MLM/Network Marketing - Pyramid Scheme or Genuine Sales Channel

[@MacPhlea]

Has anyone on here got rich through one of these? Or lost money through it?

Interested to hear anyone's experience/views

By the way, this is out of curiosity and not because I am in one

[kerry red]

I came up with the perfect scam/fraud years ago during a drinking session.

Get a premium rate number from BT - whatever income it generates BT pay out monthly. So a £1.50 a minute line would generate approx £15,000 weekly. I think BT keeps 30% so you would get £10,000 weekly.

Then rent a landline from BT and set to call the premium rate line continuously.

Obviously that would run up a huge bill BUT BT only bill quarterly so you could, theoretically, generate approx £120,000 before BT want their bill paying.

Any obvious flaws?

[Peter Venkman]

A similar phone thing.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23869462

Although not a scam as such but a good way to get money for nothing after the original set up costs.

[@MacPhlea]

I came up with the perfect scam/fraud years ago during a drinking session.

Get a premium rate number from BT - whatever income it generates BT pay out monthly. So a £1.50 a minute line would generate approx £15,000 weekly. I think BT keeps 30% so you would get £10,000 weekly.

Then rent a landline from BT and set to call the premium rate line continuously.

Obviously that would run up a huge bill BUT BT only bill quarterly so you could, theoretically, generate approx £120,000 before BT want their bill paying.

Any obvious flaws?

If you can get through the check to get a premium rate number. Find an empty property and get the line in then no.  Oh apart from...who do they pay the money to? Unless it's cash you'd have a hard job making it untraceable back to you

[kerry red]

In some ways it's o different from those competitions you see advertised n TV where they give an extremely simple question with a choice of 3 answers to win a car or some such.

They must generate more money from the premium rate phone-in number than the cost of the prize

[@MacPhlea]

In some ways it's o different from those competitions you see advertised n TV where they give an extremely simple question with a choice of 3 answers to win a car or some such.

They must generate more money from the premium rate phone-in number than the cost of the prize

Of course they do but if they didn't make the question so simple then none of the thickies would know the answer and be tempted to lose £1.50 by dialling a premium rate number!

[@MacPhlea]

[Flashheart]

I've looked into them quite extensively in the past as a way to make money. I've never tried one.

A lot of people that have tried them say they are scams but that's usually not the case. The usually have some reason to think that though as those selling the system to them usually make it sound as though it is very easy to make money which is is not true. A lot of work is usually involved.

They tend to involve selling in person or selling over the internet. Both require certain characteristics or skills which make it unlikely that many people will see much, if any, success.

Some people do do very very well with them. The vast majority fail.

I think otanswell was recently involved with one.

[Samdy Gray]

The only way you get rich through MLM is if you're an early adopter and you build a team of distributors beneath you.

You also need to be a fantastic salesman and put a lot of effort in. So many people see MLM as a 'second job' opportunity, but if you can't dedicate the same amount of time to it as your usual 9-5 then you're not going to make anything from it.

Some of the more genuine schemes, like Telecom Plus, work really well. Some of the others though, like the aloe beauty products just appear to be a massive scam to me.

[Talk Talk]

The only way you get rich through MLM is if you're an early adopter and you build a team of distributors beneath you.

You also need to be a fantastic salesman and put a lot of effort in. So many people see MLM as a 'second job' opportunity, but if you can't dedicate the same amount of time to it as your usual 9-5 then you're not going to make anything from it.

Some of the more genuine schemes, like Telecom Plus, work really well. Some of the others though, like the aloe beauty products just appear to be a massive scam to me.

I would echo Sam's views. I have seen it all over the years from various friends and acquaintances getting involved, from Amway through beauty products to the airplane scam. The person who comes up with the idea is usually the only successful one. Early Bitcoin miners is a good example.

I think this puts it into perspective (it is specifically about pyramid schemes but MLMs are not much different, they usually have a slower Level expansion):

Starting with the individual at the top, they have put no money in. They go an recruit 10 people who each pay $100. Those 10 people are then required to each personally recruit 10 people each bringing us to Level 3. This process could theoretically continue until somewhere between Level 10 and 11. With the world's population being just under 7 billion people you can see that the pyramid scheme would fail as there are just not enough people to recruit.

http://www.engineeredlifestyles.org/pyramid-scheme-defined.html

[bigbobjoylove]

A similar phone thing.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23869462

Although not a scam as such but a good way to get money for nothing after the original set up costs.

An easy way to extend this would be to send a bulk email to the addresses listed on here http://scammed.by/listemails.php with a message saying something like "I'm very interested in your proposition, please call me to discuss it further." Not only would you be making money, you'd be doing the world a favour by relieving scammers of their time and money.