Late one night, I was very stressed and worried for my mother who had been very sick and had just gone to the hospital that day. I was just told she was going to be having surgery in the morning and I couldn’t think of anything else. I was wound so tight I felt like I would break. I knew I needed to get my mind off of what my happen to her — at least for a little while — but I tried reading the book I had at the time and couldn’t get into it, so I decided to read some blogs about other people’s experiences instead.
That’s when I stumbled on one about a woman’s first date in a long time that went badly. It was funny and very relatable. It got my mind off of what was going on in my life which I appreciated so I decided to read another one by the same lady about what was going on with the whole Kavanaugh situation. I liked what the woman wrote a lot. She didn’t say her politics exactly which was probably wise but what she did say I liked and agreed with and that’s sort of rare for me to find two blogs from the same person I really like. So I checked out her bio, thought she was a pretty cool Christian lady and decided to follow her.
A “Blog Opportunity”
Weeks passed and things in my life got a lot better. My mom had come out of surgery okay and recovered quickly which was a HUGE blessing and I had continued to read the woman’s blogs as they appeared on my email. One day, the woman posted that she worked online with this business that sponsored her blog and that it had done great things for her and her family and friends that were involved. She said she would mentor five people for a limited time only on how to get into this profitable business where you could work from home.
I had been searching out work from home options so I was very excited by this possible opportunity and messaged her by email. I told her who I was and how I’d seen how successful she was on her blog and even told her about how much I liked some of the blogs she’d written. She answered me back quickly thanking me for my kind words and excitedly told me about the “opportunity” she’d mentioned in her blog. She told me again about how great it had been for various people in her family, how it had changed their finances and how it was great because they could work from home. She also said a few times that they were “distributors” so I got the impression they sold stuff from home. Not exactly what I’d had in mind but I was still curious.
Nu Skin and How It Operated
She told me about the multi-billion dollar company: Nu Skin, how it was very well-organized and operated with a great reputation — all good stuff. She said it was done almost entirely on social media which made it a lot of fun and that you could do it whenever and flexibly on your schedule. All of it sounded like a freelancer’s dream. I was interested and I felt better by how she ended the email saying: ‘normally I’m super skeptical about this stuff but it has truly changed my family’s life and my own.’ Then she told me to let her know if I was still interested because she’d walk me through it and sweetly ended her email with lots of exclamations and ‘thanks so much’. I’m a sucker for nice people and she certainly seemed like a great gal so I felt like I could trust her.
I replied back to her saying that, normally I’m skeptical about this stuff too but that I was interested and I asked my first questions like: did it matter how much experience I had because I was still a teen and also where do I start?
Because of what I asked she thought I was under 18 and responded back to me a bit later saying that she checked with her boss and I couldn’t work for her company until I was older. She seemed genuinely disappointed and even offered to give me some blogging guidance whenever I needed it until I was old enough to join her company. I felt bad for confusing her and quickly told her I was over 18 but I didn’t have much experience and if it was okay with her employer that I lacked some know-how, I might be able to work in her company still.
She then responded excitedly saying that if I had any questions she’d be happy to answer them for me and gave me a link to sign up for the NuSkin company. She also gave me her Facebook name and told me I could friend her on there and she could lead me to the groups and videos I’d need. She seemed genuinely excited she’d be working with me and was very helpful.
Multi-Level-Marketing
It took me awhile to respond to her last email with the instructions. I’d followed the link she’d sent me and got a little worried about it. I’d only looked at it a little but I could already see that I would be asked a lot of personal questions. I answered her back saying that I would make a Facebook after I signed up if needed and thanked her for being patient, (I don’t have a Facebook. I was never really interested in getting one) then I told her I’d email her again after I signed up on the link she’d sent.
Regardless of how nice the woman was or how lightly the two of us had been talking to each other, I was beginning to get nervous. I talked to my mom about it (who is very good at sniffing out a scam) and she told me it sounded like a pyramid scheme. As soon as she said it, I realized it did. She told me I should follow the link but if they asked me for money or my social security number I should watch out. So I did. I followed it and gave them my full name, b-day and all that jazz but then I got to a part of it where it explained how I’d start and asked for my social security number.
The site explained that I’d start buying a chunk of their products first and then I’d get started learning how to sell them. I felt like this was their way of saying, “We have a job for you, but give us money first.”
Back up! First of all guys, a job is suppose to pay you for working for them, if an employer asks you for money first, you know it’s a scam and not to be trusted.
A Scam?
So that worried me. I stopped at my social security number and thought of an idea. I’d run into a scam of sorts before with the IAPWE and the best way for me to find out if they were legit or not was to type in their name next to the word scam. So I did this and a whole lot of Nu Skin Scam links popped up. I only had to read a few before I was certain it was a pyramid scheme that the woman was trying to get me to join. The company had a pretty bad rep — like seriously. There were so many complaints against them I was overwhelmed. While many said their products weren’t altogether bad, I read enough about Nu Skin being a blood-sucking MLM for me to no longer be interested. Believe me, I was relieved I didn’t give them anymore info or fall into their trap to steal my money.
I never answered the last email the woman sent me and I stopped following her blog. Often I wonder if she legitimately thought the company she worked for was great for people or if she knew she it was a scam but then I thought that Nu Skin sponsored her blog so I’m sure it was profitable for her. I’m very convinced though it would’ve been a bad mistake for me and she probably didn’t care that it would be. But I learned my lesson: stay away from MLMs or pyramid schemes and beware of nice internet people that act like your friend.
Cleanbooks 