how do people fall for mlm scams

[BurnItDwn]

Gullible people fall for charismatic people all the time. A good salesperson can sell complete garbage to most people.

 

[dainthomas]

My parents did Amway for a little bit in the late 70's. I remember having Amway everything all over the house, it was ridiculous.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

I remember in high school a buddy of mine tried to get me into an MLM selling this phone/cell service. As soon as I walked into the presentation I could tell it was all bull. They really tried selling me by saying "Do you want to be left behind when all of your friends are driving Ferrari's?"

 

[NoTine42]

Is Cutco really MLM?
The general point of an MLM is to recruit more recruiters, so other people are earning you money, and CUTCO didn't seem to be actively doing that.

 

[sourceninja]

...

 

[dainthomas]

I remember in high school a buddy of mine tried to get me into an MLM selling this phone/cell service. As soon as I walked into the presentation I could tell it was all bull. They really tried selling me by saying "Do you want to be left behind when all of your friends are driving Ferrari's?"

Hopefully your friends at least let you ride in their Ferraris.

 

[FeuerFrei]

Is Cutco really MLM?
The general point of an MLM is to recruit more recruiters, so other people are earning you money, and CUTCO didn't seem to be actively doing that.

Cutco relies on playing the "poor college student" card. "Yeah just looking to make some money to help me through college. Wanna buy a set?"

Here's a illuminating quote from another forum in a Cutco thread earlier this year ....

Well hello, As someone who has had direct contact with Cutco been a top producer. Trained several of their very best Including Matt Lamb, who broke all sorts of records with Cutco, first yes The program is a full on scam. And IMO without much doubt you have been allowed to pull a not so fast one here. I can see you with print outs of the positive post going to see your "friends" with a $1000 knife package they just have to have. It is pure tier marketing and based on the emotion that everyone feels a little sadness and failure in their life and they hate to see you go through it. Only the most lethal and predatory young men and women make it. No one makes it long, because all the promises they offer keep getting placed just out of reach, with handsome rewards along the way. YES, I have seen the $3500 a week checks and the "loaded" American Express gift cards. But in the wake of that were "friends" who could not make a house payment, strapped with a $2500 knife payment.

As far as the knives go, they are solid, but not special. They come from the factory razor sharp and quickly dull, and NO ONE except Cutco can return them to their original condition. Try it and you WILL HAVE JUNK. This pattern is expected to repeat itself 3 times in the "cycle" for the product manager to achieve his full draw on purchase. Meaning Sharpening, which leads to contact again with Cutco marketing designed to NEVER allow a customer out of debt. But if you do plan to purchase, know that 70 plus % of the "members" leave money on the table. The Agent has , based on his/her level up to 40% gross sale to give away. Anything they "keep" is pure profit , IF they can produce this 5 times in a given week. So based on the fact that the knives, must be forever professionally maintained, During which time Cutco is going to badger you to buy more product you did not need, and your "FRIEND" is withholding free products in order to get further in a line, they will NEVER reach, I have seen many Friendships lost. The handles will melt in certain dishwashers, seen it at least 10 times on various knives. No warranty on the melt, washer error, lol. In the end, save the > $ 2000 and buy you a good set < $ 400 at many stores. Plus you will be saving a friendship and putting some young kid to work without a broken dream, after wasting 2-3 years with Cutco. Those regional jobs just do not exist. And if so , not for long.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Cutco relies on playing the "poor college student" card. "Yeah just looking to make some money to help me through college. Wanna buy a set?"

Here's a illuminating quote from another forum in a Cutco thread earlier this year ....

Yup. I remember the other one where they recruit from college campuses to sell encylopedias. Who the hell spends thousands of dollars on encyclopedias when there's the internet.

 

[cubby1223]

Yup. I remember the other one where they recruit from college campuses to sell encylopedias. Who the hell spends thousands of dollars on encyclopedias when there's the internet.

I was invited to sit on that sales pitch my first week into college. It was really creepy how the guy promoted himself. I was one of the earliest candidates to be excused out for not passing the qualifications - which initially was the question - are you ready to devote yourself fully to me for the next 4 years... despite me not providing you with any actual idea of what the job entails or what the compensation will be?

 

[NoTine42]

Yup. I remember the other one where they recruit from college campuses to sell encylopedias. Who the hell spends thousands of dollars on encyclopedias when there's the internet.

I think that gig has now changed into tutoring services.

 

[disappoint]

I bought the Kirby as well. Twice actually. lol.

Now I want a Kirby. And a Ginsu knife to stab it in case it gets uppity once the big AI in the sky kicks in.

 

[disappoint]

Gullible people fall for charismatic people all the time. A good salesperson can sell complete garbage to most people.

Someone sold Trident an expensive empty garbage can. That's not even complete garbage, it was incomplete garbage. I bet it even said on the box: Garbage not included.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Back in 90 or 91 a high school friend got into Amway and tried to hook me up as one of the people in his network. I wasn't interested, but since he was a friend I kept an open mind and went to one of their rallies. They put on quite a show with a lot of happy, enthusiastic people claiming they were making a fortune and some well done presentations about how if you signed up enough other salesmen to work under you you never had to sell anything. They'd do it all.

This is back in the days before the internet, so you couldn't just Google Amway and figure out what's up. I could easily see how people could get suckered in, it was a great sales pitch. But of course that was then and this is now. You have to be monumentally stupid and lazy to get involved in any scheme like that without spending 10 seconds learning if it's legit. And that's the only way people fall for MLM scams now, they're monumentally stupid and lazy.