We've all received the dreaded message: an old acquaintance from high school has slipped into our Facebook inbox to "catch up." At first it seems sweet, they want to know how we're doing, they think we look great, what a wholesome exchange! But alas, the exchange quickly goes south when they try to sell us leggings, or rope us into an age old pyramid scheme they sadly believe will make them rich.
Beyond ruining the quality of our social media inboxes, MLMs (multi-level marketing schemes) prey on people's hopes and financial vulnerabilities, and go on to ruin many lives. As with any cult, they pull people in with promises of a better life, before inundating members with necessary fees and a business model that only profits the founders.
Luckily, the internet makes it easier to spread the word about scams, and educate people on how to protect themselves from MLMs and similar financial predators. From the outside, it can be easy to judge those who fall down the rabbithole of MLMs, but they wouldn't continue to exist if the manipulation tactics and groupthink weren't thorough.
In a recent Reddit thread, people who fell into pyramid schemes shared their stories and what made them quit.
1. justalurkerkthxbai's mom quit Amway when she realized it poisoned her friendships.
My mother did Amway years ago. She told me she quit when she realized she approached every new acquaintance with an aim to make a sale instead of making a friend.
2. StarBunnyBun got a wake up call a few months in.
Joined a jewelry-based MLM thinking it would be cute to sell jewelry as a side hustle in July after I relocated across the country. I got roped in to the “be your own boss” and “make money while you sleep” mentality, and for a while, it boosted my confidence because I truly thought I was doing a great job running my own business. On paper, I brought in good money (about $100 per live show, which was one hour a week), but I had to ship out the jewelry to them, which ate about 20% of the profit, then the money earned went back into ordering more jewelry.
By September, once the glitz and excitement of it all wore off and I realized nothing was coming back to me, my boyfriend told me the only way to earn money in the business was to add new “business partners.” I told him I wasn’t interested in doing that, but that was part of the scheme. I was so hurt by the people who had roped me in to the business. So I quit that same day. Luckily, I made it out with only like $30 lost, but I still have a ton of jewelry and packing materials taking up space in my house.
3. RayFinkle1984 lost their mom to a pyramid scheme.
My mom was caught up in the Market America scheme. They manipulated an already vulnerable, mentally unstable woman to sink $20k into her”business”. She took her own life less than a year later. If the company has washed up celebrities as spokespeople and asks you to spend more money than you typically make in your “business”, you may want to reconsider your investment.
Post sleep edit: Thank you all for your support and kind words. Support your local crisis centers and shine a light on mental health.
4. Trawhe soon sniffed out the lies.
My recruiter told me she made $400 at the party I was at. I later learned she made 25% of that.
I was told if I could get 2 people under me, I would make $400-$500 per month.
Then I was told I needed 4 people instead of 2.
Then I was $2,000 in debt with nothing to show for it.
Deleted them all and changed my phone number.
Edit:
I am an owner of 2 businesses, so I thought adding a small side hustle would be an easy transition, but it turned out that as a legitimate business owner, I couldn't bring myself to use the toxic business practices that were expected of me (cold messaging, hounding people for orders, constantly reminding people about deals, etc.).
When I left, I helped the two girls who were under me get out as well, and apologized for roping them into something I thought was a good deal.
5. Chasicle broke up with Morinda after seeing the light.
I was a call agent for Tahitian noni for the USA and Germany (now called Morinda). It was horrible fielding calls near when people’s $120 monthly auto payment was due for 4 one liter bottles of juice. I couldn’t cancel their subscription on late notice without a fax with their signature at least a week in advance, unless they claimed “financial hardship.”
Eventually I learned that I would just need to feed them what to say and then gladly cancel for them on the phone. Total scam. Only people who made money were the early people to sign up and the founders, who are multi millionaires.
6.Taste_my_ass tried out of curiosity and then bounced.
Some dude tried to recruit me into buying/selling energy drinks. It was a known scam throughout school at this point so I decided to go along with it to see where it would go. The guy’s dad was a friend of mine, and my dad has a pretty well known computer shop in town.
Anyway, I go to pick up MLM man from his house to go to a meeting. This guy loads three cases of energy drinks (I think they were called “VEEMA” or something) into my car. I was already sketched out and this was a liability I didn’t want to encumber myself with so I told him I had a family emergency. He got out of the car, told me to keep the -85 energy drinks. The 3 cases were in my car for a few weeks, never touched them. about a month after hearing anything, one morning there were maybe 8-10 cases of the energy drinks stacked right outside the back door of my dad’s shop.
2/10, would not try to join a cult again.
7. CandidPrize tried to scam Avon for a discount but it wasn't worth it.
Our office had an Avon lady that would take our orders on a bi-weekly basis. She was the sweetest person, not pushy at all. Unfortunately she passed due to an illness and we did not know anyone else who sold Avon.
I got the bright idea of signing up as I read on their website that many people would join up solely for the discount. It sounded easy as I was planning on only taking orders for the office. Paid my $25 online and waited for the brochure to come in.
Our apartment was always the last stop for the UPS guy. He stopped by one evening near 8pm hauling a heavy box with AVON all over. He gave me this look of utter hatred. I felt so bad when he asked me if I had signed up to sell. That should’ve been a red flag.
Every time you placed an order you had to buy the catalogs which were heavy and a nuisance since I only needed two at the most for the office. Whatever small credit I gained ended up reinvested on having to buy the catalogs.
Not too long after I signed up the calls started. I began receiving calls from various people during work hours to attend meetings, to meet the regional so and so, to place orders, how to boost my sales. It became so frustrating at the time as my father became ill and had to be hospitalized so I kept having to answer every call in case it was hospice nurses or other medical staff. One woman kept calling and calling so I snapped one day. Told that I didn’t plan on attending any meetings and that if she didn’t understand that the first few times I told her, then she was a moron.
With everything else going on, I would forget to place the orders and I finally told the gals I would no longer sell as I had no time for it. They understood and we lost our Avon fix. It was not worth the hassle and we should have just found someone to take our orders.
On the bright side, our UPS guy was happy he no longer had to make his routine deliveries or heavy boxes that would end up chucked in the dumpster.
8. LordBirdperson didn't realize they were part of an MLM until ten years later.
My story may end up being typical but I'll tell it anyway.
~on mobile so formatting, etc, etc~
Anyway, I had just started college right out of high school. Was going to an art school (i know, bad idea) and was looking for a job to do between classes. Classmate of mine mentioned CutCo, so I naively went in for an interview.
Few points to know. I had no previous job experience at all, the "office" was in the next town over, and I didn't have a driver's license at the time, let alone a car. My freaking Mom drove me to the interview. Got the job anyway.
So I get the CutCo bag of stuff to show off and was sent on my way to harass my relatives. I thought that I was only doing example shows to them, practicing for the real deal. My Dad and StepMom even bought some knives (no idea what happened to them though, last I saw they used a different set). Once I run out to people to bother, i start running into problems.
Problem 1 was I didn't sell anything other than that one set. Problem 2 was I hadn't gotten any other people to talk to. The "pyramid" part of my pyramid scheme wasn't working real well. Problem 3 was the straw that broke the camel's back apparently. I couldn't get to the weekly meetings because my mom refused to drive me across town every week (she had a long commute).
In the end I got a call from my "manager" telling me he was basically letting me go and I needed to turn in my swag bag. I told him I couldn't get to him so he had to come to me. Later that day he rolled up, o gave him the bag and that was it. Don't think I ever got my cut from the knives I did sell either.
The real kicker was I didn't even realize it was a MLM until almost a decade later, browsing this very sub.
9. caitcro18 would never recommend Younique makeup.
Used to sell younique. It was easy to get out. I wasn’t making any money, I couldn’t be fake to sell my product and I learned about quality makeup and younique ain’t it lol.
You can buy colourpop for literally 1/4 of the price and 10x the pigment and blendability.
10. throwawayedm19's friend got in and out.
A good friend joined World Financial Group also known as WFO. I told her off the bat to avoid it - major MLM scheme that preyed on family and friends. She of course, ignored my advice and went all gung ho. I told her that if she wanted to keep the friendship - please don't ever ask me to join. And luckily, she didn't.
She attended a whole bunch of seminars and even went on a trip to the US - a very expensive trip for her and her guy. Paid out of pocket. I think she even had to pay for training and some of the seminars too.
Then one day she just stopped talking about it. I assume she grew tired of it and gave up on it. MLM scams encourage asking friends and family members to participate. I fear not to bring it up again as I'm just glad she stopped going to those meetings.
Just remembered another one. I had this "friend" who told me her work was hiring and that she could try to get me an interview. I was about 16 at the time, she was a year older and drove me to the "interview", it was in an office on the top floor of a strip mall. There were about 20 other people there who were being shown a presentation of the business, very pyramid schemy vibes. They had canvas photos of their top employees on the walls of all these marvelous trips they went on.
During the hour presentation I never learned what the business was, they basically just told us how amazing and easy it was to get ahead in this business. The guy who runs the operation and all the employees were also there, I made a comment to my friend about how this felt like a cult and she said, and I kid you not, " guywholeadthepyramidscheme doesn't like when people call it that". I noped the fuck on out of there fuming after this friend and her co-workers tried to push me into whatever the f*ck sales job they were trying to con me into.
12. doxiemom111 worked at Mary Kay and doesn't miss it.
I worked at the head office of a large MLM, and one of the OG’s. Mary Kay.
You have to live, breathe, and shit pink. Honestly, I once got sent home from the office because I had made a cardinal mistake... I had worn a pantsuit to the office. As a woman, we were expected to wear a skirt or dress daily. I was new and didn’t really think they’d get upset over a pantsuit, all things considered. I was wrong.
I know this is a different perspective, but hear me out. I didn’t really know what Mary Kay was initially, all I remember is seeing the old school pink eye shadow cubes in my mom’s makeup drawer. I started to discover that things were all a bit strange and ... predatory. We would run campaigns inside of universities and colleges because the older generations all “knew” what was up.
The company was marketing toward these younger girls specifically because they didn’t know the shtick, and hinging on the fact that we would somehow be able to convince them of making easy money. I heard a lot of horror stories the longer I worked there. Specifically from people who were angrily demanding answers from directors at the annual “Seminar” held in Toronto for Canadian Mary Kay consultants. People losing thousands of dollars. It all felt so criminal to have been a part of.
13. kellensoriano doesn't want to hear another word about BeachBody.
F*cking BeachBody. Had a friend who’s been doing “great” on it. Recruiting left and right making lots of money and it is so easy to do because “everyone wants to be healthy and lose weight.” It’s fine if you just use it for the workout videos for yourself but having to be the person to reach out to random people and be like, hey you're fat, come pay loads of money for this shit and oh yeah you can have a huge discount if you become a coach too and recruit other people and scam them also. It’s all bullsh*t.
14. iamevilcupcake got scammed by a "friend" during an intense period of grief.
I've been wanting to tell this story for ages, and never got round to it.
When my husband died (abusive prick so don't feel bad for me) he left me with a f*ck tonne of debt (ok you can feel bad for me now lol). Not long after he died I had gone to a Tupperware party for a friend, and made some positive comment about one of the products, and that put me on the presenter's radar. This presenter happened to be one of those top tier ladies that ignored their family to make it big. She was/is the regional person. Whatever the title is.
I was BROKE. Paying off so much stuff while waiting for the life insurance to come through, you'd be surprised at the amount of companies that don't give a sh*t that you've lost a spouse, they just want their money. So Tupperware was spun as a way to earn extra money. She even gave me the starter kit without having to pay up front.
Problem was, I worked full time, and it was near impossible to book parties. I did my first presentation at my house and booked no parties. I reached out to all my friends and family and booked no parties.
The pressure from this woman was IMMENSE. She'd call me while I was at my day job. She try to convince me to quit my day job to focus on Tupperware. She knew I was broke, but she was adamant that if I quit my job I'd make it big, and before I know it I'd have a Tupperware car just like her.
She never listened to me. Even when I said to her "How do you expect me to pay my bills if I quit my job and start up Tupperware?" She had a response for everything. Nothing was based in logic and every time she called me, which was weekly, I was filled with dread.
I started to ghost her. It took months for me to work up the courage to tell her I didn't want to do it anymore. It took weeks for her to accept me "don't want to do it anymore". She dragged it on, and on, and on. Finally she sent me a curt "Leave your kit at the front door" message which I did.
She tried a couple of years down the track to recruit me again. I ignored her calls.
All I wanted to extra income to help me. I also wanted to add to my friend group. All I got was stress, anxiety, and frustration.
15. wackyDELYyeah noped it out of there.
I never joined an MLM but years ago I went with a friend to a meeting for WorldVentures. His friend had told him he was having a get together with a few friends to talk about a business idea he had.
We walk into this packed apartment and immediately are ushered to the couch where another friend and a neighbor are also sitting, surrounded by a bunch of strangers.
They start playing a video about WV, and a couple of people come up to talk about all the money they're making with it. At various points, the strangers in the place all clap and cheer and I'm looking around at them thinking "What the f*ck is going on here?"
It felt surreal and bizarre, rehearsed and fake. We weren't told we were going to be shown and entire presentation, so that was off-putting. I felt tricked being invited.
The presentation ended and all the WV strangers left immediately. The neighbor politely declined joining and left. The other friend asked what made this NOT a pyramid scheme, and the host proceeded to draw out A PYRAMID explaining how the business model worked, the whole time insisting it wasn't a pyramid scheme. The friend also politely declined.
Me, having seen the red flags in 1) being lied to about what we were doing, 2) the fake clapping and ludicrous claims during the presentation, 3) the way you needed to pay up front to join, and 4) the fucking pyramid drawing, also declined.
The idiot friend I went with happily wrote a check to join like the god damn moron he is. He really thought he'd be able to get tons of friends and family to join. In the end no one wanted to, because everyone could see from a mile away it was a scam.
We've since stopped talking so I don't know if he's still in it or not, but I did end up getting to tag along on a trip to Dubai with him because he needed to go on trips to help his sales pitch. Was a fun trip but the WV group activities were just as annoying and cult-like as the meetings.
16. marshmallowofdoom was a Mary Kay girl and has all the stories.
I was a Mary Kay girl for a short period of time...
They kept claiming that if you sold so much, you get a "free car with no strings attached." Long story short, I googled it and there WERE INDEED attatched strings.
They WORSHIP Mary Kay Ash (aka the founder of Mary Kay). It's kind of like how the FLDS worships Warren Jeffs. It was very unsettling, and very cult-like.
For the makeovers, you'd do a before and after photo of the subject. They wouldn't let you smile in the before photo, but would make you in the after photo. Therefore, you'd automatically look 100x better in the after photo, regardless of how shitty the makeup was.
My regional director bought a bunch of stuff under my name without telling me (she didn't use my credit cards or anything, but when I initially got the email receipt for it I freaked out because I thought my numbers were stolen). She never told me that it was her, but I found out by searching the address on the order. I later found out that it had to do with some bonus the upline would get if their downlines bought enough inventory in a certain period of time. This wasn't a huge deal but it definitely weirded me out.
A lot of the girls who were at my level were from my school. A few of them really didn't like me growing up. The moment I walked in that door, they all pretended to love me.
And yeahh, that's all I can think of.
17. taint-of-glory got briefly roped into the seductive trap of Amway.
TL:DR at bottom. Sorry for the novel.
Mine was the OG MLM: Amway (more specifically Quixtar and even more specifically the Britt WorldWide division). I was young (early 20s) and dealing with the life your never told about in school. The one where you don’t get a degree and your dream job out of college but instead wash out of college due to apathy and crippling combo of social anxiety and bipolar disorder. Knowing a $9/hr job was not the life I wanted, my similarly aged coworker who was always positive and upbeat and a genuinely decent guy selling me on “owning my own business and retiring at 30” was an easy buy in from me.
75 bucks later I was my own business owner. my direct mentor was an actual medical doctor who also was in on this. Shit If a licensed psychiatrist is a believer so was I. The only problem was unbeknownst to me at the time, everybody else had heard of Amway and knew their bullsh*t except me apparently.
I teetered around with it for a while with no success but thought it might work. The people above me though pushed aggressively this whole “dream building” idea. “Buy these tapes and listen to and from work instead of listening to music. You know how your going to dinner tomorrow night? Tell your friends and servers about the business! Oh and buy duplicate tapes to share. To be clear, the tapes aren’t required, but the only successful people in Britt WorldWide have all been fully in on these tapes. You went to the bar on Saturday night? Why didn’t you try to network and build your business? You could’ve been dream building instead of having fun”.
While I hated the idea of buying this random dudes motivational speeches on tape and dream building seemed super dumb to me, I didn’t fully leave. When my sponsor suggested a business trip to Nashville for a conference I figured I’m only half in but it’s a cool weekend trip and I can bring my GF along. So we took the trip.
And that’s where it turned. Friday night was intro and speeches. The keynote speakers were treated as heroes and almost worshipped. Like 5 minute standing ovations and people literally swarming them. The next day more of the same. All had the same group think. No one was presenting different ways to succeed. Nope, it was only one way, by emulating these guys word for word and spending 100s if not thousands of dollars buying their shitty motivational tapes. You even had to buy access to their website for the best tips.
It was at that point I was done with it. My GF and I bailed late Saturday to tour the city. Sunday morning went to poke my head in the morning speaker session and it was a full on evangelical church service. That was it for me. I’m it anti religion as I am a person of faith, im a Christian, just not evangelical. I also have attended weddings and funerals and ceremonies for friends who are catholic, atheist, evangelical, Hindu, and others so I’m not offended by the idea of another ceremony.
But when you feel things are a cult, and it all is leading you to think that this is a cult (buying in, being forced to purchase more, worshipping random dudes), and you end up at a conference session that is a worship service but not actually advertised that way, well f*ck what else could it be than a cult?
So I stopped going once I got home. Stopped answering calls, made excuses with my coworker about other obligations, etc and just didn’t return. Then got a notice about 2 years ago that I got to claim a small part of a class action lawsuit against them. Got like 20 bucks back. So yeah, f*ck them.
TL:DR: joined Amway cuz i was living a sh*tty life and get rich quick dreams, had to buy a bunch of shit, felt like a cult, got unknowingly pulled into a religious service then just ghosted them.