Scam Tactic: Love Bombing

Sun Myung Moon
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is the start of a new subtopic called "Scam Tactics" where I attempt to document certain approaches used by unscrupulous people on unsuspecting victims.

Today's topic: Love Bombing

The term "love bombing" originated in the 1970's from the "Unification Church" lead by Sun Myung Moon. If you don't recall the name, you may have heard of the Moonies cult. In a speech in July 23, 1978, Moon gave a speech, which is transcribed and translated below:

Unification Church members are smiling all of the time, even at four in the morning. The man who is full of love must live that way. When you go out witnessing you can caress the wall and say that it can expect you to witness well and be smiling when you return. What face could better represent love than a smiling face? This is why we talk about love bomb; Moonies have that kind of happy problem.

It sounds simple, but the way it works is a bit more insidious. As explained by professor Margaret Singer, a cult expert:

As soon as any interest is shown by the recruits, they may be love bombed by the recruiter or other cult members. This process of feigning friendship and interest in the recruit was originally associated with one of the early youth cults, but soon it was taken up by a number of groups as part of their program for luring people in. Love bombing is a coordinated effort, usually under the direction of leadership, that involves long-term members' flooding recruits and newer members with flattery, verbal seduction, affectionate but usually nonsexual touching, and lots of attention to their every remark. Love bombing - or the offer of instant companionship - is a deceptive ploy accounting for many successful recruitment drives.

Basically, the members fluff up your self-esteem by paying very close attention to your every action and appearance, and only give you positive feedback.

EXPOSED: "Wake Up Now" sells dreams to people who can't afford it in cult-like atmopshere

This American Life, a NPR radio / podcast, has a segment on "Wake Up Now", a business that "inspires" people into joining and making big bucks via cult-like mass media events, while its own PR chief says "we want people to make 5-600 a month", and most people don't make even that, according to its own income disclosure statements. WTF?

Listen to it yourself:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/543/wake-up-now?act=1#play

BREAKING NEWS: TachoEASY AG confirms name was stolen by TachoEASY Iberica, NOT affiliated at all

Sharp-eye readers of BehindMLM have just spotted this press release on the TachEASY.DE (and TachoEASY.AT) 

TachoEASY AG has recently become aware of the fact, that the trade name TachoEASY was associated with the Geteasy Group. 

We have received a large number of statements of actual consumer confusion. We were also approached by third parties and asked about our possible relation to Tachoeasy Iberica. 

TachoEASY AG is not affiliated with these entities and demanded vis-à-vis Tachoeasy Iberica that they immediately cease and desist any and all use of the trade name and logo TachoEASY. 

The products distributed by Tachoeasy Iberica are not the original products developed and sold by our company, the TacoEASY AG. Any statements to the contrary are false.
For any further questions, please contact TachoEASY AG.

In other words, TachoEasy Iberica is a clone of a real company, and was apparently created to provide "social proof" for the GetEasy ponzi scheme.

News Update 19-DEC-2014: Zhunrize Plea Deal; PlanB4You Busted; Zeek Money May Be Stolen; FDA Admonishes Herbalife

Lots of little news this week... Remember folks, don't accept random news items without attribution. I link to my sources, and you should click through to make sure I didn't lie to you (unlike others)


PlanB4You Ponzi Busted in Europe

PlanB4You was reportedly busted by local police (Google Translate of refdag.nl article)  when a seizure order was issued and bank account containing 2.5 million (?) have been frozen and multiple locations raided. Several luxury cars were apparently seized. And challenges to court have been denied.

PlanB4You (review by BehindMLM) is a virtually exact copy of Ad Surf Daily ponzi busted in the US in 2008, with 25% ROI in 25 days.


Zhunrize reaches Plea Deal with SEC, may go into receivership

Previously we reported that Zhunrize has been closed by SEC as a ponzi scheme, and at least one shill or troll claimed it was not true, and they had reopened. Seems every Ponzi scheme claimed this at one time or another, as there are reports this also happened with PlanB4You reported above.

Any way, to nail that rumor shut... (reported by BehindMLM) Zhunrize and owner Pan have reached separate deals with SEC to pay fines and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains. The judge has yet to sign the deal but is expected to.

There may be criminal cases pending later. Receivership will be appointed if the deal is accepted and that's the end of that.

NEWS UPDATE: TelexFree may be the widest Ponzi scheme ever, surpassing ZeekRewards

Previously the Ponzi scheme with the widest reach is believed to be Zeek Rewards at 1 million victims and almost nine hundred million dollars. It was shut down in 2012 by SEC and other US agencies.

The bankruptcy trustee in charge of shutting down TelexFree after it tried to declare bankruptcy revealed that TelexFree fraud may be even bigger... with possibly up to 2.1 million victims and OVER a billion dollars.

There are 60000 victims in SOUTH AFRICA... the opposite side of the globe.

Boston Globe reported that some unscrupulous lawyers are encouraging victims to flood Darr's office with paper claims (i.e. physical documents).  He is NOT, repeat NOT taking paper claims because it cost too much to process. Soon claimants will be able to go to a website (much like Zeek Rewards Receivership) to file claims, and they will process the claims online.

Read the full article at  http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/12/16/telexfree-trustee-stephen-darr-may-have-toughest-job-boston/Wkk5JzcPtjfyar6c9QD1sI/story.html#

NEWS UPDATE: WCM777 Ponzi leader Phil Ming Xu used Ponzi money to fund House and Fashion Shop

The receiver attempting to recover assets from WCM777 Ponzi scheme operated by "Phil" Ming Xu has found more money laundered by Ming Xu.

When SEC caught up with Ming Xu and his ponzi scheme in March 2014, Xu signed a plea deal and a receiver was appointed to track down all the assets for eventual return to the victims. And the receiver, Krita L. Freitag, was sure finding a lot.

Xu had at least 54 different bank accounts under a dozen different company names at different banks, alleged the SEC in its restraining order back in March 2014. And the receiver was discovering even more assets that had been distributed to what appeared to be other companies, but are actually family members and friends. One attorney and friend of Xu got a 5 million loan from Xu days before restraining order. The same attorney also claimed to have lost a 200000 (two hundred thousand dollar) cashier's check that belongs to the receiver. In yet another case, unknown people were observed removing furniture and other property from assets frozen by court order and law enforcement had to be contacted to compel return of said assets.

Then there's the story of the missing million...

Bad Argument: Distributors can't lose money if they enjoy the product (WTF?!)

One of the contentious issues between MLM proponents and critics is the definition of a "customer" vs. a "distributor".

Logically, the differences are crystal clear:

Customer spends money, buys stuff (from distributors).

Distributor earns money, sells stuff (to customers).

However, in the MLM world, things are never so clear. And one of the arguments proponents often use is "if the distributor enjoys the product for internal consumption, they could not be considered having suffered financial loss".

Or as someone argued on reddit /r/vemma...

Because even those "poor souls" who join the business but don't earn commissions still aren't losing money, just like when you buy anything else in life that you ultimately consume or use you don't think of it as losing money. 

This is bogus logic. Can you imagine a bar owner drank all his own stock of liquor, and need to close the bar, and then tell himself, "I didn't really lose money because I got drunk"?

There's another reason though... consuming the stock prevents distributor from getting a refund.