False Profits: Seeking Financial and Spiritual Deliverance in Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Schemes by Robert L. Fitzpatrick

False Profits: Seeking Financial and Spiritual Deliverance in Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Schemes Reviews

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  Beverly Garside

  I just finished this very enlightening book about the multi-level-marketing and pyramid scheme sub-culture. Basically, it's an expose of this neighborhood of get-rich-quick cults complete with a single page take-down of the mathematical absurdity of its economic model, as well as the psychology and character of its victims. Being that the authors were former adherents themselves, they confess in great detail their journey from normal people to addicts in a universe of "winners" and "losers." Families and friends become mere dupes to be used to enrich the MLM member and propel them into the"winner" category. The inevitable wreckage of broken relationships, lost jobs, and depleted bank accounts leaves the addict, incredibly, craving more of the same, chasing the dragon of that one last best scheme that will actually transform them into a wealthy "winner" - at the expense of everyone else.
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  Science For The People

  Featured on Skeptically Speaking show #161 on April 22, 2012, during an interview with co-author Robert Fitzpatrick.
  http://skepticallyspeaking.ca/episode...
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  Laurie

  Interesting to read about the original Airplane scam and how that evolved into the world of MLM we know today.
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  Karen

  A book describing the mentality and psychology of multi-layer marketing companies, aka Pyramid schemes. Half of the book is unreadable New Age philosophizing. The other half is an interesting expose of the crassness and exploitation of these schemes and how the participants erode their personal relationships making constant sales pitches.
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  Doctor Doom

  Excellent testimonial and expose on the history of the pyramid scheme and its modern manifestations. The chapters on New Age I did not find especially relevant or enlightening and ended up skipping parts of them, but the rest of the novel was solid.