http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=192279&page=8
It's reassuring to see so many nice people on this site who are speaking out against Amway's practises. It appears as though the pro-Amway shills on this and other sites are getting increasingly outnumbered and desperate in their efforts. Reading through this entire thread, I find it amusing how many times the shill needs to shift the goalposts or play word games in order to make Amway appear to be a fantastic financial opportunity.
My uncle first introduced me to Amway many years ago when I was in my late teens, and I have been a customer ever since. I attended a few of their workshops and was first pleased with their knowledge and professionalism. However, the entire situation began to appear silly and unrealistic, and I decided not to participate any further in it. Furthermore, I am not a materialistic person, thus Amway's message does not resonate with me. I wish my uncle had been more sceptical in the first place.
For a few years, my uncle was a fervent supporter of Amway. He purchased all of their items (particularly the tapes and books), attempted to persuade others to purchase them, and attempted to convert his whole family and circle of friends to his new faith. He finally ran out of money and friends, and he became estranged from the majority of his family.
Even though he was already deeply in debt, he finally fell victim to another, even more lucrative get-rich-quick scheme shortly after quitting Amway (to Amway's credit, they do not threaten to kill anyone who leaves Amway). This individual cheated him out of his entire life savings. The scammers were able to get away with it because they knew how to manipulate him (he met one of them through Amway). Soon later, his wife filed for divorce from him.
After making a slight financial comeback with his firm over the course of several years, he loses everything to yet another fraud, as if that weren't enough misery. No bank would ever offer him a loan, and nearly no one in his family has anything to do with him any longer, so he was forced to rely heavily on the few friends he had left for financial support. It's been 15 years since I last saw him.
What I wonder about my uncle is whether all those seminars and inspirational cassettes and books prepared him to fall for all the other scams he fell for after he left Amway (he didn't have a reputation for being stupid before joining Amway, but he wasn't all that bright to begin with.) As far as I recall, he tended to blame himself for his failures at Amway, and it's possible that he never realised that it was a major fraud, or at the very least, that it was a bad business prospect.
It's hard for me to forget those insane seminars, when they assured everyone that joining the Amway cult would most likely result in yachts, exotic trips with sexy beach girls, and flashy expensive automobiles, among other symbols of wealth and success. Each and every one of us is informed at the seminars and in the "tools" that we have so much untapped potential, but in order to actualize this potential, we must avoid those narrow-minded "dream killers" (skeptical family members and friends).
The storey about my obtuse uncle is based on fact. There are a lot of other people out there who are just like him and have fallen for Amway and other multilevel marketing schemes. The few people I've met who claimed to have achieved great success with Amway either came across as sleazy or I later discovered they were in debt up to their eyeballs years after meeting them.
The individual who stated previously that the majority of those who frequently attend these lectures are fools and misfits was absolutely correct.
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