It actually started with some random conversation with a web developer-slash-affiliate marketer. He happened to mention a new site he was working on, and being interested, I took a look.
I was presented with the opportunity to join a “life-changing internet business opportunity”. Since it was no-risk, I decided to pre-register. As far as I know, the service still hasn’t launched, and I’m hoping it won’t - I was halfway through the auditory introduction when I realised it’s a scam.
LifeChanger is a relatively simple system. You join, and pay R129 month. Then you get people to sign up under you, and you get a percentage of their membership fees. Then people sign up under you, and you get a smaller percentage of their fees. This is what their own description looks like:
If that’s not a multi-level pyramid, I don’t know what is. But the site offered other “tools” to allow you to make money online. The only way that Lifechanger was going to escape being a bottomless pyramid was to offer a way for users to make a profit without referring a single new user.
But there was no mention of such an alternative. The only way to make effective money from the site was to refer people. And when South Africa runs out of referrable prospects, the money will start drying up, the pyramid will collapse, and the founders (Colin and Lerina Kearney) walk away richer. That’s how these things happen.
I did some maths around this. If you join, you pay in R129/month. Your immediate upline recieves R30/month of that, his upline gets R20/month, his upline gets R10/month, and the last upline gets R5/month. That means that the founders will recieve a total of R64/month for every person that joins.
So a thousand people over a six month period = R384′000 in straight profits. When the pyramid runs dry and collapses, they could well have pocketed over a million rand, all on the gullibilty and greed of South African citizens.
But wait, there’s more! One of the other things they offer is free access to “Life changing materials” - things like motivational ebooks, courses, etcetera. They’re basically charging for freely available material - and material that you’ll lose access to the moment you stop paying.
I’d rather pay once-off for a book, than pay a monthly fee to join a system that will inevitably become nothing but a runaway money machine prone to collapse. Maybe that’s just me?
This smacks way too much of Herbalife to me - another system I have a serious problem with. They engineer a massive multi-level pyramid-shaped income system, fronting it with overpriced “products” that, yes, do work, but are used as a scapegoat instead of an actual business venture.
If you’re joined, of if you know of anyone who’s joined, I’d advise you to think seriously about this. They offer you a very easy way to cancel your account, and if you don’t want to become part of another smear on South African internet trade, you might want to check it out. It looks like this:
And if you stay, I wish you the best of luck. Go out there and be the top 10% of the pyramid that actually benefits anything at all out of this. For the rest of us, there are other ways to make money.
Aren’t multi-level pyramid business illegal nowadays?
@Anne-Sophie I’m sure most countries have rules against pyramid schemes, but I don’t think it’s expressly illegal. That’s why most schemes include some sort of “product” that you can “sell” - but what you’re really doing is building a pyramid, fronting it like a legitimate business.
While it may not be illegal, it’s very immoral, and with enough people saying enough about it, it could be slowed, maybe even stopped.
@AS - Most times they don’t even work and leverage off low self-esteemed under-achievers who are desperate for a buck!
Didn’t know u checked up on the blogs ;)
@HotsTePPa Good point with the low self-esteem thing - it’s something i haven’t considered before. Successful people (rich or not) rarely go for such programs. It says something about the morals of the founders, lol.
Wogan, I never really thought you were this clueless, but hey I guess you can’t really know someone from a few conversations over the web.
You have NO idea what a pyramid scheme is and you clearly are just looking for reasons to make LifeChanger look bad.
Colin Kearney has the integrity of nobody I’ve ever met in my life and the goal behind this is much bigger than me, you or him.
Please Wogan, your accusations are so lost I don’t even know where to begin. But hey, enjoy!
@Phillip This post is 3 months old (for starters). Secondly, I’m sort of entitled to my opinion on things like this.
Really, I’ve been there, done that, and gotten deep into so many MLM/pyramid marketing schemes, it’s not even funny. And in every single case, the promoters always push the “it’s so much more” angle. I’m sick of it.
If LifeChanger is truly not a MLM enterprise, then why is the majority of the income derived from pipelines and pyramids? I asked the question so many times - “What other means are there of earning money under this program?”. In all cases, my question was dodged or ignored.
You’re seriously not going to convince me with the “life changing products” angle - walk into any church bookstore, and they’re all there, on sale. Life changing support? That’s what an established Christian church is for.
I’ve seen what it looks like when people sell themselves out for money, and fuckit, that’s one place I don’t want to be - same goes for everybody that happens to see this.
I’m sorry if my opinion offends you, but I’ve come to realise that MLM pyramids benefit the top 20%. The other 80% suffer greatly for their money.
If this truly isn’t a pyramid, and I’m truly mistaken on everything, prove me wrong. Despite what you think you don’t know about me from our “few web chats”, I’m open to reason, argument and changing my views, if given good enough proof.