BREAKING NEWS: Ming Xu claims he's no longer involved in WCM777 / Kingdom 777 / Global Unity

In a series of tweets, instead of Bible-sounding quotes (i.e. "God gave me strength to persevere") Ming Xu claimed he's no longer involved in WCM / Kingdom / Global "due to investigations". He claimed he found a buyer who will follow his "vision".

Given that he previously found an actor to take over Kingdom 777... This is "I'll believe it when I see more than just announcements".

http://behindmlm.com/companies/wcm777/xu-abandons-wcm777-over-regulatory-heat

BREAKING NEWS: Herbalife confirmed it is under investigation by FTC

In a webcast, Herbalife confirmed that it is indeed under investigation by FTC.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/federal-probe-is-latest-twist-in-herbalife-saga-2014-03-12

BREAKING NEWS: Quebec, Canada, and Alaska, US, issues alert regarding WCM777 and related entities

State of Alaska, United States of America, issued an investor fraud alert regarding WCM777 (later renamed Kingdom777, later renamed Global Unity)

http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/pub/PR-14-004-Investor-Fraud-Alert.pdf

This was quickly followed by Quebec Canada

http://www.lautorite.qc.ca/en/press-releases-2014-corpo.html_2014_alert-wcm777.html

If you are involved in WCM777, having put money into it, or know of someone who did, you may want to contact the authorities, esp. if you are in these areas.  Even if you are not, these are just some of the dozen jurisdictions that have issued investor alerts or outright cease and desist orders against WCM777. Chances you are in one of the other areas. Even if you are not, your money is in danger and you should contact your local authorities ASAP.

You can see all related articles regarding WCM777 via the tag below.

Duke University's Free Coursera Course on Critical Thinking: Take it!

Duke / Coursera has a free course on critical thinking. It can even lead to a certificate if you take a couple other classes, but by itself it's a great intro to critical thinking and proper arguments, as well as detect improper arguments being used on you.

https://class.coursera.org/thinkagain-003/lecture

Class is free, though they're already on Week 8, so you'll have a bit of catching up to do!

Guest Post: Vemma and Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich", part 4 of 6

Previously we had SlayerofScams, a fellow scambuster on IGN, posting his essay on how people misconstrue Napoleon Hill's advice to coerce the weak-minded sheeple.  Here is part 4 of 6.

 ----------

SlayerOfScams, January 8, 2014

Round Four of Napoleon Hill's Smackdown of Vemma/Verve From Beyond the Grave

Hill says that to become successful or rich, one must perform an annual self-analysis/self-inventory. With the New Year just starting, what better time for the Verve reps to do that?

Here are some questions from Hill's self-inventory that are especially pertinent to Vemma reps:

25. If I had been the purchaser of my own services for the year, would I be satisfied with my purchase? 
...
27. Has the purchaser of my services been satisfied with the service I have rendered, and if not, why not?

To help you consider the correct answers, ask yourself: are you happy with having lost and continuing to lose $150+ USD per month in order to buy cans of Verve that you do not want and cannot sell, in the false hopes that Vemma will pay you fat commission checks for the rest of your life off of the recruitment and purchases made by your fictitious, non-existent downline victims - fictitious and non-existent, of course, because real people (other than, perhaps, a few odd exceptions) are not actually stupid enough to sign up for this scam underneath you?

Next, ask yourself if any of the few downline victim suckers who you may have been lucky enough to dupe into the Vemma pyramid scam underneath yourself, and who are (like yourself) inevitably losing money every month to Verve, would be satisfied if they asked themselves the same questions given above.

Scam Psychology: Charlie Munger on How You Screw Up, Part 2 of 6

You may have heard of Charlie Munger. But if you haven't, you should have heard of his partner: Warren Buffet, one of the 5 richest man in the world.  In 1995, Charlie Munger gave a speech at Harvard... about how people misjudge things. Here's my personal interpretation of his lessons, as applied to network marketing. You can read the full speech.

----------

In the speech given at Harvard in 1995, Charlie Munger identified what he called "24 standard causes of human misjudgment." What he really meant is "24 reasons why you screw up".  Read 1 through 4 here. Here is 5 through 8.


5) Not Understanding momentum bias and its causes

You are under the influence of other people every day, much like the dogs in Pavlov's famous experiment, so you have learned to associate two completely unrelated events, like the dogs salivate at the ringing of a bell, after they've been conditioned to associate bell with food. And you will continue to recognize the unrelated events as being related when they are not, and base your decisions on factors that were never relevant, or are no longer relevant. You have momentum bias.

Momentum bias is basically... that's the way it's always done... why change? Though there are some additional factors such a s Pavlovian association and how your mind looks in your memory and tries to find correlations... even when those aren't really applicable.

My dad once fixed a transmission problem by replacing the battery in a vehicle. Apparently the bad battery is confusing the computer and causing it to shift improperly. It is a very rare circumstance. However, ever since, my dad advocates "swap the battery" for all transmission problems even when it makes no sense. He has momentum bias. 

In terms of network marketing, you are trained early on that company = success and leaders = success, even though that may not be the case, and if you took that attitude with you to the next opportunity where it no longer applies, you have a momentum bias.

Learn to detect momentum bias in yourself and others. Do things because they are the proper decision for the time based on available evidence, not because "that's the way things are around here".