Consumerist
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scams
"The Purple Horror" Monavie Group Blog
Remember the Monavie Acai juice Multi-Level-Marketing scam Chris Walters told you about a few weeks ago? There's a whole community blog set up where people can post their Monavie stories as moderator-approved comments at purplehorror.com. Here's one from a frustrated salesperson: "Our upline said that we weren’t pitching it the “right way”. Their idea of the right way was to lie. They didn’t think of it as lying, but it was... They would ask people if they had any medical conditions and whatever they said, the answer was always “Monavie can definitely help you with that." Note the word "upline." That's a common word multi-level-marketing schemes use to refer to the person directly above you in their modified pyramid scheme.
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scams
How The Modern Pyramid Scheme Stays Barely Legal
The modern pyramid scheme has undergone slight tweaks in order to stay just with the bounds of the law, and still keep the fun scam times going. When you strip away all the pretty foil and chocolate, though, a naked Ponzi sits in the center, laughing his ass off.
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7:24 PM on Fri Oct 5 2007
By Ben Popken
11,278 views, 63 commentsLatest by mikagsd: For those of you bashing the entire network marketing industry, did you ever stop to think about the fact Warren more »
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ds-max
4 Typical DS-MAX MLM Scam Job Ads Found On Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder And Jobster
Using the names of companies accused of being DS-Max (now known as Innovage) subsidiaries/affiliates on Ripoffreport and a list on DS-Max The Aftermath, I did a search of Monster, Hot Jobs, and other job sites to pick out real ads that are out there and should be avoided. More » -
ds-max
How To Spot A DS-MAX Style MLM Scam Job Ad
Here are some of the qualities of a "business" operating under DS-MAX (now known as Innovage, though the same company owns both trademarks...) principles, an organization responsible for many complaints alleging scams, fraud, and general employee deprivation in a "sales-cult" atmosphere. More » -
brandwashing
Amway's Baaaaaaccck!
Like a sequel to a horror movie, the Amway brand name is bursting out of a shallow grave, reports ABCmoney:The move also was widely viewed as a way of helping the company shed some of the negative connotations the Amway name had acquired. The Quixtar name, however, never resonated with the public.
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sock puppets
Nu-Life Owns The Trademarks For Innovage AND DS-MAX
Nu-Life, the company so mad at us about "adversely" affecting its DS-MAX trademark, saying that old DS-MAX became Innovage and Nu-Life has nothing to do with the actions of old DS-MAX or new Innovage... More » -
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quantum marketing
Man Escapes Working For DS-MAX-esque Charity Scam, Lives To Blogs His Tale
A reader who used to work for Quantum Marketing, one of the "Aftermax" companies, (the term for companies that old DS-MAX (now known as Innovage) spawned), wrote several posts describing how his company scammed people who thought they were donating money to D.A.R.E. More » -
investigations
Consumerist Undercover At IDT Energy: Table Of Contents
In case you missed any of 7-part undercover report on IDT-Energy, Midtown Promotions, and the fabulous worlds of energy resale and multi-level-marketing, here's a recap: More » -
investigations
Consumerist Undercover At IDT Energy: The Confession
After only three days with Midtown Promotions, I could already tell that I'd wait weeks, maybe months or a full year before coming upon hard evidence of fraud, if I found any evidence at all. After leaving James and Doreen in the Bronx, I took the afternoon off and went to work on these diaries. More »
3:35 PM on Fri Jun 8 2007
By consumerintern
12,772 views, 48 commentsLatest by waddsworth: I think the problem with this article is that it set out to find a specific piece of evidence to more »
multi-level-marketing
New York, 8:19 PM
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