Multi-level marketing: Pyramid Schemes that don’t survive

Money helps struggling people to get by. But it is important to remember that being money-hungry never ends well. There are a variety of ways for people to make money. People can earn money by pursuing a profession, for example, by becoming a doctor, a writer, or a teacher. Self-employment is also common in today’s world. Most self-employed people are either influencers or business owners. But while most business owners make an honest living from selling products or providing services, some operate scams. Multi-level marketing, or pyramid schemes, are a prominent example.

What is multi-level marketing?

Most multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes operate as a pyramid scheme. These schemes involve people trying to sell others a dream of making a lot of money within a short period. The main focus of a pyramid scheme is to make money by recruiting new members. Even after becoming a new member, one would have to pay a fee or sell a product before seeing any income.

Many fail to realize that pyramid schemes only benefit a small number of people. While the people at the top of the pyramid are drowning in money, those near the bottom are swimming in almost little to no money. While most of the “profits” made in a pyramid scheme go to those at the top, those at the bottom – and the newly recruited members – would lose their money.

Do all pyramid schemes survive?

In life, the choices one makes will catch up to them regardless of whether the choices are good or bad. While some can continue to run a pyramid scheme successfully, others have crashed and burned over the years.

A season 15 episode of NBC’s American Greed looks into a pyramid scheme created by Marlon and LaShonda Moore, a reality star couple. Their pyramid scheme, called Blessings In No Time (BINT), was supposed to help African Americans suffering from financial issues because of the pandemic. Recruited members had to pay an upfront fee of $1,400 or $1,425 and would have either $11,000 or $11,400 returned to them in as little as a week for each participant they recruited. But in reality, BINT was only beneficial for some, while others lost their hard-earned cash.

One of the biggest red flags was that the Moores wanted to keep this investment a “secret.” So, BINT members were not allowed to post any BINT-related content on social media. If they did, they would lose their promised funds. As a result, they could only recruit new members by spreading the word. When the recruitment began to dry up, the Moores had members pay an $80 monthly fee to help keep the scheme running. The couple scammed many people within Black communities across the United States out of “tens of millions of dollars.” 

On June 15, 2021, the Moores’ actions caught up to them. They were facing civil charges and a lawsuit. Currently, the Moores are awaiting trials for 12 civil counts. They are claiming they did not receive millions of dollars from BINT, according to FTC (Federal Trade Commission).

What happened to the Moores can very well happen to anyone who choses to create a pyramid scheme. Sooner or later, all pyramid schemes crash. Not all money is good money. Pyramid schemes may provide people with large sums of cash in an instant, but they are never beneficial in the long run.

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