Let us look at Forever Living racket a la Amway style

A number of fraudulent companies are following in the footsteps of Amway. Herbalife, Tianshi, Forever Living and a plethora of companies have already made inroads into the Indian market with their dubious marketing techniques. In fact, all these companies are indulging in illegal money circulation schemes unjustly enriching themselves. The modus operandi is basically same for all these companies with slight modifications.

While Herbalife and a number of Indian companies are also indulging in membership fee and renewal fee, some companies are cleverly avoiding the subscription fee.

Recently, I have attended the so-called promotion meeting of Forever Living duly advertised in newspapers. First, the speaker elaborated the qualities of Forever Living products which are actually aloe vera products. He stated that these products are only food supplements. But soon he gave a different colour to the products describing that they could cure any type of diseases including cancer. He showed in a documentary that several people got rid of their ailments after using the aloe vera products. A number of people said that they have been using the products and are all satisfied with the 'results'.

Now comes the second part, anybody could become a member by paying Rs. 10 and they would be given a unique code number. They purchase products and sell them to their friends and relatives. They could get a discount ranging from 25 per cent to 43 per cent depending upon the product. Up to here there is hardly any problem. If the member could bring in more members they would be given additional percentage of discount. They would be given promotions as assistant supervisor, supervisor, manager, regional manager.

The catch point here is, the more number of members join under you and they do more business, you get more points and earn more commission. The audience are shown that several people up to the level of regional manager have received ranging from Rs. 3 lakh to Rs. 80 lakh.

The point is from where do they get such large amounts.

Here is the secret. All these products are overpriced to the point of several hundreds of times. One may argue that the product price cannot be questioned. But that is exactly the point.

The Amway products tested by Andhra Pradesh State Food Laboratory are branded as overpriced in the testing report.

A hundred rupees worth product is priced at Rs. 1,000 and this excess amount is shared by the upline members. The end-consumer is left with high priced product with the lure that it is good for his health. Merely by consuming food supplements, how could any ailment is cured is the million dollar question. The real motive is money circulation.

The company cleverly argues that there is no subscription fee nor renewal of membership and there is no compulsion to join more members. But the catch point is if you do not enroll more members you will never earn more commission. But where do you find so many members to continue the enrollment. This again what is called 'mathematical impossibility' as described by the Supreme Court of India in a similar case.