Quixtar & Making Money- I beg to differ! (Another long one!)

Larry posted,

"I have found a lot of people here who feel that if someone is making money it's a rip-off. "

Actually, it's not the making money that is considered a rip-off. It's how some people make that money that is disliked.

We've pretty much seen it all here from the $6 chain letter scam, where the pyramid system is used to get a bunch of people sending them a dollar, knowing that as the illegal scam breaks down, those who got in last will lose. It's only $6, but the concept is illegal and unethical from the start.

Any pyramid, not based on tangible products is illegal. Many companies have tried substituting reports or booklets as the "product" and have been shut down. Many of those who started these knew they were illegal to begin with. And others who knew the score joined in to reap the fast bucks.

Some people have no qualm about scamming others to make that fast buck. But, that mindset isn't welcome here.

Five years ago, the "Laundry Ball" was discussed as a real product that allowed people to build a business. In reality, scammers were selling thousands if no millions of Whiffle balls through a pyramid. There was no science or truth to the Laundry Ball, and it was quickly shut down.

I wouldn't look at or consider a company that had one of the company-side promoters of that product in their operation. "Birds of a feather..." as they say.

If you got burned on a used car from a used car dealer who refused any accomodation, and you felt he knew there were defects with the car, would you do business with them again? Would you warn others not to trust that dealer?

That is the purpose and mindset of Friends in Business. There are a lot of newbies and gullible people online who are looking for a legitimate business opportunity, home-based and otherwise. This community seeks to help others avoid many of the pitfalls and rip-offs that are lurking out in cyberspace.

Read "Scams 101" and you will see the focus on danger signs and "red flags".

Unfortunately for the MLM industry, many slick, sleazy, and unethical operators are out for the quick buck, and they want to get Millions from their scam before the bubble bursts. The MLM methodology and population help make this easy.

I could list hundreds of illegal MLM operations, but that has already been done. I will give one example. A company in Texas used the MLM or NWM business model to sell people on a Diet Cookie that would be used as a meal replacement. Imagine you could replace breakfast or lunch with an Oatmeal Raisin, Chocolate Chip, or other flavor treat and lose weight. Since the cookie contained only 100 calories, people were told they could even have two of these delicious (ha) cookies and still lose weight.

Millons of Americans are overweight, so this made an easy audience both for selling and building quick downlines. One upline in my area of Louisiana was making weekly trips with his trailer bringing back 80 cases or more each week. I had at least two 2 customers and a couple other acquaintances trying to get me on-baord. Before the crooks were shut down, they had sold millions of their diet cookies.

All of their claims of low calorie, low fat, that they made on the packaging was false. The Texas State AG got involved in the investigation and was instrumental on putting them out of business, but not before thousands of people had been signed up.

The local jail received hundreds of cases of the 'diet' cookies donated to them. Turns out even the prisoners who could enjoy all they wanted didn't want them.

Many of those scammed by this company lost more in the inventory they were stuck with, than they had made before the end came.

Meanwhile, many of the unethical promoters were signing up new victims as the closure was in the works. Wouldn't you warn your friends and relatives that this was a risky investment?

Gifting clubs or circles have also been discussed here. And that was before the big news stories broke on the network TV investigative shows. We had people coming and telling how they had received a miracle gift of money that solved their financial crisis, avoided bankruptcy, etc, as they were trying to get more people to join their circle.

The idea of the circle was to avoid the connection to a pyramid, which is all it was. Instead of losing $6, these circles required $500 to $5000 or more. As soon as the "layers" were complete, the "donor/victim" would receive their "miracle". Of course the promoters and friends who started the circle, go out with the miracles and the last layers of hopeful victims were out their entire "gift".

If the archives were inaccessible at the present time, you could go back and find were Lesley, myself, Mel., Rooster, Rebecca, and many others warned people to avoid specific scams, steering them away from a train wreck in their future.

This forum has been USED by people who came in offering advice and participating in the community for a period. Then they came under a different name posting questions. Lo and behold the IP addresses seen by the mods showed it to be the same ISP, if not the same computer.

The original posted comes back with their opportunity that fits the seekers situation perfectly. They then proceeded to recruit others to their "I don't plan to recruit, as the product/service is so good I make money without recruiting" business.

And again more recently, the "home assembly business" has reared it head again. It's not always the same guy, but frequently turns out to be. But, this scam seeks to get people to pay for the info and basic materials to assemble small electronic components (unknown type of modulators or something) or even dolls.

The opportunity seeker soon learns that the $50 or more they paid will always result in their finished product being rejected as not up to standards.

Meanwhile, importers can buy the finished products overseas for less than half of what they offer to pay their home assemblers. If there was a market for their finished product, they would just call Hong Kong and have it shipped.

Not surprisingly, many of those who don't like the responses they get here have the loudest objections, claiming this forum is too negative. Many have threatened to file lawsuits. Note the posts at the top and bottom of the Forum homepage.

In spite of all the threats and objections, and even some malicious hacking, Friends in Business is still up and running with over 6 years of friendly history. Thats a long time in internet years.

Let me close with, "Thank You, Lesley" for a great anti-scam, business-friendly forum.