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CAI
Consumer
Awareness Institute
Non-profit corporation
12-step Program for Deprogramming and Rehabilitating MLM Victims
Readers' Comments:
I
have been duped so badly. I have been almost financially ruined
because I thought I was doing what was best for me and my family. .
. All this time I felt like it was because I wasn't doing enough of the
right things, not spending enough money, not going to enough seminars,
etc. .
The messages being fed to the public by MLM companies are insidious
and deceiving. These messages are not all backed by the intent to
defraud or deceive either. Yet, there is always someone somewhere
laughing all the way to the bank. . .
Very, very few make it in
network marketing/MLM, but the path to riches is strewn with the broken
bodies and spirits of the vast majority who have taken it on. I see
marriages and families split apart because of the pursuit of riches.
Why? Because of the illusion perpetrated by the industry that there
is good debt and bad debt.
Network marketing is the fastest way to
sink into debt that I know. It is a never-ending cycle and there is
never-ending hype and never-ending scheming. Promises, promises,
promises. Live the good life, drive luxury cars, party, party, party
with the rich. Make tens of thousands per month.
Since turning my back on the network marketing industry (if
you can even call it an industry), I have been so much more happy.
– Tom E., Victor, Idaho
I was just on the website
MLM-thetruth.com and I am very impressed with all of the research and
wisdom that I found there. I
am one of those people who was caught up in a MLM business Everything
that was explained on this website I experienced with this business.
. . In fact, I
realized that the only thing I was really doing was helping other people
who were honestly trying to find a business to help support their families
get into as much debt as I had gotten myself into.
I would like to get my money back but, more than that I
would like to help stop this kind of scam from happening to anyone else. I
will follow the steps that have been outlined on this website.
–Nicole L., Springville,
Utah
By Jon
M. Taylor, Ph.D., Consumer Awareness Institute,
and Advisor, Pyramid Scheme Alert
If someone you care about has been victimized by MLM, you may wish to approach them with kindness and whatever else it takes to get them to proceed through the steps below. This information is especially useful because it is based on extensive independent research, rather than mere opinions. Effective deprogramming will be helped by rigorous study of these reports – especially for someone who has been powerfully indoctrinated with MLM propaganda, laced with a complex web of deceptions. If as a result of all this reading, they recover their perspective (and possibly some of their losses) and pursue a more ethical income source, it will have been worth it.
Of course this may not help with an "MLM junkie"; i.e., someone who has been brainwashed or "hooked" on MLM to the point that they have been in and out of several MLM's, only to fall farther and farther behind financially socially, spiritually, etc. - while stubbornly maintaining that "their time will come." A person convinced against his/her will is of the same opinion still." But a person who is sufficiently open-minded to read and reflect on these reports will likely experience a change of thinking about MLM – and a new direction. To my knowledge, no one who has read even half of these reports with an open mind has continued to pursue MLM/chain selling as an "income opportunity" – or even to regard it as such.
Step
1. Ask such persons
to momentarily close their minds to all MLM
propaganda messages and open their mind to some other possibilities.
To start, ask them to read the "Parable
of the Missing Children.
Step
2. Ask them to obtain
the compensation plan for the program they are into or are considering.
Then have them evaluate the program with the 5-step
do-it-yourself evaluation. They
may find it helpful to read the side notes of explanation for each
step and to find their program on the list of product-based pyramid
schemes at the end, based on the “5 Red Flags.” For another approach,
they may benefit from reading "Twelve
Tests for Evaluation of a Network Marketing 'Opportunity' "
Step
3. For a good summary
of what they need to know to be fully informed, suggest they also read the
full 40-page “5 Red Flags of a Product-based Pyramid Scheme, or
Recruiting MLM”
report linked from the MLM Research page.
This was prepared for the National White Collar Crime Center.
Step
4. Then have them
read what tax preparers have to say about who
if anyone actually reports profits from MLM participation.
Step
5. 
Challenge them to
compare the odds of success from
MLM participation to the odds of winning at gambling. These
statistical analyses were drawn from actual reports from the MLM companies
themselves and from casinos in Las Vegas.
Step
6. If they have been
sold on the idea that their MLM products are the latest and greatest in
“potions and lotions,” have them read “MLM
Products – Do the supplements really work? Are MLM products overpriced?
And can they be purchased for less?” They will also benefit
from reading some of the many MLM and company and product reports by Dr.
Stephen Barrett on his MLM Watch web
site.
Step
7. They may want to know why – if all this is true.– such
programs are allowed to exist or are not prosecuted by law enforcement.
Refer them to "Top
Ten Things I Learned from Ten Years' Research on MLM/Network
Marketing." Have
them pay particular attention to why victims of chain selling programs
remain silent.
Step
8.
If they wonder how this situation developed, ask them to read “Opportunity
Lost: The Great FTC Blunder."
They would also be benefited by reading how MLM recruitment is
dependent on a whole set of deceptions.
If really interested, they could also read an early report
on the history and dynamics of pyramid schemes and multi-level marketing,
entitled: "Product-based
Pyramid Schemes: When should an MLM or network marketing program be
considered an illegal pyramid scheme?"
Step
9.
If they question the information above on the basis of so much research
coming from one source, have them go to the consumer-oriented pyramidschemealert.org
web site. Read “The Myth
of ‘Income Opportunity’ in Multi-level Marketing,” linked
from the falseprofits.com web
site. Another classic article is “What's
Wrong with Multi-Level Marketing,” by Dean VanDruff. If they are in Amway/Quixtar
program, suggest they download and read the book by Eric
Scheibeler, a high-level MLM'r turned whistle blower entitled "Merchants
of Deception". They may find interesting the reports and
YouTube videos regarding claims of securities violations by Usana at the Fraud
Discovery Institute web site.
Step
10.
If they ask what they can do to earn as much or more money than they can
in MLM, refer them to "1,357
Ways to Make a LOT More Money than in MLM/Network Marketing."
Step
11. If
they have invested money in products or services
sold by an MLM company to “do the business,” have them consider "ACTIONS
you can take when you have
experienced losses from MLM participation."
Encourage
them to begin now converting from MLM addict to consumer advocate by
warning 5 others, and asking each of those to warn 5 others, etc., etc.
Step
12. Then, after their MLM deceptions are debugged
and they
are fully deprogrammed, lighten their mood with some fun
cartoons
and humor to put things into perspective.