people can often be heard complaining about their condition. It is therefore thought that it is this negative thinking that must have brought on the illness. Not only is this the fallacy of correlation and causation, it is beggars belief that anyone would make that conclusion.

Lacking in any proof or scientific evidence for this shaky belief has prompted some to look for a good meme or quote to back them up. This is what believers have come up with.

It goes without saying that Einstein never said such rubbish. The actual quote came from someone who thought he was channelling an alien. Just in case you would like to check the authenticity of this quote, the people at Quote Investigator have looked into it for you.

Conclusion

People in MLMs will say any old rubbish to sell their products. Often the false information comes from the company themselves. The reps pretend to be knowledgeable in areas they have no understanding of. They are taught and encouraged to just believe in their company and their product and try to get others to believe in it. Pesky science and facts will not get in their way of trying to make a sale.

Why MLM will never work

February 1, 2018 by botwatchblog, posted in Uncategorized

The Anti-MLM Coalition

Network Marketing/ social selling/ Multi Level Marketing, whatever you want to call it will never work. What I mean by ‘will never work’, is that MLMs will always cause people who join up to lose money, cause social isolation and will lose people their relationships. They will never be acceptable business models where people can earn an actual income.

MLM critics have often been accused of tarring MLMs with the same brush.

“They’re not all bad”.

“My MLM isn’t like the others”. How often has this been said?

“You haven’t studied every single company, so you don’t know that mine is bad”.

“I make a lot of money so I know mine isn’t a scam”.

Some people think that with a few improvements, MLM could be a good business model. It is tempting to think that for a little effort, you could earn a lot of money by earning off…

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USI Tech, what’s going on?

December 24, 2017December 24, 2017 by botwatchblog, posted in cryptocurrencies, Investigations

Recently USI Tech have caught my attention. First, a relative of an USI Tech member contacted me to share her concerns. She said she was very worried about her relative’s involvement in the scheme as she seemed to have had a personality transplant and was now obsessed with the company. The concerned relative couldn’t find much about it so turned to me for help. As always, once something is on my radar, I start noticing it when it appears and my concern and curiosity are piqued.

I have decided to document anything USI Tech related here so that all the upto date information will be easy to find if you are concerned about this particular MLM. This is particularly important when you realises a Face Book group dedicated to exposing the company disappeared suddenly. The information needs to be preserved. Please send me any information you think should be included.

If you would like to see, join or follow the new face book group, go and have a look here.

Ethan Vanderbuilt has written about USI Tech in this blog post. Unsuprisingly, he considers it to be a scam (in his opinion). He has concluded it is a Ponzi scheme because people earn money when they get others to pay to join it. He looks into the people behind the scheme and where the company is actually located. It seems it may not be straightforward. The founders have a past of financial dodgyness, involving the authorities and people being arrested.

Here is USI Tech’s website.They are in the UK, regularly putting on seminars to try and recruit people. They claim to have a special programme (robot) that can trade in cryptocurrencies and magically make loads of money for investors easily.

Here are some things that have been going on with the company.

December 15th 2017 British Columbia residents are warned not to invest in USI Tech as they do not have the necessary registrations.

December 19th 2017 Ash, a crypto expert blogs about USI Tech and details the problems he sees with the company. He attended a recruitment event and analyses what is said there. The comments after this article are worth a read.

December 20th 2017. The Texas State Securities Board warn against investing in the company. They issued a cease and desist order because they are not properly registered in Texas and are breaking lots of rules. They state that USI Tech claim to be regulated by the FTC but this is blatantly untrue. Ethan Vanderbuilt examines this development. Here are the documents detailing the order.

December 21st 2017 Nova Scotia’s securities commission warns people that it is illegal to run schemes in the way USI Tech are doing.

December 23rd 2017 The Financial and Consumer Services Commission of New Brunswick have warned against any involvement with the company. They call it an illegal investment scam and encourage people to report them. This is on their website

December 24th 2017 Manitoba Securities Commisssion in Canada warns against USI Tech and states that companies offering high returns at low risk are often signs of fraud. They ask for people who have been involved with USI-Tech to contact them.

Which country will warn against USI Tech next? Will anyone get in trouble over it? Will people start coming forward about money they lost in this scheme? Any information, please contact me.

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Information on specific MLMs

1st Phorm

2xtreme Performance International

4life

5linx

7 Minute Workout

31 Gifts (see Thirty One Gifts)

100% Pure

A Bit Rude

Abby+Anna’s Boutique

Abundant Health Ltd

ACN

Acti-Labs

Addlife

Adjuice

Adornable.U

Advance Finance Inc

Advita Energy

Advocare

Aerus Elecrolux

Agel Enterprises

Akasuka

Alice’s Table

All’asta

Alliance In Motion Global/ AIM Global

Allysian Sciences

Aloette Cosmetics

Aloe Vera of America

Alphay International

AlurVe

Amare Global

Amazon Herb

Ambit Energy

Amega

American Income Life

Ameo

Ameriplan Dental Plan

Amore Pacific

Amsoil

Amway

Annique

Annmarie

Ann Summers

AnRan

Apiori Beauty

Apollo

Aquasource UK

Arbonne

Ardyss

Ariix

Arsoa Honsha

ASEA

Aspire/Digital Altitude.

Athena’s

Athome America

Atomy

Ava Anderson (see Pure Haven)

Ava Rose Designs

Avon

Azuli Skye

Banners Broker

Bamboo Pink

Barefoot Books

Bath.ologie

Beachbody

BearCere’Ju

BeautiControl

Beautycounter

Beauty Society

BeCAUSE Cosmetics

Become International

Bedroom Kandi

Beever

Beijo

Belcorp

Bell Lifestyle Network

Bella Branch

Bella Vintaj