Its time to update links that can help people trying to quit Amway or those who are looking for more information. From time to time I’ve brought up links to items that are useful to people searching for answers about Amway. Recently a few links have come up again in the comments section so for anyone that missed some of these or any new readers, these might be useful reading and listening. Anything you feel worthy to add leave in the comments and we'll update this page.
Merchants of Deception was written by former Emerald Eric Scheibeler. He talks about the brainwashing and how he only earned about $35,000/year when he was at a level where he expected to be earning at least 100k based on Amway propaganda and what he’d heard from Diamond speakers. He uncovered the real money to be made in Amway was the sale of motivational materials - books, tapes/CDs, and speaking at functions. Its a really chilling read at times. Everything he said about Amway meetings I heard the same thing too. I could have been there. What he described was what I’d experienced. And most importantly he tells how 99% of IBOs will never make money in Amway. Reading it shows the lies that were told to us were the same lies he heard and the realization that no matter how hard we tried to make money at Amway, it just ain’t possible.
A few years ago NBC Dateline exposed the Amway scam. They covered the brainwashing and showed scenes at arenas that show this cult in action. They catch IBO’s lying - not that that’s difficult! They all lie! The above author Eric Scheibeler is interviewed for this TV show. Part one and two.
Steve Hassan has helped deprogram former Amway cult members and members of other mind control cults as well. There is a 2 part interview on Youtube about the Amway cult.
Pyramid Scheme alert has resources and they deal with all pyramid schemes, not just Amway.
And one of our readers wants everyone to know of this particular link on their page interview with Eric Scheibler: http://pyramidschemealert.org/resources/WhatAboutThisOne.mp3
And of course there are links to other bloggers who share their Amway experiences on the upper right hand side of this page.
Part 3 of the Steve Hassan video
This video was crazy to watch, which shows a lot of former Amway diamonds who are no longer diamonds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-hogR9V5G8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-hogR9V5G8
Believe – mockumentary of Amway. Catch it on Netflix or buy it online. Here’s a summary:
Thanks dear, Anna - you are a real star!!!
ReplyDeleteCheers, Lady G! :-)
You're welcome Lady G!
DeleteHi Anna!
DeleteI have just listened to your two Youtube Video links of an interview of both, Steve Hassan & Eric Scheibler (thank you & to these two wonderful gentlemen a thank you, too!))& I have discovered there is a Part3 which I have just watched now as well...
Here is the link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMZsjUWf9O0
Many thanks again for posting all your informative links on your *awesome Blog* to help people all-around-the-World - which is greatly appreciated, lovely Anna!
Best wishes from; G!
Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the blog. I have so many people stopping by to tell me how much the information I share has helped them. They're not alone in thinking their Amway upline are the biggest fucking assholes they've ever met!
DeleteAnna! I've just been browsing your link to the DVD entitled; "Believe" - looks very interesting & entertaining from the reviews! I will lookout for the DVD when I'm in town next! Thanks for your valued info! ~ G! :)
DeleteI always thought this video was crazy to watch, which shows a lot of former Amway diamonds who are no longer diamonds.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-hogR9V5G8
Also, there is a movie called 'Believe' which is a mockumentary created by a former Amway IBO. It's cheesy but also hilarious, and it is actually spot on about the Amway experience. It's on Netflix streaming if anyone wants to check it out. I would recommend any current or former IBO to watch. Here is a link to it on IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0447857/
Thanks Muzik_dude!
DeleteHello!
ReplyDeleteAs you probably have already seen, you've got a foreign reader. I have no involvement with Amway or any other MLM or cult, but I find them a psychologically fascinating subject. On that note, I was googling around about Amway and stumbled upon your blog. I've enjoyed it very much. While I understand how shitty your experiences must have been, I can't help finding your style and the vitriol entertaining. Good that your husband eventually came to his senses.
As for this post, you've got some good links here. I've read Merchants of Deception, and it was quite disturbing a read. The writer's experiences match quite closely with those many people have had in religious cults. It's astounding how this kind of thing can be allowed to go on.
By the way, it might interest you that Amway has some action here in Finland too. It's kind of frightening that the Amway people I've seen writing in local Internet forums seem to spout the exact same kind of shit you have described. Even the exact phrases are the same: "Look into mirror", "job slavery", "build your dream", "do you have what it takes" and so on. The only spin to that is that everyone expressing even the slightest criticism gets accused of envy and taunted how rich the Amwayers are going to be. Of course, none of them ever say exactly how much money they make. Also, overtly public religiousness is considered rather embarrassing here, so Christianity fortunately isn't abused in the marketing. Otherwise, the similarities are so obvious there's no way Amway doesn't engage in some major brainwashing.
The silliest thing in the whole charade IMHO is how grown adults hunt after some silly pins and bullshit titles like Platinum. I mean, if one needs a title so badly, why doesn't he just set up his own company and call himself "The Supreme Executive Overlord" or something?
Oh, and Amway does try to hoodwink new prospects here, too. There have been a few scandals concerning MLM (one involving ten million euros and thousand of people) over the last decade, so MLM isn't exactly the hottest thing around. That means the recruiters won't say it's MLM until forced.
E.g. I got approached in mid-2006 by a guy that was in the same company as me in the army (we have conscription here). He talked about an exciting business opportunity, but wouldn't say what it was. Just kept repeating how I should travel 200 km to his home city to talk about it over a coffee. When I told him that if the basic business idea can't be explained over the phone, it's either shady or lousy, he ended the call. Now that I think of it, it might have been Amway. He used many of the phrases and techniques outlined in your blog and elsewhere.
So, Amway has reached its tentacles even here, the frozen backside of Europe. Just goes to show that P.T. Barnum was right and there IS a sucker born every minute.
Regards,
JK
Hi JK. Thanks for stopping by! Yup Amway uses the same techniques everywhere in the world. The stuff in Eric Scheibelers book - he could have bee sitting in the same room as me. Nothing ever changes in Amway. And yup your friend wanting coffee to tell you about a business opportunity was probably Amway. They always want to get together over Amway. And yes if they can't just tell you about it over the phone it's probably sleazy or a scam.
DeleteWhen people are in Amway they are all about insulting everyone who isn't in Amway and putting them down and sneering at them and making fun of them. This blog is all about putting the spin on people on Amway and giving them a taste of their own medicine and making them look like a bunch of assholes. If I can make it funny and entertaining people come back to keep reading about people in Scamway looking like a bunch of assholes.
Well, "friend" is a wrong word. We were in the same unit only during the Basic Training until I got transferred to another company. So I hardly remembered who the dude even was. He, on the other hand, talked like were old bosom buddies.
DeleteHe had e.g. developed a sudden, warm interest to my studies, a subject I had only once mentioned to him in passing. Also, he was very nosy about my finances and asked if I wanted lots of money with little effort. The whole thing was so smarmy and off-putting that it practically screamed "scam". I got to admit that if he had lived in the same town I might have agreed to meet. But as it was, there was no way I was going to sit two hours in a bus just to have coffee with the guy, and the same time returning. I think he was going through his "everyone-you-know"-list or something and was grasping at straws.
- JK
Yup he probably had his Amway list of everyone he knows. The upline makes the ambots out together a list of everyone you've ever met in your life. Doesn't matter of you know how to contact them or not. Ambots always want to know about your financial situation so they can make fun of it and tell you Amway is the answer to all your financial woes and you'll make so much money you can make all your dreams come true. The reality is Amway is only the beginning of financial problems for their victims.
DeleteJK.. 2 things...
Delete1) I would bet real dollars (or euros) that the guy you describe was pitching Amway.
2) If you think merchants of deception was disturbing to read-- It's would have been triple disturbing to read, had you ever had the misfortune of having been sponsored into the scam. Thanks for the comments.
Check out this youtube video. Those two little dweebs that inherited the scamway fortune (who would be busboys if it wasn't for their sleazy fathers), are being interviewed. The Devos character looks almost normal, but that Van Andel douch-bag looks like a bloody alien. He must be the ugliest mother fucker ever. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDAsPWpfb1s
DeleteHa ha!
DeleteHi JK,
ReplyDeletenice to see a Finn here :) What a coincidence that we stumbled upon Anna's blog almost at the same time. I completely agree with everything you said. I'm currently trying to read up on Amway (and other MLMs, as they seem to be very similar), because a friend of mine got involved in it and is very dedicated to this apparently lost cause, as are most of her closest family members.
I haven't really found anything specific to Finland concerning Amway - and by that I mean a blog or website such as this one, dedicated to Finnish or at least European branch, with data more specifically relating to this region. Have you? It all seems really blurry and shady, especially for a business that is supposed to be so huge and massively successful.
You can contact me on elina.monkk(at)gmail.com, if you'd have anything to share.
Terveisiä :)
Elina
Hello elina. Im from ireland so a fellow viking. I joined amway 30 years ago after seeing the plan in the usa. I never really thought it a real business and was dubious of the claims particularly as no one would give facts and figures. I went platinum in 9 months but still was not convinced and quit. No regrets. Here is what i think. The products are unsellable. Sponsoring is almost impossible and finally the majority of people quit quickly. So little chance to make money. The tools are a rip off. Useless and organised to get money from new recruits for the high pins. New recruits are convinced to self consume products which they do for a while and then quit. But continuous recruiting means there is a flow of new people. So you will ask how do some make money. A few do. Many diamonds and above claim to make money but i guess they dont as their business collapses quickly. The high pins , the crowns probably do. I think you will find these guys are master leaders and recruiters. Its a rare talent. They can do it, convince people to join and find a few leaders to do likewise. These can build and keep large groups of people self consuming and buying tools. Sone of them now have thousands of people in their groups, the real big ones have several hundreds of thousands in their group. One of them got 90000 people to a rally - imagine the tickets sales. So thats the key to a success. A few can do it. The rest will sponsor a cousin or 2 and soon give up.
DeleteHi Anonymous. Thanks for stopping by with your story. I think your the 3rd former Platinum who has stopped by here to say you're glad you're out of Amway. It's pretty hard to hold onto Ny level in Amway. In my upline were the assholes that thought they were hot shit because one month they got to 1000 PV but never again. Never mind it was unattainable again they'd go around thinking they were better than everyone else.
DeleteOk, I had two hits yesterday at work (I'm a Barn's N Noble employee). I do a part-time shift there and another at Target to complete my one-hundred-sixty hours every month. SO anyway, yesterday during my morning shift at Barn's, while I was stocking "Fiction-Erotica", some couple comes in ans asks about a specific title, which we have. I take them to the section where it's suppose to be and...presto, just as I'm handing them the book, the man thanks me and the woman asks me if I want to earn thousands of dollars a week. The had the wierdest looking eyes, you know the type, tired, glassy, looked like they haven't slept in months! I smiled and wrote some of-my-head cell number on a slip of paper. I handed it to them and told them I would be home after eleven. They assured me they'd call me. They never returned to Barn's and I don't know if they have called, the number I gave them was fake!
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous from B&N. A few years ago Amway must have been inundated with complaints for B&N management abut ambots prospecting in the store and Amway sent out a letter telling ambots not to prospect there. If they come back get their business card and report them to your manager. He can file a complaint with Amway. Or rather have your manager go to someone at your corporate and they'll deal with Amway. Giving ambots a fake number is a good plan except they know where you work!
DeletePart 2 of story!
ReplyDeleteOk, the second incident took place during my evening shift at Target. I do check-out and stock, and while I was performing stock near the pharmacy area, this guy asks for assistance finding a specific brand of vitamins. I go to the section and then directly to the shelve where they're located. He then proceeds to ask my advice regarding brand-name and store-brand. I suggest talking to the pharmacist or pharmacist-technitians. He says "No, I want to know what you think, I believe your opinion is of value as well...I mean, you muct know some stuff as well...you've worked here long enough, right...or you haven't, how long have you been working here? I answered, and then he went on to say "it looks like you're great at what you do...you know what, I would go as far as saying, you would be great at doing everything...anything if you had the chance." By now I was wondering about the MLM thing, he looked less desperate than the couple I encountered during my Barn's shift! He was more at ease with himself, more charismatic. While his demeanor was not impeccable, his attitude was better than the couple's! I, once again, wrote my cell-number on a slip of paper, but this guy also wanted my email! I gave him one that I believe I have lost due to inactivity (I haven't used it for about three years). He smiled and said he would see me soon to talk about my brilliant future over 'COFFEE'! How scary, coffee has now become the new nightmare get-together of the millenia...I'LL STAY CLEAR OF ANYONE INVITING FOR COFFEE AS LONG AS I LIVE!!!!!! =(
Anonymous - if he wasn't with Amway he was probably with another MLM scam. Yup definitely avoid anyone who wants to meet for coffee and discuss a business plan. How come they never want to meet over beer!
Delete