RE: How To Spot A Scam - The Time I Dodged a Pyramid Scheme Offer
I had a similar experience. Unfortunately a good friend of mine is suckered in, and wanted/wants me to join too. He actually showed me how much he spends on buying their crap products and how much he earns from it. On average he spends 3 to 5 times the amount he gets back, and it takes months before he gets a payout back. So completely brainwashed into thinking it's a good deal, even though he is spending thousands more than the average consumer, and relies on overpriced inferior products.
Would have considered joining myself, until I realized there isn't a single product in their line I would consider consuming. Nothing in the entire product line is something I would ever consider buying. Even the stuff I do buy outside their business that they offer (like fresh produce), he talks me out of it because it doesn't offer enough return into the pyramid. Too many controlling contradictions.
Amway, Worldwide Dream Builders, and Legal Shield are all popular systems. Watch out for the promises they make. None of the promises they make is based on the hours you work, only the commission results made from getting others to sign up and buy a business licence through them.
Oh man, that sounds horrible. It sucks to see how our friends get fooled into shit like this. What's worse is that they're so fixated on it that you can't get them to quit. I haven't spoken to that friend of mine at all after that incident and I'm pretty sure he must have quit and lost some serious money by now.
No genuine business model, at least as far as I know, runs solely on the income received by getting more people in your system without actually offering something tangible and worthwhile in return. In a pyramid scheme, only the guys at the top are the ones who profit.
After the 4th or 5th division, it's pretty much guaranteed that you're gonna lose money if you enter. That's the reason why they target people who are much easier to manipulate and fool rather than people who are rational and know how to think for themselves.