International Association to Expose, Study and Prevent Pyramid Schemes
Pyramid Scheme Alert "Update" Archives
Pyramid Scheme Alert Updates
PSA Updates offer news, analysis, alerts, and insights into worlwide frauds involving multi-level marketing and pyramid schemes. Updates are free. The email list is never shared. Some links in past Updates may have expired. To receive Updates, please use the request form. PSA is non-profit and non-commercial. Volunteer to be a PSA watchdog in your state and help stop the deceptive lobbying by MLM schemes to legalize pyramid sales scams. Contact us for more information.
  • Feb. 2012 Update  (2/29/2012)
  • "False Profits" Now Available on Kindles
    Herbalfie Behind Massive Talk-Radio Recruitment Promo
    Newspaper Series Explores Cult Connection to Multi-Level Marketing
    Is USA Becoming a Global Haven for Pyramid Schemes?
  • End of Year -- 2011
  • Consumer Protection/Law Enforcement Curtailed  (12/28/2011)
  • FTC Chooses to Protect MLMs – When the Cops Leave their Beat; A European Court Rules: "Herbalife Is an Illegal Pyramid Scheme"; Binding Arbitration Rule Blocks Consumer Lawsuit in Canada against Amway; Current Consumer Class Action Suits Against MLMs Could Be the Last
  • Corrected August 2011 Update  (8/10/2011)
  • Large MLM,Burnlounge, Ruled Illegal Pyramid Scheme; Market for Donald Trump's ACN Phone Collapsing?; Victims of MLM, Your Travel Biz, May Seek Restitution; India Fights Back Against US-based MLMs; Has MLM Corrupted Avon?; Now Available: Consumer Report for Spotting MLM Scams
  • June 2011 Update  (6/9/2011)
  • Now Available: Consumer Report for Spotting MLM Scams; Despite PR, Politics and Coverup, MLMs Draw Whistle-Blowers and Lawsuits; Movies Reveal Pathos of MLM
  • February2011 Update  (2/7/2011)
  • Important New Article about MLM Cultism on Huffington Post.com; Amway Settlement Highlighted in USA Today; North Carolina Investigating MLM, Fortune High Tech
  • End of Year 2010 Update  (1/27/2011)
  • Can MLM Be a Crime?
    2001-2010:The Pyramid Scheme Decade; Donate to Pyramid Scheme Alert; Sign the Consumer Petition
  • November, 2010 Update  (11/19/2010)
  • Amway Pays Millions in Fraud Case, Will Criminal Prosecution Follow?; Consumer Class Action Suit Against MLM, Stream/Ignite, May Go Forward; The MLM "Loophole" that Entraps Consumers and Allows Regulators to Look the Other Way; FTC Staff Protecting MLMs from Making Income Disclosures to Consumers
  • August 2010 Update  (7/29/2010)
  • Wife of Former CEO of Bank of America Promoting an MLM; MLM Promoters Going to Jail; Only in Comedy, Truth is Told about MLMs; How to Avoid Being Scammed in an MLM
  • June 09 – Recession Reveals MLM "Business Opportunity Fraud; India Fights Back in Court Against MLM Scams; The Decline and Corruption of the FTC  (6/22/2009)
  • The Recession is revealing MLMs as naked "business opportunity" frauds. MLMs are ramping up recruitment even as markets for their products shrink, showing they get their revenue from salespeople, not customers; India is fighting back against MLMs. A new blogger is taking MLMs to court; A new report documents how the FTC has been muzzled by political corruption and conflicts of interest.
  • May 09 – YTB Travel Scheme May Be Finished Off by Regulators; Direct Selling Can Be Recession Financial Trap  (5/17/2009)
  • The California Attorney General has imposed severe restrictions on the Travel Scheme, YTB, that will probably kill off the scam, and Illinois is now taking action also; The MLM Industry is falsely claiming that the unemployed can make big bucks in "direct selling" and using bogus income and cost figures to lure financially strapped consumers.
  • April 09 Mannatech Pays Restitution; Pre-Paid Legal in Decline  (4/20/2009)
  • Pre-Paid Legal collapsing and insiders are bailing out with personal stock sell-off;
    Mannatech, a member of the Direct Selling Association and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, has agreed to pay millions of dollars to consumers who were deceived by its false health claims.
  • February 09 PSA Helps Canadian News Show Expose "Business In Motion" Scheme  (2/9/2009)
  • The award-winning Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) television news show, Marketplace, dedicated its February 6, 2009 show to a devastating expos� of the Canada-based multi-level marketing scheme, called "Business in Motion."
    PSA President Robert L. FitzPatrick was invited on the show to attend a BIM meeting in Toronto (undercover, with hidden cameras and microphones) and then to offer an expert analysis.
  • January 09 Consumer Petition on Pyramid Law Enforcement Launched  (1/27/2009)
  • Consumers now have a direct way to express concern and outrage about the spread of Pyramids and Ponzis. A petition seeking better law enforcement, pubic education and stronger regulation is now on the Pyramid Scheme Alert Website.
    If you want an end to this epidemic of frauds, take action. Sign the petition. (the signatures will be sent only to appropriate members of Congress and the new President's administration, and will never be shared.
  • PSA Presss Release on FTC.SEC Letter  (12/14/2008)
  • Pyramid Scheme Alert, the only consumer group in the world focused directly on pyramid/Ponzi scheme fraud, charges that the Bernard Madoff Ponzi Scheme is the tip of a far wider pattern of pyramids and Ponzis. In a letter to the chairmen of the FTC and SEC, PSA charges that the lapse of FTC and SEC regulation has led to an epidemic of pyramid frauds, and it demands renewed regulation.
  • December08 Website Updates  (12/11/2008)
  • Important additions and improvements have been made to the website of Pyramid Scheme Alert (http://www.pyramidschemealert.org). These changes have been requested by many people and make this unique site more accessible and valuable. Last month the PSA site provided help to visitors from 108 countries.
  • December, 2008  (12/3/2008)
  • Pyramid Schemes and Recession; Pyramid Chaos in Colombia; ACN Phone Scheme; Goji Juice Scheme; Gifting Schemes
  • November, 2008  (10/29/2008)
  • MonaVie Payout Data Show MLM's "Money Transfer" and Consumer Losses
  • October, 2008  (10/1/2008)
  • Multi-Level Marketing Sheds Light on America's Financial Crisis; Indian Regulators File Criminal Charges Against Amway and Arrest Promoter of GoldQuest MLM Scam
  • August/September 2008  (8/6/2008)
  • August, 2008  (7/29/2008)
  • Top Amway Trickster Now Leading Monavie Recruitment; New Blog Launched on Reality of Multi-level Marketing
  • July, 2008  (7/19/2008)
  • England's Case to Kick Amway out of Country; The Amway Myth; Are Pyramids and Ponzis Legal in Canada?
  • May/June, 2008  (5/9/2008)
  • Reports on Herbalife and Pre-Paid Legal; Class Action Suit Against Amway Moves Forward; Canadian Pigeon Scheme; YTB and Similar MLM Travel Schemes
  • January/February/March, 2008  (1/9/2008)
  • Amway on Trial in England; The Business Suit as Pyramid Scheme Costume
  • October/November/December, 2007  (10/6/2007)
  • Rather than offer various news items, this Update is dedicated to one clear message for the many consumers that contact Pyramid Scheme Alert with urgent questions about multi-level marketing. The message is also for journalists who have earnestly sought to uncover the truth about multi-level marketing.
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