So my dad(M69) is typically wise in a financial sense. He recently started dating his highschool sweetheart (F68) who used to work in stocks and has had many ups and downs in her life. I'm guessing she's maybe reconnected with my pops because she's financially destitute. Idk.
She sells insurance online. She hasn't been doing well. Apparently, you buy "leads" the company sells to you and make the calls/sales in your own time. You make most of whatever the insurance sale is (sounds sketchy). She takes my dad to a convention center (tickets were $200 a pop) where the company gave lessons on how to become effective salesmen. My dad was convinced by the end of it. There were stories of people making 40+grand a month, and stories of people sitting on their asses at home and doing nothing with their leads.
Does this scam sound familiar? Is there a certain name for it? Does anyone know the "company" behind this?
My dad is free to spend his life's earnings on whatever, but I'd be pissed if they went down the drain supporting some dumb scam
15 comments
Every single MLM ever.
If you have to pay your company to learn how to sell their product, it is a scam. This is some sort of pyramid scheme or other such stuff. People only make money by recruiting others.
You could take a look at r/MLM to see if it is listed. Explain to your dad what’s going on, especially if you find this company listed.
What’s the name of it ?
You have to get the Glengarry leads. Those are the best ones.
How much are these “leads”? If they’re inexpensive let him try a batch and then he’s out $200 and the cost of the leads.
Sounds like one of [these](https://www.reddit.com/r/BoomersBeingFools/comments/1dn07m8/a_boomer_tried_to_sell_me_on_an_options_trading/). Dig into what the company is called and scour the internet, it’s absolutely a scam. He can buy his own options if he wants to play with his money.
I’m not in sales. This sounds like they want your 200 bucks lol I remember a buddy of mine doing a similar thing and it was a pyramid scheme. Not quite a scam but might as well be called it
Look up “no free lunch”. It means a that people don’t just give away money to other people, knowingly and voluntarily.
If this is a good business case, you should be able to buy 10x the leads, get 10 sales people on a payroll, pay them a salary to sell it and pocket the rest. I guess that is not happening? If I was working there you know what I’d do? Take the absolute best leads and send them to my secret side company with like 10 sales guys in there, making me rich.
If you can learn this job, you can find 10 people to do it for you as regular employees. The scam is revealed there, because in order to go along with it, they are inflating your own estimation of your own selling skills. That’s what the big conference event was for. You can break that illusion by projecting it on other people. That’s how you get it across to your dad.
They have given him rebuttals for shit like “paying to learn to sell means it’s a scam”. He will likely say “So is college”. Those basic arguments don’t work.
Maybe I’ve watched too much porn but this is the setup for a stepmom scene.
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Maybe you can circumvent by finding the company name and send them a certified cease and desist to make any more transactions with your father (his name) with threat to sue for Elder fraud and initiate a class action for MLM racketeering?
It’s a tough situation to be in.. it’s his money, but yea I wouldn’t want some gf to come and take advantage of him and set it on fire.
Sounds like Primerica or something. Just google the company’s name and I’m sure you’ll find out a lot more detailed reports on if and why it’s a problem.
The simple answer… No one ever sells anything for less than it is worth.
Sure, the lumber yard will sell the wood to build a house for less than the cost of a house, but you still need to do all the work to turn lumber into a house.
If someone is selling the raw input and all it takes to turn that into net economic gain is sitting on your ass… Then either they are the dumbest business in the history of business…. Or they are running a scam.
It’s pretty easy to decide what it is.
r/MLM “Multilevel Marketing” it’s a scam. Yes. Your dad’s girlfriend is involved in a Pyramid Scheme / MLM / scam. Is your dad in stupid horny teenager mode or what? Why else would he risk financial ruin?
If the leads were any good they would be selling insurance to the leads instead of selling the leads to you.