Yes there are many con-artists out there from organised scam, or Ponzi, a.k.a. pyramid scheme. But MLM is distinctively different. Here's a letter from someone I came across on an MLM education site, which I find valuable.
After all, Singapore legalised MLM in 2000 to conform to World Trade Organizations, where it requested that "all honest business dealings" be honored.
From: Honest MLM Man (Pseudonym as requested)
To: Brand New Malaysian
Subject: MLM spoiled and soiled
Dear Mack Zulkifli,
Thank you for taking the time to write about the Lampe-Berger and SYN issue. I think you are writing this because you met a parent and try to find out more about it. Frankly speaking there are a lot more out there who use greed and the promise of quick income to get member to front-load. This means member must buy product and quickly sell them so that they can replenish stock and make more money. This is the problem. All MLM front-load but their amount is different. When people front-load too much like the SYN group in LB and offer to buy into a commision level... it become a PONZI scheme or what is known as pyramid.
This is what spoiled the MLM market for people with selling skill and are ready to work hard for their money by getting their friends and family to buy and later recruit some along the way.
I have been in MLM for many years and feed my family from it. I send three kids to school and have enough to finish the payment for my Honda CRV and my wife does not work but assist me in MLM. We are selling and recruiting but we also teach our downline how to save their money and plan for financial stability. We teach them to invest in mutual fund and also buy insurance which we also sell.
We dont ask them to buy BMW and wear expensive clothes. We always say that success is about how much you can save not how much you already spend. Because we know that money make more money. I always say to the young people who join us that if you own ten time more than the price of BMW than you can buy it cash. The other 90% is for you to invest so you can buy a bigger BMW cash.
I hope you can display my e-mail to you on your blog. Many of my friends ask me to read it and at first I dont know what a blog is until you write about MLM. I hope we can meet so you can show me how to blog so I can do for my business too and teach what is the benefit of MLM and hard work.
Sincerely,
Honest MLM Man