'Multi-Level Marketing' Warning.
The following deconstructed analysis has been formulated to sharpen the critical and evaluative faculties of all unwary persons approaching so-called 'Multi-Level Marketing' from the dangerous (subjective) point of view that it must be a business/industry, rather than from the safe (purely-objective) point of view that they don't really know what it is.
The following deconstructed analysis has been formulated to sharpen the critical and evaluative faculties of all unwary persons approaching so-called 'Multi-Level Marketing' from the dangerous (subjective) point of view that it must be a business/industry, rather than from the safe (purely-objective) point of view that they don't really know what it is.
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More than half a century of quantifiable evidence proves beyond all reasonable doubt that:
- the widely-misunderstood phenomenon that has become popularly-known as 'Multi-Level Marketing' (a.k.a. 'Network Marketing') is nothing more than an absurd, non-rational, cultic, economic pseudo-science maliciously-designed to lure unwary persons into de facto servitude, dissociate them from external reality and not only steal their money, but also deceive them into unconsciously acting the role of bait to lure other unwary persons (particularly their friends and family members) into the same trap.
- the impressive-sounding made-up jargon term, 'MLM,' is therefore, the misleading title for an enticing structured-scenario of control which has been developed, and constantly acted out as reality, by the instigators, and associates, of various copy-cat, major and minor, ongoing organised crime groups (hiding behind labyrinths of legally-registered corporate structures) to shut-down the critical, and evaluative, faculties of victims, and of casual observers, in order to perpetrate, and dissimulate, a series of blame-the-victim 'Long Cons*' - comprising self-perpetuating rigged-market swindles**, a.k.a. pyramid scams (dressed up as 'legitimate direct selling income opportunites') and related advance-fee frauds (dressed up as 'legitimate: training and motivation, self-betterment, programs, recruitment leads, lead generation systems,' etc.).
- Apart from an insignificant minority of shills (whose leading-role in the 'Long Con' has been to pretend that anyone can achieve financial freedom simply by following their unquestioning example and exactly-duplicating a step-by-step-plan of recruitment and self-consumption), the hidden overall net-loss/churn rate for participation in so-called 'MLM income opportunities,' has always been effectively 100%.
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*A 'Long Con' is a form of fraud maliciously designed to exploit victims' existing beliefs and instinctual desires and make them falsely-believe that they are exercising a completely free-choice. 'Long Cons' comprise an enticing structured-scenario of control acted out as reality over an extended period. Like theatrical plays, 'Long Cons' are written, directed and produced. They involve leading players and supporting players as well as props, sets, extras, costumes, script, etc. The hidden objective of 'Long Cons' is to convince unwary persons that fiction is fact and fact is fiction, progressively cutting them off from external reality. In this way, victims begin unconsciously to play along with the controlling-scenario and (in the false-expectation of future reward) large sums of money or valuables can be stolen from them. Classically, the victims of 'Long Cons' can become deluded to such an extent that they will abandon their education, jobs, careers, etc., empty their bank accounts, and/or beg, steal, borrow from friends, family members, etc.
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** The enticing structured-scenario of control fundamental to all 'rigged-market swindles' is that people can earn income by first contributing their own money to participate in a profitable commercial opportunity, but which is secretly an economically-unviable fake due to the fact that the (alleged) opportunity has been rigged so that it generates no significant, or sustainable, revenue other than that deriving from its own ill-informed participants. For more than 50 years, 'Multi-Level Marketing' racketeers have been allowed to dissimulate rigged-market swindles by offering endless-chains of victims various banal, but over-priced, products, and/or services, in exchange for unlawful losing-investment payments, on the pretext that 'MLM' products/services can then be regularly re-sold for a profit in significant quantities via expanding networks of distributors. However, since 'MLM' products/services cannot be regularly re-sold to the general public for a profit in significant quantities (based on value and demand), 'MLM' participants have, in fact, been peddled infinite shares of their own finite money (in the false expectation of future reward).
Thus, in 'MLM' rackets, the innocent looking products/sevices' function has been to hide what is really occurring - i.e The operation of an unlawful, intrinsically fraudulent, rigged-market where effectively no non-salaried (transient) participant can generate an overall net-profit, because, unknown to the non-salaried (transient) participants, the market is in a permanent state of collapse and requires its non-salaried (transient) participants to keep finding further (temporary) de facto slaves to sustain the enticing illusion of stability and viability.
Meanwhile an insignificant (permanent) minority direct the 'Long Con' - raking in vast profits by selling into the rigged-market and by controlling/withholding all key-information concerning the rigged-market's actual catastrophic, ever-shifting results from its never-ending chain of (temporary) de facto slaves.
Although cure-all pills potions and vitamin/dietary supplements, household and beauty, products have been most-prevalent, it is possible to use any product, and/or service, to dissimulate a rigged-market swindle. There are even some 'MLM' rackets that have been hidden behind well-known traditional brands (albeit offered at fixed high prices). Some 'MLM' rackets have included 'cash-back/discount shopping cards, travel products, insurance, energy/communications services' and 'crypto-currencies' in their controlling scenarios.
No matter what bedazzling product/service has been dangled as bait, in 'MLM' rackets, there has been no significant or sustainable source of revenue other than never-ending chains of contractees of the 'MLM' front companies. These front-companies always pretend that their products/services are high quality and reasonably-priced and that for anyone prepared to put in some effort, the products/services can be sold on for a profit via expanding networks of distributors based on value and demand. In reality, the underlying reason why it has mainly only been (transient) 'MLM' contractees who have bought the various products /services (and not the general public) is because they have been tricked into unconsciously playing along with the controlling scenario which constantly says that via regular self-consumption and the recruitment of others to do the same, etc. ad infinitum, anyone can receive a future (unlimited) reward.
I've been examining the 'MLM' phenomenon for around 20 years. During this time, I've yet to find one so-called 'MLM' company that has voluntarily made key-information available to the public concerning the quantifiable results of its so-called 'income opportunity'.
Part of the key-information that all 'MLM' bosses seek to hide concerns the overall number of persons who have signed contracts since the front companies were instigated and the retention rates of these contractees.
When rigorously investigated, the overall hidden net-loss churn rates for so-called 'MLM income opportunites' has turned out to have been effectively 100%. Thus, anyone claiming (or implying) that it is possible for anyone to make a penny of net-profit, let alone a living, in an 'MLM,' cannot be telling the truth and will not provide quantifiable evidence to back up his/her anecdotal claims.
** The enticing structured-scenario of control fundamental to all 'rigged-market swindles' is that people can earn income by first contributing their own money to participate in a profitable commercial opportunity, but which is secretly an economically-unviable fake due to the fact that the (alleged) opportunity has been rigged so that it generates no significant, or sustainable, revenue other than that deriving from its own ill-informed participants. For more than 50 years, 'Multi-Level Marketing' racketeers have been allowed to dissimulate rigged-market swindles by offering endless-chains of victims various banal, but over-priced, products, and/or services, in exchange for unlawful losing-investment payments, on the pretext that 'MLM' products/services can then be regularly re-sold for a profit in significant quantities via expanding networks of distributors. However, since 'MLM' products/services cannot be regularly re-sold to the general public for a profit in significant quantities (based on value and demand), 'MLM' participants have, in fact, been peddled infinite shares of their own finite money (in the false expectation of future reward).
Thus, in 'MLM' rackets, the innocent looking products/sevices' function has been to hide what is really occurring - i.e The operation of an unlawful, intrinsically fraudulent, rigged-market where effectively no non-salaried (transient) participant can generate an overall net-profit, because, unknown to the non-salaried (transient) participants, the market is in a permanent state of collapse and requires its non-salaried (transient) participants to keep finding further (temporary) de facto slaves to sustain the enticing illusion of stability and viability.
No matter what bedazzling product/service has been dangled as bait, in 'MLM' rackets, there has been no significant or sustainable source of revenue other than never-ending chains of contractees of the 'MLM' front companies. These front-companies always pretend that their products/services are high quality and reasonably-priced and that for anyone prepared to put in some effort, the products/services can be sold on for a profit via expanding networks of distributors based on value and demand. In reality, the underlying reason why it has mainly only been (transient) 'MLM' contractees who have bought the various products /services (and not the general public) is because they have been tricked into unconsciously playing along with the controlling scenario which constantly says that via regular self-consumption and the recruitment of others to do the same, etc. ad infinitum, anyone can receive a future (unlimited) reward.
I've been examining the 'MLM' phenomenon for around 20 years. During this time, I've yet to find one so-called 'MLM' company that has voluntarily made key-information available to the public concerning the quantifiable results of its so-called 'income opportunity'.
When rigorously investigated, the overall hidden net-loss churn rates for so-called 'MLM income opportunites' has turned out to have been effectively 100%. Thus, anyone claiming (or implying) that it is possible for anyone to make a penny of net-profit, let alone a living, in an 'MLM,' cannot be telling the truth and will not provide quantifiable evidence to back up his/her anecdotal claims.
Although a significant number of 'MLM' front-companies (like 'Vemma', 'Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing', 'Wake Up Now') have been shut-down by commercial regulators, some of the biggest 'MLM' rackets (like 'Amway' ,'Herbalife', Forever Living Products' ) have continued to hide in plain sight whilst secretly churning tens of millions of losing participants over decades.
The quantifiable results of the self-perpetuating global 'Long Con' known as 'Multi Level Marketing,' have been fiendishly hidden by convincing victims that they are 'Independent Business Owners' and that any losses they incurred, must have been entirely their own fault for not working hard enough.
Blog readers should observe how (in the above linked-videos) chronic victims of 'MLM' cults are incapable of describing what they were subjected to in accurate terms. Even though they are no longer physically playing along with the 'Long Con's' controlling-scenario, they unconsciously continue to think, and speak, using the jargon-laced 'MLM' script - illogically describing themselves as 'Distributors.'
Chronic victims of blame-the-victim cultic rackets who have managed to escape and confront the ego-destroying reality that they’ve been systematically deceived and exploited, are invariably destitute and dissociated from all their previous social contacts. For years afterwards, recovering cult victims can suffer from psychological problems (which are also generally indicative of the victims of abuse):
depression; overwhelming feelings (guilt, grief, shame, fear, anger, embarrassment, etc.); dependency/ inability to make decisions; retarded psychological/ intellectual development; suicidal thoughts; panic/ anxiety attacks; extreme identity confusion; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; insomnia/ nightmares; eating disorders; psychosomatic illness, fear of forming intimate relationships; inability to trust; etc
David Brear (copyright 2020)
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https://www.biznews.com/rugby/2020/06/25/crowd1-ponzi-alert
https://business.inquirer.net/296010/sec-flags-more-illegal-investment-schemes
https://www.businessforhome.org/2020/06/crowd1-listing-terminated/
https://news.trijo.co/en/news/major-network-marketing-company-crowd1-accused-of-being-a-pyramid-scheme/
https://badisaboikanyo.co.za/who-is-crowd1s-founder/
1. New Zealand:
“We recommend exercising caution before dealing with Crowd1 and Impact Crowd Technology S.L. as they are not registered companies or financial service providers in New Zealand”.
2. Norway:
“The Lottery Authority records that Crowd1 is being traded in a pyramid system”.
3. Philippines:
“The Commission has received information that an individual or group of persons representing an entity named CROWD1 ASIA PACIFIC INC. (CROWD1) are enticing the public to invest their money in the said entity with the promise of high monetary rewards or profits.Those who act as salesmen, brokers, dealers or agents of the said entity in selling or convincing people to invest in the investment scheme it is being offered including soliciting investments or recruiting investors through the internet may be held criminally liable under Section 28 of the SRC and penalized with a maximum fine of Five Million Pesos (Php5,000,000.00) or imprisonment of Twenty One (21) years or both pursuant to Section 73 of the SRC (SEC vs. Oudine Santos, G.R. No. 195542, 19 March 2014).”
4. Namibia:
The core business activity of Crowd1 is to introduce new members of the public to its business practice. Participants who join as members are encouraged to recruit new members through promises of bonuses and additional owner rights. The primary source of income for Crowd1 is generated through the recruitment of new members.
5. Paraguay:
The CNV identifies Crowd1 as a securities offering. The regulator notes Crowd1 is not registered with the CNV and therefore operates illegally. It is also illegal to promote unregistered securities. Promoters of Crowd1 in Paraguay face up to three years imprisonment or a fine.
6. Mauritius:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The FSC hereby informs the public that Crowd1 and/or any individuals/ representatives or promoter groups operating under this name are not and have not, at any point in time, been licensed and regulated by the FSC
WARNING
'Crowd1' and 'Impact Crowd Technology' are the impressive-sounding made up names for yet another 'Amway' copy-cat, blame-the-victim 'Multi-Level Marketing/Prosperity Gospel' cultic racket. All around the world, loud alarm bells are starting to sound, but investigative journalists, and indeed regulators and law enforcement agents, never seem to know what common-sense questions to ask.
The pair of unoriginal Narcisistic charlatans fronting the 'Crowd1' racket are Johan Staël von Holstein (a long-time would-be 'MLM' racketeer) and Jonas E Werner (a long-time would-be 'MLM' racketeer). They lately-pretend that their 'Crowd1 MLM' scheme is different to all other MLM schemes, that it is perfectly viable and legal and operates in 180+ countries with more than 7.5 millions participants.
The pair can be seen in this propaganda video reciting the bedazzling 'MLM' fairy story in response to scripted-questions being fed to them by a bedazzling female associate (employee).
Scandinavia has produced some particularly vile 'MLM' racketeers in recent years. Their criminal activities are neither original nor unique and, consequently, they cannot be fully-understood in isolation. Indeed, both Jonas E. Werner and Johan Staël von Holstein turn out to have been involved with some of Scandinavia's most-notorious 'MLM' racketeers.
Well who would have guessed that?
The Scandinavian-based 'MLM Income Opportunity/ Prosperity Gospel' cultic racket known as 'Zinzino,' was ostensibly instigated by an otherwise-mediocre, baby-faced, Norwegian narcissist, Finn Ørjan Sæle.
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| Former jailbird and failed-businessman: turned 'MLM Multi-Millionaire,' Randy Gage |
Ørjan Saele seems to have learnt his self-deluded act, almost word for word, from a notorious American 'MLM' shill, Randy Gage, whom he encountered in his youth. Randy Gage is yet another absurd loud-mouth who is fluent in 'MLM' jargon. Following the classic ordinary poor little man turned mighty 'MLM' superman fairy story, Mr. Gage has variously boasted of being a once-penniless high-school drop out substance abuser who was briefly jailed for armed robbery, and who (aged 30) went bankrupt (for a second time) trying to open a restaurant, but who finally transformed into an 'Amway Diamond and multi-millionaire MLM motivational author and speaker.'
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| 'MLM' racketeer, Terje Duesund |
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Terje Duesund has been the boss of 'Lyoness Norway.'
Ørjan Sæle andTerje Duesund also ran 'Nature's Own' (a.k.a. 'Natures of Scandinavia').
Claiming 600 000 adherents (i.e. more than 10% of the Norwegian population), 'Nature's Own' was openly described in the Norwegian media as a pyramid scam. At first, Norwegian Government agencies (including the Justice Dept.) seemed to be taking a tough line against the counterfeit 'direct selling company', but strings were evidently pulled and what seemed to be just a case of mass-consumer fraud began to show all the classic signs of major ongoing racketeering activity.
Former, Right-Wing Norwegian Member of Parliament, Anita Apelthun Saele (Christian Democrats - KrF) who just happens to be Ørjan Sæle's mother, was publicly accused of trying to influence Norwegian public prosecutors. Anita Apelthun Saele was even reported to have been directly involved in promoting 'Nature's Own,' but later she claimed only to have used the products.
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| Finn Jarle Sæle |
At the time 'Nature's Own' came under investigation in Norway as a suspected pyramid scam, Norwegian Minister of Finance, Gudmund Restad, was reported to have had his three daughters involved in 'Nature's Own.'
Evidently not wanting to open this embarrassing can of Norwegian worms, an extensive investigation allegedly conducted by the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security, was apparently shelved by prosecutors with jurisdiction in the case. However, all the bad publicity surrounding the front company obliged its bosses to change their corporate camouflage to 'Natures of Scandinavia.' The restyled front company was used to expand its bosses' criminal activities into the mobile phone market, offering adherents Internet subscriptions (in the false expectation of future reward) under the name 'PGOne' - a corporate structure which was later integrated into 'Ventelo'.
Now believing themselves to be above the law, Sæle and his criminal associates began to instigate a labyrinth of copy-cat rackets in Scandinavia and elsewhere, including 'Zinzino' which has lately been used to infiltrate financial markets in Sweden. However, 'Zinzino' has attracted more, unwelcome attention in Sweden, Finland and Estonia.
Other rackets which Sæle, and/or Duesund, and/or Johan Staël von Holstein, have been involved with have included:
'Spinglo/Synkronice'
'SaferWaver' (targetting people who fear radiation),
'Bewell'
'DailyPoker'
Many of the blame-the-victim rackets which have lately been the constituent parts of a cultic epidemic in Scandinavia, turn out to have been instigated and dissimulated by Sæle, and/or Duesund, or persons who have been closely linked to them (like Peter Jakobsson in Sweden and Jimmy Larsen from Denmark).
