Half of Amway’s Products Are Retailed. Really! Plus Other Wacky Numbers
In a recent video interview with Amway executives, Doug DeVos and Steve Van Andel, a Wall Street Journal reporter asked them a probing and revealing question. In fact, before the interview, the reporter for the Wall Street Journal emailed Pyramid Scheme Alert to ask for questions to pose to Amway’s top executives. The question that Pyramid Scheme Alert recommended and that was asked was,...
Read MoreNewspaper Series Explores Cult Connection to MLM, NXIVM
The lethal combination of cult and pyramid in a multi-level marketing company was vividly explored in a recent newspaper series on the multi-level marketing company, NXIVM (pronounced like the acid reflux “purple” pill). The four-part series in the Albany Times Union by James M. Odato and Jennifer Gish chronicles lawsuits, accusations of sexual abuse of female members, legal harassment...
Read MoreA European Court Rules: “Herbalife Is an Illegal Pyramid Scheme”
There are two icons of MLM that represent all the others of that “industry”. They are among the oldest and largest MLMs, and they have spread to most other countries worldwide. One is Amway. The other is Herbalife. Herbalife has just been ruled an illegal pyramid scheme by a court in Belgium. A case had been brought against Herbalife in Belgium by a non-profit consumer protection...
Read MoreTexas AG Forces MLM, Fortune High Tech Marketing, to Pay Refunds
Fortune High Tech Marketing (FHTM), the darling of the multi-level marketing industry when it was launched by former recruiters of the bankrupt MLM, Excel Communications, has been hit by regulators in yet another state. Texas consumers who were involved in the scheme may be entitled to refunds, totalling more than $1.3 million. The company has also agreed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars...
Read MoreFTC: Line between MLM and Pyramid Fraud too Complex to Regulate
The staff of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reversed its earlier position on the need to regulate multi-level marketing and has now recommended exempting all MLMs from a proposed “business opportunity rule.” This means MLMs will have no rules requiring disclosure of income averages, recruiting requirements, saturation, failure rates, or business costs when recruiters lure...
Read MoreIs Social Security a Ponzi Scheme? Pyramid Scheme Alert Answers: NO!
Since its founding 11 years ago, Pyramid Scheme Alert has battled an epidemic of Ponzi and Pyramid Schemes in the USA and internationally. The schemes operate as multi-level marketing, home-based businesses, gifting clubs, investment schemes, buying clubs and under other disguises. Our Directors, Advisers and supporters have researched and analyzed pyramid schemes and have worked to clarify what...
Read MoreIs Social Security a Ponzi Scheme?
By Robert L. FitzPatrick, President of Pyramid Scheme Alert, with the Assistance of Pyramid Scheme Alert Directors and Advisors. A presidential candidate charges that the American Social Security system is a “Ponzi scheme” not long after the largest Wall Street Ponzi scheme in history collapsed and wiped out pensioners and charities. Pundits loudly argue the candidate’s claim but almost...
Read MoreHyped by Donald Trump, ACN Video Phone Business May Be Collapsing
Donald Trump tells Americans that it is a technology breakthrough, a wave of the future; everybody will own one; better get in now! He is personally endorsing and hyping the “revolutionary IRIS V Video Phone”, the flagship product and the new icon of the multi-level marketing company, ACN, for which Donald Trump serves as pitchman-in-chief. He trumpets the video phone on Celebrity...
Read MoreMusic MLM, BurnLounge, Ruled Illegal Pyramid by Fed Court, Finally
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) officials invested four years in seeking a verdict from a federal court on their charge that the multi-level marketing (MLM) company, BurnLounge, Inc. was an illegal pyramid scheme. Finally, on July 1, 2011, the verdict came in: Guilty! Read an Analysis of this important federal court...
Read MoreHas MLM Corrupted Avon?
Avon has long been, and is today, the pillar that holds up the credibility of the direct selling industry. It has unintentionally lent legitimacy to multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes that sold outrageous health scams, some that were sued by financially ruined consumers and others that were shut down by regulators for pyramid fraud. By their association with Avon as “direct selling”...
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