Increase in MLM - property courses hooking people?

Increase in MLM - property courses hooking people?

Author
Discussion

fridaypassion

Original Poster:

9,380 posts

235 months

Tuesday 15th October
quotequote all
I've all of a sudden noticed a huge increase in people on my FB mainly women for some reason that have been caught up in one of these MLM things like Herbalife was a few years back. There's a lass who's living her best life as a travel consultant but posts and awful lot of pics from events run by the MLM company it all seems to be about the dream. Despite the financial freedom she still works full time in a proper job as well.

The latest one is a very intelligent lady that's all of a sudden reposting a lot of stuff from a property guru about portfolio building with no money.

A 30 second Google shows both operations to be a complete con of course but how do these people get hooked? I get bombarded with ads from two property gurus both full of horse manure I always report the ads as spam but I guess it's a numbers game for them but it's amazing to me that FB allow these things to be advertised.

I just don't understand how people don't do very minimal due diligence before paying with money for these snake oil salespeople.

number2

4,561 posts

194 months

Tuesday 15th October
quotequote all
People want to believe.

People are not very clever.

A combination of the above.

I admire the scammers keeping a straight face while they pull in money from these chumps. biggrin

Leicester Loyal

4,667 posts

129 months

Tuesday 15th October
quotequote all
A sparky I know got caught up in all this 'property investor' he calls himself on social media now. Was always posting pictures of his day, expanding his portfolio and building an empire, whilst also posting pictures at these events and declaring how wonderful and successful they were etc.

Few months later he never posts anything, and has presumably gone back to his day job of being a sparky.

Or he's made millions and doesn't want to boast biggrin

48k

13,968 posts

155 months

Wednesday 16th October
quotequote all
fridaypassion said:
I've all of a sudden noticed a huge increase in people on my FB mainly women for some reason that have been caught up in one of these MLM things like Herbalife was a few years back. There's a lass who's living her best life as a travel consultant but posts and awful lot of pics from events run by the MLM company it all seems to be about the dream. Despite the financial freedom she still works full time in a proper job as well.

The latest one is a very intelligent lady that's all of a sudden reposting a lot of stuff from a property guru about portfolio building with no money.

A 30 second Google shows both operations to be a complete con of course but how do these people get hooked? I get bombarded with ads from two property gurus both full of horse manure I always report the ads as spam but I guess it's a numbers game for them but it's amazing to me that FB allow these things to be advertised.

I just don't understand how people don't do very minimal due diligence before paying with money for these snake oil salespeople.
The MLMs seem to come in waves on social media. I haven't seen anything property related yet, but I have seen Forever Living, some sort of weight loss coffee thing and currently a perfume one whereby you're buying the actual same perfume/aftershave as a leading brand because it's made in the same factory but it's just in a plain bottle with a number on it.

All of these MLMs are not scams or illegal they stay the right side of the law but they all prey on the vulnerable and the only people making money are those at the top. They are cancerous companies, and some of the behaviours are verging on cultish.

LooneyTunes

7,582 posts

165 months

Wednesday 16th October
quotequote all
number2 said:
People want to believe.

People are not very clever.

A combination of the above.

I admire the scammers keeping a straight face while they pull in money from these chumps. biggrin
You forgot a dollop of greed - the people they suck in seem to think that there is a route to easy money. They don’t realise that they’re the ones providing it…

StevieBee

13,569 posts

262 months

Wednesday 16th October
quotequote all
I got snared by one of these back in the 80s / early 90s.

Entertainment Express was, I thought, an alternative to Britannia Music (LPs and CDs by mail order for the younger amongst us). I subscribed because the CDs were significantly cheaper and didn't come with the obligation of buying a minimum amount each month. Before I knew it, I was attending meetings and attempting to sign up anyone I even vaguely knew on the belief I could be raking in a trillion quid a month.

The scales dropped from my eyes at one gathering at some posh golf course where we heard from supposedly the highest earners who pointed to their super cars in the car park, which afterwards, I spotted all had 'Guy Salmon Supercar Rentals' on the number plates. And I found out that one of these high-fliers was known to a mate of mine and was a long way from being the success he espoused.

The thing is, if these companies were honest about the earning potential, I think they'd be just as successful. A friend of our flogs AloeVera stuff. She makes no bones about it being just a means to bring a little extra money in each month. Has been doing it for years. Avon is a MLM company and seems to work OK.

I just don't understand the need to go all evangelical on the recruitment.... but clearly it works in sucking in the wide-eyed.

Fast and Spurious

1,561 posts

95 months

Wednesday 16th October
quotequote all
MLM?

ChocolateFrog

28,623 posts

180 months

Wednesday 16th October
quotequote all
MLM scams for the women and trading/investing scams for the men.

I had a mate who was an Army Captain at the time start pushing a Forex scam a couple of years back. He was quoting 8-10% returns per week.

Blocked me when I questioned it but I know mutual friends who were foolish enough to lose money believing him.

ChocolateFrog

28,623 posts

180 months

Wednesday 16th October
quotequote all
Fast and Spurious said:
MLM?
Multi level marketing.

The just about legal pyramid scams.

fridaypassion

Original Poster:

9,380 posts

235 months

Wednesday 16th October
quotequote all
Fast and Spurious said:
MLM?
The main issue with MLM companies is that all their revenue is essentially internal do you make money by recruiting people below you in the pyramid quite often the only sales are the be people setting up with their stock/website etc then they do expensive courses that you are compelled to go on.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk...

This is when it can do wrong. The guy running this financial freedom dream disappeared for a bit but back with unashamed a vengeance now filling up conference halls with fools.

Fast and Spurious

1,561 posts

95 months

Wednesday 16th October
quotequote all
ChocolateFrog said:
Fast and Spurious said:
MLM?
Multi level marketing.

The just about legal pyramid scams.
Thank you. Glad I've never heard of it, sounds dreadful.
I'll stick with MLM = Middle Lane Moron

DodgyGeezer

42,391 posts

197 months

Wednesday 16th October
quotequote all
LML = pyramid sales IIRC?

FB is dreadful for these, some even with fack BBC websites and they don't block them frown

48k

13,968 posts

155 months

Wednesday 16th October
quotequote all
DodgyGeezer said:
LML = pyramid sales IIRC?

FB is dreadful for these, some even with fack BBC websites and they don't block them frown
Multi Level Marketing schemes are not illegal, whereas pyramid schemes are.

The two things are different. Honest.

Puzzles

2,448 posts

118 months

Wednesday 16th October
quotequote all
oh look its X, they haven't heard from them in years, wonder what they want....

oh another mlm scam.

Puzzles

2,448 posts

118 months

Wednesday 16th October
quotequote all
the property people piss me off.

mlm'er: mr puzzles we can take all your problems away and offer you a guaranteed rent
me: perfect, what level of security/bond/insurance etc are you going to put up as a guarantee?
mlm'er: no, mr puzzles, we guarantee we will pay you.

... okay.

StevieBee

13,569 posts

262 months

Wednesday 16th October
quotequote all
Fast and Spurious said:
ChocolateFrog said:
Fast and Spurious said:
MLM?
Multi level marketing.

The just about legal pyramid scams.
Thank you. Glad I've never heard of it, sounds dreadful.
Yep. Works on the basis that you sign two people up to something and they do the same, and then those two people do the same. The 'commission' theoretically keeps trickling back up to you, ignoring that there are also many more above you as well. Some you earn a commission on subscriptions and some you earn on product sales.

There are some good companies operating; Avon, I mentioned earlier, was one of the first. In the US, there's a company called Amway that are quite highly regarded and Tupperware also used to operate MLM.

There's also a lot of dross.

Scarletpimpofnel

921 posts

25 months

Wednesday 16th October
quotequote all
A friend was curious about one of these MLM schemes as, on the face of it, it looked legit and she was interested in doing something new.

She went to an all weekend event at a hotel near Heathrow that she had to pay for (hotel + event costs). That gave them there first bite at her cash.

After that they laid on lots of happy clappy presenters whipping the audience up into a frenzy before then asking them to fork out £2K+ for the next course where all will be revealed. They were also pushing courses for £4K+ and when anyone there wasn't cheering in the right places or paying up they would get singled out for redicule in front of everyone else until they did cough up. No money? No problem they will take a credit card. Still not enough money? Ring your friends/relatives and they will take card details over the phone.

My friend has a head on her shoulders and did her best to persuade the few acquaintances she met there NOT to part with their money. But most people there had nothing and saw this as a way of getting something, but instead lost serious amounts of money to these people.

At every Q&A my friend stood up and challenged them on everything. In the end they just ridiculed her and finally escorted her out.

A lot of people were basically brainwashed by the glitz and glamour around them and believed what they were told by some shinyt suits but lost money they could not afford to lose. At the time it upset me and my friend a lot, these were decent people just looking for a break. You might call them stupid, but naieve/trusting may be kinder words. These scams need better regulating.

vikingaero

11,221 posts

176 months

Wednesday 16th October
quotequote all
I quite like stalking the Property ones - companies house, other directorships etc.

Normally they have one company for the online courses with very little money in the accounts despite them showing a fabulous hired supercar and pretending to be in a flash house which is an AirBnB or hotel.

Then a second limited company that actually has assets, which is a mortgaged house..... that they happen to be living in. biggrin

bazza white

3,619 posts

135 months

Thursday 17th October
quotequote all
fridaypassion said:
I've all of a sudden noticed a huge increase in people on my FB mainly women for some reason that have been caught up in one of these MLM things like Herbalife was a few years back. There's a lass who's living her best life as a travel consultant but posts and awful lot of pics from events run by the MLM company it all seems to be about the dream. Despite the financial freedom she still works full time in a proper job as well.

The latest one is a very intelligent lady that's all of a sudden reposting a lot of stuff from a property guru about portfolio building with no money.

A 30 second Google shows both operations to be a complete con of course but how do these people get hooked? I get bombarded with ads from two property gurus both full of horse manure I always report the ads as spam but I guess it's a numbers game for them but it's amazing to me that FB allow these things to be advertised.

I just don't understand how people don't do very minimal due diligence before paying with money for these snake oil salespeople.
Is the first travel councillors. I think they're okay.




A work colleague is going for property, been on the courses remortgaged the house. He's £35k in so far and not got a property. Using sourcing agents to get a hmo and mortgage companies have rejected the values. Hes also discussed the numbers on decent property groups and they've told him his numbers are way to optimistic.

98elise

28,217 posts

168 months

Thursday 17th October
quotequote all
StevieBee said:
Fast and Spurious said:
ChocolateFrog said:
Fast and Spurious said:
MLM?
Multi level marketing.

The just about legal pyramid scams.
Thank you. Glad I've never heard of it, sounds dreadful.
Yep. Works on the basis that you sign two people up to something and they do the same, and then those two people do the same. The 'commission' theoretically keeps trickling back up to you, ignoring that there are also many more above you as well. Some you earn a commission on subscriptions and some you earn on product sales.

There are some good companies operating; Avon, I mentioned earlier, was one of the first. In the US, there's a company called Amway that are quite highly regarded and Tupperware also used to operate MLM.

There's also a lot of dross.
Betterware (remember them!) were also legit. I know someone who was fairly senior in the organisation but on a fixed salary (ie not in the MLM chain).

Some of the people in the field with multiple recruits under them were making a huge amounts of money. He was responsible for making sure they got paid their commissions and it was big sums, way more then he was paid. They used to give away bonus holidays etc to the biggest earners.

It's amazing how much money you can make setting plastic tat door to door.