help!! my parents are about to get tricked into multi level marketing scam!!

[z0mb13]

my dad's friend keep comin to my house for the past couple of days

he asked my parents to "invest" $10 k into a MLM plan....supposedly it will more than double to $24k in one year.... and my parents are deeply interested

help!! how do I change their minds???

 

[Vette73]

Call the police and leave a tip that someone is running a scam and give their name and address.

 

[Pr0Hawk]

HURRY!!! steal all their money so they cant lose it!

 

[xirtam]

Make sure you look at all the angles. Most of the time, if you take the plan at face value and do the math, you'll see that it's impossible for over half of the people in most MLM schemes to make a dime. Which means that your hedging your bets that you can create financial losers to support you and make you a financial winner. Which is what this guy's trying to do to your parents.

 

[dakata24]

go buy beer! that's the only sound investment nowadays..

 

[CKDragon]

I second the calling the police option. I don't know what they can do legally, but if they come to your house maybe your parents will listen to them when THEY say that the guy is running a scam and at the very least become more suspicious.

CK

 

[z0mb13]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Call the police and leave a tip that someone is running a scam and give their name and address.

is MLM legal in US??

btw... me and my parents are outside the US, and in here everyhing seems legal (as long as u have cash to back it up)

were in Indonesia btw...

 

[z0mb13]

Originally posted by: xirtam
Make sure you look at all the angles. Most of the time, if you take the plan at face value and do the math, you'll see that it's impossible for over half of the people in most MLM schemes to make a dime. Which means that your hedging your bets that you can create financial losers to support you and make you a financial winner. Which is what this guy's trying to do to your parents.

I already told my mom about this..... but she keeps sayin that my dad's friend will ""guaranteee"" our money (yea rite)

I keep sayin that the only way to make money in MLM is if you can find buyers (suckers) as ur children, and also MLM are time bombs, it is just a matter of time that it will explode and the company will not have enough money to repay my parents' investment

oh well... its their money anyways..... but Im still damn pissed if they lose that amounnt of money

 

[chiwawa626]

Well...word of advice MLM scheems usualy dont work....if it was THAT EASY to make money then wouldnt EVERYONE do it? You should just put the 10k in the bank

 

[Cyberian]

Have you seen any written information on this alleged scam?

 

[z0mb13]

Originally posted by: Cyberian
Have you seen any written information on this alleged scam?

yes I have, and the company is pretty legit (in Indonesia anyways)
they even have a base office, which is pretty large and good lookin.....
their phamplets and flyers are very convincing and real..
sh*t they even have golf outings and such other high luxury event.....

this is not a company that will take ur money and run away, the only way (and a possible one) my parents lose their money is if the company cannot find anymore buyers (suckers) to invest in their MLM

its called pro life or somethin

 

[kLezViruS]

Originally posted by: z0mb13

Originally posted by: Cyberian
Have you seen any written information on this alleged scam?

yes I have, and the company is pretty legit (in Indonesia anyways)
they even have a base office, which is pretty large and good lookin.....
their phamplets and flyers are very convincing and real..
sh*t they even have golf outings and such other high luxury event.....

this is not a company that will take ur money and run away, the only way (and a possible one) my parents lose their money is if the company cannot find anymore buyers (suckers) to invest in their MLM

its called pro life or somethin

Sounds like all the other scams happening in and from Indonesia.

 

[gopunk]

so what do they say when you plead with them not to do it? do they think you're trying to fool them or something? doesn't the fact that their son is PLEADING with them not to do it mean anything to them?

 

[z0mb13]

Originally posted by: gopunk
so what do they say when you plead with them not to do it? do they think you're trying to fool them or something? doesn't the fact that their son is PLEADING with them not to do it mean anything to them?

welll my mom keeps sayin that my dad's friend will GUARANTEE about this, yea rite, WTF will he do?? take 10k out of his own pocket and give it to my parents??? when hell freezes over

my mom also said that it is not easy to make 24k nowadays.... WTF???? so it is easy to make 10k???

since bombing the head office or hiring an assasin to kill my dad's friend is out of the question, what else do I say???

 

[Ameesh]

ask them if they have some time , i'd like to talk to them about some great opportunities with amway products.

 

[MournSanity]

Kill your parents and you will be left with the money.

 

[Nefrodite]

never trust ur friends with ur money unless ur fathers friend is willing to leave his wife behind for a year as collateral plus, 10k? have the friend hand over his cars papers for ur dad to hold.. as a friend

 

[lowtech1]

Tell them that Bre-X was sure thing. It would really helps if you have the company name so we could check them out.

 

[athithi]

z0mb13, search google and you will come up with a host of websites run by people who've lost money in MLM. They clearly explain how "sweet and bullet-proof" the investment sounded to them when they got into it. Show it to your parents and instead of yelling or begging or acting frustrated, put it across as firmly and rationally as you can. Don't call them crazy for wanting to invest so much money in this - it is their money, after all. If you show them enough evidence that this is a scam, I'm sure even if they aren't convinced by your words they will at the very least develop some questions about this friend's offer. Finally, tell them that the only way they can make 24k is if they go around to their friends' houses like this friend of theirs and try to convince them to join in. Good Luck.

P.S: My mom lost $500 to this a few years back, so I know how frustrating and difficult it can be to convince your parents of the futility of MLM. Give it a shot, it will atleast clear your conscience

 

[rahvin]

Any MLM that requires up front fee's is more than likely a pyramid scheme. You should find those news stories about that huge pyramid scheme in eastern europe that took 80% of the population and robbed them of all their money. Regardless here are some links:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/invest/mlm.htm

http://www.legalfox.com/biz/mlm.html

http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/mlm.html

http://www.mlmsurvivor.com/

http://gamma.nic.fi/~phaipola/verkostomarkkinointi/mlm/mail.htm

You should also remind your parents that there are no guaranteed investments in this world. NONE And one final axiom, If it's too good to be true, it is.

 

[z0mb13]

Originally posted by: lowtech
Tell them that Bre-X was sure thing. It would really helps if you have the company name so we could check them out.

what is bre-x?? another MLM scam??

the company is called pro-best

this is their website:

linkie

 

[yllus]

If worst comes to worst, when your dad's friend comes over, question the hell out of him. Who cares if it strains the relationship between him and your father, he's trying to take your money. That's not a friend.

 

[lowtech1]

Bre-X wasn't an MLM company, but it was a scam that shook world gold market....billions were lost. According to a friend that worked for the Canadian finance department of BC, my province lost over $100 millions on their investment.

 

[rbhawcroft]

Originally posted by: z0mb13

Originally posted by: Marlin1975Call the police and leave a tip that someone is running a scam and give their name and address.

is MLM legal in US??btw... me and my parents are outside the US, and in here everyhing seems legal (as long as u have cash to back it up)were in Indonesia btw...

either (this is what i would do)

walk in on him when he is discussing it and tell him to get out now or you will stab him/ stroke beat the sh!t out of him, this is probably what would happen (the beating) if me and my brother caught some one doing this.

or since you are in indonesia, threaten to pay the police to beat the sh!t out of him/ fit him up.

 

[z0mb13]

Originally posted by: athithi
z0mb13, search google and you will come up with a host of websites run by people who've lost money in MLM. They clearly explain how "sweet and bullet-proof" the investment sounded to them when they got into it. Show it to your parents and instead of yelling or begging or acting frustrated, put it across as firmly and rationally as you can. Don't call them crazy for wanting to invest so much money in this - it is their money, after all. If you show them enough evidence that this is a scam, I'm sure even if they aren't convinced by your words they will at the very least develop some questions about this friend's offer. Finally, tell them that the only way they can make 24k is if they go around to their friends' houses like this friend of theirs and try to convince them to join in. Good Luck.

P.S: My mom lost $500 to this a few years back, so I know how frustrating and difficult it can be to convince your parents of the futility of MLM. Give it a shot, it will atleast clear your conscience

yea this is a good idea

actually I talked to my dad about this, and he explained the situation...... and now I realize that the company is not a total scam, a lot of my dad's friend entered and got a nice profit off it.... well I was not 100% convinced, but my dad said that 10k is a lot, but he can still afford to loose it if the investment goes sour...... so I said, oh well its ur money anyways, and I told them also if the investment would really double in a year, DON'T get greedy and invest more money afterwards, MLM is just a time bomb waiting to explode, no one really knows when the tree will saturate

thanks for all the answers guys