MLM's are getting more sophisticated?

[DTEJD1997]

Hey all:

 

I had an unfortunate experience lately with a family member getting wrapped up with an MLM.

 

The last time I was approached by somebody pushing an MLM was maybe 25 years ago and it was pretty transparent.

 

This new one was a bit more sophisticated.  Basically, it boils down to selling very nice, very well engineered product at a 5x to 10x markup.  If you sell any of it, you get to keep 18% for yourself!

 

Three bad things about this...

 

a). relative is out $5k.  This is money that they don't have to be spending on nonsense like this.

 

b). they are now pissed that the rest of the family does not want to buy OR get wrapped up in this.

 

c). they are now pissed with me that I printed out stuff on the interweb showing what a dumpster fire this is and that interested consumers can buy stuff that is 90% as good for 10% of the price on Amazon.

 

How does MLM even exist in this day and age?

[UNF2007]

Sorry to hear about that. I have my own recent encounter with MLM. Wife was going to get a new ID card, and the lady helping her had a oil based air freshener in her office. My wife happened to comment that it was nice. Next thing the lady starts in on an MLM type pitch for this device, which she sells for 500$, but my wife could get one for "free" by agreeing to be a distributor and selling 10 of them. Not sure if this would require buying 5,000 worth of air fresheners, we didn't ask. Since she had all of my wife's info she said she would be contacting her in a few days....Not what we were expecting.

 

I'm not sure how MLM's exist, but the simple answer is there are enough gullible people out there to support it. Same for 419 scams, robocalls, work from home, quack medical therapies pretty much any other scam you can think of.

[rb]

I don't know how MLM scams still exist but they do. And I can tell you these people are very good.

 

One of my sisters got really wrapped up into one of these things a few years back. Another sister got just a little wrapped up. But man they did a real job on them. Long story short, the family figured out right away the MLM bullshit and told her about it. We also refused to let her market to family friends/connections/acquaintances. She became convinced that the family has something against her and just want her and her "business" for fail. That did real damage to relationships.

 

My personal view is that if you have a gun with 2 bullets and an MLM, a lawyer, a banker, and a car salesman you shoot the MLM twice. It's still hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that Berkshire owns an MLM. Btw, that was a point that these sleazebags that conned my sister used. MLMs are ok. Even Warren Buffett owns one.  >:(

[scorpioncapital]

MLM is a great, legit business model. Some are shady, just like some stocks or companies. Shady and/or bad deals. Like buying $5k of anything I can already tell you that is definitely not a good MLM. Others are pretty good. I've owned an MLM stock and has done very well for 20 years and I like and use the products. I've seen good results but of course be careful about the details. I like to study an MLM like a stock and do scuttlebutt and compare.