Readers might remember that I awarded the first annual wine house trophy to Amy Robinson, blogger over at directselling411.com. Amy is basically the online mouthpiece for the Direct Selling Association. Amy touts the DSA's Code of Ethics as being the holy grail of membership that all DSA member companies must subscribe to and abide by. All well and good you might say. Member companies are forbade from making exaggerated income claims to prospective distributors, but obviously this requirement does not apply to marketing efforts made by the likes of Crazy Fox who have recently run commercials on national media. Surely readers have seen this red cartoon fox on their TV sets making "crazy as a fox" income claims for an undisclosed work at home opportunity. Let me suggest that these commercials violate the DSA's code of ethics for their making exaggerated and unsubstantiated income claims.
Crazy fox directs interested people to log onto their web site. This is a sophisticated approach to the curiosity invite whereby interested people are asked to submit contact information: name, address, email, telephone number; the whole contact list monte! Okay, a visitor to the site provides the details and then clicks. Immediately a second page pops onto the screen which is similar to the first page; it extols all the thousands of dollars in money that can be made in a relatively short period of time, from a week to a month, working at home. It asks visitors to send for a "free" information packaged by paying a shipping and handling fee of about $10. Hmmmm?
I don't know about you, but that fee put me "off my feed"! Well, just like similar phishing schemes, the visitor has had his/her contact information basically ripped off. What can a person expect who has fallen for this "crazy fox scam"? Well, you can expect to have your email bombarded by spam. Okay, you say, I've seen enough of this crazy fox, and block the emails. You are not going to escape these marketers that easily. What's next? Yes, the phone will ring probably within one or two days and guess who is going to be on the other end? Yes, a Herbalife distributor offering the golden opportunity of MLM riches distributing Herbalife products and your chance to also recruit Herbalife distributors. Yes, Crazy Fox is a prospecting system for Herbalife, the MLM health products pyramid scheme which operates much like the Amway product pyramid scheme. Crazy Fox is merely a front for Herbalife, a company in good standing with the Direct Selling Association, which I now must question and criticize.
Seems that the DSA makes a big deal about all of its members following their Code of Ethics which specifically prohibits member companies from making unrealistic income claims. Seems like Herbalife has discovered an ingenious way to get around these code provisions and is thereby prospecting unwary dupes using this crazy fox scheme, which also "sells" this supposedly free ($10) bullcrap information package, another con of gullible TV viewers who fire up their computer and log onto crazyfox.
Herbalife may technically claim that it has not abused the income claims section of the DSA code of ethics, but basically recruits people who have been exposed to the Crazy Fox cartoon exaggerations. I have to ask Amy Robinson, "Doesn't this present an obvious disregard for the DSA and make a farce of the code of ethics that you constantly pander as being the final word in protecting consumers from being exposed to exaggerated income claims?"
Herbalife is just another example of a DSA company that Amy Robinson has in her basket of MLM DSA companies who use questionable income claims to sell their con MLM opportunities onto people desperate enough to believe them.
Amway, as I have described their recruitment tactics also use a second party approach to make their own incredible income claims--their band of renegade distributors. Of course Amway, like on Mission Impossible, disovowels any involvement in these claims to stay in compliance with Amway rules. Anyone familiar with how these MLM con men roll will immediately recognize that these folks take it upon themselves to make these misrepresentations regardless of what the fine print, the company, or the DSA says is permissible. Prospects get duped one way or another regardless of what minor details like the RULES say!!!
Amway Global Cult Intervention has pointed out consistently how the DSA attempts to put lipstick on their MLM pigs and marry them off to unsuspecting people who believe all their "hogwash"! The Direct Selling Association has supported the continuing exploitation of youth who are victimized by traveling sales operations and represent the likes of Herbalife, Amway Global, YourTravelBiz, Mary Kay, Kirby, Southwestern Company, Usana and many other very questionable companies they falsely proclaim are operating under the highest of ethical considerations. I find this to be totally false, and that the DSA itself is just as unscrupulous as the companies they permit to do business under their good housekeeping seal of approval. Beware the DSA and absolutely trust not a thing they say or a company that they represent! Amy, keep up the good work, you just may win the wine house trophy again next year!
1 comment:
OK so here is the deal, when you say Herbalife Distributor, I'm quite sure you should be saying Independent Distributor. I am an independent distributor and have no access to any such potential prospects. As an Ind. Dist. I could pretty much do what I wanted until of course I was caught.So lets get that clear right here. It is not Herbalife. It is an independent distributor probably not following the rules. That would be why the DSA is not penalizing Herbalife. I wish you all would use your heads. If my local 711 was cutting corners in an unethical way I would report them to 711's corporate as I would realize they are not necessarily one and the same. An Herbalife Independent Distributor has less of an association to Herbalife than a franchise of 711 has to the corporate offices. Yes the law would sometimes look at these and inflict punishments but this is case by case and mainly if corporate had knowledge and allowed it to continue which is unlikely in the case of Herbalife because it is a lot easier to shut down a distributor than suffer legal consequences. This blatant lack of common sense is exactly why your soon going to find yourself without any freedoms at all I guarantee you would love to see the gov shut Herbalife down over this one issue. Why not just contact the corporate office who will investigate and confirm if there is any wrong doing and be done with it. Herbalife is over 30 years old for crying out loud! A pyramid scheme? I think not. Y'all throw around pyramid scheme like you know what it means. Is this comment going to be approved? probably not but thats ok because I wanted to get the word out to you the poster anyhow.
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