The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently sent warning levels to six  multi-level marketing companies,Isagenix International, LLC, The Juice Plus+ Company, Metaleuca, Inc, Youngevity International, Inc., Vivri USA LLC and Plexus Worldwide, LLC demanding these companies stop telling people that their products can treat or prevent the Coronavirus and that people investing in their companies and selling their products will be able to make large amounts of money doing so.  Thee companies advertised extensively in English and in Spanish largely on social media.  In legitimate multilevel marketing companies such as Amway and Mary Kay investors make money by selling products to the public and by recruiting new salespeople.  In a pyramid scheme the source of profits is based primarily on the recruiting of new members or salespeople.  For every legitimate multilevel marketing company, such as Mary Kay and Amway, there are many that are just scams.

According to Andrew Smith, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, “During this health and economic crisis, we are on the lookout for false income claims for work-at-home opportunities, in addition to spurious health claims that products can treat or prevent COVID-19.”

TIPS

Anyone who is considering investing in what is represented to be a multilevel marketing business should always investigate the company and the terms of investment carefully before investing any money.  In addition, you should also check out the company with the FTC and your state’s attorney general to make sure that the company is legitimate before investing any money.  Here is a link to information from the FTC that you should consider before investing in a multilevel marketing business.  http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0065-multilevel-marketing

As for supplements that purport to provide health benefits, you should never buy them or sell them unless you have thoroughly investigated the legitimacy of the claims and it cannot be overemphasized that there are absolutely no products being sold at this time that have been scientifically proven to treat or prevent the Coronavirus.

For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.”

If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and click on the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”