does it work???

“I just came from my best friend, and found out she and her husband are doing some freedom mlm program. I saw his checks, they really are makeing money. How can this work?? Can it be that easy?

He doesn't do a thing and the checks just come in. I am about to sign up. the url is fni.biz
I know I have to pay money, but hey... it works. what do you all think? Should I??

Man, I can't get over it, I did see the checks!! what the heII...”

“what is it exactly? i mean what do you sell?”

“yeah”

“I think you sell online classes, but you don't really sell them. hey, I really don't know exactelly how it works, all I know is that he is getting a check every month and it is getting bigger and bigger. I saw them, and he is a friend. shoot I kill them if I lost my money.”

“Sounds like a pyramid (scheme) to me.”

“Do NOT do it Gemini. Ever. It's infomercial hell out there. Avoid it like the plague.”

“I agree with stumprider--a pyramid.”

“LOL! My mother in law is in Amway and it's so funny to hear her talk about it. She refers to it as, "the bussiness". Every times she says it I have to put on my best Don Corlion impression and say back at her as the Godfather.

"So you tink you can jes ignore da bussiness like dis?"”

“LOL @ Nigal...

I had a buddy who tried to get me to sell noway products. He invighted me over for a cook-out. We cooked ate and whatnot then this dude in a suit shows up...then we all realized we been had.”

“i have a couple friends that used to do amway, it's like a cult. those amway people are crazy.

i really hve to think about this freedom network thing. All I see is my friend getting checks and not doing a thing, no referals no nothing... maybe a pyramid, but it works for some strange reason. maybe i wait for their next check and see how big it is. spose to be 72,000 per year. shoot for not doing a thing? HeII yeah!”

“I had a similar experience a number of years ago. My best friend from high school invited me, and several other friends over for dinner. Then another high school classmate showed up. I was p!ssed!”

“Dude, I got suckered into one of those Amway dinner deals also! I was frickin' pissed, man. I'd rather have a bowling bowl dropped on my tongue than have to sit through one of those things again. Amway salespeople were spawned from Lucifer himself.”

“I HATE all those damn get rich quick schemes.. and to be honest.. if you ever approach me.. and try to "slip an arm around me.. and start telling me about this great business?".. most likely.. we won't be friendz no more.

:)”

“A neighbor of mine tried to get me into some sort of thing like that. I have no idea what it was, because he never said during the initial pitch, so I suspect it was Amway. He kept talking about how this cop worked his buns off and was a millionaire within 6 months. My stock excuse then was "I'm going to school. That's more important to me."”

“Gemini, I've done a story on this. A few years ago a pyramid scheme which involved hadning over about $30,000, and then getting $120,000 back a few weeks later. The issue is that this does actually work for those at the top, the first ones in, but sooner or later the scheme collapses and those at the bottom end up losing large amounts of cash. The trouble is that you never know what level you get in on.”

“if you ever approach me.. and try to "slip an arm around me.. and start telling me about this great business?".. most likely.. we won't be friendz no more.

:)"
TownDawg
09:25:52 AM
04/25/03

TD, you are so full of it! ;)
You know good and well if a babe like Gemini came up and slipped an arm around you.. and started telling you about this great business you'll do anythink she wanted! LOL”

“anythink=anything LOL”

“* LAUGHS AT STOVESTOMPER *”

“My advice would be to stay away from that money game and forward your information to the FTC.

Check out this link: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/invest/mlm.htm”

“And if you get an email from a former Nigerian diplomat.... <GRIN>”

“Hey.....That Nigerian Diplomat and I are becoming quite close.....are you sayin' he's tryin' to scam me????”

“hahaha I am not that stupid. the company is pretty new, so if it works I really should do it.

towndawg: I would never ask anyone to do this. As far as I know don't you even get anything for referals, so no use.

I want to see if it works for me too. I'll wait for the first check.”

“hmmm, maybe I'm just cynical, but anything that involves you paying out cash first is asking for trouble.”

“MLM companies are a dime a dozen. ou only make money by signing people up who sign people up. Screw that.”

“I do like the Amway products. The one's that you don't have to buy five cases of that is. We went into Steak N' Shake one night at 12:30 AM and low and behold it was packed...with Amway people. I told my iwfe, "So this is what a cult meeting looks like.". I had to laugh at your discription there bitpusher.”

“MLM systems are like pyramids... some people (who get to the top) make a lot of money... but the money comes from the majority of people who are left holding the bag. In order to stand a chance at making enough money to justify your energy you have to hustle people who are most likely going to be bag holders.

I gotta say I don't like how this MLM wraps themselves up in the flag and in freedom to make its sleazy bucks.”

“Regardless what kind of scheme it is. A person needs to make his or her's own money to feel good about themselves. I have never met a person I have respected that did not have to work for his/her meal. It's called "character"”

“you know, I work my a$$ off every single day, sometimes 14 hour work days. I just now forced myself to stop working on the weekends. I really need a break.

I think to try this and make a couple extra bucks is not going to hurt anyone. (if it would work).”

“Actually, it WILL hurt someone, Gem.

The people who get in too late will be paying money into a system they have a slim chance of gaining any reward from. It's not a type of thing that pays you for hard work. It pays you for convincing other people to work hard. It's basically multi-level coercion. Many peole ind themselves pressured to lie to people to get them to join. Many others feel the need to try to sign up their families and friends.

It's sick.

http://www.mlmsurvivor.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mlmsurvivorsclub/
http://www.mlmwatch.org/

The MLM ten big lies:

Lie #1: MLM is a business offering better opportunities for making large sums of money than all other conventional business and professional models.

Truth: For almost everyone who invests, MLM turns out to be a losing financial proposition. Less than one percent of all MLM distributors ever earn a profit and those earning a sustainable living at this business are a much smaller percentage still.

Extraordinary sales and marketing obstacles account for much of this failure, but even if the business were more feasible, sheer mathematics would severely limit the opportunity. The MLM type of business structure can support only a small number of financial winners. If a 1,000-person downline is needed to earn a sustainable income. Those 1,000 will need one million more to duplicate the success. How many people can realistically be enrolled? Much of what appears as growth is in fact only the continuous churning of new enrollees. The money for the rare winners comes from the constant enrollment of armies of losers. With no limits on numbers of distributors in an area and no evaluation of market potential, the system is also inherently unstable.

Lie #2: Network marketing is the most popular and effective new way to bring products to market. Consumers like to buy products on a one-to-one basis in the MLM model.

Truth: If you strip MLM of its hallmark activity of continuously reselling distributorships and examine its foundation, the one-to-one retailing of products to customers, you encounter an unproductive and impractical system of sales upon which the entire structure is supposed to rest. Personal retailing is a thing of the past, not the wave of the future. Retailing directly to friends on a one-to-one basis requires people to drastically change their buying habits. They must restrict their choices, often pay more for goods, buy inconveniently, and awkwardly engage in business transactions with close friends and relatives. The unfeasibility of door-to-door retailing is why MLM is, in reality, a business that just keeps reselling the opportunity to sign up more distributors.

Lie #3: Eventually all products will be sold by MLM. Retail stores, shopping malls, catalogues and most forms of advertising will soon be rendered obsolete by MLM.

Truth: Less than 1% of all retail sales are made through MLM and much of this sales volume is accounted for by the purchases of hopeful new distributors who are actually paying the price of admission to a business they will soon abandon. MLM is not replacing existing forms of marketing. It does not legitimately compete with other marketing approaches at all. Rather, MLM represents a new investment scheme that uses the language of marketing and products. Its real products are distributorships which are sold with misrepresentation and exaggerated promises of income. People are buying products in order to secure positions on the sales pyramid. The possibility is always held out that you may become rich if not from your own efforts then from some unknown person who might join your 'downline,' the 'big fish' as they are called.

MLM's growth is a manifestation not of its value to the economy, customers or distributors but of the recently high levels of economic fear and insecurity and rising expectations of quick and easy wealth. It is growing in the same way legalized gambling and lotteries are.

Lie #4: MLM is a new way of life that offers happiness and fulfillment. It is a means to attain all the good things in life.

Truth: The most prominent motivating appeal of the MLM industry as shown in industry literature and presented at recruitment meetings is the crassest form of materialism. Fortune 100 companies would blush as the excess of promises of wealth and luxury put forth by MLM solicitors. These promises are presented as the ticket to personal fulfillment. MLM's overreaching appeal to wealth and luxury conflicts with most people's true desire for meaningful and fulfilling work in something in which they have special talent or interest. In short, the culture of this business detours many people from their personal values and desires to express their unique talents and aspirations.

Lie #5: MLM is a spiritual movement.

Truth: The use of spiritual concepts like prosperity consciousness and creative visualization to promote MLM enrollment, the use of words like 'communion' to describe a sales organization, and claims that MLM is a fulfullment of Christian principles or Sciptural prophecies are great distortions of these spiritual practices. Those who focus their hopes and dreams upon wealth as the answer to their prayers lose sight of genuine spirituality as taught by all the great religions and faiths of humankind. The misuse of these spiritual principles should be a signal that the investment opportunity is deceptive. When a product is wrapped in the flag or in religion, buyer beware! The 'community' and 'support' offered by MLM organizations to new recruits is based entirely upon their purchases. If the purchases and enrollment decline, so does the 'communion.'

Lie #6: Success in MLM is easy. Friends and relatives are the natural prospects. Those who love and support you will become your life-time customers.

Truth: The commercialization of family and friendship relations or the use of 'warm leads' which is required in the MLM marketing program is a destructive element in the community and very unhealthy for individuals involved. Capitalizing upon family ties and loyalties of friendships in order to build a business can destroy ones social foundation. It places stress on relationships which may never return to their original bases of love, loyalty and support. Beyond its destructive social aspects, experience shows that few people enjoy or appreciate being solicited by friends and relatives to buy products.

Lie #7: You can do MLM in your spare time. As a business, it offers the greatest flexibility and personal freedom of time. A few hours a week can earn a significant supplemental income and may grow to a very large income making other work unnecessary.

Truth: decades of experience involving millions of people have proven that making money in MLM requires extraordinary time commitment as well as considerable personal skill and persistence. Beyond the sheer hard work and talent required, the business model inherently consumes more areas of ones life and greater segments of time. In MLM, everyone is a prospect. Every waking moment is a potential time for marketing. There are no off-limit places, people or times for selling. Consequently, there is no free space or free time once a person enrolls in MLM system. Under the guise of creating money independently and in your free time, the system gains control and dominance over people's entire lives and requires rigid conformity to the program. This accounts for why so many people who become deeply involved end up needing and relying upon MLM desperately. They alienate or abandon other sustaining relationships.

Lie #8. MLM is a positive, supportive new business that affirms the human spirit and personal freedom.

Truth: MLM is largely fear-driven. Solicitations inevitably include dire predictions about the impending collapse of other forms of distribution, the disintegration or insensitivity of corporate America, and the lack of opportunity in other professions or services. Conventional professions, trades and business are routinely demeaned and ridiculed for not offering 'unlimited income.' Employment is cast as enslavement for 'losers.' MLM is presented as the last best hope for many people. This approach, in addition to being deceptive, frequently has a discouraging effect on people who otherwise would pursue their own unique visions of success and happiness. A sound business opportunity does not have to base its worth on negative predictions and warnings.

Lie #9. MLM is the best option for owning your own business and attaining real economic independence.

Truth: MLM is not true self-employment. 'Owning' an MLM distributorship is an illusion. Some MLM companies forbid distributors from carrying additional lines. Most MLM contracts make termination of the distributorship easy and immediate for the company. Short of termination, downlines can be taken away with a variety of means. Participation requires rigid adherence to the 'duplication' model, not independence and individuality. MLM distributors are not entrepreneurs but joiners in a complex hierarchical system over which they have little control.

Lie #10: MLM is not a pyramid scheme because products are sold.

Truth: The sale of products is in no way a protection from anti-pyramid scheme laws or unfair trade practices set forth in federal and state law. MLM is a legal form of business only under certain rigid conditions set forth by the FTC and state Attorneys General. Many MLMs are in gross violation of these guidelines and operate only because they have not been prosecuted. Recent court rulings are using a 70% rule to determine an MLM's legality. At least 70% of all goods sold by the MLM company must be purchased by non-distributors. This standard would place most MLM companies outside the law. The largest of all MLMs acknowledges that only 18% of its sales are made to non-distributors.”

“Phaedrus, thank you. that helped me a lot to decide. I'll check it more in detail right after I'm of the phone.”

“Sure thing, Gemini. You might also ask your friends how much of the checks you saw they have to pay to their "unders". What is their actual profit?

In Amway, the percentage of distributors that actually make a profit is .82%. that's one out of every 122. And that's not saying they make enough to live on, just a profit.

Good luck!”

“LOL! from their website:

FNI ANNOUCES FAST START MONEY!!
Announcing an incredible way for you to get BIG $$$ UP FRONT!

Effective April 15, 2003.

Freedom Network will now start paying a FAST START BONUS every time you bring in a Gold or Silver Package!

Example: Sally Sponsors John. John sells or purchases 1 Gold Package.

Sally just made a $100 fast start bonus!

What if John purchased all four Gold Packages?

Sally, because she is John's sponsor, just earned $400!

If John would have purchased 1 Silver Package, Sally would have earned a $25 Fast Start Bonus.

Summary:

Silver Packages Pay $25 each.
Gold Packages Pay $100 each.

Instead of having to wait weeks or even months to earn a $54.00 bonus check you can earn $100 per Gold Package you bring in and $25 per Silver Package you bring in immediately! This will replace the $54 cycle bonuses from the past.

FNI will honor all existing $54.00 bonus centers prior to April 14th, 2003. Fast Start Bonuses will be processed weekly as the funds for the sale of the packages are confirmed at our bank. This is a great way for you and your new ISRs to earn commissions immediately.”

“ha!!! that really sucks!!
well my friend did not know that, I am sure. She would never tell me something like that if she knew”