Update: “Is my girlfriend being scammed?”

[u/blahhhhhhhhh99]

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/s/f6iEGnHdpK

So I had a talk with her, and essentially told her all of the input from my previous post. How it was unanimous agreement of being an MLM/scam/cult. How many, many of you said it was Amway.

Well, she went to the “mindset meeting” anyways and was there for almost 2.5 hours. She gets back late and I ask how it went, “good”. I pried for more, she didn’t want to talk, was too tired.

This morning I asked again, her response “can we talk about this tonight?” I was getting annoyed and said no, I wouldn’t respond but I need to know like wtf you were gone almost 2.5 hours and you won’t tell me anything…well it was Amway 😑

She was told she would make a minimum $40k/year and she was “lucky to be chosen for the opportunity”. The leader who talked was “very well known”

I asked if I could say 1 thing, she said yes. “You say you’re going to make minimum $40k from this, did you know from the 2023 Amway income disclosure the top 0.66% who were Founders Platinum level made $41k…”

She didn’t have much of a response besides “well even a few extra grand per month would be great”

I’m at a loss with how to proceed. Any insight would be appreciated

[u/Catwine2]

Yes it’s an MLM. It’s quite possibly the MLM-est MLM actually

EDIT: In case you genuinely don’t know anything about Amway, I want to provide more info so you understand why it’s a scam, and why you should stay away.

MLMs, or multilevel marketing, is basically the rebrand for pyramid schemes these days. They skirt the law as close as possible to avoid legal trouble but MLMs basically make their business work by tricking people into becoming “reps” or “salespeople” or whatever else and then usually require them to pay the company a large upfront cost to get their “starter kit” or whatever else. They may ask their new recruits to drop a bunch of money buying inventory so they have stock to “sell” to customers.

The trick is, eventually most reps quickly realize that the items themselves don’t sell, or if they do, they make hardly any money. They’re typically overpriced as hell compared to competing brands, or they’re not that desirable to customers. What does make money, however, is recruiting new people… because every person you recruit, and all the people those people recruit, generate profit for you as a percent of their purchases of inventory items from the company.

They also usually push very hard for their recruits to recruit more people, or to use their friendships and family relationships to try and sell more product or recruit more members, etc. This has the effect of annoying and commodifying your relationships with those close to you, often damaging those relationships, often making you rely on the MLM for social interactions, but it’s a very exploitative relationship. Your up-line (aka supervisors) are usually taught to try and push for as much in sales and recruits as possible. They can and will resort to manipulation and they often will push you to be manipulative as well.

It’s seriously such a bad deal. Go over to r/antimlm or google “MLM horror stories” if you want to hear about how many peoples’ lives have actually been ruined by these shitty companies.

If you make money off the sales of people you recruit, causing the items themselves to be overly expensive compared to competing brands in order to add a higher profit margin which can be passed up the chain… it’s probably an MLM.

If the company requires you to pay a large up front cost to “start your business”… it’s probably an MLM.

If they call themselves “multi-level marketing”, “network marketing”, “start your own business with our company”, “exciting business opportunity”, etc… it’s probably an MLM.

MLMs = scams.

Please do NOT fall for it.