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
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...
HBO Documentary, The Vow, Covers Up Core Fact about NXIVM and Keith Raniere
The fascinating and shocking documentary on HBO, The Vow, is a gripping true story about a strikingly unremarkable person, Keith Raniere, who somehow made dozens of young women his “sex slaves.” As part of a cultic program that he named, NXIVM, pretentiously...
An Untold Story: How MLM Shaped Donald Trump’s Politics and Presidency
It is not denied or hidden that Donald Trump is involved and connected to multi-level marketing (MLM). Wall Street Journal and other business media report Trump’s 10 years as spokesman for ACN and his namesake MLM, Trump Network. How much money in total he gained...
Fed Prosecution of Pyramid Money-Processor, Payza, Reveals Dilemma of Identifying “Legitimate” MLMs
by Robert L. FitzPatrick The U.S. Dept. of Justice (DOJ) recently obtained guilty pleas from two individuals involved in a global PayPal-like money-transfer company, called Payza. According to the DOJ, Payza served numerous merchants that were “Cyclers” and “MLMs”....
MLM Recruiting during Corona Shut-Down Reveals Sham Identity of “Direct Selling”
That revenue and enrollments of some multi-level marketing companies have increased during the government-ordered shut-down and quarantining is yet another proof that “MLM” is not “direct selling.” Under pandemic conditions there could be no “parties”, personal...