Mission Statement
In recent decades, pyramid schemes have become an insidious, pervasive and corrupting influence in the marketplace and community, causing financial and social harm on a global scale.
Since 1980 a new form of sales and marketing, called multi-level marketing or network marketing, has spread worldwide and spawned an explosion of pyramid sales schemes involving tens of millions of consumers. The line between legal forms of network marketing and fraudulent pyramid programs is a point of Read More…
Enough Is Enough. It’s Time for Action!
No more denial, shame or embarrassment. No more confusion. No more blaming the victim. No more resignation. And absolutely no more fear.
Pyramid Scheme Alert is the first consumer organization to confront the abuses and trickery of pyramid scheme perpetrators.
Pyramid Scheme Alert is a non-profit, privately supported (by memberships and donations), all-volunteer,
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Resources
Despite the volume of lies and hype flowing from multi-level marketing schemers there is more valid, research-based and whistle-blower information available today than ever before. The truth is emerging.
As in the cases of Enron, the lethal cigarette industry, bank and mortgage frauds and the Madoff ponzi scheme, the truth about multi-level marketing is taking time to emerge but the truth inevitably prevails. As the Links offered here show, the number of activists is growing. Major Read More…
Consumer Report Now Available:
What is this Thing called Multi-Level Marketing?
This new article by Robert L. FitzPatrick is an economic “portrait” of multi-level marketing (MLM) in the USA. The report has compiled and analyzed the data on three of the oldest and largest MLM companies, Amway, Herbalife and Nu Skin in a readable and understandable way to paint a recognizable picture. Together, these three constitute 10% of the entire MLM operations in America and serve as representatives of all others. About 1.5 million Americans are signed up in them each year. Most quit within a year. The report shows shocking loss rates among participants and an extreme transfer of money to the 1% at the top. The study also examines the potential for “retail” sales by distributors, which turn out to be non-existent. Finally, the report examines the financial chances of success of a new recruit joining any of the three today.
If you have an interest in seeing this report, contact us.
Recent Articles
MLM Is Not, and Never Was, “Direct Selling”
by Robert L. FitzPatrick, author of PONZINOMICS The most common belief about “multi-level marketing” – spread by MLM promoters – is that “MLM” is just a modern adaptation of “direct selling,” a centuries-old business model. The identity as the...
Leading MLM Spokesman Blasts MLM Consumer Protection Conference as “Anti-Business and Un-American”
Dr. Luzes stated that multi-level marketing is the last area of the economy that fosters faith in the American Dream. The conference critique of MLM, therefore, is “un-American,” he charged.
“Ponzinomics” Explained
The new book, PONZINOMICS, The Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing, by Robert L. FitzPatrick is discussed in a popular writer's podcast hosted by Landis Wade in Charlotte, NC, where FitzPatrick is based. The 40 minute podcast delves into the meaning of the term,...
“Business” Mask of MLM Removed
Nothing is more responsible for consumers falling into the MLM trap than the belief that they are investing in a "legitimate business." Thinking MLM is "business" causes consumers to believe the "income opportunity" is real, that there is actual "demand" for the...
First Consumer Conference on MLM: Register Now/ LA Primera Conferencia Sobre Protección de Consumidores en MMN: Regístrese Ahora
It's been a long time coming. Finally a consumer conference is being held on "multi-level marketing," exposing and examining actual financial realities, consumer harm, types of deception, analysis of cult persuasion, history of false product claims, challenges to...
Déjà vu: WA State Regulators Let LuLaRoe Off; Ignore Elephant in the Room
For all the news coverage, including a hilarious Samantha Bee commentary, interviews of tearful and angry victims, torrents of social media debate, and an upcoming film documentary, the state prosecution of the MLM, LuLaRoe, ended not with a bang for justice but...