Yeh my dumbass mate has got himself involved with this 'business' called Amway. Did some internet scrolling and seems like a major scam / cult. He's already put in 100 dollars obviously I am trying to get him out but cognitive dissonance has set in.

Anyone else got input on this "Amway" company? Why has it survived so long legally when it is (seemingly) so obviously a pyramid scheme?

Amway buys back your inventory if you can't sell it. It's not a pyramid scheme. There is no risk involved. It's fine.

Rather than trying to convince him through argument, agree to let him sign you up (without actually spending any money) and seem really worried/skeptical. If you plant the seed of doubt that way, when your friend isn't making the millions over night that he was promised, he'll back away. Or he'll prove to be brilliant at it, and in that case, who cares?

hahahahaha

scam/cult

hahahaha!

STRAWMAN

How did it turn out?

Yer he's still doing it... The pyramid scheme part isn't in the buying and selling of products, its all the motivational shit. Apparently the majority of their income doesn't come from these products but from the selling of all this motivational shit. All these 'get rich' techniques. He has already paid $100 for a CD...

And basically he is being asked to recruit 10 ppl... and then they all recruit 10 people and then he gets a % of their profits. And I was like... "DUDE - THATS EXACTLY WHAT A PYRAMID SCHEME IS!"

Amway has run into legal trouble before and has been shut down in a couple countries... I think China and Netherlands? Can't remember. But it must just be 'legal' enough to get away with it in the Western world. Here are some links I have been reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amway#Pyramid_scheme_accusations
http://www.cocs.com/jhoagland/amcult.html
http://www.rickross.com/reference/amway/amway52.html
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060915154236AAe7XaX
http://lukehimself.net/?p=135

There are many links for and against Amway being a pyramid scheme, I'm not sure which are to trust. But just looking at pure statistics only a very small margin of people in Amway actually make a profit, so I think he is just wasting his time. But whatever, it is his time to waste. I don't think it is AS full-out scammy as I initially thought though.