|
|
报告中的第一部分转载:
Who Profits from Multi-Level Marketing*? Preparers of Utah Tax Returns Have the Answer.
1. Summary of what was learned from these studies
Are MLM’s* (multi-level marketing or network marketing companies) legitimate? Or are they thinly disguised pyramid schemes that enrich a few at the top of a pyramid – at the expense of a multitude of unwitting downline victims? If the latter, then consumers, the press, consumer protection agencies, and investors (for publicly traded MLM companies) have been duped into accepting it as legal and ethical, when in fact it is not.
Who, if anyone, is making money in Amway/Quixtar, Nu Skin, Usana, and a myriad of other MLM programs? Until recently, there were few solid numbers to back up claims, pro or con. Previous attempts to get MLM companies to release valid data have been met with avoidance<sup>1</sup>, and data they have provided is often misleading<sup>2</sup>. But there is one group of experts that knows who is actually reporting profits—CPA’s and other preparers of tax returns.
We performed a telephone survey of over 200 tax preparers in Idaho and Utah, a hotbed of MLM activity. We also did a randomized survey of households in Utah County, which has the highest concentration of MLM companies in the country. The findings led to the following conclusions:
1. Direct sales to consumers by MLM "distributors" (in quotes because they are primarily buyers, not distributors**) are extremely rare, even in Utah County. Almost all MLM’s are not direct sales companies, in spite of what they claim. Instead, most sales are to recruits who are led to believe that the MLM is a "business opportunity" and that aggressive recruiting and ongoing purchases of products will qualify them for ascending levels of commission payouts.
2. Most recruiting for Utah MLM’s is done outside Utah, presumably because de facto market saturation in Utah has stiffened resistance to buying into the MLM’s. So MLM promoters go to other states, and then from one foreign country to another to keep the scheme going. Or they sometimes start new product divisions to cycle the pyramid anew. MLM’s like Nu Skin and Usana become, in effect, Ponzi schemes, by recruiting new investors in their schemes to pay off earlier investors. About 99.9% lose money.
3. Commissions paid by the company to "distributors" are not enough to cover their expenses, so almost all lose money, with the rare exception of those at the top of a hierarchy of "distributors." We’ll call them"TOPP’s"<sup> </sup>for "top of the pyramid<sup> </sup>promoters." This occurs because MLM compensation plans leverage the efforts and investments of recruits so that large commission checks go only to TOPP’s. However, based on extensive analysis of available public documents, about 99.9% of total participants (those beneath the TOPP’s in the overall pyramid of participants) lose money. A sizable number of the few TOPP’s who do profit live in Utah County.
4. In counties where no MLM’s are based and where few upscale residences are located, no participants in MLM programs reported significant profits over any significant period of time to preparers of tax returns. Many of these preparers have noticed this and view MLM’s as scams – because in a legitimate business at least a reasonable percentage who work in the business would show a profit.
5. Prospects are led to believe that they can earn a substantial full or part-time income and gain "time freedom" by investing in the program in the form of ongoing product purchases. The total of these purchases constitute disguised or laundered investments in a product-based pyramid scheme.
6. The combination of nutritional supplements with MLM as the vehicle for marketing them creates a double whammy of opportunities to defraud consumers. Consumers (at least in Utah) are not well protected by law enforcement against "recruiting MLM’s" and are further left vulnerable to exploitation in the sale of nutritional supplements by liberalization of legislation affecting such products.
7. The MLM corporations which are publicly held are misrepresenting their core business when they claim to be selling direct to consumers, when in fact they are selling primarily to "distributors" – on false pretenses of being a profitable "business opportunity." |
|
发表于 2005-5-10 13:35
转发
收藏
转播
分享
淘帖
支持
反对
提升卡
关闭主题卡
开启主题卡
楼主
1.8万名非法居民被强行遣返印度！加拿大网
加国宜家超5百件商品降价！今年买更便宜机
兴旺超市本周特价
世纪超市本周特价