approached you with one of those "get rich quick scheme"? My friend approached me with this bullshit a month ago and the dude is sucked in to this stuff. Its another variation of amway where they sell products and recruit members (suckers). Its quixtar/bww. I can't believe how deep he's gotten into this because I now see him buying the products that he sells. He attends meetings each week, travels to national meetings, and meets with his "mentor". Its like a cult and he sounds like an infomercial when you talk to him. If you ask him about it, he is very vague and tries to talk you into going to the meeting.

Its sad that people are naive enough to fall for this and its basically taking over his life and he doesn't know it. I'm not going to say anything to him because I don't want him to get pissed off. Let him fall on his face and realize what a waste of money/time it was.

Just wondering if you know anyone that has gotten into this?

of course. sadly, i got sucked into one of those multi level marketing schemes early in my college days. thank god i got out of that before i put in any substantial time/money.

unfortunately, they are DAMN good at dangling promises of riches in front of you. people constantly boast about how much money they make and their "gatherings" are more emotional than anything. they've also got a response to almost every skeptical question in the book. at the end of the day, there are MANY, MANY more people losing chunks of money and time than there are millionaires.

basically, tell him to google "quixtar scam" and tell him to do some reading. if he's not smart enough to research what he's investing all that time and money into......then, well, you know what they say about a fool and his money...

The worst is when you are invited for a get together at a friends house, only for them to pull this shit out on you. Dirty prick.

I basically live by the motto that if it sounds to good to be true, it likely is. Now I've probably missed out on a good deal or a good time a couple of times, but I'm willing to make that sacrifice to keep the money I've earned in my pocket instead of pissing it away.

Yeah, I heard the recruitment story from him but I didn't bite cause I know better than that.

Unfortunately, even if I told him he would probably ignore me cause he's in this deep. He plans his life around this stuff now and he's going to attend all these meetings across the country.

I think it would probably be a good lesson if he lost a few grand.

Yeah, I heard the recruitment story from him but I didn't bite cause I know better than that.

Unfortunately, even if I told him he would probably ignore me cause he's in this deep. He plans his life around this stuff now and he's going to attend all these meetings across the country.

I think it would probably be a good lesson if he lost a few grand.

that sucks.

i still think that people can make money from stuff like that. however, you need to:

a). have no moral objection to suckering others out of their money
b). desire money more than your integrity
c). fully realize that a few can get rich off the back of others getting poor

that's how pyramid systems work. the product itself is pretty much a front to keep things legal. you're basically recruiting people....even though the "company" will make you think you're also selling some wonderful stuff. the people who make a killing are those who recruit 24-7.

Yeah but don't they have to sell things for you to make money? So essentially you have to recruit members that are as crazy about it as you are to make money. I guess their are a couple rich guys that invite them to their homes so they can believe that they will be there some day. Its totally fucked up.

Yeah but don't they have to sell things for you to make money? So essentially you have to recruit members that are as crazy about it as you are to make money. I guess their are a couple rich guys that invite them to their homes so they can believe that they will be there some day. Its totally fucked up.

usually, comissions for sales are so tiny that you have to sell an assload to make any sort of living. you might as well just get a job in sales somewhere.

the "power" of multi-level marketing is in recruiting members who, in turn, recruit other members. you get a tiny % of everyone's comissions "under" you. these companies throw promises of riches by introducing laws of exponetial growth...."if you recruit 3 people, who recruit 3 people, who recruit 3 people, etc, etc....you'll be rich in a year!" while they can't flat out pay you to recruit people (making it illegal), you're not making any significant money unless you go out and recruit like you're Shawn Kemp sowing his wild oats.

throw in some cult-like followers and auditoriums filled with disillusioned people.....it can get convincing.

I had a friend that I worked with a few years before this happened One day, he calls me out of the Blue to see what I was up to. I was telling him that I had just moved into my new apartment and Blah, blah, blah. He said, I'd Love to see it lets have a few beers and so on.

He shows up with one of his surperiors both wearing suits and starts telling me how they are looking for bright young people like myself.

He said "Let me help you, Help yourself"!

I asked them to leave and he said I was missing out. I told him that in a few years he could drive up in his Viper after leaving his mansion and come visit me in my 2 bedroom house and laugh at me and until than STFU.

I saw his brother not to long ago and he's making $90.00 a month in comissions but is still putting in over $100.00 in dues per month. Not to mention he got both his parents and brother among other people to sign up. It's been 5 years and him and his family are all down thousands of dollars and he's the only one left doing it. He is still convinced it's going to pay off.

I had a friend that I worked with a few years before this happened One day, he calls me out of the Blue to see what I was up to. I was telling him that I had just moved into my new apartment and Blah, blah, blah. He said, I'd Love to see it lets have a few beers and so on.

He shows up with one of his surperiors both wearing suits and starts telling me how they are looking for bright young people like myself.

I had almost the same thing happen to me.

My friend showed up with audio CD's and DVD's along with a bunch of samples and started talking about how I would set for the rest of my life and crap like that.

I haven't talked to him since.

The thing is that you would least expect it from your friend.

I was talking to my friend around Christmas and all of a sudden he asked me if I wanted to make some money. I thought it was some job but when I kept pressuring further and further he sounded like an infomercial at one point wanting to meet me the next day to talk about it. He kept on feeding me "Do you want to spend the rest of your life working and making $50k a year or do you want to make 150k" and other empty promises. Not sure about everyone else, but if the the wife makes 50k and I make 50k then life is pretty freaking grand.

Anyway, I was just stunned that he would fall for this and the thing is that he acts very strange now. I really don't hang around him that much anymore. I've heard that these type of cults want you to disassociate yourself with the "non-believers".

I had a relative try to sell herbal vitamin things to my dad's side of the family. Those things are dangerous too, because they aren't checked by the FDA as drugs. On my mom's side of the faimly my aunt starting taking herbal supplements. She lost a bunch of weight, but then she got thyroid cancer.


I've had multiple other family members and friends tell me about get rich quick schemes, but they were typically crime related. Like "go through my line and I won't really ring up the expensive stuff. I'll just put it in the bag" and "He's going to think he's making a real investment, dumb ass drug dealers". They actually worked though.

Here's a good site that deals critically with multi-level marketing and how it destroys people's lives:
http://www.mlmwatch.org/

I've only ever had one person approach me with this kind of scam. I barely knew him, and brushed him off. What was scary is I had a friend with me, and this otherwise intelligent person seemed to be getting suckered in by these empty promises. I talked him out of having dealings with the MLM company, thankfully, and I'm glad he didn't take that path.

My wife's friend buys all her family products through some mlm thing. That's as close as I've ever come to one of them. I think she has mentioned it to my wife before but I didn't marry a dumbass.

Being over here in Grand Rapids (home of Amway/Alticor/Quixtar) I see/hear about this shit every day. This city is built on $ from MLM's (everything has DeVos or VanAndel's names on it).

Basically, it tears friendships and families apart, and causes financial ruin for those that really fall hard for it.

It's really one of the strangest (and scummiest) things I've ever seen. Perfectly rational people get roped in hook, line and sinker, and before you know it, they are thinking about buying Lexus' and having summer homes in Traverse City. But that never happens, of course.

Whomever said that Quixtar is like is cult is dead on.

They use HOPE to ruin the lives of many, and make themselves rich at the same time.

Scum of the Earth, I tell you.

These are all just elevated corporate con games.


You all missed out on the most deadly aspect of it though. These dudes will hype up their health products as if they were miracle drugs. In reality they aren't even drugs at all. If a sucker believes what they say and buys their product thinking they are putting themselves at risk health wise.



Would you walk up to a 600lb dude with a herbal supplement and tell him this will lower his blood pressure naturally? Of course he wants to be healthy, he wants to believe you have this unknown miracle pill. So he buys it, and feels good about it. That's not healthy though. It's the same thing as the 'psychic surgeons' that used sleight of hand and chicken liver to make people think they were being cured of cancer... leaving them to die days later.

And if you would like to run our state in this manor please vote for Richard DeVos in November.

"I'm a job maker."

No shit, fucking leech.

lol at this thread, especially hermy.

i wonder if i run in some of the same circles as you guys.

i know people in one of these called "the team" (formerly team of destiny). very sad, theyve been 'job optional in the next 3 months' for years now.

one of them actually asked me to sign a petition for Devos at a tailgate last fall.

fortunately, they never even confronted me about joining. im guessing because i dont fit the mold of an ideal 'team' member.

lol at this thread, especially hermy.

i wonder if i run in some of the same circles as you guys.

i know people in one of these called "the team" (formerly team of destiny). very sad, theyve been 'job optional in the next 3 months' for years now.

one of them actually asked me to sign a petition for Devos at a tailgate last fall.

fortunately, they never even confronted me about joining. im guessing because i dont fit the mold of an ideal 'team' member.

Ditto, ditto, and ditto.

Fuck "The Team". All my friends who got into it are now just isolated alone now in their own world and I barely have talken to them since.

All they talk about it is having so much money, quitting school, and able to buy this and that, when in reality they still go to school and work part-time on top of "the business".

Just finish school and get real jobs [/rant]