I’m tired of seeing them; the sneaky messages that never tell you what you might be getting yourself into, the ones that promise the world. Yes, I’m talking about MLM schemes, and they’re all over the place. These things waste my time and yours as well. And you’re not going to make all that much money from it.
I’ve written before about watching out for scams far and wide. Just last week I wrote about an email/internet scam that got sneakier the further I got into it.
What caused my rant? What do I recommend? What’s my opinion on it all? You know I did a video about it, right? Take a look, then let me know your thoughts:
I completely agree Mitch, this has been going on for 30 years now. The sad thing is some people never learn and get sucked into these scams over and over again.
It’s not just MLM either, there’s a ton of affiliate and internet marketers playing just as bad, if not worse. I just had a very popular marketer (I’m dying to post his name but that wouldn’t be right) send this subject line to his list, “why is your website down?” Naturally my heart stopped and I jumped over to see what was wrong with my site; I was not a happy camper just to realize he was just promoting a website backup tool. And can you believe there was no opt-out link or statement in the email? I’ll forward the email to you; I think you’ll get a kick out of it.
I completely agree with you. Whenever I hear about some get rich quick scheme with a video or a huge page of promotion without ever telling me what the product was it turned out to be a scam. I’m always wary of people that try and give me something for nothing. There’s always a catch. The sad thing is that it is so rampant that we have to dig through a lot of scams to find the legitimate programs.
I refuse to do it Richard. Some say I might miss out on an opportunity but I seriously doubt it. I tend to believe you never miss out on anything you never hear about.
Generally all MLM schemes are total scam, the online MLM schemes are not an exception, things got a bit quieter nowadays, but around the years 98-99 internet was overloaded with this.
I remember Carl, and the thing is these days some of the scams have gotten sneakier, harder to figure out. But some things are standard; if they can’t tell you what they’re representing within the first few minutes, run! lol
Only the company at the top wins, nobody else. Do you remember HYIP scam with e-currencies, thanks God they locked all those sneaky payment processors. Last year, I was lucky enough to get my money from one of them 3 days before they lock all accounts.
Nope, you got me on that one Carl. lol
This is a particular bugbear of mine, Mitch. Thanks for writing about it.
Without mentioning any names, I have a relative who got involved in an MLM scheme years ago. She’s actually doing very well out of it as she’s risen up the ranks and goes abroad to conventions, etc, but she can’t see the effect it has on everyone around her who is not similarly enamoured of the business, its system or its products. It’s about the only thing she talks about, she tries to rope in or sell products to everyone she meets – from casual acquaintances to relatives. I have lost count of the number of times I’ve been lectured about it, had samples dropped on me, etc. So, even when it works – it’s a total pain. I think these schemes, as well as often doing people out of their money (the products certainly are, as you say, much more expensive than any in ordinary shops) are anti-social, too.
To me, these MLM schemes – whether they work or not – are a type of brainwashing.
Thanks again Val; you hit it squarely on the nail. I know way more people working MLM and not getting paid what their efforts are worth, and the thing I hate is being recruited all the time. I had one guy looking for work that I tried to help, then he started trying to sell me on some MLM vacation thing. He pulled out a $20,000 check he’d supposedly been paid and I said “Then why are you looking for a job? This looks great.” His reply, though it didn’t immediately come, was that he needed insurance coverage, to which I replied “Heck, if you can make $20K at a moment’s notice insurance coverage should be an easy thing.” Luckily he dropped it; and I was paying for lunch! lol
It’s great if you can come up with something that persuades them to stop nagging. Good on you! 🙂
Thanks Val. I don’t know that we’ll ever be able to stop the nagging because there are just so many schemes that take people in and unfortunately they seem to be successful at that if nothing else.
YUP. I’ve experienced the exact same things.
The vague video presentation because they know if they tell you the deal right away you’ll be out of there.
Similar to the product “squeeze page” where they hype up the product before they hit you with the astronomical price.
I still get a few of these offers every month that promise the world and have very little proof or way to back up those claims.
I don’t personally know anyone who’s successful at it, but obviously as you say, someone at the top somewhere must be getting paid, otherwise we wouldn’t be seeing any of this stuff at all.
John, luckily because I run Mailwasher I don’t download any of that mess anymore. But I’ll still see links here and there on Twitter that say something, only to show up and see it’s one of these MLM types of things. It’s irksome because when they don’t say what they are, your skin starts to clam up and you hate yourself for staying even a minute. If there were a lot of people we knew making money off this stuff maybe our feelings would be different. But there’s not, and we all know it, and that’s why it’s irritating. Thanks for watching the video!
Because network marketing scam claims are all around the internet and its about time the industry stood up for itself rather than not addressing it. Leaders are people who take on the challenges of guiding people to the hard right versus the easy wrong. By not ignoring network marketing scam claims and meeting them head on, your doing our industry a favor.
Thanks Clint… I suppose. Overall you’re correct; there are so many scams that it taints the entire industry and makes us all feel as though we’re being used. I can truthfully say that I don’t trust any of them, and yet I know there has to be one or two out there that are legitimate and where people can actually make money without being taken for a ride. I just haven’t seen it yet, and the hype I do see seems to override everything else. And that’s probably too bad.