I’m 25 college graduate and I’ve had a couple experiences with so called ‘pyramid schemes’ or marketing tactics. I’m a very business oriented person, often doing side jobs to make money rather the traditional hourly wage. It’s helped me develop a business mindset so I’m always looking for business opportunities. From being presented with selling knives to old friends trying to rekindle by recruiting me, I have some idea of the scheme.
Fast forward a few years, I avoided many of these scams but being a graduate is a huge thing for them. I’m doing a DoorDash delivery to this nicer house, a younger guy comes out and greets me nicely. We have a bit of a small convo about my job. He explains some seminar inside the home. He was an older alumni from my college so it made me trust him more.
I got his number and we scheduled a zoom call. He’s like “I will try and get you in”, “we’re very selective”,”you seem like a good fit let me consult with my partners”. The whole time he’s making it seem like a golden opportunity that he’s willing to help me get involved in. He talks about all these guys who retired in their 30’s and says I can too if I work hard. But he assures me that he first has to decide if I’m a good fit. He explains how having a mentor is great and assured me that it was free. That were all owners and there’s no hierarchy.
The thing that caught me off guard was that he recommended a great book to read before I met him next. I was a bit hesitant but I checked it out. This book was extremely helpful and relatable to my own life. It is called the 12 Pillars by Jim Rohn and I highly recommend it as it focuses on self improvement and finance. It made me throw out any worries about a scam, as i thought why would he recommend great wisdom without me even being involved yet. It made me think he cared more about my personal development than the business. Maybe this was another tactic but at least I get to walk away with something positive from this.
I met him at Starbucks today in a polo and he pulls out the PowerPoint. Basically what he’s said is he’ll recruit me, mentor me for free. But then today he said I had to pay some $200 fee once I wanted to begin sales for the website. Then he said I would be selling Amway products to friends and families. That caught me off guard as I knew of Amway from the first scheme I was introduced to.
The more he goes on the more I feel like an idiot for trusting him. He explains that he will earn a percent off the sales I receive and if I recruit people. Then the other guys earn a percentage off him. But he says I can’t mentor people since I’m new so he would have to instead. He assures me the more I sell, the more I keep for myself. But no matter what, he would make 5% from me for life on the sales.
Funny thing, he says he must own multiple businesses to do this. He can’t just ride on my profits or it would be illegal and a ‘pyramid scheme’ he explained. Feels weird that he would need to clarify that, I never brought it up. As the meeting ends, he goes ‘I can try and pull some strings to get you into the meeting tomorrow night. It’s not a guarantee’.
Evidently he texts me an hour later saying he can get me in. The meeting is at the nice house that I met him. I just don’t know how to respond. I trusted this guy and now I’m bummed that it may be a scam. I literally can’t tell but I feel like he’s using psychology against me. Telling me how he’s doing me a solid, how he sees potential in me, how we went to the same college. What do I do?
Submitted August 23, 2021 at 08:51PM by ice_jj https://ift.tt/3gtKryF
