My friend asked for a meet up, duped me into those scummy MLM companies which requires your friend t - General

Just got back home from that shit, and I just can't believe how people get sucked into this shit. If you have no idea what MLM is, its basically those companies which talks about networking, but they don't tell you till the end that you have to either: A)Refer a friend to the company, and then you earn commissions based on the number of friends you refer to. B)Sell stuff to your friends, and then earn some commission based on the profits you made. This one is a travel company, basically they were marketing the idea of being able to travel and making money while travelling. I had the idea my friend only wanted a meetup. So you pay a monthly fee to get a membership, and on top of that, you get like membership points, as well as travel packages which are apparently much cheaper than the usual deal, and then if you find the same deal for a more expensive price, they'll refund you, along with free motivational workshop and shit. Then comes the part where they talked about 'PASSIVE INCOME'. where you get to earn money 'even when you are asleep' or so they say. The thing is that you have to refer your friends to join, and if you get 4 friends to join, you get to waiver your monthly fee. And then the fee is like 300 FUCKING DOLLARS A MONTH. Okay, so here is the story. I met my friend, he decide to bring me to this building where this conference is going on. So they start off with some guy asking if you like to travel, and travel for holiday, then next, he ask about who has been to the 7 wonders of the world, typical crap. Afterwards, he come up with this list, where he talked about how people fell into 3 categories. People with time, but not money, people with money but not time, and then people without both money and time, and how great it'll be if it was both. He also mentioned how many awards the company had earned, which was kinda fishy. And then he starts to play this video: [video=youtube;Q97gXVsVf6o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q97gXVsVf6o[/video] And as I watch this video, people were FUCKING CONSTANTLY CLAPPING. ITS LIKE A FUCKING CULT. I kid you not, I actually felt frightened to be there. My friend who bought me up was constantly cheering beside me as well, and I got more and more annoyed. Then, they had this white dude who flew from USA over to give a speech, and how great this bunch were. Then comes the corporate video, where they talk about all the good shit, how people are able to travel without any burden, with both time and money. And then, how they built schools for the poor countries (it was pretty obvious at this point people were doing it for the charity tourism) But the one thing constantly flashing throughout was people carrying the sign 'YOU SHOULD BE HERE!' It got to a point where its scary seeing them doing that. Afterwards, they had a few guys who quit high paying jobs to join this company, many of the went up to speak, and how they are able to enjoy life now. And then, my friend went up to give his speech, and he talked about how you can make money and travel as well, and that was where the part about referring your friends comes in. If you refer up to 15, you get like a $500 a month or some shit. And then everyone claps. At this point, I was so pissed I just want to leave, but he kept nudging me throughout about what I think. This kind of shit is seriously fucking scummy, and the fact that my friend asked for a meet up, which I thought was genuine a chat, turns out to be him selling me shit. Apparently its pretty widespread here, and I can see people bringing their families here. I left immediately, and I told him I will message him what I think of the whole program. I have yet to message him as of now. God fucking dammit, I am glad it was over. Not only was it scary as fuck being stuck there alone, it was a waste of time (I was supposed to meet my dad) and my OTHER FUCKING FRIEND got sucked into this shit. This kind of business should be fucking illegal. Oh, the company is called WorldVentures, in case you wanna learn more. This was the corporate video they showed: [video=youtube;hV3Kdk8MDYo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV3Kdk8MDYo[/video] I'm done with my rant now. [editline]1st July 2015[/editline] If you guys had gotten this kind of shit, please do share here. I like to hear from you guys.

The same happened to me, except someone had invited everyone in the neighborhood and he presented us with a slideshow. Pretty much it ended with me unveiling the fact the "company" he was representing was actually sued plenty of times for not delivering the rewards it had promised and also charging extra fees to people when purchasing shit. He got embarrassed and hastily ended the whole thing while I was basically shitting on him. Pyramid schemes are a bitch.

[QUOTE=TheDrunkenOne;48087859]The same happened to me, except someone had invited everyone in the neighborhood and he presented us with a slideshow. Pretty much it ended with me unveiling the fact the "company" he was representing was actually sued plenty of times for not delivering the rewards it had promised and also charging extra fees to people when purchasing shit. He got embarrassed and hastily ended the whole thing while I was basically shitting on him. Pyramid schemes are a bitch.[/QUOTE] Well he was doing it alone after all. Go to like a big presentation like this. You'll be like 'HOLY FUCK THIS IS JUST A CULT' I swear. Its scary when people constantly scream. Its like one of those megachurches.

I don't understand why MLM is legal and distinct from pyramid scheming. The new MLM "health" fad around here is Advocare and I can't stand how everyone around me is collectively sucking their Spark dick.

Yeah, stuff like this happens almost all the time in the U.S and it's %100 backed legally, as long as people can get a glimpse of text so small and out of view for a couple of seconds. I understand your frustration and anger, it happens when you see schemes so obvious but the people you talk to about it don't accept it, just try to tell your friend that you are not interested in the program

I am looking at his facebook profile, and its all him having 'paid vacations' with a blue banner saying 'YOU SHOULD BE HERE!' I actually feel really sad for him. He wasn't like this, and he said he has no need for a university because of this. He did say he was an introvert, so I am guessing this is like his salvation. Its like his soul is sucked out. Fucking hell.

These companies are real fucking scum. They're along the lines of predatory lenders when it comes to trapping innocent but naive people.

Jesus, he actually has no photos of anyone else beside his group of friends from this MLM company. This guy is fucked. Even his family photos are gone. [editline]1st July 2015[/editline] He needs help, but with how much he is into this, its impossible at this rate.

Two years ago one of my friends pulled this shit on me once. He called me up asking if I wanted to hang out and I said sure and told him to come over. But then unbeknownst to me, he shows up at my door with two random people I've never met before. These two faggots looked like your typical high school kids, wearing trashy clothing and those retarded ass hats that most kids wear these days, and oh boy they were here to try and rope me into their bullshit pyramid scheme. I can't remember the name of their "company" because I didn't give enough of a fuck to bother remembering, but they basically sat with me in my basement showing me videos and relaying the illusion of making money by doing nothing. They had rewards like "our company will buy you a BRAND NEW CAR after you sell our product to 4 other people" and they proceeded to show pictures of people with their cars. Typical shit you'd expect from these people. After that they tried to get me to sign up, I said no, then they left. Haven't talked to that friend since. I absolutely hate these companies, they're nothing but scum.

[QUOTE=Water-Marine;48088099]I don't understand why MLM is legal and distinct from pyramid scheming.[/QUOTE] Well we are the same country that refuses to classify Scientology as a cult, so thats one thing

Hey, you can't save stupid people from themselves. All you can do is hope they learn.

[QUOTE=Water-Marine;48088099]I don't understand why MLM is legal and distinct from pyramid scheming. The new MLM "health" fad around here is Advocare and I can't stand how everyone around me is collectively sucking their Spark dick.[/QUOTE] Legally speaking it's actually not particularly distinct, they just kinda try to hide in a grey area. But when the FTC actually does make an investigation of them they generally get shut down.

Yeah I had a chump from high school suckers me and a bunch of mates to going to one of these things once. I told everyone I was going to an Amway meeting and was fucking pissed when it turned out to pretty much be the same style of shit. Don't be afraid to walk out. When I saw what sort of shit he'd invited me to I just bailed and went back home. All my other mates were too polite to leave.

MLM is illegal here in such a way that saying "anybody can definitely make money off of this" is illegal - in other words, it's legal, but you can't be vague about the entire process, and you must tell people at the beginning how it all works. Thank goodness for that.

Does anyone else think the guy voicing the last video sounds like Bob Saget?

Seriously, I want to know.

I remember when I worked in a fundraising place for charity(and other contracts) and I asked if they were doing pyramid schemes, since they were a part of Cobra Group. And they told me no, just MLM. They always insisted that it wasn't the same thing, even if it is.

[QUOTE=Ignhelper;48088357]Jesus, he actually has no photos of anyone else beside his group of friends from this MLM company. Even his family photos are gone.[/QUOTE] That's pretty fucked man. Had a company try to do this here and they targeted fresh high school grads, really fucking despicable.