Scam Life

Life insurance sold through multi-level marketing is such a scam.

A mentor is conducting his business in a noisy, busy McDonald's off the freeway near Casa Grande, AZ. Talking circles around his salesman, coming fast and from all angles, not letting his guy digest his words, just communicating that he knows much more than his mark, that following his words is undoubtedly the best action his mark could take, and that his mark needs to buy in and is already missing out on a huge market. Making his salesman feel like he needs to prove his guts, his business shark instincts and become one of the money making boys.

Not letting his mark get in a second word. Guiding the flow of conversation every second, pushing past any reservation or disagreement of ideas.

pyramid scheme business practices. the mentor recruits a salesman and fast talks him into how his life insurance business will take off. he starts with buying his family and close friends into the plan. exploit the trust that he has built up. then continually up-sell to his salesman and convince his network to do the same. the salesman never gets to spreading his business to a broader customer base, because the policies he is selling are ripoffs and only the people closest to him would buy blindly on trust. In the end, you're exploiting yourself and everyone you know to fill the pockets of your mentor. The salesman buys because of a combination of ignorance, greed, keeping up with his successful peers in the company, and desperation.

The mentor is talking about bribes and gifts, passing it off as legal. Slimy as fuck.

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I was recruited by a life insurance salesman to World Financial Group in Sudbury, MA. I smelled a stinker from the get go, but I went with him to see firsthand what went on. My parents participated in a luxury goods salesmen pyramid scheme when they first got to America. I wanted to see if it was the same. This organization has a more sophisticated approach, they sell life insurance. This branch targeted minorities, who don't know much about the American legal system and have close knit ethnic communities that trust each other to give financial advice.

The only way to make money is to become a mentor and exploit new recruits who want to be salesmen. Hook them with promises of wealth, parade some of the company's large tree salaries around, feed them stories how they will change their lives. None of that insurance selling is going to get you rich - all that money is funneling up to the top of the pyramid. It's when you attract new members, who are going to sell policies to their closest network, greedily thinking they are going to be rich, instead they make you rich that you stand to make any gains.

exclusive meetings for 'advanced' members that new members are not allowed to see. the promo video actually bragged that their business model had like 200% growth every year. Like, that's the dumbest indication that the business is a fucking scam. Because no legit organization can do that. The numbers don't add up. There is no demand that high for any legit product that can absorb that much growth. But a pyramid scheme HAS TO grow its base twice over every year to fund the members at each level, because it has no product - its sole income is generated from its lowest members paying into it.

I was taking an elevator with the guy trying to recruit me. His higher ups are telling him he's under-covered with his own life insurance policy and pressuring him to pay more. This guy is unemployed and struggling to move up in the company because he has no recruits. He was at tears in financial desperation, delusional telling me how he knew this company would turn his life around. Meanwhile his mentors are laughing and teasing him that his policy is inferior, to get more money out of him. The people who get rich in these companies are sociopaths with large network of contacts that they exploit and then dispose of.
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don't trust anyone who spends all his time working you over to make you rich. don't trust anyone who tries hard to look like a business hotshot at McDonald's. don't trust anyone who gives you tips how to skirt the law to make money, how to exploit and manipulate others as part of 'business tactics', yet tries to come off as friendly and helpful to you.

why would they spend so much time on YOU, if they're making so much money on their own business, if YOU weren't the thing they're making money off of. Duh. You see any other small business owner spend all their time mentoring someone who wants to copy them, instead of managing their own revenue? You see restaurant owners going to other restaurants, sharing all their know how and tips, instead of making sure customers frequent their own restaurant? You are their income, not their friend.

'here let me educate you.' says the mentor, sharing a 'business tactic'. bullshit. all you want is me to buy what you're selling. isn't it obvious? the salesman is not being mentored, that he's trying to get you to buy the plan in the guise of 'teaching you how to be a salesman'?

isn't it obvious something's wrong when the guy 'helping' you is pushing to set up the next meeting to talk again? if you're really getting his help, shouldn't you be the one trying to get a hold of him? doesn't it remind you of religious solicitors wanting to talk to you about jesus christ, suspiciously eager to save your soul?

Ponzi schemes. Trump's business school. The bestselling book Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. All part of a valueless SCAMerica that makes me sick.

Life insurance is the perfect product to sell as a scam. Because the person who buys it never sees a dime of the money. And it's a private information you won't disclose how much your life policy is worth to many people. So you can run the whole operation without paying any money to your customers for a long long time.

I'm surprised these shady organizations aren't brought to public attention, often and thoroughly. There are many stories like these that aren't being told:
1) http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/world-financial-group/san-jose-california-95131/world-financial-group-scam-pyramid-scheme-company-beware-san-jose-california-384984.
2) https://www.reddit.com/r/jobs/comments/34c6im/world_financial_group_be_careful_of_this_mlm/.

A documentary or movie exposing such practices would be a much needed addition to our American cultural history.