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What Is MLM Fraud?: Discovering The Truth Behind MLMPart 1: Perception And BiasWho’s Reading This?There are many kinds of people interested in MLM fraud. The first thingpeople generally look for is the examples, they want to know if X company is ascam. Unfortunately these people usually do not know how to define a scam, Theyalso do not know who to listen to. They tend to operate on assumption, here say,and third party with “credibility”. Although a portion of the time this may causesomeone to avoid being scammed strictly by chance, they are also passing up a lotof potential income. A smaller amount of people will go into the common qualitiesthat all companies accused of MLM fraud have in common. This way they will have abetter idea of what to look for so that they can identify a guilty party. Whilethis is a step in the right direction this group of people may not always know howto determine whether they should listen to the information they are taking in. Astill smaller group of people will look at the situation from many perspectivesand evaluate how valuable certain information is.Regardless of where you are I hope to educate you to move you closer to thefinal group, not so that you may believe what I believe, but rather so you arecapable of making your own decisions. As the saying goes “give a man fish andhe’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”. Thereare many valuable aspects to each stage and I will be reflecting on them later inthis series of articles but for now I will be building from the ground up startingwith the most essential stage. While this series is focused on multi levelmarketing, the principles can be applied to any subject.A Vital Question: How Valuable Is This Information?Have you heard claims about multi level marketing before? Whether good orbad, you need to know how to interpret that information. The internet is like anyother medium, it is completely neutral. The content of an internet page is nodifferent than me saying something out loud. I can say anything I want, whetherthat is true or false.How do you assess whether the information your hearing is valid andvaluable? Something being valid refers to facts, “are the facts I am hearingtrue?, Can that be Proven?”. Something being valuable refers to an opinion. “Whyshould I take this into consideration?, What makes this persons view of value tome?”. Unfortunately people can easily confuse facts with opinions and often findit difficult when deciding who has information of value to them. If you arelooking for the truth behind MLM the first point is you must learn how to evaluateinformation and determine if it is of value to you.An ExampleHow often do you consider whether what you are reading is fact or opinion?In this article I would like to examine a few statements I snatched from anarticle that was the first result on the first page of a Google search. Oftenpeople may assume that a first result on Google can mean something in terms ofvalidity, credibility, or objectivity. Hopefully I can dispel that today. Usingthe methods I talk about here today you will find it easier to decipher theunderlying spin in the writing.So I went to Google and typed in “MLM fraud”. I’m going to pull some quotes

from the first result. Let me insert a small note about why I’ve removed the nameof this website. I’m not here to discredit authors or to pick out negativearticles about MLM and pick out all the gaps. Not only would that be a full timejob but that’s not my intention. Remember my goal here in this article is toeducate you on how to recognize when information is and isn‘t valuable. Obviouslytyping in this phrase “MLM fraud” I was well aware I would get some results likethis. I’m more here to point out the bias/spin rather than the relevance. Whenvisiting the site these is the very first things that I read;“The Skeptical Guide to Multilevel Marketing”“Accurate information about multilevel marketing is not easy to get. Fewpublishers, editors, and broadcasters are willing to examine this topic in depth.Most reports reaching the public express what the companies and individualdistributors would like people to believe. Nearly all MLM companies sellinghealth-related products exaggerate their value, and the vast majority of peoplewho become distributors do not make significant income.” Lets Define skepticismNotice the way people use the word skeptical when in most cases they shoulduse cynical. I don’t think there is anything wrong with skepticism, it can be avery healthy characteristic. However, healthy skepticism is followed by properexamination of BOTH sides of an issue. Healthy skepticism takes into account thesource of the information, and the quality of that source. Cynicism, on the handoperates more on assumption without any in depth study to both sides of an issue.A past experience or intake of knowledge skews their perspective and colors anyexperience they have from then on. In my mind the defining characteristic is thatskeptics are looking for information with which to assess their current positionobjectively and cynics are looking for confirmation or information with which tosqueeze into their pre determined stance. When I see things like I saw in thisarticle I think of a young child pushing play-doh through a cut out of a shape.They take what they have and they always get what they were looking for. TheSecond point to discovering the truth behind MLM is you have to remember to lookfor information, facts, and check your expectations at the door.Deception: Lying without LyingI have always told people that there is a subtle factor you have to watchout for that is changing the way you take in information. The example I use is thenews. The news reports facts, right? Well what most people do not take into isthat by excluding certain information you can paint an entirely different story.Are the stories reported still true? Absolutely. But this is what I like to callthe phenomenon of “lying without lying” which is basically telling the truth in adeceptive manner. Here’s a good example an underage kid drinks a soda with hislunch-fact 1. The kid later goes out drinking and gets pulled over by a cop - fact2. The cop asks “have you been drinking tonight?” The kid in reply states“innocently” “ umm… I had a soda earlier” In reality the kid is telling the truth,and he isn’t. This kind of deception is subtle and isn’t always a consciouseffort. For example lets have a run down the categories on this website offers-Warnings About Pyramid Schemes, Chain Letters, and Other Questionable Plans,Government Enforcement Actions, Legal Issues, Victim Reports, InvestigativeReports, Dishonest Promotion, and my favorite Sites operated by MLM critics. Ohyeah sounds like fair and balanced to me…I’m not just trying to pick apart this authors verbiage or to focus onsemantics. People especially authors use words for a reason. Being “skeptical”seems to have an underlying implication that the person is astute or diligent in

their study. Authors use specific words because they mean something that willbenefit them in getting their message across effectively, not because it’snecessarily true, appropriate, or relevant to the topic you are reading. Forexample the author doesn’t hesitate to include on the very top of this page thathe is a MD, how relevant? An authority on a subject is certainly valuable but theauthority must be relevant to the topic and what you are looking to accomplish.Let’s say you want to become a great football player, You don’t ask your grandmafor advice, do you? So I’m not here to determine whether these things wereintentional or not, the effect on the reader is the same. The third point todiscovering the truth behind MLM is to watch out for deception. Pay attention towhat’s not being presented as well as what is.A Note About Irrelevant “Evidence”“Most reports reaching the public express what the companies and individualdistributors would like people to believe.” The reason this is written this way is some would read this and think “ohno, are these companies trying to trick people?” Well looking at this website Ithought “ Isn’t that what this website is?” This website or any website is mostoften built on what the author wants you to think. The author of this particularpage wants you to have a negative opinion on multi level marketing, does he not?That’s not a bad thing if the author knows that is the case. But more often theythink that they are reporting the “facts” or as the author in this case put it“accurate information” . As you can see often people will tout something asevidence to support their point when it’s really just an irrelevant informationthat applies to every situation.“the vast majority of people who become distributors do not make significantincome.”True… Now what’s your point? This again is another sample of irrelevantevidence. This quote is here to lead you to the assumption that there is meaningbehind that. The success of anyone in a legitimate MLM company is based on theirperformance. You do nothing, you get nothing. And to be honest the great majorityof those in MLM do not treat it seriously. Will there always be more unsuccessfulpeople than successful in any arena?, only until more people perform to thestandards of success in that arena. I could just as easily say “the vast majorityof people who play baseball do not end up in the major leagues” Does that meananything about baseball or about you becoming a successful baseball player?Certainly not. People who have played baseball may have quit or they just may havenot performed to a standard. In this case you must perform to a certain standardto be accepted into the major leagues. People who do not are not being scammed,they just didn’t perform to the standard. This stands true in real estate,insurance, and in any industry where the standard of success is based onperformance.The forth point to discovering the truth behind MLM is to pay close attention tofigures that are irrelevant (they apply to all situations) and apples to orangescomparisons.The Truth Behind The NegativityLet’s talk a little about the idea of source credibility. What percentage ofnegative articles on any topic are written by people successful in that avenue? Iwould venture to say none. Can you imagine tiger woods taking his time writingarticles, and creating websites to discredit the golf industry? Doesn’t make a lotof sense, does it? Often these people will write an article or create a website to

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A complete guide to understanding mlm fraud. Inside you will learn how to spot mlm fraud ,what it is, what it's not, and ultimately you'll discover the truth behind mlm.

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Category:	Business/Law > Marketing
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Upload Date:	01/28/2009
Copyright:	Attribution Non-commercial
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