Friday, 3 December 2021
Thursday, 25 November 2021
An independent European (Dutch) academic is publicly telling the truth about 'MLM' cultic racketeering!
Opinion: Make easy money on social media? Don't fall for it | De Volkskrant
OPINION
Opinion: Make easy money on social media? Don't fall for it
Most entrepreneurs who sell products through social media earn nothing. Time to warn young people about the misleading revenue models of 'multi-level marketing'.
Maybe this has happened to you: you suddenly receive a mysterious message from a former classmate who asks if you want to earn a 'passive income'. All you have to do is praise a very expensive weight loss supplement or Aloe Vera drink to heaven via social media and ask your friends to follow your example.
This marketing construction is called 'multi-level marketing' (MLM). For decades, MLM companies like Tupperware, Amway and Herbalife have been recruiting people with the promise of earning an extra income from home. It is estimated that 95 thousand Dutch people are currently employed in this sector; worldwide that number is 125 million. Partly thanks to the corona crisis, the popularity of MLM is increasing. A worrying trend.
The living room parties with which Tupperware caused a furore in the last century have been moved to the digital arena in 2021. With this, MLM companies attract a new target group: young people. Take the very young self-proclaimed Bossbabes from the company Valentus. In attractive Instagram Stories they sell slimming coffee and encourage their followers to become 'distributor' of this panacea just like them.
Questionable quality
Becoming a distributor does not require any special skills or diplomas; however, you must invest in product packages that you can sell with a profit margin. Purchase price: about 130 euros for three packs of coffee. The high price and questionable quality make it a challenge to get rid of those products. That's why many distributors focus on a reportedly more lucrative source of income: recruitment.
When you recruit friends who also buy products, you earn commission. If they then recruit newcomers, you will earn even more. While MLM is presented as a "fair" chance to get rich, only a few at the top of this tiered system manage to get a full-time income from it. Research shows that between 74 and 99 percent earn nothing or even go into debt. Debts are easy to build up, because distributors regularly have to purchase expensive product packages.
Still, Bossbabes paint a dreamscape of expensive cars, tropical vacations, and a five figure income,all thanks to weight loss coffee. They proudly claim how they have "freed" themselves from their nine-to-five job or study and urge their followers to keep critical friends and family members at bay. After all, your real family is your MLM community.
Fallacious
A report by Radar about Valentus prompted the PvdA to put parliamentary questions to outgoing Minister Blok (Economic Affairs). What is the government doing about these deceptive practices by MLM companies? In short: nothing.
If there is a pyramid scheme, the Gaming Authority is authorised to act against it. In a pyramid scheme, participants are asked to deposit money and recruit new participants who also deposit money. Only those who get in on time can make money, so this 'game' is seen as a fraud. At MLM, however, there is a product opposite that deposit. A legal sales method, according to the Gaming Authority.
The system may be legal, but the consequences for those involved can be great. 'Lawful but awful', as criminologist Nikos Passas describes business practices that cause damage to society, but which the government does not or not sufficiently look after. No agency takes responsibility for controlling the ins and outs of MLM companies, and victims have nowhere to turn.
Smokescreen
The multimillion-dollar turnover of MLM companies is therefore strongly driven by recruitment, just like with illegal pyramid schemes. Products often act as a smokescreen in this system. What needs to happen to stop this?
The most important step would be to designate a single responsible body to control and monitor these organisations. After all, MLM companies work 'differently' than ordinary employers and are now slipping through the loopholes of the law. In addition, the Gambling Act should be broadened so that companies with products can also be regarded as pyramid schemes when the emphasis is on recruitment.
However, prevention is better than cure and education is of great importance, for example through social media and schools. What can you recognize MLM by? What are the financial and social risks?
Finally, an appeal to young people who are considering also stocking up on packs of slimming coffee in the hope of getting rich: courage and entrepreneurship are qualities to be proud of. Use those qualities within a sector that is not only legal, but also really honest.
Claudia Gross is assistant professor at Nijmegen School of Management, Radboud University. Iris den Hartog is programme secretary at ZonMw.
copyright de Volkskrant 2021
Tuesday, 23 November 2021
New interview with Robert FitzPatrick
“Multilevel Marketing” Companies Cheat and Exploit Ordinary People on a Vast Scale
Multilevel marketing is a scam. But thanks to protection by political elites and well-funded industry propaganda, it keeps growing. Cracking down on it would be as simple as enforcing the laws against fraud — if only the political will could be found.
“Multilevel Marketing” Companies Cheat and Exploit Ordinary People on a Vast Scale (jacobinmag.com)
Friday, 10 September 2021
'Herbalife Multi-Level Marketing' racketeers buy association With Tottenham Hotspur FC
It has recently been announced that 'Herbalife' is going to sponsor the Tottenham Hotspur Women's team.
In reality, what is actually happening here, fits into an overall pattern of ongoing major racketeering activity (as defined by the US federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 1970). For the bosses of a deceptive, American-based, international criminal racket have clearly invested some of their ill-gotten gains to buy association with an iconic British football club, in order to continue to commit fraud in plain sight and prevent their victims from facing reality and complaining.
Elements of the pernicious 'Herbalife' fairy story (tellingly, minus the contraversial and widely-ridiculed chapter entitled, 'Multi-Level Marketing') now feature on Tottenham's website; whilst the innocent-looking 'Herbalife' name and logo also features alongside those of various, legitimate famous businesses all of which sponsor the club. Consequently, if I was a shareholder or senior executive of any of these reputable companies, I certainly wouldn't be too pleased to find out about this situation.
According to 'Herbalife's' own announcement, this deal was bagged for Tottenham by the club's 'Chief Commercial Officer,' Todd Kline, who evidently is an American specialist in the world of sports business. It would, therefore, seem impossible for this apparently-sophisticated fellow to have been entirely-ignorant of the many alarming controversies surrounding 'Herbalife/MLM.'
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The ‘Herbalife’ parent company has been obliged to hand over $200 millions to the US Federal Trade Commission in order to halt prosecution and closure, and around 350 000 compensation cheques were issued to recent ‘Herbalife’ victims in the USA. ‘Herbalife’ was found to have been quietly churning its contractors (then arbitrarily defined as ‘Distributors’) at a rate in excess of 90% per year, whilst the overall churn rate for contractors (since the company was founded) had long-since reached effectively-100%.
A minority of contractors who had persisted for several years were found to have lost considerable ammounts of their time and money. They were also found to be suffering from chronic psychological deterioration symptoms. Not surprisingly, it was also found that few, cheaply-procured, exorbitantly-priced, banal ‘Herbalife’ products had ever been sold to the general public (based entirely on value and demand); whilst the overwhelming majority of the company’s declared revenues were coming unlawfully from its own constantly-churning contractors (based primarily on their false-expectation of future reward). ‘Herbalife’ is now supposedly operating under independent surveillance in the USA, but not outside of the USA. Most of 'Herbalife's' contantly-churning contractors have now been re-labelled as 'members.' The true number of ill-informed UK citizens who have been quietly churned through ‘Herbalife’ since the company first arrived in the UK, has never been publicly declared; nor has the fact that, by design, it has been effectively-impossible to generate an overall net-profit from participating in ‘Herbalife’s’ so-called ‘Multi-Level-Marketing Income Opportunity’.
The ‘Herbalife’ parent company has also recently been fined $125 millions by the US FTC and US Securities and Exchange Commission, again to halt further prosecution and closure. It was discovered that, over a period of at least 10 years, ‘Herbalife’s’ senior American executives had directed an international criminal conspiracy to bribe, and to hide the evidence that they had bribed, senior Chinese government officials with more than $20 millions. ‘Herbalife’s’ so-called ‘Multi-Level Marketing’ system is unlawful in China, and traditional single level direct selling companies (which 'Herbalife' pretends to be in China) have supposedly to operate under a government licensing/monitoring system. Contrary to the US federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, at the direction on the company’s senior US executives, two senior ‘Herbalife’ Chinese Executives paid various senior Chinese government officials at least $20 millions (in cash and gifts) in order to obtain operating licenses and to supress any ‘negative’ news about the company. These two Chinese executives, and the Chinese officials whom they bribed have apparently never faced proescution in China, where they would risk the death penalty if convicted. Thus, for years, 'Herbalife's' market value (from which the company's senior executives benefitted to the tune of many millions of $) was supported by a proven fraud, because around 20% of 'Herbalife's' declared revenues were supposedly coming lawfully from China. Despite the fact that the scale of the proven securities fraud here, is staggering, mysteriously, to date, no senior American 'Herbalife' executive has faced criminal prosecution.
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One has to ask, didn't anyone else in a position of responsibility at Tottenham (particularly the club's legal advisors) conduct research into 'Herbalife/MLM' before this embarrassing deal was signed? Since the ugly truth about the 'MLM' phenomenon is continuing to become more- widely understood by the day, I would contend that the permitting of this type of deal will eventually bring the entire sport of football into disrepute.
www.footballinsider247.com/sources-joe-lewis-lines-up-tottenham-sale-after-50-buyer-found/
Interestingly, in the recent past it has been reported that the current majority owners of Totteham Hotspur FC (Joe Lewis and the ENIC Group ENIC Group - Wikipedia) have been looking to off-load a significant part of their investment in the Club. I cannot imagine that any association with 'Herbalife' will do much to enhance Spurs' market value.
It should be noted that the bosses of 'Herbalife' began buying association with LA Galaxy more than15 years ago, because the racket was spreading in south and central America, and because members of the Hispanic community were one of the main targets for recruitment in the USA. These immigrants were more-likely to be fans of soccer than any other professional sport. Over the years, LA Galaxy has signed some of the biggest stars of football internationally and unfortunately, they have all been obliged to play the role of useful idiot.
As part of the same overall pattern of ongoing major racketeering activity, the women's teams of other famous European football clubs have already been infiltrated by the pernicious 'Herbalife' fairy story. These clubs are Atletico Madrid (Spain) and Olympique Lyonais (France).
Behind all this bedazzling BS, 'Herbalife' has been a classic example of a corporate-front for an 'Amway' copy-cat blame-the-victim 'Multi-Level Marketing' cultic racket.
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'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.
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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 persons under contract to 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' contractors 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 persons.
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 persons under contract to 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' contractors 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.
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 2021)
Sunday, 5 September 2021
'Atomy' - a pyramid scheme, but what is an 'Economic Cult?'
Can I make money selling Atomy products, or is it too good to be true? | Money | The Guardian
Recently, a fairly critical article was published in 'The Guardian' about a Korean-based 'MLM' racket called 'Atomy,' in which I was quoted as describing this 'Amway' copy-cat group as 'an economic cult peddling a cruel illusion.'
As a direct result of this article, I've now been asked to 'explain the difference between a pyramid scheme and an economic cult.'
Of course, what 'The Guardian' quoted, was only a small part of what I actually said:
No matter what the name over the entrance, the bosses of so-called 'Multi-Level Marketing' companies claim to be offering an 'Income Opportunity,' but what they have really been peddling is the cruel illusion of a future secure Utopian existence on Earth. Classically, an insignificant minority of 'MLM' shills have been pretending to have access to secret knowledge that has enabled them to transform from ordinary poor humans into fabulously wealthy superhumans. They further pretend to be prepared to share this secret knowledge with anyone (for a price).
A pernicious cult can be briefly defined as any non-rational ritual belief-system which has been instigated, and/or perverted, for the clandestine purpose of human exploitation.
The first identifying characteristic of any cult is:
Deception.
Pernicious cults are presented externally as traditional associations. These can be arbitrarily defined by their instigators as almost any banal group (‘religious’, ‘cultural’, ‘political’, ‘commercial’, etc.). However, internally, they are always totalitarian (i.e. they are centrally-controlled and require of their core-adherents an absolute subservience to the group and its patriarchal, and/ or matriarchal, leadership above all other persons). By their very nature, pernicious cults never present themselves in their true colours. Consequently, no one ever becomes involved with one as a result of his/her fully-informed consent.
Another identifying characteristic of a cult is:
Pseudo-scientific mystification.
The instigators of pernicious cults seek to overwhelm their adherents emotionally and intellectually by pretending that progressive initiation into their own superior or superhuman knowledge (coupled with total belief in its authenticity and unconditional deference to the authority of its higher initiates) will defeat a negative or adversarial force of impurity and absolute evil, and lead to future, exclusive redemption in some form of secure Utopian existence. By making total belief a prerequisite of redemption, adherents are drawn into a closed-logic trap (i.e. failure to achieve redemption is solely the fault of the individual who didn’t believe totally). Cultic pseudo-science is always essentially the same hypnotic hocus-pocus, but it can be peddled in an infinite variety of forms and combinations (‘spiritual’, ‘medical’, ‘philosophical’, ‘cosmological,’‘extraterrestrial’, ‘political’, ‘racial’, ‘mathematical’, ‘economic’, ‘New-Age’, 'magical', etc.), often with impressive, made-up, technical-sounding names. It is tailored to fit the spirit of the times and to attract a broad range of persons, but especially those open to an exclusive offer of salvation (i.e. the: sick, dissatisfied, bereaved, vanquished, disillusioned, oppressed, lonely, insecure, aimless, etc.). However, at a moment of vulnerability, anyone (no matter what their: age, sex, nationality, state of mental/ physical health, level of education, etc.) can need to believe in a non-rational, cultic pseudo-science. Typically, obedient adherents are granted ego-inflating names, and/or ranks, and/or titles, whilst non-initiates are referred to using derogatory, dehumanising terms. Although initiation can at first appear to be reasonable and benefits achievable, cultic pseudo-science gradually becomes evermore costly and mystifying. Ultimately, it is completely incomprehensible and its claimed benefits are never quantifiable. The self-righteous euphoria and relentless enthusiasm of cult proselytisers can be highly infectious and deeply misleading. They are invariably convinced that their own salvation also depends on saving/converting others.
David Brear (copyright 2021)
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Friday, 20 August 2021
Friday, 6 August 2021
'IM Academy' and 'FTMO' - 'Forex MLM' cultic rackets - a BBC reporter investigates.
WARNING
No matter what the name over the entrance, the bosses of 'Multi-Level Marketing' companies claim to be offering an 'Income Opportunity,' but what they are really peddling is the cruel illusion of a future secure Utopian existence on Earth. Classically, an insignificant minority of 'MLM' shills have been pretending to have access to secret knowledge that has enabled them to transform from ordinary poor humans into fabulously wealthy superhumans. They further pretend to be prepared to share this secret knowledge with anyone (for a price).
Thursday, 29 July 2021
'ACN' - Federal Judge blocks the Trump clan's attempt to dodge an ongoing 'MLM' (fraud) lawsuit.
Even though the damning-evidence has been there for everyone (with fully-functioning critical faculties) to see, it is still not widely-recognised how Donald Trump first learnt how to perform before large live audiences of vulnerable persons who were being controlled, and exploited, by a pernicious Utopian fiction peddled as fact.
For around 10 years (2005-2015), Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jnr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump were paid promoters of the 'Amway' copy-cat blame the victim 'Multi-Level Marketing' cultic racket known as 'ACN' ('American Communications Network').
During this period, the enthusiastic endorsement of Donald Trump and his children, was undoubtedly the major factor that kept bedazzling 'ACN' victims - luring them into de facto servitude, dissociating them from external reality and not only facilitating the theft of their money, but also deceiving them into unconsciously acting the role of bait to lure other unwary persons (particularly their friends and family members) into the same trap.
Today, the Trump clan are only being sued by victims in the USA, but the 'ACN' racket has operated (and continues to operate) all around the world, including in Russia.
That said, the 'ACN' racket is just one part of what remains a largely-unrecognised, global criminogenic phenomenon of historic significance.
David Brear (copyright 2021)
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Judge Tosses Trump Family’s Attempt to Hide Pyramid Scheme Lawsuit From Public (thedailybeast.com)
Trump, children cannot arbitrate marketing scam case -U.S. appeals court | Reuters
NEW YORK, July 28 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court said former U.S. President Donald Trump and his adult children cannot move into arbitration a fraud lawsuit accusing them of exploiting their family name to promote a marketing scam targeting the poor and working class.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the plaintiffs' agreements to arbitrate claims against the multi-level marketing company American Communications Network did not extend to the Trumps, who had not signed those agreements.
Lawyers for the Trump family did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday's 3-0 decision.
Four plaintiffs in the proposed class action accused Trump, his children Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka, and an affiliate of the Trump Organization of promoting ACN in exchange for millions of dollars in secret payments from 2005 to 2015.
The plaintiffs said Donald's Trump's endorsement, including on episodes of his TV show "The Celebrity Apprentice," conned them into thinking their investments would pay off.
ACN would charge $499 to clients to sell videophones and other goods, the plaintiffs alleged.
In Wednesday's decision, Circuit Judge Robert Sack said the lack of a "close relationship" between ACN and the Trumps meant the plaintiffs had no reason to believe they agreed to arbitrate with the Trumps.
He also said "there is no unfairness" in requiring the Trumps to litigate over alleged wrongful business practices, given the plaintiffs' claim they were defrauded into thinking Donald Trump told the truth by endorsing ACN.
The Trumps claimed they had no control over ACN, that Trump's endorsement was simply his opinion and that the civil lawsuit - one of many they face - was politically motivated.
Some defendants prefer arbitration to litigation because arbitration can cost less and remain confidential, and obtaining evidence can be more difficult.
Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said her clients were pleased, and looked forward to gathering more evidence and beginning depositions.
The decision upheld an April 2020 ruling by U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield in Manhattan.
The case is Doe et al v Trump Corp et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Nos. 20-1228, 20-1278.
Reuters copyright 2021
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'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.
_________________________________________________________________________
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 persons under contract to 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' contractors 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 persons.
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 persons under contract to 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' contractors 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.
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 2021)
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