I have always been a big Dave Ramsey fan, and believed that his financial advice for consumers is first rate. But today Dave Ramsey got it wrong in a big way. On his blog, he published an article about making money in multi-level marketing.

The article failed to acknowledge the fact that over and over again, it has been proven that 99% of people involved in MLMs lose money. Front and center in the article was this lie:

Truthfully, if you have a go-getter personality, and you can follow some basic business and personal etiquette, you can make a lot of money in an MLM. The trick is to avoid all the potential pitfalls along the way.

Truthfully? No, there is no truth in what was said.

All good multi-level marketing companies have one thing in common: They fail to disclose enough information to allow consumers and regulators to determine if they are in the business of recruiting or selling products. They disclose just enough facts and figures to make it appear that they are being transparent. But they hide enough information that no one could ever determine definitively if they are running pyramid schemes.

MLMs cleverly avoid the pyramid scheme issue by making it impossible to determine the level of retail sales of products to consumers.  The companies effectively use the technique of plausible deniability: They purposely do not track retail sales, so when the business model is challenged with the assertion that few retail sales occur (and therefore they are recruiting schemes), executives can claim that they know no such thing!

Usana Watchdog has released a report on Usana Health Sciences, challenging the company’s failure to reveal meaningful facts and figures that would allow consumers and law enforcement to determine whether the company is running an illegal pyramid scheme.

Readers of the Fraud Files are familiar with the story of Jennifer McKinney – - mommy blogger who calls herself MckMama – - who is prone to lies and exaggerations. She and her husband Israel were accused of  lying to and manipulating readers for financial gain. What began as a touching story of a family with a very sick child turned into a long-running gravy train, from which Jennifer and Israel McKinney profited handsomely.

But making hundreds of thousands of dollars from gullible sheeple reading a blog wasn’t enough for the McKinneys. No, they had to run up over $725,000 of debts and attempt to have them discharged in bankruptcy. Fortunately, bankruptcy trustee Gene Doeling caught on quickly, and accused them of attempting to defraud their creditors by failing to report tens of thousands of dollars of income per year.

Jennifer McKinney – - former mommy blogger nicknamed MckMama – - has good news for the many creditors that she owes hundreds of thousands of dollars…. SHE CAN PAY THEM! This month’s issue of Xyngular’s Momentum magazine featured Jennifer Howe Sauls McKinney on the cover.

Publications like this are purely recruiting tools. While 99% of people participating in multi-level marketing will lose money, there are a few at the top of the pyramid who will make big money (only because many below them are losing money). Companies like Xyngular parade around the big winners, hoping to continuously recruit new victims into their schemes.

Jon Taylor, PhD has written a thorough and excellent book about multi-level marekting: The Case (For and) Against Multi-Level Marketing: The Complete Guide to Understanding the Flaws – and Proving and Countering the Effects – of Endless Chain “Opportunity” Recruitment, or Product-Based Pyramid Schemes.

If you’re not familiar with MLM, you can see some interesting statistics here. Basically, the odds of a distributor losing money in multi-level marketing are greater than 99%.  Despite the fact that participants are almost guaranteed to lose money in MLM, these scams are marketed as business opportunities with the potential for unlimited earnings.

You’re listening to a national radio show with a popular host. You hear an advertisement for IncomeAtHome. You don’t know what it is, other than you can make an income while working at home. But why on earth would the voices not tell you exactly what this “business opportunity” is?

Because it is Herbalife. If you’ve heard the name, you likely equate the “opportunity” with things Amway and pyramid schemes.

Fortunately, there is a website devoted to unveiling the truth about Herbalife and Income At Home. The site digs into issues such as the secrecy surrounding Income At Home (why are they so desperate to NOT tell you that it is Herbalife???). There is also an excellent blog on the site, which is keeping current on the efforts of Bill Ackman to expose the fraud behind Herbalife and the company’s good fortune in having Carl Icahn volunteer to shill for them.

Multi-level marketing companies are getting lots of attention lately thanks to the Bill Ackman smackdown of Herbalife in December. MLMs offering “nutrition products” are of special interest to consumers, and with good reason. Companies like Isagenix, MonaVie , Usana, Mannatech, and Shaklee all offer magic potions that claim to help you lose weight, absorb more vitamins and minerals, and cure all diseases.

Of course, many of these health claims are strictly prohibited. Nutrition MLMs generally have disclaimers stating that their health claims have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, and that the products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. But that doesn’t stop the distributors for making such claims, and the company management turns a blind eye to it.

Defenders of multi-level marketing (MLM) are often heard saying that it’s a legitimate business method! Even government regulators say MLM is legitimate. And it is true that state and federal governments in the United States generally allow multi-level marketing companies to operate with little oversight. This is despite the fact that structurally and operationally, MLMs are nothing more than pyramid schemes.

Oh sure, the MLMs are careful to use lots of window dressing that makes it appear they don’t violate anti-pyramiding laws. There are even lawyers who whore themselves out to tell owners of MLMs how to “stay legal.” And of course, the massive lobbying on behalf of “direct sellers” and multi-level marketing companies ensures that current laws against pyramid schemes will not be enforced, and that no new laws impeding MLMs will be enacted.

Yesterday the Chicago Tribune ran a piece on multi-level marketing, specifically referring to Herbalife and Fortune Hi Tech Marketing. Typical positive MLM talking points were cited:

Hundreds of thousands of Americans get sucked into Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) companies each year. From Mary Kay to Amway to Herbalife to PrePaid Legal (now Legal Shield), the list is seemingly endless. Each offers its own special spin on the products it sells, but the main focus of an MLM is on recruiting new members.

MLMs live and die by the recruitment of new members, who make the bulk of the product purchases from the company. Little of the product is resold to an actual end user, but the MLM company doesn’t care. The sale has been made to the distributor (or associate or representative or member or consultant or whatever term you like).

Today the New York Post reported that Herbalife (HLF) is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and that has sent the stock price down more than 10%. The newspaper bases this story on a Freedom of Information request done by the newspaper. It says, regarding consumer complaints received by the FTC:

The FTC redacted some sections, saying it didn’t have to divulge “information obtained by the commission in a law enforcement investigation, whether through compulsory process, or voluntarily …”