Two more comments about MLM stupidity

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

-- Carl Sagan, as quoted in Cosmos, PBS TV

When some people claim extraordinary things, they expect people to just believe them with simple claims (with NO evidence) or just a few bits of so-called evidence. This is especially true for MLM / Network Marketing. It seems every other MLM out there claim to make you immensely rich with virtually no effort. 


Such claims of get-rich-quick is obviously an extraordinary claim, and thus, require extraordinary evidence. And such evidence is NEVER forthcoming. Most evidence falls into following categories:


* it's so easy!  (i.e. I can do it, and so can you!)


It looks so easy on TV or in person, but did the speaker actually succeed? 


* just look at all this money and goodies I got here! 


Doesn't prove it's actually a success. Most luxuries can be rented. 


* it's new and therefore it's good!


New isn't always good. New disease is bad.


* just believe me and I will make you rich!


So is the guy a cult leader or a businessman? 


Here's some surprising (to some) statistics on a MLM company that will tell you who made money... and who did not.

Any one heard of YTB? aka Your Travel Biz? aka Zamzuu?

Here is the published figures on YTB, BY YTB, about who made money in their business in 2007, and who didn't.

http://www.ytb.com/downloads/YTB_IncomeDisclosure_2-8-08.pdf

For those of you who are challenged at math, or can't read charts, here's the simple and honest truth:

97% of reps made LESS THAN $2000 USD IN the ENTIRE 2007 under YTB, from the company's own numbers.

LESS THAN TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS IN THE ENTIRE ****ING YEAR.

The top 3 guys on top (obviously the founders) averaged 3 million EACH that year.

Yet every single one of these "reps" paid THOUSANDS into the system "buying" a travel franchise, so they thought.

YTB later changed its name to Zamzuu, was sued and forced out of Illinois and California and paid millions in damages, and is believed to be going bankrupt. (See below)

Related articles

• RELATED: YTB / Zamzuu about to go under, settled lawsuit (kschang.blogspot.com)
• Editor's Commentary: So many serial MLM'ers! (kschang.blogspot.com)
• Commentary: MLM Law In the US (and the rest of the world) (kschang.blogspot.com)

How to use 48 Laws of Power for Evil (sort of)

Cover of The 48 Laws of PowerThis is NOT a "how to", but rather, how scammers use 48 Laws of Power to gain control over you.

What is 48 Laws of Power? It is a set of "rules" written by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers condensed from a lot of interpersonal relation tips. Some of them are especially useful for fraudsters:

Law 3

Conceal your Intentions

Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions.  If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense.  Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelope them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late.

This is how pyramid fraudsters operate:  lure people in with various promises of wealth, guide victims down the path, and by the time they realize the fraudster(s) have used them to suck in all FRIENDS AND FAMILY, it's too late (for them).

 Law 4

Always Say Less than Necessary

When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control.  Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike.  Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less.  The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.

Scammers will say things just enough to create the impression that they have said more. They will evoke imagery so you can draw the rest of the picture yourself. It's like "Inception", where the mind creates its own people populating the imaginary world. A certain travel scam was very careful in NEVER stating who their corporate officers were, but gave some misleading "admiral" and so on "office bearers" that other people have assumed to be corporate officers. In a different part of the scam, they deliberated misquoted Warren Buffett so make it seem as if the scam was owned by Warren Buffett when it was certainly not!

Hey, we're on the SAME SIDE!

Image via WikipediaRecently, I seem to have gone into some sort of a "debate" on the merits of Amway with a guy called David Brear on another blog called CorporateFraudWatch.blogspot.com


The comments started calmly enough... I was thanked for bringing attention to the scam known as TVI Express. However, here Mr. Brear calls TVI Express "Amway Copy Cat". 


So I posted a few comments thanking them. 


Then David Brear goes on claiming I am some sort of expert, then ascribe some sort of a conspiracy group behind TVI Express. Quote: "Kasey Chang is undoubtedly a world authority on 'business opportunity' fraud in general, and the 'TVI Express' racket in particular"


So I posted what I have on the "mastermind" behind TVI Express, Tarun Trikha. 


David Brear, however, is completely fixated on Amway, as he immediately starts pointing out how Tarun Trikha seem to be using Amway cult tactics. 


I pointed out that TVI Express is far more of a scam than Amway ever could be. Amway at least HAVE some products, while TVI Express have no products AT ALL. Thus, Amway *could* be operated legally and ethically if one chooses to do so. 


Then the blog owner, Shyam pointed out that an Indian court had recently ruled that Amway India violated the Indian version of the anti-pyramid laws. 


So I replied that I am not familiar with Indian law, and one should be concentrating on the true scams such as TVI Express, instead of something that *may* still yet operate legitimately, such as Amway. 


That comment was not well received by Mr. David Brear. Apparently, my failure to join him in the wholesale condemnation of Amway (and probably the entire MLM industry) had made me his enemy, as his tone turned downright hostile. In not so many words, he called me an Amway apologist, claimed that I was trying to defend Amway cult and all that. 


So I repeated my comment, that compared to TVI Express, Amway is quite benign. I even pointed him to Robert L. Fitzpatrick's "False Profits" blog. That's a real anti-pyramid crusader. 


That's not enough to appease David Brear though. He claims I was being condescending, that I assumed they don't know about Mr. Fitzpatrick, then goes into some conspiracy about how the US government condones MLM to scam people around the world. Then he links up religious right to the MLM industry. 


Frankly, I have NO position on Amway. It has been operating legally in the US (and elsewhere) for DECADES. What Amway does in INDIA, frankly, is none of my business. I have not studied Amway in any way, shape, or form, except peripherally as part of studying up on TVI Express, and how TVI Express scam CANNOT be multi-level marketing. As Amway basically defined what is legal MLM in the US, I know it "somewhat", nowhere well enough to defend against Mr. Brear's tirade that essentially said "you're either with us (i.e. against Amway) or against us."


So why can't Mr. Brear see that we're on the SAME SIDE, AGAINST FRAUD AND ABUSE? What's with the "you're with us or against us" attitude? 


What Mr. Brear have... is a reading comprehension problem. 


I wrote that Amway *can* be operated ethically, by selling stuff, and ignore the cultish ways like buying all those training packages and recruiting people. (You can recruit a few who are good marketers / sellers) and I meant that. 


However, it appears that Mr. Brear didn't read that. What he actually read was "Amway IS ethical", which is clearly NOT what I wrote. I am well aware of some of the accusations regarding Amway "cult" and related companies,like Quixtar, as one cannot help to read some when searching for MLM abuse examples. Confession: I *have* been recruited for Quixtar and I refused. They are horribly annoying. 


Thus, please drop that "you're with me or against me" attitude. It makes you sound like a fanatic. 

Related articles

• Amway, Fortune High-Tech, and Pyramid Schemes (lordsetar.wordpress.com)
• Amway settles suit, to replace $20M in gift cards (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Helium -- where junk content is valued and real content is rejected for "lack of quality"

Image via CrunchBaseFollowing is my personal experience on Helium  ( http://www.helium.com/ ) Your experience can and will vary.


A long while back (several years ago) I joined a variety of places where you supposedly write things to make money (sort of freelancing). At the time, I thought Helium was interesting as it has a mutual rating community. Multiple people write articles about a single topic, then you are randomly asked to rate the articles (which is better of the two given).

So I wrote a few.

Then I realized the raters are all bigots.

They don't actually rate the articles based on quality. They just rate that they "like".

I wrote an article on "abandoneware". Legally, there is no such thing. Morally there is no such thing either. There is no such thing as "squatter's rights" to intellectual property. The #1 article claims "unsupported software" is considered "abandoneware". Others actually claimed a moral right to abandoneware as long as no harm can be proven. As predicted, my article ended at the bottom of the heap, even though I believe it is the most technically accurate of the 6 articles on that topic. That was in 2007.

So I abandoned the place.

In 2010, I was busted a scam called TVI Express, and I found a lot of writers were singing praises about TVI Express on Helium. So I gathered up all the facts I got, put in proper citations to actual news articles, and explained it's a scam, by citing all the inconsistencies, all the lies the distributors told, compared the structures to all the laws, and so on, and declared it a scam.  (I'll reproduce the article below)

The article was rejected for "LOW QUALITY" that does not meet Helium's standards.

WTF?!


At least the #1 article is a "scam busting" one from Shawn Cornett of ExpertMLMReview. #2 and others are singing praises of TVI Express, and that's just bull****.

So there you go: I think Helium is a community of bigots, based on my experience. Its raters are not rating for quality. Of course, I may be bigoted as well. That's why this is a RANT.