| There's a difference between a "pyramid scheme" and "multi-level marketing". Pyramid schemes are indeed illegal, MLM's are not. There are some very successful MLM companies such as Amway and Mary Kay. You'll have to find out what the differences are between the two models in order to identify illegal pyramid schemes from legal MLM opportunities. Naturally, pyramid schemes should be reported to eBay, and probably even the authorities.
I'm fairly certain that one of the classic defining characteristics of a pyramid scheme is the complete absence of a product. They want you to send money up to the top in return for the "privilege" of joining their network and establishing your own network of individuals below you who send money up to you. They call it a money-making opportunity, but all it ends up being is cashflow that goes up to the top, to the person who started the thing, and the people at the bottom get screwed. It's the people getting screwed that has banned this scheme from practice.
MLM's offer a similarly structured business where commissions float up to the higher levels, but this is no different than a normal corporate structure. Commissions are derived from sales of actual product. Thus nobody gets screwed: you get out of it no more and no less than what you put into it. If you are interested in participating in an MLM, the trick is to find one whose product offering is actually appealing to you, something that you can honestly get excited to talk about and introduce other people to. Because it if you can't get excited about it, you won't be able to excite anyone else about it, period. That's the world of sales. | |
