Scam Psychology: The Problem of Willful Blindness, Recklessness, and Negligence

Horatio Nelson, origin of "willfully blind"?
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In studying various reactions to criticism by MLM participants, it is interesting that so many of them are afflicted with "willful blindness", and it is a condition that can cause serious financial and legal problems.

The most popular example of "willful blindness" is an apocryphal story of Admiral Horatio Nelson in Battle of Copenhagen. When given a flag signal by a cautious fleet commander that Nelson may "withdraw at his discretion", and asked by a subordinate what shall he do, Nelson reported raised his spyglass to his blind eye (with an eye patch and all), then replied "I see no signal to withdraw", and continued the attack. The story was often told as if Nelson disobeyed a direct order, but the flag signal is "withdraw with commander's own discretion". This gave us the expression "turning a blind eye", and the term "Nelsonian Knowledge".

In modern times, "willful blindness" is defined as a situation where a participant INTENTIONALLY puts him- or herself in a situation where s/he cannot / does not know the facts that would make him/her liable for civil or criminal acts s/he had participated in. And it is a legal term. For example, traffic mules (those who smuggle contraband across borders) asked to be blindfolded during loading process so s/he does not know what's being trafficked. And thus, s/he want to argue they are innocent victims and thus should not be counted as accessory to trafficking.

The court had NOT accepted this defense, and has taken the position that willful blindness is merely legal sophistry, if it can be proven that the participant knows that such facts exist, and has taken deliberate steps to isolate him-/herself from knowing such facts. This case was even taken up by the Supreme Court back in 2011, when it ruled a file sharing service cannot disclaim responsibility for illegal acts of its users just because it doesn't want to see what's being shared, i.e. willfully blind to the copyright violations.

This is different from recklessness and negligence. Recklessness is knowing such risks of damaging facts do it any way, and negligence is "should have know such risks, but did not".

To illustrate with an example, using the smuggler mule as example:

recklessness: I know it's illegal, I'll take my chances

negligence: I should have known it's illegal, but I honestly thought those were nothing harmful...

willful blindness: I have no idea what they put in my luggage. I never asked. Don't need to know.

And many MLMers suffer from all three: recklessness, negligence, and willful blindness.

Scam Psychology: Why Do People Believe Celebrity Endorsement of Woo Products?

English: Jenny McCarthy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Celebrities pushing bad science and bad medicine is nothing new.

Jenny McCarthy -- Playboy model, actress, "celebrity", "former" anti-vaxxer, pusher of various bogus autism "treatments" (basically told parents "try anything (whatever it costs)")  [ see wikipedia entry ]

Suzanne Summers -- actress, singer, celebrity, and promoter of "Wiley Protocol", a hormonal replacement therapy that was NEVER proven with scientific study and may be dangerous, among other things. [ see wikipedia entry ]

English: Lisa Oz and Mehmet Oz at the 2010 Time 100. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And let's not forget the Oprah spawned... Mehmet Oz, i.e. "Doctor Oz"...  who seems to often fail basic grasp of science despite his medical training, as he had featured such pseudoscience on his show as homeopathy, Reiki (his wife's a Reiki master), bogus report of arsenic in apple juice, bogus "magic" ingredient of weight loss, and "curing homosexuality" among many others. [ see wikipedia entry ]

People who follow these and many other celebrities out there giving BAD ADVICE are very likely to take these people's BAD ADVICE seriously... JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE CELEBRITIES. 

And their reasoning process is virtually the SAME as people who got scammed out of money.

MLM Mythbusting: MLM is a lot like ___________, therefore it is legit

Real Estate Agent... is it comparable to MLM?
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many of the newcomers to MLM, finding people's natural reluctance toward MLM, tried to use bad facts or outright lies and misinformation to present MLM in favorable "familiar" terms, as they often just "inherit" such bad information from their uplines, who simply parrots the information from THEIR upline without any understanding of the issues. 

For these noobs, MLM is often compared to:

• Real estate, for its two-level commission system
• Franchising, for the any one can "own a piece of the action"
• Buying club, for the "share the low prices sell direct" type deal

Unfortunately, all these analogies just proves that these noobs have NO IDEA what they're talking about. Let me explain one by one. 

The Real Estate Analogy

When I posted my first MLM Critique piece, I was called "king of disinformation" (really?) by a guy who took exception to EVERYTHING I wrote, and his first example was "real estate". (scroll down to first comment)

Creating your own competitors?

What, that is how Realty firms work. They train people on the laws and teach them how to sell houses for them for 1/2 of the commissions. Then once the "new" guy gets his/her license they become direct competition. 

In MLM you should train people how to sell the products and help them develop new business builders. This is where the residual income is found, or as you put it your number 2 flaw.

 My reply to him:

RE: Creating one's own competition -- except real estate agents usually have to sign non-competitive clauses for X years upon joining and getting trained, and MUST work through a "broker" who gets half the commission, right? Hardly comparable to MLM, where there is NO training, NO qualification, NO non-competition period, and runs in the SAME social circles. Real estate agent may run in the same local area, but they usually work on the SAME listings and split the rewards if they share sales. RE is far more cooperative than competitive.

I actually took a real estate course to be a real estate agent, but I never bothered to take the test as I am not interested in the field. But the system is pretty simple. Buyer has an agent. Seller has an agent. Each agent with has a "broker" who's sort of a supervisor / boss. Standard commission on real estate is 6%, which is split 4 ways: 1.5% each for buyer's agent, his broker, seller's agent, and his broker.

Agents basically take a course, pass a test, get RE Agent's license, and work under broker, get a sales streak going, and either become a broker, or find a better market. Brokers train agents to go out and find more deals, both as buyers and as sellers, and as explained, gets 50% of their commission.

But as I said in my reply, trained agents usually sign non-compete contracts and minimum employment length for informal apprenticeship, and agents are NOT allowed to sell without a broker (legally forbidden). MLM has no such restrictions. Real estate also only have two levels. MLM can have bazillion levels.

NOT COMPARABLE.

Robert Kiyosaki's Faustian Bargain With Network Marketing Is Confirmed

Previously, MLM Skeptic has raised the question whether Robert Kiyosaki had made a Faustian bargain with Network Marketing 

That's when someone pointed me to this sound-bite from Amquix, which confirmed that Kiyosaki was a downline in Amway under Bill Galvin.

http://www.amquix.info/sounds/kiyosaki_in_amway.mp3

Bill Galvin was a "diamond" level sales leader in Amway from way back when. In fact, he was thanked in the dedication / acknowledgement page of "Rich Dad Poor Dad". Here's a screenshot from the Amazon "look inside" and there's the name "Bill Galvin" right there. In fact, if you Google the names on this list, most of them *are* high-level Amway IBOs.

This is also confirmed via research done by SimpleDollar

Amway Global (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

He [Robert T. Kiyosaki] was involved in several business deals (most notably, nylon Velcro wallets) in the 1970s and 1980s which fell apart, leaving him bankrupt in the mid-1980s. In this timeframe, he became heavily involved with Amway, a multi-level marketing system, and began to cultivate relationships with many of the “top” members. In 1985, Kiyosaki founded Cashflow Technologies, a company that was designed to pitch a series of books and other educational materials that eventually evolved into Rich Dad, Poor Dad. 

By the mid-1990s, Kiyosaki had self-printed Rich Dad, Poor Dad and it was starting to appear in wide distribution among members of the Amway/Quixtar organization, as individuals higher in the pyramid would recommend it to people further down the chain looking to get ahead. 

Yet you NEVER hear Kiyosaki talk about his MLM career, did you? Nope. It was NOT mentioned in ANY of his books.

Perhaps he doesn't want you to know, hmmm?

But wait, there's more!

Bad Argument: I Only Listen to People Who Made Money

One of more "cultish" arguments raised by followers of a particular scheme (starts with V) is "I don't have to listen to you. I listen to people who made money! How much did you make, huh?"

A somewhat more polite version would be, "If I want to play basketball I want to be like Michael Jordan. If I want to play football I want to be like Peyton Manning. If I want to make money I'll want to be someone who has made lots of money, such as my leader _______ in ______."

This sounds like it made sense... For about 3 seconds.

Why would you NOT want to emulate the top billionaires in the US of A... like Bill Gates (Microsoft), Warren Buffet (Berkshire Hathaway), or Larry Ellison (Oracle), or heck, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)? Why would you suddenly lower your goalpost? What sort of crazy argument is that?

It's like saying, "I want to be the best in the field... EXCEPT when it comes to money!"

WTF?! Man... WTF.

But wait, there's more!

Robert T. Kiyosaki's Sins, According to Robert T. Kiyosaki

Recently I ran into this rather amusing vidcap of a Kiyosaki video:

Yes, that's Robert T. Kiyosaki giving his "haters" a piece of his mind.

Well, according to Kiyosaki's own words, Kiyosaki's a sinner!

How so, you ask?

Ah, that's a story to tell. There's betrayal, there's vindication, there's a second betrayal, and lies to "spin doctor" the treachery into triumph.

So have a seat, and let us discover a chapter of "Rich Dad" that Kiyosaki would rather you not mention.

MLM Mythbusting: No, MLM Did NOT Create the most millionaires of any modern industry

Recently, I can across yet ANOTHER MLM wild claim  from a MLM supporter

He claimed that "MLM has produced more millionaires than any other industry".

I asked him does he have any proof, and he never got back to me.

Time to call in the MLM Mythbusters!  Is the claim "MLM has produced more millionaires than any other industry" true or false?

The story is quite fascinating, as it demonstrates some of the worst aspects of MLM... blind repetition of claims with no verification.

First, there is NO PROOF of this claim in ANY popular fact-checking sources, or any reputable news source.

The sole source that can be verified was that it was ALLEGEDLY stated by "Les Brown", pretty famous motivational speaker. It was cited by multiple MLM fan sources, but nobody can give a specific date, time, or speech that he allegedly said that, nor was his source of that claim given.

UPDATE: MLM Consultant Len Clements (whose website is InsideNM.com) identified the source of the myth as Beverly Nadler, a popular MLM author in the 1980's and 1990's, who since has backed away from her own claims. MLM Skeptic have previously identified Nadler as the source of "Harvard Teaches MLM" myth. Please see comments at the end.

A secondary source is Paul Zane Pilzer, an economist who likes to play entrepreneur and encourage the wellness industry, which jibes with a lot of MLM pushing "nutritional supplements". Pilzer claimed that the wellness industry, and network marketing will be the two largest growth markets in the US in the coming decades. However, he didn't say it already produced millionaires.

THERE IS NO PROOF that MLM / Network Marketing has produced the most millionaires in modern times (say, since MLM got started with Amway in late 1970's) other than ONE man's word, with no evidence and no source.

But it's repeated by all the MLM fan sites, with NO fact-checking.

So which industry did produce the millionaires, if not network marketing?

Why Experts Do NOT Add Credibility To A Company

O RLY (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the most often heard excuses thrown at the MLM Skeptic is "so and so is involved. So and so is an expert and thus Acme XYZ can't possibly be a scam".

And two of the most favorite experts used for pseudo-legitimacy are lawyers (esp. MLM lawyers), and accountants, esp. auditors.

Frankly, many lawyers are so blind or so suave their testimony is completely worthless.

While I hate to bring up an old issue, it is worth pointing out that Gerald "Gerry" Nehra of Nehra and Waak, one of the more prominent MLM lawfirms, had a reputation of pointing at ponzi schemes and said "not Ponzi". He did so first with Ad Surf Daily (and testified in court to that effect), then did the same with Zeek Rewards (his and Waak's name were on the final Zeek creditor's list). Their involvement was touted highly by participants of both schemes as "proof" that the "business" can't POSSIBLY be illegal. Yet both were shut down as scams.

(And it's noted that another person who told people that both ASD and Zeek are not Ponzis... Keith Laggos, MLM consultant)

Just because lawyers said something legal doesn't make it legal.

But what about accountants?

Even More Signs You Are In a Sales Cult

An article in Hong Kong revealed a standard script given to pyramid selling members to recruit even more members...

You may be in a sales cult if...

• You are "sharing" an opportunity to your friend, not selling him something
• Your doing your friend a favor by "sharing" this great opportunity
• You are intentionally keeping something hidden (but not outright mysteries)
• You only have 1 friend at a time (for the opportunity pitches)
• You consider any adult not asleep as potential "friend" to share opportunity with
• You only talk in elevator speeches (entire pitch is within 60 seconds)
• You handle rejection by being magnanimous: remember me, it's okay you're not ready

Wait, there's more!

17 Signs that You're In a Sales Cult, or How a Sales Cult is like the Borg

Patrick Stewart as Locutus, the Borg assimilated
Jean-Luc Picard (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A sales cult is a deformed "sales team", that uses cult tactics to keep and grow its membership, to take over its member's lives to the point where the members essentially cuts off most ties from his normal social circle all in the name of "success".

At what price? Are you really joining the Borg Collective instead?

Following are the signs that you're in a sales cult, not a sales organization. How many did you spot?

• I chant and sing every morning as part of a group "warmup"
• I have a mentor who shadows me almost 24/7. 
• I am always looking out for new recruits, whom I hope to mentor one day
• I am fully involved in my job / opportunity and have no time for frivolous stuff, like relationships
• I buy my clothes and stuff on credit because I haven't made any money (soon...)
• I think my partner / friend / family does NOT support me fully in my job / opportunity
• I have drifted apart from my regular partner, friends, and family
• I attend all sorts of after-work social events by my sales leader and mentor
• I am often very tired as I don't sleep much (I wonder how "they" do it...)
• I think my partner does NOT understand how important my job/opportunity is to me
• I think my partner does NOT understand how hard I am working
• I am not stopping for anyone or anything (including "friends", "family", "partner", and more)
• I cite my daily or weekly accomplishments to the team and I am PROUD of it. 
• I feel very sad if I don't hit my daily / weekly goals
• I am jealous of my sales leader's success and paycheck and fancy car and fancy cloths
• I have some doubts, but I don't dare show it. I am sure it's a phase that will pass. 
• I can't quit. I will let my leader and the team down if I do. They'll tell me I'm not a quitter. I am not. 

How many of these apply to you? Read on to understand why these are signs of a cult, not a business.

Below you will find two people discussing the signs above... a cult expert, and a former member of the Borg collective (this is kinda humorous, but rather dark humor).

What's common among Pigeon Chess, Scam, and the Matrix? Victims.

What's common between pigeon chess,
scam, and the Matrix?
 (Photo credit: Bill & Mark Bell)

Recently someone reminded me of this Internet meme: Pigeon Chess. It basically goes like this:

Arguing with [Insert Group Name] is like playing chess with a pigeon: no matter how good I am, the pigeon will knock over the pieces, craps all over the board, then fly off and claim victory with its flock

You can find various versions of this with various group names substituted, from retards to Christians to Mac Users, but what this really applies is a bit of a double entendre... as a "pigeon" is also slang for an "easy mark" or a "dupe", i.e. a gullible person, easily scammed.

And nowhere is this more obvious with pseudo-MLM scam victims, who refuse to recognize they had been cheated even when all the signs are right in front of them.

I've discussed "3 blind men and elephant" analogy before, as well as "ignorance is not bliss", but I thought I'd just hit this theme one MORE time to make my point.

Scam victims, i.e. a pigeon, often believe in the scam so much that nothing you tell them will convince them that they had been scammed. Instead, they'll insult you, refuse to listen to you, and claim they had "won" their argument with you by leaving.  They are much like Cypher... preferring the Matrix to reality. or to steal another catchphrase... "You can't handle the truth!" (from the movie "A Few Good Men")

Just like the pigeon who will knock over the pieces, crap all over the board, and fly off to its flock squawking victory.

Let's look at a few examples.

What Does the Bible Say About Scammers Claiming to be Man (or Woman) of God?

There are plenty of scammers who claimed to be men (and women) of God, but scammed people in various schemes, such as Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, and so on and so forth. Some operated such schemes themselves. Others participated in such schemes and recruited their church members.

And please don't say this does not happen. Here are a couple examples.

Nanci Jo Frasier, of Focus Up Ministries of Ohio, pusher of Profitable Sunrise Ponzi
[Report 1] [Report 2] [Report 3] [Report on Profitable Sunrise]

Bradley Collins, fake pastor, in $30 million Ponzi scheme within state of Indiana
[Report]

Jim Bakker of the PTL Club, who kept two separate accounting books to conceal his fraud in the millions.
[Wikipedia entry]

There are many many more scammers, who were WIDELY KNOWN to be man (or woman) of God, yet was clearly sinning by telling lies, committing fraud, and dragging innocent people into scam for their own profit.

What does the Bible say about such scammers and sinners, who flies the banner of God but are clearly working for Satan?

When Robin Hood Turned Out to Be Just Hood: Story of "Double Shah" Ponzi scheme in Pakistan

If a man, having had no financial education, went to Dubai (United Arab Emirates) for six months, came back, and claimed he can DOUBLE the money you give him in only 15 days, would you believe him? Most of us would answer: no way.

Yet that's what thousands of people did in Pakistan, in the infamous case of "Double Shah", the nickname bestowed upon Syed Sitbul Shah. And like Charles Ponzi, Double Shah's scam did not last, even though people were lining up to give him money, just like Charles Ponzi.

In 2005, Syed Sitbul Shah, who was a mere humble school teacher, took leave from his work and spent six months in United Arab Emirates, specifically Dubai. Upon return to his town, Wazirabad, in Punjab region of Pakistan, he started circulating the news that he has learned the secrets of money in Dubai, that he can double people's money in 15 days.

And it took only one person (his old friend) to start, and a small amount to get started. When that was doubled, word spread, soon 1 became 10 (his old work colleagues), 10 became 100... And soon people are lined up outside his home DEMANDING that he take their money for doubling. Soon the dates start to slip. 15 days became 30 days, 30 days became 60 days, and then 70 days. Now dubbed "Double Shah", he purchased various assets with the money, such as multiple gasoline and CNG stations in Punjab, the region he was in, as well as alleged casinos in Dubai. It is estimated that he had gathered TENS OF BILLIONS of Rupiahs (up to 1 billion US dollars) by some estimates. Some claimed that he had RETURNED 40 billion rupiahs to investors.

All that came crashing down when a newspaper "The Nation" out of Lahore published a full investigative report, prompting a full police investigation on in April 2007 and arrest of Double Shah a week later. (Just like Charles Ponzi).

BREAKING NEWS: Colombian President Calls for Investigation into WCM777 possible Ponzi scheme

Somehow just alerted me to this Tweet:

Pirámide WCM777 denunciada por Noticias Uno debe ser investigada por la policía. Favor proceder General Palomino.
— Juan Manuel Santos (@JuanManSantos) October 27, 2013

If you need a translation:

WCM777 pyramid reported by News One should be investigated by police. Please proceed, General Palomino -- signed Juan Manual Santos

This is no less than President of Colombia, calling for the national police chief Rodolfo Palomino to investigate WCM777 pyramid scheme.

Wow, what happened here? Searching for News One (Noticias Uno) revealed a different Tweet

Pirámide internacional presenta su negocio en Colombia #WCM777 http://t.co/v7GN0jWLmR
— Noticias_Uno (@NoticiasUno) October 27, 2013

or translated:

International pyramid presents its business in Colombia #WCM777 -- signed NewsOne

The Link goes to

http://noticiasunolaredindependiente.com/2013/10/26/noticias/piramide-internacional-presenta-su-negocio-en-colombia/

Apparently this scheme has indeed reached Colombia.

Evil MLM: Get Payday Loan to Join MLM? WTF?!

Editor's note: This is a start of a new, and hopefully continuing series of what NOT to do in MLM, under the tag "Evil MLM". Basically, this is the sort of bad behavior that gave MLM a bad rap (much of it deserved).

I've heard of people spending their severance pay to join MLM. In fact, this is done quite often in Israel, where when you are discharged from the required service in the Israeli armed forces, you're given a severance pay to help you get back into civilian life, and some sleazy MLMers have gone as far as park their fancy car, glitzy bling, and pretty girls next to discharge stations to snatch up recruits as they walk out. Too bad their leader is a f***ing cult leader who pushes Herbalife. 

But here's something more disturbing, closer to home... a "leader" in Vemma telling people on Facebook, that they should not worry about not having any money to join Vemma as a poor college kid. Instead, they should go take out a payday loan (with their usurious interest rates) and use that cash to join Vemma, and immediately do a full court press, to get the money back so the check doesn't bounce.

Don't believe me? Here's proof on Facebook:

Update on WCM777: the more we dig, the more weird stuff we find

A few fellow Internet sleuths decided to look a bit more into what's left of World Capital Market in the US, and the more we look, the more interesting things we find. Stuff like Siemen denies being involved with WCM, and more domain names, and corporate entities linked with WCM and Ming Xu, and more. These are stuff WCM777 affiliates would rather you do NOT know about.

You may want to read my previous investigation on WCM777, WCM, and Phil Ming Xu, if you want to get the whole picture.

First, someone apparently invoked Siemens' name in WCM777 ad.

.@siemens_press? WCM777 cooperated with Siemens to launch a series of personal cloud service products http://t.co/4xrLL21ZWk via @sharethis
— daSilvaEdison (@daSilvaEdison) September 16, 2013

Here's another version (from Facebook):

Here's one WCM777 ad that even used their logo:

It's interesting to note that most of these companies has NOTHING to do with investment or finance except four: that Chinese one on top ( Chungching International Trust and Investment LTD ), Goldman Sachs, Merriman Curhan Ford & Co. (aka Merriman Capital) and that logo just to the left of Marriott, which is "China Galaxy Securities".

What is interesting is Siemens there at the middle. Someone decided to do due diligence! Here's the result (feel free to search on Twitter yourself to confirm this conversation)

Clearly, whatever WCM claimed was misconstrued... or WCM outright "fibbed" and mislead.

Someone is Tweeting at Denny's Restaurant asking them to confirm that they are doing business with WCM. Stay tuned!

Cult Sales Conviction Upheld in France. Is US Next?

French Court recently handed down a decision that upheld conviction of Church of Scientology and its bookstores of preying upon members in the 1990's by pushing them into buying books... One victim claimed she was pushed into buying books and various devices totaling over 20000 Euros, including "a meter that measures mental energy". Court ordered the church to pay over 600000 Euros in fines and damages. Church itself claims its religious freedom is being trampled and vows to appeal to European Union court.

While I have no desire to debate whether Scientology is a cult or not (the French say it is, so debate it with them) I wish to point out that cult sales is a real problem. 

Cult Sales, as opposed to normal "sales job", is sales job with a dose of cult indoctrination to keep you producing, often with your own money. And many network marketing companies, along with a few abusive direct sales companies, are essentially cult sales companies.  Whether their products are real or valuable is irrelevant.

Some signs of cult sales:

• Always hiring / looking out for new blood
• Rah-rah chants and songs in the morning to get you "pumped up"
• Daily or weekly confession / recognition of sales results (or lack of)
• Shadow new recruits with a "mentor" (and you will later shadow a noob, treat noobs to social events, indoctrinate them just like they did to you)
• Fake it till you make it (fund your own attire, even before you can afford it)
• Overwork you, always selling around the clock, portrayed as "dedication"
• Dominate off-work hours too with "social" events and training and such
• If you don't recruit you're not "dedicated" enough to the company
• Guilt-trip if you tried to quit

How To Help People You Suspect Are Being Scammed

There has been many questions by folks with friends and relatives who were into suspicious schemes. The victims are so cult-indoctrinated that nothing seem to work. What can be done, if one cannot afford cult deprogramming / exit interview? And what if the victim does NOT wish help?

First, a disclaimer. I'm not a psychologist, psychiatrist, or know anything about the mind, other than some critical thinking. The following stuff is UNTRIED, UNTESTED "common sense" sort of approach I would take if I were to approach someone in a similar predicament.

My approach is... asking questions, Socratic questions. But this is NOT a quick fix. Undoing the knot will take a lot of time, and a lot of questions. This is my personal idea, based on Socratic Questions (as explained in Skeptoid #384). I hope this is of use to people, and I welcome any feedback. Any way...

You will probably need an empty work area, preferably with a big table where you can spread stuff out, a computer to do research on various topics, and a big stack of index cards. Figure at least 100, if not 200 cards, and a few pens, different color (you use one color for questions, he uses another for answers). You will definitely need one big red marker in addition to other colored pens.

And finally, you will need several hours, with refreshments and snack breaks in between, but NO CELLPHONES. The idea is to get the victim AWAY from his/her upline's influence for a while.

And you will need a quick lesson in critical thinking, and understand what is a "null hypothesis". I suggest you research a bit of critical thinking on your own before you attempt this "intervention".  Null hypothesis is best described as unknown / indeterminate state. If the premise is "WooPlus cures cancer", the null hypothesis would be "we don't know whether WooPlus cures cancer or not". the ANTI-premise is "WooPlus does NOT cure cancer". Facts and Logic (evidence) are suppose to move you from null hypothesis toward the premise. When there's not enough evidence you're left with the null hypothesis, not the anti-premise. Yet many people mistake the critical thinking process into thinking that it's either the premise, or the anti-premise, with no null hypothesis.

In the future, I may publish some of the better questions to ask, though this is highly dependent on the individual subject.

NOTE: If you cannot finish this in one sitting, you may want to pick a smaller premise, like "WooPlus product is effective for _____" first. Or perhaps ask for help analyzing his answers, even online. Just don't let him consult upline (yet). If questioned, reply that you want to get to the facts, which are easily Googled, instead of relying on someone else's memory.

There are three general phases:

• Engage and clarify premise with supporting evidence and logic
• Identify ambiguities, assumptions, and logical fallacies
• Re-examine premise with multiple perspectives

SEC Warns All About "profit-sharing" Pyramid Schemes Pretending to be MLMs

Seal of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The US Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC for short, has just released an Investor Alert warning all to watch out for pyramid schemes masquerading as MLM companies. It comes two days after SEC busting yet ANOTHER Ponzi scheme called CKB168, a purported MLM allegedly selling online children's courses, pitched primarily toward Asian Americans in the US. However, it mentioned something very interesting: SEC recognized the potentially illegal profitsharing by pseudo-MLMs back in 1971.

Back in 1971, when MLM first came upon the scene, SEC had ALREADY recognized the danger of "profit-sharing" schemes that are falsely marketed as "not investments". You are welcome to read the full SEC "interpretation", but here's an excerpt (with some sections bolded by me):

The Securities and Exchange Com­mission has considered-the applicabllity of the securities laws to multilevel dis­tributorship and other business opportunities that are being offered to prospective participants through pyramid sales plans. The Commission believes that the operation of. such plans -often Involves the offering of an "Investment contract" or a "participation in a profit-sharing agreement," which are securities within the meaning of section 2(1) of the Securities Act of. 1933. In such cases the security involved-the agreement between the offering company and the Investor­ must be registered with the commission unless an exemption is available. In the absence of registration or an exemption, sales of these securities violate section 5 of the Securities Act.

Are Serial MLMers Insane, by a common cliche definition?

There was a quote often mis-attributed to Albert Einstein:

The definition of insanity is repeating the same mistakes over and over again and expecting different results

However, the quote had been mis-attributed to a variety of people including Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Ben Franklin, and others. However, its real origin is from a Narcotics Anonymous newsletter dated 1981 (scroll to page 11). Which means this is a quote about addiction.

Which makes it oddly appropriate about MLMers, specifically, about SERIAL MLMers, those people who keep joining one MLM after another, looking for "success" and kept spending money on the products, on his or her upline's advice, always having an excuse (the leader made a mistake, the market wasn't ready for us...)  As they keep doing the same thing over and over, hoping for a different result.

One such example was the "confessimonial" on SaltyDroid... a story by "Roger Wilco". RW described a relationship with a woman who was heavily into MLM, spent well over 200K into various MLMs over 7 or so years, and in the end, chose MLM instead of him, never finding any success.

Addicted people, by certain "colloquial" definition, are "insane" because they are driven by their addiction into making choices that no "ordinary" people would make.

And MLMers, similarly, are "addicted" to MLM that they make choices that no "ordinary" people would make. That is a form of insanity.