The Amway/BWW Scam?

Re-post of a very popular article:

Very Interesting Testimony:

http://scamadvocates.com/1306-Amway-and-BWW.html

I was at a mall and a couple struck up a conversation about something i was looking to buy at the shop. To be polite i responded and they kept the conversation going and finally they asked my number. I hesitantly gave my number and forgot about the incident. Two weeks later I received a call on a Sunday evening after 7:00 PM from this very same person. After initial chitchat the person mentioned a e-commerce business opportunity which has helped him make money. So we booked a meeting at my home on a Monday evening after work to discuss more on this.

The couple showed up and gave almost no information on the opportunity except for some vague e-commerce concept and invited to an "industry briefing" to be held at a hotel on Wednesday evening at 8:00 PM and I was asked to show up there in business attire.

On Wednesday i went to the hotel where the "industry briefing" was to be held and was forced to sit in the front seat with a paper and pen too to make some notes. The person who spoke was very animated and used some classical phrases undermining how un-fullfilling our jobs were. He showed a business plan and claimed, a person in 3-12 months can start earning 2500+/month and in 3-5 years earn more than 250K per year. At the end he mentioned that they have a product company called 'Amway Global' formerly know as 'Quixtar' and a education system called 'Britt Worldwide" or BWW which work together to make the above claims a reality.
At the end of the seminar i was given a few CD's and a literature material again highlighting what was said in the meeting. Intrigued i asked the person who invited me as to how long he was doing this business and he said that he was doing it for a "couple of years" which i later found out to be 13 years in fact and he was by no means "RICH". He invited me to another meeting on Friday at his place called "PASE - Product and system Education" as a followup. I went to PASE and met a few others who were involved in this business and the meeting had a cult like flavor to it. I did succumb to the pressure to sign up and was asked to sign up then and there.

They asked me to start attending the meetings every week, buy a subscription program for CD's called SOCD which i was told would cost me 7.94$'s per week + taxes making it 8.02$'s, later they also mentioned something called LSO - Leadership Standing Order which would cost me another 8.02$'s per week. I was also asked to sign up for a service called 'CommuniKate' which is a voice messaging servicewhich would cost me 25$'s per month and also asked to open a business website where i could showcase my business based on 3 pre-formated templates which would cost me 15$'s per month.

I confronted as to the validity of all these that i am asked to buy and i was told that all these would make it look like a legitimate business. They also stressed that it is a tax deductible expenses so were all the miles i would drive to these meetings and any contacting meetings i would go to.

I did not know at that time that every Wednesday meeting i would attend would cost me 6$'s per week. I was also asked to buy tickets to "BBS- Business Building Seminar" which would cost me 25$'s per meeting and this is held 4 times a year. Here they introduced something called 'Eagle Program" where every person if he needed to be 'an Eagle' had to buy 300 P.V worth of products from Amway every month else they are 'chicken'. Each P.V was 2.50$'s making it a commitment of 750$'s every month on Products. While doing all these I was yet to see any earnings. They also mentioned about another larger meeting called "conference/ FED/ Leadership" to be held and it would cost me 100$'s. These Large conferences are also held 4 times every year.

To know what happens in the conference you do a bit of search using keywords "Dateline Amway" and look at the video's in the link.

I asked the person who introduced me to this business to provide me with receipts for all the money I had to spend on BWW stuff, like CD's Tickets etc. But i was told that no receipts will be given.

Later I found out that the Big Pins make Tons of money from these tools than Amway itself, and since these were circulated by Hand and money collected through cash and checks without receipt, THIS WAS THE TAX FREE INCOME. REPORTING of this income does not go to IRS, I am sure IRS Does not even know such an income stream exists.

After all weekly meetings, a lots of CD's, compelled to do 300 P.V every month, driving a lot of miles and driving away all my friends and relatives it dawned on me that although Amway Makes good Products and sell them at a Premium and is considered a Legitimate by the Government, its combination with BWW MAKES IT A SCAM.

If you are reading at this account, you are either looking at getting into this business or have a doubt in your mind if your decision was correct to join this business.

If you are OK with all the points i have stated above go ahead and still build the business.

Else Rescue your money, because you will loose a lot of it if you get into this.

Amway The Negative Sum Game?

To explain my blogpost, I will explain a zero sum game. A zero sum game is like a poker game. Say that you have 5 poker players who each bring $100 to a poker game. At the end of the nite, one player may go home with the $500 and the rest broke, or they may all go home even with $100 or other variations. But in any scenario, the total sum of cash the players take home will equal $500. A negative sum game would be perhaps a poker game where each player for example, pays $10 to "the house" before playing, thus the game with 5 players would have the house taking in $50 and the players competing for the remaining $450. In this second scenario, it is possible for all five players to leave the game with less than the $100 they initally came to the game with.

In the Amway global business, the business is run much like a negative sum game with Amway and the AMO's being "the house". Except in this game, Amway and the AMOs get most of the money and fewer than 1% of all IBOs being the "winners". Amway benefits from the IBOs who are taught to consume their 100 PV which is about $300 a month in sale for Amway, and the AMOs make their money by selling motivational materials such as seminars and cds. In Amway's case, at least an IBO might be able to return a portion of their goods for a refund, or they may be able to sell or use their products. In the AMO's case, most IBOs do not succeed as a reult of the tools, and the tools are virtually worthless outside of Amway, despite the fact that IBOs claim the tools teach them valuable principles. This is evidenced by the tools being sold, literally for pennies on Ebay or Craig's List.

In virtually every group scenario you can illustrate, the group as a whole will suffer losses because their sales do not cover the cost of overhead, and do not even cover the cost of the IBO's personal use items. IBOs need their jobs to continue to fund their purchase of Amway products and system tools. It is very very rare that you will encounter an IBO who sells enough product to cover his/her expenses and this is evidenced by Amway's own numbers that less than 4% of good are sold to non IBOs.

My conclusion based on the evidence is that the Amway Opportunity is a negative sum game where IBOs and IBO's jobs make Amway and certain select AMO leaders wealthy while the IBO population lives in poverty while thinking they are successful.

Amway's Latest Lawsuit?

Interesting article:

http://doubtfulnews.com/2014/05/amways-latest-lawsuit/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=amways-latest-lawsuit

CONSUMER PRODUCTS, MONEY-MAKING SCHEMES
Amway’s latest lawsuit
by Sharon Hill • May 12, 2014 • 0 Comments

Amway, one of the world’s biggest multi-level marketing companies, is in court again.

Amway’s Claims Are Malarkey, Distributors Say.

The world’s largest Amway distributors expanded their business from Taiwan into Chinese communities in the United States, defrauding their new clients with promises of “enormous profits,” nine Amway sellers claim in court.

Lead plaintiff Longsheng Lei and eight other of the self-described “most successful distributors in the entire Amway organization” sued Amway and husband-and-wife Amway distributors Barry Chi and Holly Chen in Superior Court. They allege breach of contract, fraud, false advertising, unfair competition, unjust enrichment, conversion and negligent misrepresentation.

Barry Chi and Holly Chen are named as the most successful Amway distributors in the world. The plaintiffs allege they were persuaded to attend the Chen’s seminars to become “independent business owners” where they were promised enormous profit. But, claim the plaintiffs, these distributors know that most of the new Amway sign-ons make $100-200 a month. Not enough to live on.

It’s rather messy. Amway certainly does recruit distributors with descriptions of big income. (I can attest to this from personal involvement long ago.) They have been accused of running a pyramid scheme where the emphasis is on recruitment rather than selling a product.

There has been a HISTORY of suits. They have had their wrists slapped but the structure is still going strong. Be wise if you are approached by recruiters. Know exactly what you are getting into.

Did you know that Amway distributors were accused of propagating the Proctor and Gamble satanic symbol legend? Procter & Gamble alleged that several Amway distributors were behind a resurgence of the urban legend in the 1990s (probably to benefit their own sales bottom line) resulting in a suit for defamation and slander. Procter & Gamble was awarded $19.25M by a jury from this case.

It’s hard to say how this current suit will play out.

With all the bad connotations and shadiness behind Amway, they have a fair share of detractors. You can read more about it here.

Amway. Quiztar, TEAM, Team of Destiny, Network 21 – The Skeptic’s Dictionary.

It IS a multi-level marketing plan and that is bad news for most participants who remain on the bottom.

Analysis: Amway Accused of Fraud; Pays $150 Million; Where’s the FTC and DOJ? | Pyramid Scheme Alert.

Amway – The Dream Or The Scheme?.

Amway IBO Lies?

In my personal experience and even now, I see evidence from IBOs that lying is still a big part of the script for those who are recruiting new IBOs. A business built on lies is a house built on a shaky foundation. If your upline has lied, did you simply ignore and overlook it? Did you see slide shows of wealth as "proof" that Amway works? Do you know if your upline actually owns any of that stuff and is it typical or simply some exceptional diamond who has trappings but tries to imply that alll diamonds and big pins have all of those goodies? Some of the lies: We don't make any money until you do We don't make money from tools Save 30% by becoming an IBO The business is easy All you need is six Diamonds pay cash for everything Jobs are for losers 98% for people are dead or broke by age 65 95% of small businesses fail in the first year **Have you heard any of these statements? Have you been fed lies or half truths (lies)? If these statements sounds familiar, it may be a red flag for you. I urge you to at least verify any questionable claims made by upline or by those recruiting you into the business. Get bonafide proof of financial success. While uplines may say it's not your business, it certainly is if you are being asked to trust the upline leadership and to follow their advice. You should know how successful your uplines are and whether or not following them is indeed worth your time, investment and efforts. If your upline dodge your questions, you should think twice.

Whatever Happened To "Anonymous From Canada"?

There used to be an anonymous from Scarborough Canada who used to entertain me and my blog audience with his antics. Here's a reprint of a previous post in his honor. I hope he didn't quit Amway and become a broke loser. :)



Some of my regular readers here knows that there's an anonymous cowardly blogger from Scarborough Ontario Canada who has left threats and insults on my blog almost ad nauseum. I gave him my contact information but he was too chicken to contact me. He is apparently a low level IBO who has a entry level job in a bank. Here's a humorous set of comments he recently left ony my blog. Enjoy!

Anonymous said: "That's why you didn't make the kind of money you were hoping to make. When I registered a thought came to my mind quite early on; instead of me finding 6 people who find 4 who find 2 each, why don't I just find one person who will find 6 people who find 4 who find 2 each? After-all, I still get 7500 PV and 50K/year!!! Sadly, as I found out, in doing so, I would net out only about $700/month instead of $5700/month. Structure is the key baby! BIG DIFFERENCE! So, I got serious about it and went for my 6 people! Did it all go just as advertised? No, but I earn a good $4000-4500 per month. Do I plan to stop here? No! I plan to go 100K/year by December 2011. So remember, business structure is vital for profitability. Stop whining and get to work!"

Anonymous said: "My Amway expenses are WAY FAR from wiping out my monthly Amway earnings. Or are you referring to my general, every day expenses? If yes, then there really is nothing to argue about. The same can be said about anyone whose job income also equals my Amway monthly income. For your information, I make almost twice as much from Amway than any other job I ever had."

Anonymous said: "Buddy Joe, my J.O.B was from 9 in the morning till 6 in the evening, Monday to Friday, working as a customer service representative. I was making about $2360/month. So don't you think that maybe, JUST MAYBE, $4000/month from Amway isn't a little bit, JUST A TINY LITTLE BIT, MORE than $2360? So what if I earn $4000/month you ask? Buddy Joe, I think that you're aware of $4000 figure being TOO REAL TO YOU, it's just that you were nowhere near that and now you're bitter about it. Why am I there and you aren't? Don't know and don't want to know. All I see is your bitterness and complacency. So shut up!"

Joe's commentary: So my anonymous friend in making $4000 a month from Amway? Of course he provides no evidence and not even an anecdotal explanation of how he makes $4000 a month. Of course, $4000 a month isn't much when you still have to pay for medical insurance and your other business expenses. Not to mention, I earn a lot more than that from my job. But anon from Canada, thanks for your entertaining tirades! I truly enjoy what you add to my blog! :-)

Going Broke In Amway?

Many people join the Amway business because they believe that they will get rich in doing so. Upline will tell their audiences that they will not "get rich quick". I believe they do this as a disclaimer so that people don't believe this is some scam that is too good to be true. Obviously, many people have the idea that they will evnetually get rich if they will only follow upline advice and do what they are told. On the surface, the Amway presentation looks reasonable and makes sense. Basically, it is sold as make money and save money. Sound easy enough and who wouldn't want to make money, save money, or both? But what's not told to prospects up front is that in order to work the system, you will need to be a leader and a good example for your downline to duplicate. Thus you will be expected to move at least 100 PV each month. 100 PV costs about $300 a month and a leader or serious IBO will be expected to be on voicemail, standing order, and book of the month, as well as attending functions which may include out of town conventions requiring airfare and other trave; expenses. I believe the average dedicated IBO would spend between $200 and $300 a month on average, on these tools. Thus an average business building IBO will spend about $500 to $600 a month in order to become a business building IBO. $500 or $600 a month in expenses might seem reasonable for a business owner, except that you were likely told that the Amway business has little or no expenses. What would you have said if you were told upfront that you needed to come up with $6000 to $7000 annually to participate in Amway? Sure, you get some products with that expense, but more than likely you will also end up with many products you may not need, nor would you have used some of these products if not for your involvement in Amway. Typically, IBOs don't last for long, but a bunch of IBOs do put in a few years of earnest effort before they realize that Amway is not going to deliver their dreams. After 2-3 years, it's possible that you may have "invested" over $20,000. If you are under 30 years of age, do you realize what $20,000 invested can do over the span of say, 30 years when you would likely retire from work? Even if you didn't invest it, couldn't that $20,000 fulfill some of your dreams? A new car, a dream vacation, maybe a down payment on real estate? Sadly, many uplines will lure eager young people into the Amway business and their seperate tool business. They will con them into giving up their resources so they can chase a dream that won't materialize. Then when the IBO wakes up and quits, they are shunned and labeled a loser or a quitter. IBOs and prospects often think they will get rich in Amway. But for most, especially those caught up the the teaching systems, they are far more likely to go broke fast.

Amway Versus Joining The Gym?

One of the feeble defenses I have heard from Amway apologists is a comparison of the Amway opportunity to a gym membership. The defense is that you have to do something to get results. On that point, I agree. Except the comparison is ridiculous as a gym is not a business opportunity. A gym membership is a product/service that one can purchase. It seems that many Amway defenders so deperately want to justify their positions that they come up with silly comparisons. Gym owners don't care if you sign up and do nothing, just as upline leaders don't care if you succeed, as long as you keep buying tools from them. A gym owner could not sustain his business if everyone actually worked out every day, and a diamond leader probably doesn't want a lot of new pins breaking because it would take away tool profits. If the Amway oportunity was compared to a gym owner, wouldn't that be a better comparion? On that point, if you were recruited to be a gym owner, wouldn't you demand to know how other gyms are doing financially? Wouldn't you want to know the likelihood of success if you were to open a gym? Wouldn't you need to know about operating expenses and potential income before you even thinking about buying a gym? What if you were told that maybe only 9 or 10 out of 10,000 gym owners make enough income to live on? If more than half of the gyms went out of business in their first year, would you still be interested? If the greater majority of gym owners lost money, would you still be interested? If the majority of gym owners lost money, and many lost lots of money, would that interest you? Wouldn't any investor with an ounce of business savvy look at this gym opportunity and run in the opposite direction? The fact that Amway defenders like IBOFightback use this weak and feeble defense shows just how desperate they have become. They have no defense against facts so they resort to weak anecdotal stories with no basis in reality. It may be why the Amway business appears to be shrinking in the US. The truth cannot be hidden any longer.