Has anyone ever heard of Equinox? It was started by this crook named Bill Gould. I remember I got talked into joining this about 10 years ago. I was young, broke and stupid, but anyway it was a huge scam. Here's how it worked. They sold these supposedly health care products. Hair products, toothpaste, mouth wash, detergent, water purifiers ect ect. They even sold breath freshener.:rolleyes: Anyway, the goal was to move up. In order to move up to the next rank, you had to buy $15,000 worth of products. First off before anyone calls me dumb as a box of rocks, I never stayed in it long enough to buy anything. But anyway you had to buy the $15,000 worth of products and then sell them. Then you would start getting money from the other people you brought into the organization. Same as Amway. One time they told us Bill Gould and some other scam artists were going to be speaking in Atlanta GA, and in order for us to go we had to pay $300.00 to see him speak. They told us that we would need to see him speak in order to be an effective seller. Now this is what was so crazy. I paid the $300.00, or so I thought. I drove down to Atlanta, but I never made it. My car stopped on me, somewhere in Chattanooga TN. I needed an alternator. I ended up finding a mechanic who fixed it. I had to buy the part, but he put it in for only $50.00. He told me he was a Christian and as he was putting the alternator in, we started talking about the Bible. This guy was one of the nicest people I had ever met. The bad thing, at 1st I wasn't uncomfortable, because these were complete strangers to me. On top of that, I don't know why, but my credit card was never charged. The money was available too, but I still don't know why it was never charged. I guess God was looking out for me.:) Listen to this. Once I became a member, they would tell us to make sure we're really into what the speaker was saying in the seminar so the new members would also take interest. They would say "sit forward on the edge of your chair and seem really interested." LOL. No lie. There's no way I could do that. They also talked about how much money they had, but looking at their shoes and attire, I couldn't tell.:rolleyes: To make a long story short, I got out with no money spent. I'll try to find the info on Bill, because he got busted for scamming.:)

Here it is. Read this.
 

After making the #1 spot on the 1996 Inc. 500, multilevel marketer Bill Gouldd slid and folded in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.
Legacies
Equinox: Class of 1996
Multilevel marketer slides from top rank and folds in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission...
...It also prompted Gouldd to file a $10-million lawsuit against the 19 former Equinox distributors and the company they joined, Trek Alliance.
A 10-month investigation by the Federal Trade Commission culminated in a trial that began six months ago in federal district court, in which prosecutors accused Gouldd of operating a fraudulent "pyramid" scheme. As part of the settlement, Gouldd (who never admitted to any wrongdoing) agreed to close Equinox permanently and refrain from working in the multilevel-marketing industry again. The settlement also called for liquidating an estimated $40 million in assets from Equinox and two of its sister companies and from Gouldd himself, with the proceeds earmarked for former Equinox distributors...
...The central charge was that Equinox was operating a pyramid scheme, meaning that it was selling distributors the right to recruit other distributors and rewarding them in ways unrelated to the sale of products to the ultimate users... April 25, 2000 Equinox International Settles Case with FTC, Eight States Nearly $40 Million in Restitution for Alleged Pyramid Victims - Federal Trade Commission Consumers who lost money investing in a pyramid scheme they thought was a legitimate multi-level marketing business, will share in as much as $40 million dollars under the terms of a settlement between the Federal Trade Commission and law enforcement authorities from eight states, and William Gouldd and Equinox International of Las Vegas, Nevada. The settlement also will bar Gouldd from any future involvement in any multi-level marketing scheme, for life, and requires dissolution of Equinox, Advanced Marketing Seminars, Inc. and BG Management, Inc. Gouldd and Equinox faced charges by the FTC and law enforcement authorities from Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia...

All I know about them is they put fishbowls in restaurants for you to drop your business card to "win a free lunch" for you & your coworkers. Turns out, one of the conditions of the lunch is that an Ameriprise rep comes to your business and gives a talk. I think everyone is starting to get wise to it now.

I have a friend who works for Ameriprise Financial and he's never tried to sell me anything - seems legit to me. He basically helps people buy houses and sets up retirement funds, etc. Financial Planner basically.

I dropped my card in one of those at my favorite local Thai restaurant and got the call from an Ameriprise. I told the guy that I didn't want to listen to his speech. He promised that he would only take 5 minutes of our time. He was true to his word. He gave a short sales pitch and then left me and my co-workers alone for the rest of lunch.

Those pyramid scheme companies prey on recent graduates. I graduated in 2003 when the economy was not so good (similar to what it is now!). It was tough finding a job back then for those of us who had a degree but little experience. Wenworth contacted a friend of mine and asked her to come in for an interview for a marketing position. She was all excited so she put on a suit she just bought for the interview with new shoes and headed over there. As soon as she got to the office, the hiring manager asked her if she had some time to follow around another marketing representative so that she could see what she'd be doing on a daily basis. She said sure. She had no idea what she was in for. It turns out that this job required their sales associates to do door-to-door sales of coupon books in the rural towns in Central Florida. My friend spent all day going door-to-door in her new suit. Keep in mind that it was the summer in Central Florida which means it was 90+ degrees. Then it started pouring but the sales associate wouldn't give up. He still dragged my friend door-to-door in the rain in her new suit which was dry clean only. She was basically held hostage since this sales guy was her ride home. Her "interview" begun that day at 10am and didn't end until 6pm. LOL. I love telling that story because I'll never forget how pissed she was. She called me crying and screaming all at the same time.

I think there was a thread like this a while back and I believe we all determined that Enterprise Rent-a-Car was a pyramid scheme as well.

^^ That ALMOST happened to me. I went for an initial interview with a pledge sister of mine in Atlanta - nice fancy building, etc. Well, it looked like they had just moved in. I was suspicious when the receptionist answered the phone with a name that wasn't the name of the company I was interviewing for and the company (a marketing company) did not have a website!!! So when they told me I would be going with another sales associate the next day to sell coupon books I passed. The guy was trying to make it seem cool since I might be in his position one day (an office full of boxes and an empty desk?? No thanks).

My first experience with a pyramid or MLM as they like to call them was Primerica. Wow, what a joke. I spent a LOT of money trying to make it work, then I realized it was just sucking out of me.

Then for two years I did Mary Kay, just to get a discount on the make-up. I never spent a lot, so it wasn't a big deal.

The lastest "scam" to hit my friends is Monavie. They are WAY into it. It's a juice that comes from the acai berry, and while I admit it's healthful stuff, it comes packaged in a wine bottle, and goes for a little over $40 a bottle.

Everything they do now involves Monavie. It's really sad. Everything has become a "tasting event." Their motto is, drink it, feel it, share it.

They make pretty good income from it (for doing it for two years) but they spend a lot too.

Couple of stories:

1) Ameriprise tried recruiting me off of Monster or Careerbuilder just as soon as I graduated. My major had absolutely NOTHING to do with finance or accounting, or anything numbers/money related. That should have been my first sign.

I went to the initial presentation, and it seemed like they get paid a lot depending on how much they sell. And their recruiters get paid too. After seeing the other people there, and some of the things the guy said in the presentation, it just made me really uneasy and I knew it just wasn't my thing.

2) The fishbowls -- There was a company I worked for a couple of years ago and there were apparently 398293472934 Ameriprise reps in that area. My coworkers all ate out a lot, and every time we went out, they would drop their cards i nthe bowl. I didn't stay at that company long enough to even get business cards, but just about every week one (out of maybe the ten that would eat out regularly) would get selected for one of those presentations. I know it's kinda bad b/c that's how they try to find clients and none of us would ever sign up... but really? I would LOVE to see some ROI data for those fishbowls. I'm sure it can't be that bad otherwise I don't think they would do it very often?

Melaluca. I went to it last year and it sounded pretty good, but like you said I don't need that much crap every month for one person and you had to place an order.

one word: Cutco.

i worked for a pyramid scheme scam in elmsford ny last year. its called child safety innovations inc. its parent company is innovage. they have you go in and learn all this stuff (same stuff every day a lil different so you get brainwashed into beleiving what they say is right) and then go out on the field to sell stuff. your job is to convince people youre selling this stuff for charity and that money actually goes to charities like DARE or toys for tots. when in reality only stuff with the logo of DARE goes to DARE and thats still only 2%. the idiot standing out at a table for hours on end only gets 30% commission of what they sell minus the gas it takes to get there and back. plus you have to get to the office at 7 in the morning and some nights you cant come back til 630 at night and dont end up leaving til about 8 or 9. you make crap and stand in freezing or really hot weather (even rain) to make larry zeiss money. if you work in that office. but this company is everywhere. thank goodness i got out when i did but i know people who are totally brainwashed and still working there a year later.

I'm so glad that someone started this thread on GC because the majority of times I have been forced to go to at-home parties were from sorority sisters where I buy things I don't need from sisters who use the connection to guilt me into the buy. It has gotten out of control and with two sisters who "work" for the same company and when I go to one's party the other tries to use that to make me go to another.

As an active, though, I am actually sad to say that several of my sisters that were put in charge of organizing COB events decided to use the opportunity to turn it into "parties" for their "business." To me, this totally crosses the line. As an active (younger than one of the offending sisters), I honestly didn't think I could say anything without completely insulting their intelligence. I mean, how do you tell someone that their "part-time job" as they call it, is a big scam and they're using it to push away PNMs who might actually be interested in a sisterhood that doesn't guilt others into spending their money for another sister's benefit. Now as an adviser I am committed to making sure that crap doesn't happen. Period.

While "scam" might be a harsh word in comparison to some of the other companies in this thread, I still don't think they are very legitimate. I've watched as several naive friends got caught up into the possibility of making some extra money "while having fun" and ended up spending their savings trying to build up enough inventory to get up and running. Then, after all of their friends had attended an awkward party and bought something, their friends weren't anxious to buy more only 2-3 months later. Then they had to sell everything for whatever they could just to break even.

While the compensation itself might not be a classic pyramid scheme, the fact that friends are encouraged to make their own friends into saleswomen for incentives makes it seem pyramid-like and just a little shady to me.