Reviewing Selling the Dream by Jane Marie, A History of Multi-level Marketing Scams

Hey Hun! Jane Marie’s new book, Selling the Dream, discusses how Multi-Level Marketing schemes work and how to avoid them. This book is packed with information about a legal scam that steals billions of dollars from Americans every year.

The author’s investigation into Multi-Level Marketing scams (MLM) began in 2019 with her podcast, The Dream.

MLMs trick people into “starting a business,” but really, they resell expensive products.

MLMs claim they use “network marketing,” but really, they ask sellers to recruit their family and friends and offer recruiters a percentage of their sales profits.

MLMs promise stable, passive income but always fail to deliver.

The author synthesized her years of interviews, research, and investigation into a brisk non-fiction book that details the history of direct selling and proves that MLMs are a drain on society and one of the most profitable industries in America.

Classic Scams

Early direct-selling scams like Avon, Tupperware, and Nutralite (now Herbalife) pioneered the grift, and they’re still going strong. The founders of these companies all got rich, but the people selling the products are footnotes in the company’s origin stories. Marie’s book details the fiction of these company origin stories.

Women, in particular, are targeted for these scams. Friends and family recruit them. The asks start out small. Just buy some makeup, host a party, and take these vitamins…

But the money adds up fast.

The author demonstrates dozens of examples where people lose tens of thousands of dollars to these scams. Sources told the author that years of their life were wasted trying to sell useless junk.

The book offers two reasons why people stay stuck in direct-sales scams.

1. The sunk cost fallacy. They have already lost money and believe they must earn it back.
2. Big number blindness. There are not enough people on earth for everyone to recruit their quota. If everyone recruits 5 people, within just 15 cycles, the entire world is out of people.

Multi-level marketing scams teach their sellers to ignore all outside criticism. Sellers are told they’re “bettering themselves” and learning how to run a business. “Positive thinking” is rebranded as cutting ties with family and friends.

The scammers also leverage that if you give up, your social network might be mad at you because you recruited them into a scam. Truly evil stuff!

The author points out that as people became more desperate for flexible work (like during COVID lockdowns), America saw increased direct selling scams. These scammers preyed on people’s desperation.

Perhaps the evilest direct-selling company is Amway, hilariously short for the American Way.

The FTC’s 1979 decision was that Amway should not be called a pyramid scheme. And if you google “Amway scam,” you’ll find dozens of articles telling you it’s not. These are all paid for by Amway.

Ironically, this court case paved the way for legal pyramid schemes. As long as the company can prove it sells products and doesn’t only incentivize recruiting, it’s fine. They can do both: sell products and incentivize recruiting.

The author explains how the DeVos family is closely tied to American politics. For example, the DeVos family maxed out donations to the Michigan GOP. And they donated $200 million to Donald Trump. Keeping close ties with the federal government keeps the FTC from starting a second investigation.

And yes, Betsy DeVos, wife of Dick DeVos, an Amway heir, was named US Secretary of Education under Donald Trump.

It’s a legal scam that goes up to the executive branch.

Jane Marie’s book is the perfect introduction if you want to learn more about direct selling scams. It’s a great pick for readers of Cultish by Amanda Montell, the Reddit board r/antiMLM, or anybody who wants to know why their friend has a bunch of boxes in their garage full of junk they can’t sell.

MLM Red Flags

I’d be remiss if I didn’t include these red flags to help others avoid getting caught in an MLM.

• 🚩 Upfront Costs: It’s a scam if you must buy the product you’re selling or pay to sell the product.
• 🚩 Markups: A scam company sells normal products—like pills, clothes, or makeup—at a steep markup. The only differentiating factor is the MLM logo.
• 🚩 BYOC: Bring your own customers, like friends and family. If they want you to sell to your “network,” it’s a scam.
• 🚩 Complicated referral schemes: If you get paid a downline or a percentage of sales from your referrals, erroneously called commissions, that’s a scam.
• 🚩 Any Product: An MLM can sell any product or no product, including makeup, natural cures, essential oils, leggings, sex toys, water ionizers, “financial products,” and some “pass around money.”

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced review copy in exchange for a review!