People Are Sharing The Ways They Were Tricked Into Joining MLMs, And I Honestly Feel So Bad For Them

I recently asked the BuzzFeed Community to share their experiences with MLMs, aka multilevel marketing companies...and let me just say, I feel so sad for anyone who's been tricked into joining one. MLMs are essentially the legal version of a pyramid scheme, require exorbitant upfront costs to join, and depend on "recruitment" to profit. The worst part is that MLMs often prey on people in vulnerable financial situations.

Here are some of the stories from people who were tricked, or almost tricked, into an MLM scam:

1."I was a new immigrant and desperate for a job. I did not know about MLMs and wanted to do something myself. I paid money to work because the presentation showed a luxurious lifestyle (being able to own a house and a good car) and another girl with me realized what it was and told me about it when we were exiting our 'interview.' I began bawling. She saved me. I emailed the 'recruiter' and he said, 'Here's part of your money back.' I am really grateful for that girl."

—mangocheesecakw

2."I wanted to leave my husband, but I was eight months pregnant with no job and a toddler. I was told I would be able to focus and work while the baby slept and be able to save up some money to start a new life. I desperately wanted to get out of my situation and have my own income and life. I charged the cheapest starter kit, and later had to work with a debt relief company to lower the costs accumulated on that card from buying the mandatory $300 of products once a month. Obviously, it didn’t work out. I had no regular clients and no one 'under' me. I was just told I wasn’t trying hard enough."

3."I went to a jewelry party that my aunt had hosted (she wasn't in the MLM but had a friend that 'encouraged' her to have a party). The MLM lady was handing out these 'lotto ticket' cards that you'd scratch off to win a necklace, earrings, etc. I was the 'lucky winner' (according to the MLM-er). My prize was that I was invited into the MLM as a new sales person! She gave me a whole packet of what the company was about, sales pitches to use, commissions, and told me to get started. I blocked her number that next day and never looked back!"

—thegassygoose

4."I cringe so much thinking about my time with an MLM. I was a single mom and just trying to provide for my toddler. I was so ignorant about MLMs and their predatory tactics. I was intrigued by the shiny bonuses being offered at the time. Everybody in my upline encouraged bonus buying, aka buying product personally to promote to a new rank. I stupidly did so, and spent over $2,000 to earn a $10,000 bonus that I lost in my first month after losing rank. Of course, they don't tell advertise that the bonuses are VERY unlikely to ever be paid because most people are like me and couldn't maintain. I would never ever ever recommend an MLM, unless for some reason you want to lose money."

5."A former boss's son was part of an MLM. My boss invited me and paid for my ticket to be there for the 'workshop of champions.' Basically, it was some self-help BS that just wanted to steal money from the unsuspecting. They did an exercise where they had people get up and run across the room to let their fears down. A woman was embarrassed and didn’t want to do it, but the rep peer pressured her AND convinced the lady to spill her darkest secret (very serious debt!)"

"At the end, they had Christian books for sale to make them seem more legit...because why would Christians steal your money 😂? They wanted me to sign up for more classes. I said no. I did get a very valuable lesson out of the first one though: Not all Christians are going to heaven."

—autumnlee616

6."I got recruited by one of those door-to-door companies. As a naive 18-year-old high school senior, I was so pumped to have a job where I sold…knives. Yes, knives!! I would show people how the knives were able to slice through rope! A whole pineapple! A leather belt! It was very theatrical. It was 95% commission with a $7 base pay and no scheduled hours. You’d get seven bucks here and seven bucks there. For someone who didn’t actually have any family or friends who could commit to that kind of financial investment (because the knife sets were thousands of dollars), $7 was all I ever made. My poor high school self was so proud of having a job without recognizing it was so sketchy."

7."I’ve had several friends become 'merchandisers' for a handful of MLMs. Everyone lost a bunch of money and burned a lot of bridges by constantly trying to recruit. One almost got me, but while I was thinking about it, my 'friend' was so up my ass and pressuring me about making the decision that it was a total turn off and I passed."

—Anonymous

8."Every time I think about my time as part of an MLM, I cringe. Back in 2015, at the start of the MLM craze, an old childhood friend reached out to me with one of the typical, 'Hey hun!' messages, telling me about how much she missed our friendship and thought I would be a great person to join her 'team' aka MLM. This friend completely preyed on my insecurities and manipulated me into joining her as a consultant rather than just a customer."

9."I had just started working a new job and one of my trainers seriously tried to get me to join an MLM by making all these extreme promises and having all these tales of lavish adventures. He was hustling this MLM on me and other coworkers DURING COMPANY TIME! It honestly felt a bit too skeevy and too good to be true so I thankfully didn't join but I saw others join. The fact that someone in authority over me would use that to try to sell me their side business is just horrible."

—Anonymous

10."I have dodged the MLM bullet — narrowly — a few times. Back in 2009, in the middle of the economic downturn, my best friends introduced me to a bag company. I loved all the options and the fact that personalizing the bags was free. I went to a party, heard the pitch, and signed up because the $100 buy-in included four bags that I wanted anyway. I came home and told my husband about this 'awesome company that I could make money with' and he was like, 'That's a pyramid scheme!' My husband was right. I fell for it."

11."In the mid-2010s, I knew a ton of people who were in MLM companies. One person very clearly understood that it was a pyramid scheme, stopped selling the product, and continued to bring in a bunch of money because of all the people she had recruited. Most of the others seemed completely oblivious to it."

—robert_dunder

12."A former coworker told me she wanted someone to 'practice' pitches on but that was a lie and I ended up at a real sales party with others. She basically made me buy something. I know I should've said no. I don't even speak to her anymore."

13."I was fresh out of high school and already living on my own. The awfulness of MLMs wasn't as widely known yet. I had to pay for an initial set of knives to sell, but thankfully I earned that money back plus some. The end of my 'career' was when I ran out of family members to sell knife sets to."

—meaganhibbert1

14."It was a very large insurance and investment company. I was being heavily recruited by a friend. I went to a few meetings and thought, 'Whoa! Cult vibes!' So, I noped!"

15."It happened to my boyfriend and I! We both are heavily involved in the fashion industry and a connection offered us both an opportunity to be 'custom menswear stylists' for what turned out to be an MLM that sells made-to-measure men’s suits and casual clothing. His connection showed us the fabric swatches, styling books and catalogs, and walked us through her day-to-day which sounded appealing. I have a degree in fashion design and knew that the fabric quality was very nice and the 'brand' was reputable. After paying $500 each for the onboarding package and going through weeks of video training, we both started to run into problems."

"The first problem was that we didn’t have a network of people who could realistically afford $1000 suits. We both struggled finding clients. In order to complete the initial training you had to sell one outfit to a client. I ended up buying my boyfriend a cotton button-down shirt and corduroy pants for around $400 to finish the training. At this stage, he realized that this wasn’t for him and did not complete his training. So, now we’re collectively $1400 in the hole and can’t get any clients. Our mentor was calling me every week to check in to see if I had any clients set up. Within a few weeks of completing the training she started encouraging me to recruit the people I worked with to join the company as well. This was all happening in January 2020. Come March, I ultimately had to leave the MLM because there was no way I could establish any type of clients while quarantining during COVID. I politely told my mentor that I would be stepping back. A few months later, she called me and asked me to consider joining again. Since I had stopped previously, I would have to purchase the $500 package and complete the training again. I declined and hadn’t heard from her again until a few months ago...when she tried to recruit me once again."

—Anonymous

16."A buddy I used to know joined in college. He was selling some terrible Gatorade knockoff and kept trying to get me to come to a meeting. We were friends and I got tired of him asking, so I finally went. If I didn't already think this was an MLM, that meeting solidified it. After the meeting, I got tired of his shit and I yelled at him for joining an obvious MLM. We aren't friends anymore."

17.And finally, "I was unemployed for a few months. I sent an application a for position in 'public relations' and a few days later I was invited for an interview. During the interview, they explained that we would work with big companies as clients, help them increase their sales, and would be at the office for many hours of the day. Two days later, I received a call for a second interview. As soon as I walked in, the director told me that it was my first day at work. I was not expecting this because they said it was a second interview."

"They told me to sell things door to door — which was not mentioned in the interview. I am very shy as a person and this stressed me but I needed the money so I decided to do it for a few weeks to help myself become more confident. They were constantly trying to make us believe that by doing more sales and being scammers to people, we would eventually become rich, have others working for us, and receive a salary without doing anything. It was clear by then that if I wasn't making any sales that I wouldn't get paid by the end of the month. Two weeks later and two sales later, I resigned...and I never got paid for the two sales I made. I also spent tons of money on gas for driving around to do their sales. The worst part was when I handed in my resignation, they tried to gaslight me again into thinking that I lost the opportunity of a lifetime. Never again!"

—Anonymous

Do you have a personal story like any of these? Sharing your experience could help others avoid a similar fate. Let us know if you've ever been affected by MLMs in the comments below.