Rachel had joined the company just after splitting from her husband, and says that Forever Living provided a new world for her to occupy. She was in multiple Facebook groups where women vied to sell products, shared advisory opinions and scripts, and formed friendships. She was told to be ” a product of the product” by buying Forever Living products for personal use.” I set all of my passion and all of my period- oh my goodness, the amount of day ,” she says now.” I altogether gave up other things. And I wasn’t making any money .”

After quitting, she was devastated over the friendships she lost- many of her Forever Living colleagues blocked her on social media when she left the company, and the isolation entailed she suffered a ” mild depression “. She also still struggles with guilt from signing up a handful of women beneath her.” I have since apologised to them all. Some of them are still trying to offload products that they’ve got hanging around their house. I feel really awful. But I also think, I can’t stay guilty forever, because I was sucked in. I believed everything they said .”

Rachel felt trapped:” they have you in this grip, this cultish grip ,” she says. “Cult” is a word that every woman I speak to for this piece uses to refer to their time in an MLM.Many sell” mindset develop” sessions to their presenters.” Never let anyone say to you that you won’t succeed ,” reads a slide from a presentation Rachel paid PS30 to stream.” The greatest comeback is to SHOW them your success .”

Fiona, a single mom of two from Merseyside, lost more than PS1, 000 selling Arbonne cosmetics in 2016. She says her upline, a local woman who she satisfied while working as a teach assistant in a school, pressured her to “prey” on new mothers in soft play areas; after she persuaded another single mother to join, she was told to pressure her into buying more products.” It didn’t feel right ,” she says. Fiona’s upline also told her to take out a credit card to buy stock- she is still paying off the debt.

During her 10 months at Arbonne, she was encouraged to set an alarm for 6.40 am so she could listen to a motivational talk devoted live by an upline.” It’s like brainwashing ,” she says, explaining that, like Rachel, she was told to become a” product of such products” by buying Arbonne for herself.” It’s really easy to get depicted into it, especially because at the time, as a single mum, I wasn’t seeing an awful plenty of other people .”

Members are encouraged to influence others by inflating their success on social media.” There’s a lot of lies ,” Lindsay says,” We were told if you’re going somewhere nice, post it with,’ Thanks to Younique, I’m staying here .'” Rachel says people who were struggling would post pictures of cars, spas, and prosecco to appear as though their business was flourishing. Fiona says people were even encouraged to post pictures of their children if they were home sick from school, adding captions like,” So grateful I have a home-based business which allows me to carry on working while I care for my kids .”

Despite the social media scripts and many motivational sessions, Rachel says she never received any financial educate or recommendations from Forever Living. It was only after she did her second year’s tax return that she realised she hadn’t made a profit and decided to quit.” You’re not coached on how to manage your finances because if they did that, people would realise they weren’t making any money .”

A UK spokesperson for Forever Living says via email thatthe company offers financial train through an independent accountancy company intermittently throughout the year.” The Forever network has been constructed over 40 years through collaboration, support and family values ,” they said.

” Forever does not condone pressure of any description, misrepresentation of lifestyle, the business opportunity or promises of income levels, the company has clearly defined escalation procedures to deal with any such allegations .” An online company policy handbook lists prohibited activities for Forever members, and refers to the DSA’s dispute handling service. The spokesperson adds that Forever representatives are” prohibited from placing orders until 75% of previous stock has been sold “. This is done on what the company call a ” self-certifying ” basis, ie the seller tells them they have sold or used at least this much stock.

When asked about Fiona’s experiences, an Arbonne spokesperson based in Northampton says via email that their sales scheme is” not a pyramid strategy; it is a standard, legal marketings strategy “.” Arbonne upholds the highest standards of integrity and we do not condone deceptive, unethical or illegal practises of any kind ,” the spokesperson says.” Our Business Ethics Standards Team( BEST) conducts regular training sessions with Arbonne Independent Consultants, continuously monitors their business practices … and takes immediate action if questionable activities originate .” They add that any unethical or improper behaviour can be reported at BEST.Arbonne.com. Fiona says she was not made aware of this reporting procedure.

***

If Lindsay was at the bottom of the Younique pyramid, then Lisa was at the top. The mom of three lives with her husband and children in a spacious semi-detached council house in a cul-de-sac outside of Halifax. A confident 36 -year-old, she is immaculately put together, with sleek long black hair and stylish, minimal makeup. She first heard about Younique in 2014.

” Because I have three children, I needed a undertaking that would fit around them ,” she says from her living room- there are professional portraits of the children on the walls, a bookcase full of sports trophies, and, on the table, a feel pencil suit her daughter recently made at school. Lisa joined Younique on the first day of its UK launch and went on to earn more than PS6 0,000 before she quitted in 2018.

” It was quite strange because I immediately had 38 people in my team ,” she says, explaining she had recruited 12 of these people, and the other 26 were people they in turn signed on.” We’d all joined on the same day but suddenly I was in charge .”

While white and yellow Younique presenters only earn commission from their marketings, after recruiting five women, members reach pink status. Pink status presenters earn 25% from their marketings plus 3% committee from marketings made by females beneath them. By the time she left Younique, Lisa had reached the highest level, black status, and had more than 3,000 people beneath her. She calculated that 95% of her fund was earned from commission on other women’s sales.

” I made a lot of a money, a lot of money to me, and it meant I could stay at home with my kids ,” she says, adding that she also felt a boost in confidence.” I ran from not being able to pick up the phone to an unknown number to talking on stage in front of thousands of people .” Lisa frequently spoke at Younique training sessions and conventions.

Yet although Lisa feels Younique changed her life, her perspective changed in 2018. Lisa says that during a Black Friday sales month in November, she slowly realised people felt pressured to buy stock they couldn’t sell.” The leaders would always say nobody’s forcing anybody to buy anything, but if you’re recruiting women who’ve lost a circle of friends because they’ve had children, or they haven’t got self-confidence, they’re going to buy to be part of a group .”

Kirsty, a 27 -year-old from London, tells me:” I got suckered in to Younique due to the promise of’ sisterhood’ being so strongly pushed on to me. I suffer with bipolar so I don’t really make a lot of friends that easily ,” she says by telephone. A Facebook friend told her she would have access to a group chat of 300 people who supported each other.” That was appealing ,” she tells me. Yet Kirsty speedily saw the group chat “toxic”. ” One female said her husband was telling her to get a regular task because they were losing money, but the group was bizarre, telling her he was controlling and abusive ,” she alleges.” It also got actually bitchy- one daughter wasn’t inducing enough marketings and they made her feel bad in front of everyone .”

Ironically, while women are often drawn to MLMs to make friends, they often end up with fewer than when they started.” One of the issues with MLMs is that you’re told to target your friends and relatives ,” says business prof Koehn.” People are trying to monetise social relationships .” Rachel lost friendships because she” pestered people every five minutes” to sign up for Forever Living. She was told that if someone said ” no”, she should write their name in a volume called ” no for now” and ask them again in a few months.” Because I was encouraged to pester people every five minutes to sign up, friendships disappeared .”

But confederations built within the business are also fragile- often falling apart once women quit.” Some people blocked me immediately ,” says Lisa of her decision to leave.” We spoke every day and all of sudden, we can’t be friends .” Rachel was particularly affected when she discontinue.” That was the thing that really got me in the end ,” she says.” I guessed I’d stimulate friends and then when I did leave, I had nobody .”

***

When so many women feel exploited by MLMs, why have these companies not been held to account? In America, clothing MLM LuLaRoe is currently being sued by Washington state attorney general Bob Ferguson, who says that” LuLaRoe tricked customers into buying into its pyramid scheme with deceptive asserts .” LulaRoe said during a statementthat the claims are completely without merit and that the company will oppose vigorously against them.In July 2017, the Chinese government shut down hundreds of multi-level marketing companies, which it described as” business cults “. Yet in the UK , no authorities are currently investigating them.

Mumsnet decided in 2017 not to allow MLMs to advertise on the parenting site.” We was just thinking about it long and hard because we know that home-based, flexible possibilities are very popular ,” says founder Justine Roberts,” but many Mumsnet users have posted about what they see as MLMs’ invidious marketing techniques and the effects on vulnerable someones, and we came to the conclusion that business models based primarily on recruiting have too much potential to be exploitative .”

Elsewhere online, hundreds of ordinary people are now campaigning against MLMs on social media.” I think the authorities are doing an perfectly embarrassing chore at governing MLMs ,” says John Evans, a 39 -year-old from Sussex who runs the 11,000 -member Facebook group MLM Lies Exposed. He was inspired to start the group after a friend tried to recruit him to an MLM. When Evans criticised the MLM model, his friend stopped speaking to him.

” MLMs are extremely clever at manipulating people. There’s lots of psychology involved ,” Evans says.” The people who sign up lose money, but they’re not stupid. They’re victims .” Evans says he has seen countless horror tales in the five years he has run his Facebook page.” Some people are thousands of pounds down from these companies and they end up in the sunk expense fallacy where they just maintain plugging away, maintain urgently trying to dig themselves out of this financial hole ,” he says.

Evans is particularly concerned when MLM reps stimulate false medical asserts about products on social media. A representative for Trading Criterion explains MLMs become an issue for the body if a company breaches consumer protection regulations, by, for example, attaining misleading asserts about products. In 2017, Trading Standards Cornwall shut down the business of former Miss England finalist, Charlotte Thomson, who had been selling weight-loss coffee Valentus, saying the product wasn’t licensed for the UK market. Thomson said she was ” devastated” and stopped selling the product. To date, Trading Standards has not looked into any MLMs on a national level.

Evans and others would like to see MLMs better regulated to ensure companies are open and honest when recruiting presenters. A spokesperson for Younique said that Lindsay, Lisa, and Kirsty’s experiences” do not accurately reflect those of our hundreds of thousands of Younique presenters around the world , nor our organisation’s values most fundamentally “. The company says it does not allow us presenters to attain” improper asserts” about earnings or products, and has a team of compliance officers to ensure all presenters abide by company expectations.

” Younique presenters are not required to build product inventories at all ,” they go on.” Additionally, we aim to safeguard our presenters’ fiscal security by enabling unused products purchased by them within the prior year to be returned for a full rebate should they wish to terminate their relationship with the business .”

Younique, Arbonne, and Forever Living are all members of The Direct Selling Association( DSA ). I put the claims in this article to them, including accounts of uplines constructing false claims about earnings and pressuring downlines into buying stock, and the DSA says they are investigating the allegations. Susannah Schofield, director general of the DSA, warns that people should” beware of individuals making outlandish claims about direct selling being a chance to’ get rich quick’- anything that lookings or sounds too good to be true probably is “. She adds that direct sales is “an effort-based” business. ” And with anything in life, if it’s valuable you’ll have to work at it to achieve success. Most people working in direct selling are good at what they do, and find the extra few hundred pounds a few months they make an extremely useful addition to their family’s income. There are not many ways of earning that sort of money from home, on a highly flexible basis .”

Lisa now works for another MLM, but merely sells products and refuses to recruit unless someone approaches her directly and asks about the business. “‘ It’s incredibly hard to get a job after being a stay-at-home mum for eight years, network marketer for four ,” she says.

Lindsay works at McDonald’s, though struggles to get frequent shiftings. She lost her Younique presenter status in July 2018 because she couldn’t afford to buy any more stock. She feels unable to sell the old stock she bought back to the company because it is scattered around her home.” I’m alleviated that I get out, but I’m angry that I still assure people recruiting ,” she says. She now sells handmade fabric cushions and lavender pouches on online marketplace Etsy, and is currently applying for Personal Independence Payments.

” It actually builds me angry with myself ,” Lindsay says, when I ask about the money she lost.” I’m annoyed with the person that got me into it, but I should have done more research. I always thought I was too smart for that sort of thing and I got so altogether taken in .”

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