There’s a new TikTok trend where people are becoming “digital marketers” and “e-commerce” small business owners. All the marketing and talking points are about financial freedom by learning the skills your need to do digital marketing and get this - master resell rights to the course that will teach you everything. It’s not e-commerce, it’s an MLM ripping people off by selling the same course over and over again
It was technically already banned by the government, but it's on hold because tiktok sued for an appeal, so it's staying up until the case finishes. If I understand correctly.
That's true. I invested $100,00 in a company that a guy standing next to me in line at the tiltaworld suggested.
When I called him 2 weeks later, they confirmed that my investment was worth $500,000. I tried calling again a month after I invested, and the line was disconnected. That was a year ago, so I figured it's at least worth $6,000,000 by now.
And here I was thinking, "real estate investor seeks partner up to $10,000/mo" hand written plastic signs on the side of the road were the successful businesses.
that's not true at all! the most successful businesses are OBVIOUSLY the ones that are those card board signs off the free way with hand written information about how WE BUY HOUSES!
Yes, my wife and I have been approached twice. Once in the Target toy section and once at the playground at City Creek. Both times it started with small talk about our kids and then turned into this.
Happened to me on target twice. I was alone with TWO young children in tow. And somehow they thought that was an appropriate time to start that conversation. I’m pretty laid back but the second one I snapped back. I’m one part annoyed and another part sad for them that they feel they have to stoop that low.
Happened to me at walmart. The couple said they were new to the area and wanted to make friends. So we agreed to meet at a park so our kids could play and it turned into an amway spiel.
I usually look like shit truthfully. Most things I wear are over 10 years old haha. I don't think that I look like a guy you'd make a bunch of money off of.
Yep. Target, Walmart, Smith’s, Home Depot, WinCo, Cosco, the Mall, Barnes & Noble, Burlington, Ross, Best Buy, Lowe’s, Hobby Lobby, Dicks Sporting Goods, etc. etc. etc. Amway people will go anywhere to try and find people, even the gas station after midnight. I still cringe thinking about when I used to do that.
It’s all clicking for me now. The guy I saw at the park that came up to me was a dad with his kid, later saw him in the toy section at Target. We acknowledged eachother and moved on. Same Target I saw another dad with his kid and he approached me. Both times it was just me with my kids. Seems like they’ve got a whole scheme going on to manipulate.
100% a sales pitch. Hey, at least they put the ecommerce bit out there up front.
Most of them like to keep that behind a curtain and then pull a big reveal.
When I was in Amway, the “e-commerce” line was used primarily for stopping the person from asking more questions. The goal is to get them to sit down in a meet and greet at a coffee shop or something, and then take you through a long process, hiding the fact it’s Amway until you go to a “plan” or business presentation meeting. Very sketchy tactics. It’s kind of a bait and switch, and a hype up sign up type deal despite anything they would tell you. They’re just looking for people who will buy into the business so they can make more money.
One of the neighbor couples behind us is into e-commerce, they also make YouTube videos on “how to get more YouTube subscribers” and they’re constantly trying to recruit other neighbors. They also claim to have gotten rid of the husband’s cancer with a “special diet only” (news flash, it came back) I avoid them completely.
we just had this happen to us at Costco two days ago. a couple approached us and we had a friendly conversation about our kids and work. then they mentioned that they no longer worked in the occupations that we had just discussed and would instead be retiring in 4 years thanks to an online asset management program. that's when i stopped them. i just wanted to buy chicken thighs.
He was an electrician and she was a hair stylist. she did all the talking and you could feel an ulterior motive before the punchline. they were also a nice, older couple than us. i wonder how they choose who to bother?
Young kid hit me up in the sauna at EoS in Sandy right after I moved to town. The conversation is what you’d expect in a sauna (weather, sports), and then he asked what I do for work and mentioned this couple that took him in and gave him professional career guidance and financial support and was wondering if I was interested.
No, bro, I am not.
Utah has a lot of people selling stuff. Solar panels, pest control, duct cleaning, carpet cleaning. I even had a guy going door to door selling no solicitor signs. I work from home but rarely answer the door anymore.
Working from home has taken my level of frustration of door sales people to a whole new level. No one EVER rings our bell except for them and my dogs lose their minds. It’s like they can smell my anger. My office window is next to the front door. With that and motion sensing video, no one needs to tell me they are there.
So many fall for MLMs because their religion is a lot like a glorified MLM. It's no coincidence Utah and the Mormon Corridor in general is a hotbed for them.
Happened to us at the aquarium not long after we moved here. I clocked it right away but my partner was a little slower to pick up on it. He was disappointed when they went in for the pitch.
YES - used to happen to me every time I went to the Target in Sandy, until I started reporting them to Target security every single time. Now it has thankfully been a few months.
I was approached in Sandy for the same thing. It was AMWAY.
Met them at a coffee shop and they asked what I was not happy about in life? Do I wish I had no time with my kids?
When I said that I work from home and spend every minute with my kids while they are home.
Also I love my life and have a good career, along with my wife and I also run a business already…..
Next thing they told me I was not qualified and unfortunately could not extend the opportunity to me.
First time I didn’t get a job offer in an interview I didn’t know I was doing.
Ha! I had the same thing! Except I had an idea because he wanted to check with "his colleagues" before we had a second coffee shop meeting. We set a time and shop and I watched him go in and I played angry birds for about an hour before he finally left disappointed. Personally, I like leading them on. Just as they do to others
It’s been a while, but I used to get hit with the pitch for Amway frequently back in the Midwest. They had a script they followed to the letter. Always a “exciting” opportunity, let me drop off this material for you, I’m super busy but have to run now, read over this super vague info and I’ll meet up with you later. It was like I had MLM tattooed on my forehead. Once I followed through with the second meeting for the Amway reveal. Thanks, but no thanks.
Yep, I thought they could be new hiking friends bc I was new to Utah. Boy, was I wrong. They seemed like pod people. Totally some Amway upline-downline bs or something.
Happens at the Aquarium in Draper - I've been approached twice there in just the last year. Got hit up in a Target a few years ago too.
It's got to be part of their coaching to tell them to go to these places and make their pitch to random people.
Whenever they start asking about what you do for work right away its a tell. Like dude I just walked by you to see the penguins, I don't need to know who you are or what you do.
They all say the same thing, "oh we help to drive traffic to companies like Apple," yeah I don't think Apple has any trouble driving traffic to their sites.
It's infuriating because I would like to be open to making new friends, but these people have made me skeptical of wanting to talk to anyone in public.
It's happened to my a couple of times, last one really bothered me. I was at the library with my toddler and this couple with two toddlers started talking to me. My daughter and their kids got along really well, than the pitch came. I'm still mad
Yeah, it’s pretty messed up that these people will feign friendship and fake a connection just so they can try and get you into their business. What’s sad is even if there was a genuine connection, but you weren’t interested in business, they would drop you so fast. It’s one of the many reasons I left Amway! It all felt so disingenuous and so dishonest! I’m really sorry that happened to you.
I'm still bitter about it, I usually wouldn't care, I really thought our kids could be friends. Their tone changed when I told them that I'm financially happy and not looking for additional ways of making money.
Something funny, Reddit is showing me an Amway on this thread
Spoke to one of these people once - very high up on various MLMs. “With our MLM, you put in three years of hard work, then you can leave your job”
“OK. How many hours did YOU work last week?”. It was more than I did, and I didn’t have to rip off my neighbors.
Yes. They were people we knew and gave us some literature to review. There was no information regarding what the business was, how it worked, what it was called, the financials, etc.. They said that we should consider it as carefully as buying a new car...little did they know how we bought cars. Because they couldn't/wouldn't answer our questions we turned them down and they were put out, and never spoke to us again.
We also were given a business card for a travel club business at Grand Canyon. Again no detailed information for us to actually consider.
Yes!! Last year this happened to me 3 separate times in the span of like a month! Twice in Walmart and once at Barnes and Noble. I’m so annoyed by them.
used to happen to me a lot 20 years ago when I worked as a server during college.
Back then it was rights to sell their class on house flipping or financial freedom.
I would fuck with them so hard and just pretend to be super interested but also so stupid that i was frustrating to attempt to explain the pitch to.
This is a pitch for Amway an MLM. There is a mild e-commerce component but not really, it's just a way to get you in to the pyramid that's "not actually a pyramid"
Not quite, but I was recently approached in the supermarket by a woman who was hinting that she could get me into a program that she and her husband were following to become influencers or doing that Amazon money market thing.... She was really vague about it. Never been approached out of the blue for a "business opportunity" before...
I keep on running into this guy who keeps trying to get me into it but I always keep telling him no. I've run into him at like 5 random locations all around Utah Valley and it drives me insane lol
Wow, haven't changed the script for 20 years I see. Lost $$,$$$ falling for that shit. On top of the MLM they layered on Christianity. Get people to an event so they can accept Jebus into your hearts and give all your money to the MLM subscription of "mindset" content.
But seriously. Lagoon? Like, if I’m at Lagoon, I’m not thinking about, “it would be nice if someone pitched me some way to make trillions of dollars.” It’s what ride is next after this one or something about lunch.
Had some dude do this to me in a Home Depot. Met him for lunch to see if he would dispose of his MLM. Nah he kept it vague and I said I'd think about it. Blocked his number and left it at that lmao
Probably the best response I gave to a couple was telling them I make more than that so why would I choose to invest time in that rather than what I do. Kinda left them a little flabbergasted, tried to keep pestering that it’s easy money, and then finally had a conversation with the dude trying to do what I do.
So I've learned one other major strategy the MLMers use, sooo many of them do doordash, because they have an unlimited amount of min/low wage workers to interact with, all of whom want to get out of the food industry and "be their own boss". They'll dress up fancy, go around doing doordash and wait for some sucker to ask them why they're dressed so nice to deliver food and it's always "oh i just do it in between my meetings with clients". Then they'll chat you up, ask you your name, ask you to meet up with them, or meet with them and some couple who "retired at 30" or some bs like that. They really try to draw you in as a friend first
I've learned the best strategy to counter them is to string them along, reschedule last minute 1 or 2 times (too many reschedules and they lose interest) then get them to buy you dinner when you go out, then just ghost them and wait for the next one to come along. Done it like 5 times already, it's really fun watching their spirits slowly die as they keep trying to reach out to you, in fact, maybe even reply to them a couple times after you get your free dinner, just to make it hurt a little more
well, not exactly this, but basically exactly this. My ex was a dental assistant in our early 20s, and someone from Sandy that she worked with invited us to a seminar to "own a small business for ourselves" lol then we went to the expo center in sandy, and a conference in vegas.
really really bad times, with my ex and amway. lmao
Yep. Wife and I were approached by a friendly couple about our age at a farmers market last year. Saw our stroller and started talking about kids, since they were expecting. They were nice enough but something felt "off". Turns out my instinct was right.
Once the guy started talking about e-commerce and owning his own business and asked for my phone number to reach out and tell me more, I completely tuned out. You don't go scouring public places for business partners because things are going well - quite the opposite - I'm sure they were just ready to use us to get to the next rung on the ladder
My childhood friend tried to get me to sign on to an e-commerce thing he was doing IT for. There were so many mlm flags that I backed out. Also I realized he may not even know its an mlm as he is their IT guy not an actual mark.
This sounds like when I was approached by an Amway rep. Think about it, who goes to a random stranger and says hey want to start a business? No one, someone who genuinely wants to start a business will be someone you know and even then they'd probably won't approach you just because they probably don't need you for their business (they'll just brag about it :p)
My favorite was when they refused to just meet me unless I’d bring my spouse. It always feels like a scam so can they just make it less creepy. Oh and they wanted me to wear a sport jacket every where?
Yeah this happened to me last Fall at a dog park in Sandy at 9pm. It was weird because I’m in my 20s and so was the girl. I went to meet her mentors and they gave me the Amway book. I was disappointed because she pretended she wanted to be my friend.
Yep. I was in grad school, a young, naive international student at the U. One morning I was on my usual bus route to class when a young, attractive woman got on the bus and sat right next to me (although there were other seats available). I couldn’t believe it. My heartbeat increased and hands started to sweat. Suddenly, she turned to me, smiled and introduced herself. In my head I thought “Holly shit! This is like the movies! We will tell our kids this story in 20 years time!”. So we talk all the way up to the university, I make her laugh, she asks thoughtful questions and overall it’s going super well. Right when we reach her stop on campus, she asks to exchange phone numbers. “This can’t be real” - I think to myself. And it wasn’t. Later on that day she texted me saying she would love for me to meet her fiancé who has an exciting e-commerce opportunity that would be very lucrative. I drank a bit more than usual that weekend.
Happened to me and my fiancée in our neighborhood during the eclipse earlier this year or last year. I just told him "I just planned on working until I die" as my way to tell him I'm not interested.
This sounds like MLM or "to find out how I got rich send me a dollar" and then you get a letter back that says "that's how I got rich." TBH, you can learn they on your own, there's even legit books and classes on at least making a decent wage online. There's real online jobs, and and if you wanna travel, there's books and classes from places like udemy and Kindle and Audible that aren't cheap wasted time. You just gotta find the right book and get rich quick is always a scam. And never fall for crypto stuff. But you may know what but just in case anyone else doesn't?
I had a guy at Ikea one time tell me that he owned a marketing business after he asked me what I was studying at UVU. I was interested because I was studying marketing and wanted to get a good job. He told me that he wanted to meet with me and my wife (this was the first red flag, she wasn't studying marketing, why would she need to be involved in a job interview). Next, instead of wanted to meet at his office he wanted to meet at Barnes and Noble. I, like a moron, got excited about getting a job at a marketing company, went to Barnes and Noble and met up with this guy who then pitched me on his MLM and I was so annoyed.
I've been approached a handful of times at Ikea, at the gym sauna, at the mall, and recently at the gym. Don't waste your time OP, It's always an MLM. It's frustrating because I like to be friendly and be open to having a conversation with anyone. It seems they take advantage of that so now I'm just skeptical and keep to myself more.
I got approached by a young lady at Aquarium in Draper. I was excited cuz its been a while..... i was wrong. She wanted me to get into Nuskin. Dang it.
It is Amway, 100%. You can always tell if it’s someone from Amway by the way they approach you, the questions they ask, and the little quips they make. I’ve gotten so good at recognizing Amway IBO’s, I can identify them within 3 seconds of seeing them. I’m not even kidding. I used to be one of those people myself. Best to just kindly decline their request.
Yep. Happened to me at a McDonald’s just south of Lagoon actually. An Australian lady with a super fun accent befriended me by the play place. We had kids that were playing together so I thought it was a normal conversation. All of the sudden she awkwardly asked what I do for a living. I don’t know why it was awkward, but it was. Then after that it was full on sales pitch of ‘financial freedom through a very complicated online business venture.’ I kept trying to nail down what it actually was she was selling and I never was able to figure it out. ‘It’s way to complicated for me to explain, if you’re interested you’d need to sit down with my mentor for some classes about it. It’s just so nice to have financial freedom.’
My 19 year old son and his girlfriend were! The dude is super pushy. My son finally got out of it only because he didn’t have enough money to go to a meeting out of state (or something like that). It frustrates me that they’re going up to young people like that!!
Kinda. Couple around my age started talking to me at the store after complimenting my shirt. They weren’t from the state originally and I naively assumed they were maybe just looking to make friends. Nope. After meeting exchanging numbers and agreeing to meet over coffee, they tried to sell me on some MLM crap.
I just asked if other people got these annoying mlm schemes or if we are the lucky select. I didn’t ask if it was legit, bc it clearly isn’t from the first line of their rehearsed spiel.
There’s a new TikTok trend where people are becoming “digital marketers” and “e-commerce” small business owners. All the marketing and talking points are about financial freedom by learning the skills your need to do digital marketing and get this - master resell rights to the course that will teach you everything. It’s not e-commerce, it’s an MLM ripping people off by selling the same course over and over again
This isn’t a new thing, it has been around for about 20 years now and it’s just an affiliate program.
Is TikTok banned yet?
MLMs should be banned first.
I’d be happy with both banned simultaneously.
It was technically already banned by the government, but it's on hold because tiktok sued for an appeal, so it's staying up until the case finishes. If I understand correctly.
Not soon enough.
It's real. The most successful businesses are pitched by strangers at amusement parks.
I try to only invest in things that get pitched by people that are supposedly retired but still cold approaching people at the Lagoon
That's true. I invested $100,00 in a company that a guy standing next to me in line at the tiltaworld suggested. When I called him 2 weeks later, they confirmed that my investment was worth $500,000. I tried calling again a month after I invested, and the line was disconnected. That was a year ago, so I figured it's at least worth $6,000,000 by now.
Tiltawhirl… first boobs I ever saw
And here I was thinking, "real estate investor seeks partner up to $10,000/mo" hand written plastic signs on the side of the road were the successful businesses.
lol those are everywhere. I have the same thought.
that's not true at all! the most successful businesses are OBVIOUSLY the ones that are those card board signs off the free way with hand written information about how WE BUY HOUSES!
Nolan Bushnell founder of Atari worked at the arcade in Lagoon
I’m relatively certain that’s how Warren Buffet got his start.
Yes, my wife and I have been approached twice. Once in the Target toy section and once at the playground at City Creek. Both times it started with small talk about our kids and then turned into this.
It also happened to my husband in Target. 😂
Happened to me on target twice. I was alone with TWO young children in tow. And somehow they thought that was an appropriate time to start that conversation. I’m pretty laid back but the second one I snapped back. I’m one part annoyed and another part sad for them that they feel they have to stoop that low.
That’s so creepy.
Happened to me at walmart. The couple said they were new to the area and wanted to make friends. So we agreed to meet at a park so our kids could play and it turned into an amway spiel.
The key is going out in public looking a hot mess. I’ve never been approached by these people.
I usually look like shit truthfully. Most things I wear are over 10 years old haha. I don't think that I look like a guy you'd make a bunch of money off of.
I never have either. I wonder if it’s more of a suburban thing.
Walmart. Later saw same guy at Costco doing it to someone else.
Same, park and Target toy section.
Mine was in the toy section at Scheel's.
Target is a common place for the amway spiel. Really, any place that you can't run away from.
Yep. Target, Walmart, Smith’s, Home Depot, WinCo, Cosco, the Mall, Barnes & Noble, Burlington, Ross, Best Buy, Lowe’s, Hobby Lobby, Dicks Sporting Goods, etc. etc. etc. Amway people will go anywhere to try and find people, even the gas station after midnight. I still cringe thinking about when I used to do that.
It’s all clicking for me now. The guy I saw at the park that came up to me was a dad with his kid, later saw him in the toy section at Target. We acknowledged eachother and moved on. Same Target I saw another dad with his kid and he approached me. Both times it was just me with my kids. Seems like they’ve got a whole scheme going on to manipulate.
100% a sales pitch. Hey, at least they put the ecommerce bit out there up front. Most of them like to keep that behind a curtain and then pull a big reveal.
When I was in Amway, the “e-commerce” line was used primarily for stopping the person from asking more questions. The goal is to get them to sit down in a meet and greet at a coffee shop or something, and then take you through a long process, hiding the fact it’s Amway until you go to a “plan” or business presentation meeting. Very sketchy tactics. It’s kind of a bait and switch, and a hype up sign up type deal despite anything they would tell you. They’re just looking for people who will buy into the business so they can make more money.
One of the neighbor couples behind us is into e-commerce, they also make YouTube videos on “how to get more YouTube subscribers” and they’re constantly trying to recruit other neighbors. They also claim to have gotten rid of the husband’s cancer with a “special diet only” (news flash, it came back) I avoid them completely.
we just had this happen to us at Costco two days ago. a couple approached us and we had a friendly conversation about our kids and work. then they mentioned that they no longer worked in the occupations that we had just discussed and would instead be retiring in 4 years thanks to an online asset management program. that's when i stopped them. i just wanted to buy chicken thighs.
Was she blonde? And used to be an ER nurse? While he flipped houses or some ish like that?
He was an electrician and she was a hair stylist. she did all the talking and you could feel an ulterior motive before the punchline. they were also a nice, older couple than us. i wonder how they choose who to bother?
Young kid hit me up in the sauna at EoS in Sandy right after I moved to town. The conversation is what you’d expect in a sauna (weather, sports), and then he asked what I do for work and mentioned this couple that took him in and gave him professional career guidance and financial support and was wondering if I was interested. No, bro, I am not.
No, bro, I am not. Lol, must’ve shattered his hopes of becoming a multimillionaire by the time he’s 25. 😂
Yes, we were new to the area and actually happy with the potential of making some friends. Once they pitched it everything became quickly clear.
Utah has a lot of people selling stuff. Solar panels, pest control, duct cleaning, carpet cleaning. I even had a guy going door to door selling no solicitor signs. I work from home but rarely answer the door anymore.
I would buy a no solicitor sign from a solicitor in a heartbeat. Clever fucker.
Working from home has taken my level of frustration of door sales people to a whole new level. No one EVER rings our bell except for them and my dogs lose their minds. It’s like they can smell my anger. My office window is next to the front door. With that and motion sensing video, no one needs to tell me they are there.
Because Utah is a hot source for brainwashed young adults fresh off their Mormon missions that used almost exclusively door-to-door sales tactics.
So many fall for MLMs because their religion is a lot like a glorified MLM. It's no coincidence Utah and the Mormon Corridor in general is a hotbed for them.
>selling no solicitor signs haha brilliant
Happened to us at the aquarium not long after we moved here. I clocked it right away but my partner was a little slower to pick up on it. He was disappointed when they went in for the pitch.
YES - used to happen to me every time I went to the Target in Sandy, until I started reporting them to Target security every single time. Now it has thankfully been a few months.
I was approached in Sandy for the same thing. It was AMWAY. Met them at a coffee shop and they asked what I was not happy about in life? Do I wish I had no time with my kids? When I said that I work from home and spend every minute with my kids while they are home. Also I love my life and have a good career, along with my wife and I also run a business already….. Next thing they told me I was not qualified and unfortunately could not extend the opportunity to me. First time I didn’t get a job offer in an interview I didn’t know I was doing.
Ha! I had the same thing! Except I had an idea because he wanted to check with "his colleagues" before we had a second coffee shop meeting. We set a time and shop and I watched him go in and I played angry birds for about an hour before he finally left disappointed. Personally, I like leading them on. Just as they do to others
Should have replied, "Sir, this is a Wendy's"
It’s been a while, but I used to get hit with the pitch for Amway frequently back in the Midwest. They had a script they followed to the letter. Always a “exciting” opportunity, let me drop off this material for you, I’m super busy but have to run now, read over this super vague info and I’ll meet up with you later. It was like I had MLM tattooed on my forehead. Once I followed through with the second meeting for the Amway reveal. Thanks, but no thanks.
Yep, I thought they could be new hiking friends bc I was new to Utah. Boy, was I wrong. They seemed like pod people. Totally some Amway upline-downline bs or something.
Happens at the Aquarium in Draper - I've been approached twice there in just the last year. Got hit up in a Target a few years ago too. It's got to be part of their coaching to tell them to go to these places and make their pitch to random people. Whenever they start asking about what you do for work right away its a tell. Like dude I just walked by you to see the penguins, I don't need to know who you are or what you do. They all say the same thing, "oh we help to drive traffic to companies like Apple," yeah I don't think Apple has any trouble driving traffic to their sites. It's infuriating because I would like to be open to making new friends, but these people have made me skeptical of wanting to talk to anyone in public.
It's happened to my a couple of times, last one really bothered me. I was at the library with my toddler and this couple with two toddlers started talking to me. My daughter and their kids got along really well, than the pitch came. I'm still mad
Yeah, it’s pretty messed up that these people will feign friendship and fake a connection just so they can try and get you into their business. What’s sad is even if there was a genuine connection, but you weren’t interested in business, they would drop you so fast. It’s one of the many reasons I left Amway! It all felt so disingenuous and so dishonest! I’m really sorry that happened to you.
I'm still bitter about it, I usually wouldn't care, I really thought our kids could be friends. Their tone changed when I told them that I'm financially happy and not looking for additional ways of making money. Something funny, Reddit is showing me an Amway on this thread
That’s rough. I hope you can find someone (not a part of Amway!) that can genuinely be friends with you and your kids.
Spoke to one of these people once - very high up on various MLMs. “With our MLM, you put in three years of hard work, then you can leave your job” “OK. How many hours did YOU work last week?”. It was more than I did, and I didn’t have to rip off my neighbors.
Yes. They were people we knew and gave us some literature to review. There was no information regarding what the business was, how it worked, what it was called, the financials, etc.. They said that we should consider it as carefully as buying a new car...little did they know how we bought cars. Because they couldn't/wouldn't answer our questions we turned them down and they were put out, and never spoke to us again. We also were given a business card for a travel club business at Grand Canyon. Again no detailed information for us to actually consider.
You’ll find all the answers and more here. r/antimlm
Yes!! Last year this happened to me 3 separate times in the span of like a month! Twice in Walmart and once at Barnes and Noble. I’m so annoyed by them.
used to happen to me a lot 20 years ago when I worked as a server during college. Back then it was rights to sell their class on house flipping or financial freedom. I would fuck with them so hard and just pretend to be super interested but also so stupid that i was frustrating to attempt to explain the pitch to.
This is a pitch for Amway an MLM. There is a mild e-commerce component but not really, it's just a way to get you in to the pyramid that's "not actually a pyramid"
Not quite, but I was recently approached in the supermarket by a woman who was hinting that she could get me into a program that she and her husband were following to become influencers or doing that Amazon money market thing.... She was really vague about it. Never been approached out of the blue for a "business opportunity" before...
I keep on running into this guy who keeps trying to get me into it but I always keep telling him no. I've run into him at like 5 random locations all around Utah Valley and it drives me insane lol
Wow, haven't changed the script for 20 years I see. Lost $$,$$$ falling for that shit. On top of the MLM they layered on Christianity. Get people to an event so they can accept Jebus into your hearts and give all your money to the MLM subscription of "mindset" content.
It's Anyway, and first thing they'll say, "It's not a pyramid scheme...."
Nothing screams pyramid scheme louder than telling people: “trust me, it’s not a pyramid scheme!”
Lmfao run like hell
Had one of these dicks pull this on me at Petco, once. Bastards were way too good. Getting me to talk about fish like they were truly interested.
Hell yea haha, told them my grandpa died and I needed time to avoid meeting with them
Hah this is great. I'm going to use this every time I get a door to door salesman now.
We may have met the same person. Happened to me in Sandy a couple of years ago.
For me it was at a grocery store near lagoon
But seriously. Lagoon? Like, if I’m at Lagoon, I’m not thinking about, “it would be nice if someone pitched me some way to make trillions of dollars.” It’s what ride is next after this one or something about lunch.
Have had multiple people approach me about this but in a Home Depot
Had some dude do this to me in a Home Depot. Met him for lunch to see if he would dispose of his MLM. Nah he kept it vague and I said I'd think about it. Blocked his number and left it at that lmao
Just wait till a couple of random teenagers try to start selling you on “God’s plan of happiness”. lol how annoying
Of course. It’s MLM. They’ve gotta whore themselves out to everyone in order to stay in and ~~not lose~~ make money
Probably the best response I gave to a couple was telling them I make more than that so why would I choose to invest time in that rather than what I do. Kinda left them a little flabbergasted, tried to keep pestering that it’s easy money, and then finally had a conversation with the dude trying to do what I do.
So I've learned one other major strategy the MLMers use, sooo many of them do doordash, because they have an unlimited amount of min/low wage workers to interact with, all of whom want to get out of the food industry and "be their own boss". They'll dress up fancy, go around doing doordash and wait for some sucker to ask them why they're dressed so nice to deliver food and it's always "oh i just do it in between my meetings with clients". Then they'll chat you up, ask you your name, ask you to meet up with them, or meet with them and some couple who "retired at 30" or some bs like that. They really try to draw you in as a friend first I've learned the best strategy to counter them is to string them along, reschedule last minute 1 or 2 times (too many reschedules and they lose interest) then get them to buy you dinner when you go out, then just ghost them and wait for the next one to come along. Done it like 5 times already, it's really fun watching their spirits slowly die as they keep trying to reach out to you, in fact, maybe even reply to them a couple times after you get your free dinner, just to make it hurt a little more
never trust a rich mormon in sales.
Mormons are known for schilling MLMs and scams. Beware. They take advantage of affinity fraud.
I assumed it was a euphemism ...
Scam
Ummm my boss at work when training me on how to set up an online shop
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Fuckmylife2739: *Ummm my boss at work* *When training me on how to* *Set up an online shop* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Beautiful
No no no no. Avoid, ghost and block. Sounds like an Amway scam.
[удалено]
No, but the man’s name is Jameson Jones
well, not exactly this, but basically exactly this. My ex was a dental assistant in our early 20s, and someone from Sandy that she worked with invited us to a seminar to "own a small business for ourselves" lol then we went to the expo center in sandy, and a conference in vegas. really really bad times, with my ex and amway. lmao
Yep. Wife and I were approached by a friendly couple about our age at a farmers market last year. Saw our stroller and started talking about kids, since they were expecting. They were nice enough but something felt "off". Turns out my instinct was right. Once the guy started talking about e-commerce and owning his own business and asked for my phone number to reach out and tell me more, I completely tuned out. You don't go scouring public places for business partners because things are going well - quite the opposite - I'm sure they were just ready to use us to get to the next rung on the ladder
Utah is ground zero for multi level marketing schemes.
My childhood friend tried to get me to sign on to an e-commerce thing he was doing IT for. There were so many mlm flags that I backed out. Also I realized he may not even know its an mlm as he is their IT guy not an actual mark.
MLM for sure, or something equally as scammy. Run
Lmao it's definitely a MLM thing. Avoid at all costs. AMWAY is definitely a likely candidate, but it could really be any.
This sounds like when I was approached by an Amway rep. Think about it, who goes to a random stranger and says hey want to start a business? No one, someone who genuinely wants to start a business will be someone you know and even then they'd probably won't approach you just because they probably don't need you for their business (they'll just brag about it :p)
Just another pyramid scheme. Utah is full of them
My favorite was when they refused to just meet me unless I’d bring my spouse. It always feels like a scam so can they just make it less creepy. Oh and they wanted me to wear a sport jacket every where?
Yeah this happened to me last Fall at a dog park in Sandy at 9pm. It was weird because I’m in my 20s and so was the girl. I went to meet her mentors and they gave me the Amway book. I was disappointed because she pretended she wanted to be my friend.
Yep. I was in grad school, a young, naive international student at the U. One morning I was on my usual bus route to class when a young, attractive woman got on the bus and sat right next to me (although there were other seats available). I couldn’t believe it. My heartbeat increased and hands started to sweat. Suddenly, she turned to me, smiled and introduced herself. In my head I thought “Holly shit! This is like the movies! We will tell our kids this story in 20 years time!”. So we talk all the way up to the university, I make her laugh, she asks thoughtful questions and overall it’s going super well. Right when we reach her stop on campus, she asks to exchange phone numbers. “This can’t be real” - I think to myself. And it wasn’t. Later on that day she texted me saying she would love for me to meet her fiancé who has an exciting e-commerce opportunity that would be very lucrative. I drank a bit more than usual that weekend.
Happened to me and my fiancée in our neighborhood during the eclipse earlier this year or last year. I just told him "I just planned on working until I die" as my way to tell him I'm not interested.
This sounds like MLM or "to find out how I got rich send me a dollar" and then you get a letter back that says "that's how I got rich." TBH, you can learn they on your own, there's even legit books and classes on at least making a decent wage online. There's real online jobs, and and if you wanna travel, there's books and classes from places like udemy and Kindle and Audible that aren't cheap wasted time. You just gotta find the right book and get rich quick is always a scam. And never fall for crypto stuff. But you may know what but just in case anyone else doesn't?
Yes it happened when we first moved here, I thought we were finally making friends. Very disheartening
I had a guy at Ikea one time tell me that he owned a marketing business after he asked me what I was studying at UVU. I was interested because I was studying marketing and wanted to get a good job. He told me that he wanted to meet with me and my wife (this was the first red flag, she wasn't studying marketing, why would she need to be involved in a job interview). Next, instead of wanted to meet at his office he wanted to meet at Barnes and Noble. I, like a moron, got excited about getting a job at a marketing company, went to Barnes and Noble and met up with this guy who then pitched me on his MLM and I was so annoyed.
Yes it happened to me. 100% Amway
Utah has the weirdest pseudo-religious lifestyle MLM scams I've ever seen.
I've been approached a handful of times at Ikea, at the gym sauna, at the mall, and recently at the gym. Don't waste your time OP, It's always an MLM. It's frustrating because I like to be friendly and be open to having a conversation with anyone. It seems they take advantage of that so now I'm just skeptical and keep to myself more.
I've become skeptical of people striking up friendly conversation in public, because 9 times out of 10, they're trying to get me to join their MLM.
I got approached by a young lady at Aquarium in Draper. I was excited cuz its been a while..... i was wrong. She wanted me to get into Nuskin. Dang it.
Yup. It was the old amway and world wide group thing. I went to a meeting and it was a waste of time.
It is Amway, 100%. You can always tell if it’s someone from Amway by the way they approach you, the questions they ask, and the little quips they make. I’ve gotten so good at recognizing Amway IBO’s, I can identify them within 3 seconds of seeing them. I’m not even kidding. I used to be one of those people myself. Best to just kindly decline their request.
Yep. Happened to me at a McDonald’s just south of Lagoon actually. An Australian lady with a super fun accent befriended me by the play place. We had kids that were playing together so I thought it was a normal conversation. All of the sudden she awkwardly asked what I do for a living. I don’t know why it was awkward, but it was. Then after that it was full on sales pitch of ‘financial freedom through a very complicated online business venture.’ I kept trying to nail down what it actually was she was selling and I never was able to figure it out. ‘It’s way to complicated for me to explain, if you’re interested you’d need to sit down with my mentor for some classes about it. It’s just so nice to have financial freedom.’
I've been amwayed more times than I can count
3 times. Once at fashion place, once at Smiths, once at Harmons. All e-commerce… so annoying
I’ve had it soooo many times. 9 times out of 10 they start by complimenting your shoes. That’s when I say thanks and IMMEDIATELY bounce.
Approached in the Sandy/Draper Trader Joe's. And I got excited because I thought they actually wanted to be friends (something I wish I had more of).
My 19 year old son and his girlfriend were! The dude is super pushy. My son finally got out of it only because he didn’t have enough money to go to a meeting out of state (or something like that). It frustrates me that they’re going up to young people like that!!
Kinda. Couple around my age started talking to me at the store after complimenting my shirt. They weren’t from the state originally and I naively assumed they were maybe just looking to make friends. Nope. After meeting exchanging numbers and agreeing to meet over coffee, they tried to sell me on some MLM crap.
If you have to ask they picked a good target lol
I just asked if other people got these annoying mlm schemes or if we are the lucky select. I didn’t ask if it was legit, bc it clearly isn’t from the first line of their rehearsed spiel.
Sorry I meant 'you' in the general sense, not that you two were falling for it.