IsThisAScamFilter: Melaleuca Inc., the internets seem to be on the fence about it. Have ye any experience? [more inside]
posted by knystress on Sep 10, 2009 - 20 answers

How does an otherwise rational and intelligent person get suckered into Market America? [more inside]
posted by kenliu on Sep 26, 2008 - 6 answers

A friend of a friend has started to shell out money to Dani Johnson. She's only a few hundred dollars in so far and I'm trying my best to find information to dissuade her from getting in any deeper. Google, however, is letting me down - every link I find is basically a scam site of some kind gushing about her. Taken as a whole the result of this search being garbage is damning enough on its own but I'm looking for something more definitive I can bring to her. 500 results in I see a Yahoo Answers question asking the same thing but there isn't a substantial answer there. Hopefully Metafilter knows better. :) Is it a scam? Is it a pyramid scheme? Is there any proof?
posted by anonymous on Mar 12, 2008 - 9 answers

ScamFilter: Is Public Gold a multi-level marketing scam? Or a "legit" MLM? [more inside]
posted by ObscureReferenceMan on Mar 20, 2007 - 8 answers

My older brother, who has been swindled by MLM (multi-level marketing) scams in the past, has gotten involved in yet another. Have any of you dealt with a family member in this situation? Is there anything I can do, or do any of you have suggestions on how to cope with this? [more inside]
posted by catfood on Jan 3, 2007 - 31 answers

MLMFilter: My mother called me and mentioned a "new business" she wants to start. She was very excited about it, and said the business is at http://www.mywayoutonline.com/, and the company is actually called PhotoMax. I have my doubts... [more inside]
posted by litlnemo on Nov 15, 2006 - 26 answers

Is multi-level-marketing (MLM) always a scam? Should I dissuade someone from becoming a distributor? [more inside]
posted by elgilito on Sep 5, 2005 - 11 answers

My aunt just sent me an e-mail linking to a site she set up for "Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing". Before I even brought the home page up, it felt quite a bit like Herbalife and other pyramid schemes just from reading the e-mail. Indeed, one of the first links on Google is a scam.com message board. To save me having to sort through thousands of Fortune Marketing pages on google, does anyone have any personal experience with this company or any information my aunt should be aware of? [more inside]
posted by Eideteker on Jan 16, 2005 - 1 answer

My wife is considering getting into Mary Kay. The sales pitch sounds good, and everyone she knows who's involved with it has said it's a good thing. So naturally I'm suspicious that it's too good to be true. Is there a catch? Anyone had personal experience with Mary Kay?
posted by oissubke on Feb 16, 2004 - 20 answers