Anyone been involved with a scam or pyramid scheme before?

[enigma]

A good friend of mine went to one of those Timeshare presentations where they promise you lots of things if you attend. Well, my friend got a $500 gift card for GoShopping.com where she could buy anything she wanted..... if she payed the S&H herself. We looked on that site last night and were laughing so hard at the junk that they have on there. Such random crap that they charge 'slightly' less for S&H than the average store would normally sell it as.

Anyhow, I was curious who else has been involved in something like this, or know someone who has.

[wordsmith]

I seriously disowned a friend who invited me and another mutual friend to his infant daughter's birthday party, and as soon as the candles were blown out, started setting up a presentation for Quixtar, the evil internet wing of the evil Amway corp, and started blathering about retiring by thirty, blah, blah. Way to lose a friend, buddy.

Fuck...if pyramid schemes actually worked, nobody in the world would have an actual job. We'd all be peddling Amway to one another.

[flesh_gordon]

One of my cousins used to sell equinox stuff (I think that's the name) He said their seminars was basically just brainwashing...

Now he sells shaklee stuff... meh.

[WorkInProgress]

One of my cousins used to sell equinox stuff (I think that's the name) He said their seminars was basically just brainwashing...

Now he sells shaklee stuff... meh.

Actually, some shaklee stuff is pretty good. Their fake pine-sol stuff is really good. Can't say about business practices, though, since I know nothing about them.

[SparkleInTx]

My ex fell for the Amway & Quixtar scam. I went to a meeting with him once, I told him it felt like being in a cult and I was never going back. There is just something weird (& wrong) about getting dressed up in your finest ill-fitting shabby suit and preying on unsuspecting people at diners in the middle of the night trying to recruit. Just plain weird.

[wordsmith]

Interestingly and not coincidentally, pyramid schemes prey on the exact same demographic of people that cults do...lower income, lower educational level, people who are to the point of desperation to find some way to improve their lives overnight.

[Kitty]

Fuck...if pyramid schemes actually worked, nobody in the world would have an actual job. We'd all be peddling Amway to one another.

LOL!!

Yeah, it is totally weird, cult-like and annoying. I actually used to babysit for this couple who were Amway people and I think they must have made an OK living because they owned a house in the Bay Area. Still, it was a TOTAL show for them. They had a super tiny house, no furniture, etc. but they drove a Jaguar and were always dressed to the nines. It's definitely a facade.

[steph78]

A couple years ago I designed a 35,000-sq. foot house for someone (we usually do large houses, but that's freaking ridiculous!). We all got curious as to what kind of guy this was that was paying for all this, and after googling him we found out that he was at the top of a life insurance pyramid scheme - that's how he made his millions (perhaps billions....). We couldn't believe one of those schemes actually worked for someone!

When I was flying home from Seattle last month I had the window seat and the couple in the two seats next to me spent literally five hours talking about this health drink that they were selling and invited me to sign up under them to be a seller as well. (try as I might to put my headphones on or turn toward the window, they kept going!) They had all these charts showing potential earnings for sellers and seemed to totally think that this was going to be their primary source of income in the near future. I asked them how much they had made so far and the lady said they were making like $300 a month "but that would be increasing very soon!". Yeah, that sold me. :googly:

[29 forever]

Yeah I almost got suckered into one. It was this scam of a company called Primerica Financial Services. They touted the "position" as being a real job in the financial sector when really it was multilevel marketing & commission only. After I found that out, I told the guy "Sorry, but with my education and skills, I'll only accept this position if you're willing to offer me a large base salary PLUS the commission." He just had a blank look on his face & I walked out.

[pisces2473]

LOL a former coworker's sister was ALLLLLL into Quixtar. My coworker ordered stuff from her. Crazy.

[care99bare]

I've been to a couple of those opening "seminars" (when i was young and dumb, and usually at the request of a broke friend who had never been but was curious). They all sound just peachy, but i've never heard of anyone real actually making money in one of those... but i guess it's possible? I kinda like the candle one... what is it? Man, can't think of it now (shows how interested i really am...)

Still, i don't think i could ever pressure my friends to buy stuff from me, and most of those companies require you to start with peddling their stuff to your friends, and expand from there. Um, no thanks. I want my friends to LIKE me.

[WorkInProgress]

I kinda like the candle one... what is it? Man, can't think of it now (shows how interested i really am...)

Partylite.

[care99bare]

Yeah! that's it! I went to one of their parties a friend of mine threw, bought one candle i've never lit, and that was about it. Oh well...

[SparkleInTx]

So I guess then Mary Kay, Beauticontrol, Girls Night Out, etc. are all types of pyramid schemes to a degree, but somehow seem less-so and less cult-like. I've done the Mary Kay & BeautiControl thing but didn't make any $$, (imagine that) - but got great discounts on products for my personal use (which is really frowned on). Oh well.

[lighthouse4life]

So I guess then Mary Kay, Beauticontrol, Girls Night Out, etc. are all types of pyramid schemes to a degree, but somehow seem less-so and less cult-like. I've done the Mary Kay & BeautiControl thing but didn't make any $$, (imagine that) - but got great discounts on products for my personal use (which is really frowned on). Oh well.

Mary Kay is a pyramid scheme?? I never heard of it that way. I met with a consultant once. They seem to have too many products to be a pyr. sch.

There's Avon too, but they've been there forever....

[red]

yeah, i had a running friend who started selling sports drinks. that friendship didn't last long!

[SparkleInTx]

I don't necessarily consider Mary Kay and that sort of thing to be a "scheme" but lets face it, it is a pyramid or multi-level marketing. Your paid a percentage based on the number of recruits you have & their sales. That's a pyramid or multi-level marketing. They just are more legit than some of the others I think.

[wordsmith]

Being independent dealers for makeup, jewelry, perfume, scented candles, etc. is still multi-level marketing.

Look at it this way...if you're in a business where you invite people to your house to sell them stuff, or go to their house to sell them stuff, invite a bunch of people, and try to convince them that they, too, should sell this stuff, it's a pyramid scheme.

May I never have a career where I have to sell ANYthing. Ugh.

[lighthouse4life]

The lady I met, who sells Mary Kay products, never mentionned anything about ME selling products... She was more into selling ME products LOL.

[wordsmith]

They're supposed to recruit new sales associates.

[lighthouse4life]

May I never have a career where I have to sell ANYthing. Ugh.

Amen to that. However, we are always in the business of selling our skills, competencies and capability to do a good job- arent we? Even in relationships, I feel that we are selling our capacity "to be the ultimate friend, "the best daughter-in-law", to "best soulmate"....Or maybe its my view that PR is involved in everything-

[wordsmith]

Selling potential employers on my skills is fine...I KNOW I'm worth something.

I'm talking products. I'm the person of the philosophy that , "No, you do NOT need a bunch of knives or shitty scented candles, or to be in this jewelry club...you don't need this clothing, or those shoes, and I'm sure as hell not the person who's going to convince you that you do, because it's BS." Stuff that people actually DO need doesn't need to be marketed. I will never ever work in sales.

[WorkInProgress]

Ditto that. I suck at it.

I do, however, LOVE going to some of the parties (although I know that LOTS of people do not) for some of the products. And I do actually know a woman who is quite successful selling her products. She's established a wide clientel base that she deals with, she's great, creative, etc. It doesn't have to be insidiously evil (although I'm sure some are).