Anyone else get annoyed when your "friends" get into pyramid schemes?

Yeah, I was talked into doing a Landmark forum way back in the 90s. Kind of distressing to know it's still going. I felt like it was kind of cultish and the recruiting pitch was pretty intense. I was into it for a few weeks, then it just ground down my sensibilities and I left. But my girlfriend at the time, who eventually became my wife, stayed connected to it and took more of their courses. She learned not to push it on me (we had other good things in common, for awhile), but it eventually was part of the reason we broke up.

Landmark wrote:

Anybody know about the Landmark forum? A friend tried to pull me into it, has the appearance of a self help pyramid scheme. I refused to go and now we are no longer friends.

Once upon a time at a college party, I overheard a friend of a friend trying to explain how this scheme he was in was legit. It was such a clearly fraudulent situation that he couldn't even rationalize it. Basically, he gave a "partner" $1,500 and recruited others to give him $1,500 a piece, so he would "make back" his original $1,500 from his first recruit and would give $500 of any additional recruit's $1,500 to the partner and thus "profit" $1,000 from all those additional recruits. Then, once those two recruits collected $1,500 from others he would continue to collect an extra $500 from everyone, so effectively "everyone wins and you could make unlimited profit."

Once I interjected it quickly escalated into a heated discussion, thus destroying the mood. At first I thought he was deliberately scamming others but after his passionate defense of the scheme I realized he was completely convinced it was real. I resorted to using several analogies and examples and at one point even drew a diagram to make him understand how the math didn't work and the whole thing was a complete scam. He wasn't convinced ultimately, despite others also trying to talk some sense into him. He was Harvard student. I'm still baffled when I remember this.

Everyone just send me $20

One of my friends was a early-in for the Steed motor additive pyramid back in the early 1970's . He actually made a bunch of money but as I said he was at the top when it started in the NY area.

Yeah it is very annoying when people buy into GOP endorsed trickle down / voodoo / cut taxes at all cost and pay for it....never type pyramid schemes.

Mr Troll to you wrote:

Everyone just send me $20

It may be urban legend but I've been told newspapers will not accept classified ads of this type. :

LAST CHANCE TO SEND A DOLLAR

to 123 My Street My Town. USA

I lost a good friend over a vitamin company that starts with U. He totally changed and was resentful I didn't join with him. So yeah, I get annoyed as pie too.

Valedictorian from my class and now an employee at a major university with multiple post-grad degrees posted the following to her facebook.

Moron Valedictorian:

Hi, ladies! This is my 1st time trying this:

Would anyone be interested a gift exchange? I am tagging a few people to see if there's interest. I have already sent my gift so I need your help to keep this going 😊

Secret sister pre-holiday gift exchange:

It doesn't matter where you live - you are welcome to join. I need ladies of any age to participate in the gift exchange. You only have to buy ONE gift valued at $10 or more and send it to ONE secret sister. You'll receive 6-36 gifts in return!!!

Let me know if you are interested and I'll send you the information. Please don't ask to participate if you're not willing to spend $10. Let me know if you're in and I'll message you the details.

no thank you please wrote:

I lost a good friend over a vitamin company that starts with U. He totally changed and was resentful I didn't join with him. So yeah, I get annoyed as pie too.

That's the part that gets me - when they take it as a personal offense when you tell them you don't care to participate in their snake oil.

At that point, I figure they're the ones that chose to end the friendship.

This is the world we live in now...where you can make a living by annoying people. And people get sucked in because it's easier to get than regular jobs. There are literally zero qualifications other than persistence.

Had a not very bright acquaintance pitch me with this line: "I don't want your time, I don't want your money. I just want 30 minutes to explain to you an amazing opportunity you can buy in to."

Mr Troll to you wrote:

Everyone just send me $20

Isn't that basically GoFundMe?

no thank you please wrote:

I lost a good friend over a vitamin company that starts with U. He totally changed and was resentful I didn't join with him.

People like dat should be punched.

I have one Facebook friend and a sister who both have been selling Mary Kay products for several years. Neither of them ever tried to get anybody else to join. They are just a middle person for buying the products. Since you can purchase the products other places I assume they must be able to offer deals. They are both married with kids, possibly work part-time or not at all so I guess it is an okay way to make some money from home.What bothers me is when people get way too "into it". A different Facebook friend got into Beachbody a few years ago. She was a "Coach". Began acting like she had all the answers for workouts, supplements, etc. She really did feel like she was special and somehow qualify because she purchased a membership.When I was in elementary school a magazine I read advertised a way to make money by mailing envelopes. You pay money to join and you mail out a ton of envelopes to other people to join. You make money if they join, and if their friends join, and they're friends friend, etc. I was young and thought it sounded legit. My parents explained that it was a pyramid scheme. When I said I didn't know what that was they said, "Well, suppose your friend Pat walked up to you and hit you over the head with a shovel...then you got revenge by hitting your friend Scott over the head with a shovel. That's a pyramid scheme." Haha, it is about right.

I had a few friends post the exact same thing on Facebook. One has since deleted it so I guess she wised up. The other has had it sitting there for a few days. No replies or Likes.

The human race is a pyramid scheme soon to collapse.

Mr Troll to you wrote:

Everyone just send me $20

Sure!

Just send me $28.45 for shipping and handling!

X-Runner wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6MwGeOm8iI

John's Oliver's take on these.

John Oliver is not a reliable source of facts and truth. He spends half the time insulting and name-calling. The other half of his show is twisting and/or using faulty information. It is an entertainment comedy show. It is not a research article.

Fact dispenser wrote:

I really don't understand how people permit themselves to be duped so easily. MLM schemes are bad. Yes. But there are all types of other "get rich programs" being pedaled where you go to some seminar and learn how to be rich like the presenters if you give them money to teach you. At some point it should kick in that if there really was an easy way, these peddlers would not be trying to sell it to others. They would be basking in the free riches themselves.

Then again. Ask yourself why people are poverty stricken yet buy a hundred dollars of lottery tickets each week.

The worst thing is that it's a 100% useless experience that will not help them get jobs anywhere.

Even working at McDonald's would set them up better for the future, not even considering things like benefits.

The highest reasonable level to get with these things is something like level 3 or 4, which according to my Facebook feed before I blocked those posters was 3 or 4 to the 3rd or 4th power, so 27-81 to 64-264 people. You're gonna have a hard time getting 264 people to sign up for that garbage, so they're all stuck at level 3 which is something like $1500/month.

If they ever interview for a $20/hr job and say they were selling Herbalife before, the interviewer's gonna hate them or think they were lazy or gullible.