Another victim comes out against Amway, says it is poisonous

Here is another victim who came out with own version on Amway's poisonous ways. Understandably the victim refuses to reveal identity. Here is the letter--Shyam.

I read some of your Amway stuff off the Internet and I want to confirm what you describe is a fair picture of how it is. My husband and I had been married for six years. We lived in *************. We joined Amway back in the 1990s when I was sick of my job and my husband had got a £16 grand redundancy check. It seemed simple. We were shown videos by friends of friends. Two Diamonds in England lived in a flash mansion and had amazing cars. We were told that we could just follow the same plan as them and in less than 5 years we too could be living the life we'd always Dreamed of.

We were told to copy our Upline Sponsor and buy the products every month and sponsor everyone we knew to do the same. The Amway stuff was rubbish and way too expensive but the more we spent the more we got back and the more we thought we were going to make. Twelve months later we'd lost £10 000 and the few people we'd managed to sign up had packed in or were heading the same way. Most of our money had not gone on products but on telephone bills travelling, the meetings, books, and tapes.

We once spent nearly a grand to take two Prospects to a Major Function where a top American Diamond was appearing. We did as we were told and ate Amway food, drank Amway drinks, washed our clothes and dishes with Amway soap, brushed our teeth with Amway toothpaste, took Amway vitamins. Amway ruled our lives 24 hours a day. Negative people and Negative products were forbidden. I fell out with my sister when her husband had a fight with my husband and he threw them out of our house. Even our clothes and haircuts were chosen by Upline. When all the money was gone my husband was told by Upline if he wanted to be a Winner to put everything on his charge card. I was first to see that the same people who were behind this madness were the same people who were making a fortune off our backs.

At the Major Functions thousands of Distributors were paying hundreds of pounds each to hear the same lies repeated. It was like going to a big rock concert. Women used to faint and men cried. When I tried to get my husband to stop he went to our Upline for special counseling. They both went crazy. I was told if I continued with negative talk I would be dealt with. They threatened to tell my father about something I'd done years ago when I was 17. That finished it for me.

I left my husband when we were about to lose our home. My sister and brother in law were the first people to give me a hand. No one I knew in Amway would talk to me they'd all been told I was a slut and a liar. I can remember once telling my sister that she was living with a broke, a loser and that one day she would beg me on her knees to join Amway but it would be too late. I got that lie off a training tape.

Amway poisoned my life.

Yours sincerely **********

A crook never changes so is Amway India

It is like thief crying 'thief, thief'. Recently the Economic Times published a statement of the managing director of Amway who wants regulations regarding direct selling in India. He did not clarify what type of regulations he wants. Following is the excerpts:

The Government should learn from the experiences of countries like China and not wait for a catastrophe before bringing in regulations for direct selling in India, industry major Amway said on April 8, 2008 at New Delhi. "We have been asking the government for last nine years to bring in some legislation to protect the interest of industry and consumers... nothing has happened on that front... may be we were not able to market the concept properly," Amway India Managing Director and CEO William Pinckney told PTI. Narrating the experience of his company in China, he said Amway along with all the direct selling players were banned after an outcry among consumers against some fly-by-night firms. Later the government brought in rules which were to be followed by firms if they wanted to operate in China. "Why do we have to wait for any outcry in India for bringing in any legislation," he wondered and said as of now there were about 20,00,000 direct selling agents employed by all the players and presuming each one of them is linked with 10 customers than "we are talking about two crore population" in the country. "It will be in the interest of everybody if the government acted in this direction...There is not a country that I know of where the industry has prospered but doesn't have specific legislation relative to the industry," he said.
Interestingly, Mr Pinckney did not elaborate on 'public outcry'. The public cry against Amway India is already on and the Amway India is facing criminal charges in more than one criminal court in Andhra Pradesh. Now this how the Amway is trying to hoodwink the Government of India too as it has been hoodwinking the people of all over India. The direct selling concept it employs is totally different from what it actually meant. Instead of being exposed to its crooked tactics, it is trying to deviating the attention of the Government from its disguised money circulation scheme. The whole idea behind the Amway business is selling over-priced products and sharing the booty to line its pockets and its members' pockets. It is high time, Amway India Enterprises is thrown out of the country. A crook never changes.

Mannatech to pay millions to victims for false claims of cures and health benefits

Mannatech, a long time MLM company, member of the Direct Selling Association and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, has agreed to pay millions of dollars to consumers who were deceived by its false health claims about its products. The state of Texas, where the scheme is based, charged that Mannatech falsely claimed that its food supplements cured Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, cancer and other serious diseases.The unholy combination of a snake-oil product with a pyramid income scheme is a defining characteristic of multi-level marketing. The schemes often claim "patented" products made from "secret formulas" that work at the "cellular level" and always, "not a available in stores."

These claims are made for vitamins, herbs, and minerals. In virtually all cases the products are essentially same as products readily available in health food stores or even grocery stores for a fraction of the price. In some cases, the products are lethal, as when MLMs were the largest promoters of weight loss herbs containing ephedrine, now banned by the FDA for causing strokes. The latest craze of miracle health claims is fruit juice, selling for $40 a bottle! (Its Indian version is 'Noni' fruit juice concentrate said to cure all diseases available in many big cities all over India--Shyam)

The organizer of the largest scheme of that type, Monavie, had previously been stopped by the FDA for making the very same types of lies that Mannatech was fined for. That scheme, like Mannatech's, is based on endless chain recruiting, and causes massive consumer losses.

Consumers are frequently lured into MLM not just by the amazing health claims but by the promises that the products can produce extraordinary income. This income potential often gives the products nearly magical powers, at least for awhile.

Many consumers will swear the products produced cures, better energy, greater intelligence and focus or improved sex, as long as they belive they will soon make a lot of money. Predictably, as the income promises prove unrewarding, the curative health benefits tend to wane. Soon, most consumers quit the scheme and stop buying the products forever. Beyond illustrating, yet again, that many MLMs are in the snake-oil business, there is one more aspect to the Mannatech case that applies to the larger MLM industry.

The Attorney General of Texas charged this company only with making false product claims, but it did not prosecute it for operating a pyramid scheme. Manatech is a classic endless chain recruitment scheme. It has minimal retail sales, and only pays a 9% commission for retailing while paying 45% out in recruitment-based commission, with most of that money going only to the those at the very top of the recruitment pyramid. So, why was Mannatech not prosecuted for pyramid fraud?One probable reason is that under Texas law, an MLM can legally operate an endless chain pay scheme, with virtually no retail customers, a classic "closed" market in which product depends entirely on endless chain recruiting. How could this be?

The lobby group for the MLM industry, the Direct Selling Association (DSA), wrote the "anti-pyramid" law in Texas. As in several other states, the DSA has pushed through bills that revise anti-fraud law so as to make "product-based" pyramids legal. The trick in the wording is to exempt schemes in which pyramid payments are based on "product purchases." With that wording change, pyramid rewards can be paid on the purchase derived solely from those within the pyramid and in which endless chain recruiting is the only way to make a profit. Even though such a plan is closed, non-competitive and dooms 90-99% to losses, (since they will be in bottom ranks), the law makes it legal for promoters to claim they are a legitimate "income opportunity" for all.

Some pyramids have tried to disguise the money transfer as "gifts." MLM's favored disguise is "product purchases." Most MLM products are absurdly overpriced and 40-50% of the exorbitant price is transferred to the pyramid recruiters as "commissions." In this way, the pyramid money is laundered through "products." The Texas law, written by the DSA, exempts schemes, such as Mannatech, that do this. This same "wolf in sheep's clothing" law that pretends to be "anti-pyramid" while in fact protecting the scams, was also introduced as a proposed federal law. Pyramid Scheme Alert opposed the bill and alerted Congressional representatives of its devious and harmful intent. It never got out of committee in Congress, but it did gain some Congressional supporters, many of whom were strongly supported by the Amway corporation, such as Congresswoman Sue Myrick of North Carolina. The sponsor of this pro-pyramid bill in Congress was Joe Barton of Texas.

No takers of Amway products on e-bay proves that they are rubbish

Dear Shyam

Mr. (Tex) Johnson and Mr. (IBOFB) Steadson are customers of 'Amway's' instigators, but since they are self-confessed de facto commission agents of 'Amway's' instigators, they cannot be accurately described as authentic retail customers (no matter what they steadfastly pretend to be reality). Whether they choose to admit it or not, what they've actually been peddled, and have peddled to others, is an infinite share of their own finite money. Granted, they have been given a few cheaply-produced packets of soap, tubes of toothpaste, etc., just to distract their minds. However, they might as well have been given bottles of snake -oil.
During the recent UK enquiry, a team of experienced government accountants began to study the so-called 'Amway Compensation Plan.' Tellingly, even they found it to be so fiercely complex, that they couldn't make head or tail of it. What the accountants apparently never grasped was that the whole of this document is nothing more than mystifying nonsense, economic hocus-pocus designed to shut down individuals' critical and evaluative faculties without their fully informed consent. It doesn't matter in the slightest how you divide up the money in any closed-market, the very most the overwhelming majority of contributing participants can hope to get back, is what they started with. This incontrovertible logic applies no matter what mind-numbing camouflage is used to disguise this form of fraud. Pseudo-scientific mystification, is one of the universal dentifying characteristics of a cult.
Since the 'Amway' products are (effectively) unsaleable on the open market, they are another red herring. If anyone doubts this fact, then I suggest they just take a look on e-bay (all around the world); where they can find mountains of 'Amway' rubbish always for sale at prices that are an accurate reflexion of its real lack of value.
David Brear

There is nothing like perpetual motion engine to generate energy or money

Dear Shyam,

Reading the latest puerile outburst from Mr. (Tex) Johnson, I think I have just proved my point. Trying to reason with this typically provocative narcissist is exactly like trying to reason with a 3 year old boy who believes in 'Santa Claus' and who cannot accept that his parents have deliberately deceived him. It is interesting to note how Johnson exhibits a tell-tale lack of empathy and how he projects all of his own narcissistic characteristics onto others. Johnson's self-esteem/identity and related-psychological function are evidently still dependent on maintaining his group-'Amway' delusion of moral and intellectual supremacy.
To any casual observer who does not fully-understand the absolute, reality-denying belief present in a cultic group, it can seem impossible that educated adults can unconsciously accept that, without genuine retail customers, the 'Amway' scheme can miraculously produce a surplus of money from thin air to be shared out amongst its contributors so that they can all expect to make a profit, and that anyone challenging this economic impossibility is a liar. However, all the aggressive comments of persons like Johnson and Steadson are conclusive proof that this really is so.
In the adult world of quantifiable reality, the fallacy of the closed-market is as ridiculous as the fallacy of perpetual motion. Money cannot be created from nothing, just as energy cannot. Interestingly, there is at least one cultic group whose leader claims to have constructed a perpetual motion engine.
Johnson's latest reality-denying comparison of 'Amway' to major US retailers (whose profits derive from selling the overwhelming majority of their merchandise to the public) requires no further comment.

David Brear

Stick strictly to the law of the land my Amway friend

My friend is again talking absurd. I raised a point that money circulation scheme is a prohibited activity in India and is a crime under Indian laws. This point is amply proved in the Andhra Pradesh State High Court and even the Supreme Court of India concurred with it while dismissing the petition of Amway India stating there is no merit in their petition.

Instead of tackling the legal issues, why do these Amway apologists beat around the bush. Come to the point my friend. If anybody wants to prove that the Amway's scheming model is legal then prove it. Otherwise, stick to your own argument and sit at home convincing yourself that you are right. The whole activitiy is illegal and the Amway India needs to shut down its activities in the country.

What I do not understand is why nearly half million Amway distributors in India do not open their mouths and defend the Amway. That is because they know well that it is a fraudulent company and a very few of them are only making money from the scheming model of Amway.

What is the point in some people sitting in far off continents attempt to defend the Amway India? Do they know what exactly is going on in India. Some apologists say that the Amway has changed its model in UK or some other country. Why the Amway is not changing its business activities in India too. The Amway is trying its best to extract as much money as possible from India and then only it may attempt to change its scheme.

My fellow countrymen, come out open when you lose money in such money circulation schemes introduced by Amway, Herbalife, Forever Living Products, etc., and file criminal cases against such companies. Then only these companies would retreat. Do not sit at home thinking that it is your fate that you are cheated. It is not fate at all. It is only cheating by these companies.

The whole point was missed by Amway apologist

In a bid to support Amway with over enthusiasm, the Amway apologists miss the real issue that is money circulation scheme in the guise of product sales and service.

They should learn the history of money circulation schemes in India. They cheated several thousands of people in rural areas as well as urban areas. Of course, there is no such limitation of rural or urban for gullibility. There had been an open money circulation schemes. The Andhra Pradesh State Government for the first time in India enacted a law curbing the money circulation scheme menace. Several other States followed suit. Finally, the Central Government stepped in and enacted Prize Chits & Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978. The schemes were effectively checked.

Every thing worked well till the Amway entered the Indian market. The company entered the country with the promise of foreign direct investment. It claimed that it was introducing a direct selling system which would greatly be beneficial to the consumers. Though the Amway registered itself as Amway India Enterprises, there is no Indianness in this company nor in its organisation Indian Direct Selling Association (IDSA). Several other such con companies joined the bandwagon of IDSA.

These con companies call themselves direct selling, multilevel marketing, network marketing, referral marketing companies.

These con companies on the pretext of providing business opportunity to millions with the promise of earning great profits, ultimately duped them. They also hoodwink the law enforcing agencies. It is only money circulation scheme with the people at the top only earning lot of money and leaving the downline hgh and dry. That is why more than 90 per cent people who joined such schemes become victims.

The main objective of all these companies is promoting money circulation schemes what they call in the USA ponzi schemes. Exchange of products is only a veil. The real motive is money circulation scheme to make lot of money. Multi-Level Marketing is Making Lots of Money with Other People's Efforts + Other People's Money (MLM= OPE+OPM).

These apologists are the bandits at the top level, making lots of money with other people's efforts and other people's money. It is a futile effort to convince these thieves that what they are doing is wrong. They develop a defence mechanism to defend themselves and their activities at all costs.

"The easiest thing in the world is to convince yourself that you are right."

They refuse to see reason and if they succumb to reason they have to forego their easy living and easy profits.

My aim is to bring awareness among people not to fall prey to the machinations of these fraudulent companies. Moreover, people would not stop from joining these companies even if they are told that they would be cheated. They must be told in unequivocal terms that joining and making others join such schemes is a crime attracting the provisions of the PCMCS Act, 1978. Then only they refrain themselves from joining such schemes.

Mind this my fellow countrymen, joining or making others join such schemes is illegal and you may be penalised with imprisonment of up to three years prison term and fine.