A recent popularity boost in the ACN company seminars has stirred my interest away from hockey, and towards this rather intriguing way to make money - apparently. When I first heard about this, I was immediately skeptical. In general, jobs that involve seminars and no previous resume or education prerequisite are scarce and questionable to me in the first place.
To me, a job is not something that someone should have to sell to you to get you on board (I'd say that's almost the definition of a scam). A job, is something you should have to work to get, enjoy, and earn your living honestly, ethically speaking. When I looked into ACN more through research and reading articles, I couldn't help but compare this ACN business with JT Marlin of the movie released in 2000, Boiler Room.
Remember? Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Ben Afflack, play a bunch of Wall Street wannabes working for a company that scams people by selling shares over the phone? To me, it seems pretty similar to the movie, and in the movie, everyone loses in the end.
Here's some information on ACN sourced from www.pyramidschemealert.org : "The MLM scheme, ACN, was featured in a news investigation by Fox News in Los Angeles, CA. As in other similar news reports on this scheme, the story focused on the obvious – ACN looks and behaves as a pyramid scheme. In particular, the story asked why ACN recruits pay the company $499 for the right to sell the product and questioned the link of this payment to rewards for recruiting other ACN "sales" agents.
Fox11 in Los Angeles sent a camera crew to interview PSA President Robert FitzPatrick in Charlotte, NC, who offered the analysis that the upfront payment is the "pyramid money" that is later redistributed to the upline as a reward for recruiting. In short, ACN is just using a version of the "endless chain" trick to get consumers to pay the fees and buy its telephone services. Primarily, ACN is selling a "business opportunity" based on endless chain recruiting.
The Fox News report also revealed consumer complaints that have come into that popular website,Ripoff Report. The publisher identified ACN as a source of major consumer complaints. ACN is also among the top sources for complaints and questions that come to the Pyramid Scheme Alert website.
ACN does not disclose to the recruits or to the public how much of its "commissions" goes to what percentage of its "upline." In most MLMs of this type 50-80% goes directly to the top 1%, dooming the other 99% to losses. Additionally, ACN withholds information regarding dropout rates or average incomes. In most MLMs of this type average incomes do not reach anywhere near the levels of costs, leaving a net loss to virtually all that join. Most schemes of this sort also experience 70% annual dropout rates, putting recruits on a treadmill of further recruiting and paying fees all the while. The companies and the uplines feast on the money lost by the "churned" recruits.
One consumer website has analyzed the pay plan and illustrated the pyramid characteristics. One of the most obvious is that ACN pays a progressively higher commission to the highest levels of the upline. Translation: the higher you move up the pyramid, the greater the reward, per sale. This is the reverse of a legitimate sales company that would pay the highest percentage of commission to those actually making the sales.
The site also shows that it is virtually impossible to earn any significant commissions based on "services" used by the downline, unless a new recruit could build a huge downline. This can only be mathematically possible for a tiny few. The other bucket of money that the recruit is told he can benefit from comes from "bonuses", but this is reserved for those that pay the $499 fee - the classic "pay to play" feature of a scam.
ACN is not stranger to charges that it is an illegal pyramid scheme. It halted the sales of electricity products in California due to regulatory action. It was prosecuted in Canada and Australia for operating as a pyramid scheme but friendly judges allowed it to continue in both cases, citing technical definitions of pyramid schemes."
All Sourced from www.pyramidschemealert.org
Althought Fox News is not the most viable source, pyramidschemealert.org is a non-profit website devoted to uncovering scams such as this, and they explain what the Fox News investigation uncovered in a more detailed and viable way. According to an article posted by Michael Webster from The Bizop News (www.bizop.ca), one would earn the commission that makes representatives money.
The article states: "It's the bonuses for recruiting and advancement within the first month that allows them to make their money back. When you sell seven phone points (one awarded for each service sold) and recruit two other people to pay $500 and become TTs below you with seven phone points each, you get named "Executive Team Trainer."
"That position is still one quarter of one percent, but includes an exclusive, first month only, bonus check of $700. In other words, you've made back your $500 investment plus $200 that month."
"Let's imagine a story in which all ACN reps quit with a profit of $200, after recruiting their two new sales representatives. So nobody loses. Right?
After you quit, ACN has $1500 - your bonus of $700, ie., $800, and your two recruits are busy looking for four more stooges, so that they can cash out for their $200. Then ACN would have the four stooges $2000 - your two recruits' bonus of $1400, another $600. Can the four stooges find eight more "independent sales representatives"?
Well, then ACN would have the eight ISR's $4000 - the four stooges' bonus of $2800, or $1200. Do you sense a pattern here? For every "clever" ACN rep who decides to "retire" with his $200 bonus, ACN makes $300 of his or cleverness. Very nice."
One poster cites, in support of his theory that ACN is an illegal pyramid scam, two Government announcements, one from Australia and the other from the Canadian Competition Bureau.
In the Australian Federal Court,
"On 15 November 2004 the ACCC instituted proceedings against Australian Communications Network Pty Ltd, a seller of telecommunications services, for alleged breaches of the pyramid selling scheme provisions of the Act.
On 23 March 2005 Justice Selway found that ACN participated in, promoted and induced or attempted to induce persons to take part in a pyramid selling scheme in contravention of section 65AAC of the Act, and that Mr Martin Paech, an ACN director, aided and abetted and was knowingly concerned in those contraventions.
The court also found that Mr Keith Janke and Mr Jonathon Gibbs, two ACN Independent Representatives, were knowingly concerned in and aided and abetted the contraventions, and Gibbschade Pty Ltd participated in the pyramid selling scheme, and attempted to induce other persons to participate in the scheme, in contravention of the Act."
And according to the Competition Bureau,
"The Competition Bureau alleges that ACN Canada, as it is known, and its participants, through its web sites and at public meetings, recruited new participants by exaggerating income expectations without disclosing the income of a typical participant. Under the Competition Act, it is illegal to make reference to earnings in a multi-level marketing plan without disclosing a typical participant's income. In addition, operators of a multi-level marketing plan must ensure that any income representation made by a participant in the plan includes disclosure of a typical participant's income."(http://bizop.ca/blog2/multi_level_marketing/acn/) You tell me if you would invest $500.00 on something like this? Hell, I make that much per week working a summer job, but I would still not give my weekly pay up to possibly make a couple hundred back if I can suck other people in, then make unwarranted residuals. Donald Trump endorsing this doesn't get me either - If it was that legit, Donald would have bought it out himself and made a Billion by now. Here are more sites that are uncovering the Pyramid Scheme: http://www.mlmeo.com/acn/scam.php http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/acn-scam-or-a-wise-choice-for-a-home-business-1739084.html http://mail.scam.com/showthread.php?p=857810
