• Pink Truth and Mary Kay on ABC’s 20/20

    Tune in to 20/20 on ABC on Friday October 2  for a story on the truth behind Mary Kay’s multi-level marketing “opportunity.” MLM is not a business opportunity, it’s a clever scam that has been made to look like a […]

  • Herbalife: Important or Not Important?

    Questions posed to Herbalife earlier this year by David Einhorn sent the stock price down quickly. Einhorn simply wanted to know about customers… actual consumers of the Herbalife products. One has to assume Einhorn has done lots of research on […]

  • Can You Make Money With Mary Kay?

    Over on my public awareness site Pink Truth, we’re often asked about whether someone can make money with Mary Kay Cosmetics. After all, they’ve got a product that you can retail, and you don’t really have to recruit, do you? […]

  • Mainstream Media Recognizes Mary Kay Cosmetics As a Product Based Pyramid Scheme

    The success of multi-level marketing companies and pyramid schemes has been based partly upon favorable media coverage of the industry. The MLMs put out plenty of positive press releases, resulting in numerous fluff pieces in newspapers and magazines over the […]

  • Mary Kay Cosmetics suing little company for daring to make money off Pink

    This is outrageous! Touch of Pink Cosmetics is a company that buys excess inventory from current and former Mary Kay consultants and then resells it to their customers. They basically help these people who were frontloaded with tons of product, […]

  • Primerica Financial Services a Scam?

    Over on my consumer awareness site, Pink Truth, I have put together a few articles about Primerica Financial Services. Like Mary Kay, Usana, and Mannatech, Primerica is a multi-level marketing company (MLM). The big difference, however, is that these other […]

  • The fight against Mary Kay Cosmetics gets some press

    A fluff piece about a Mary Kay Cosmetics distributor in the Springfield News Sun this morning mentions my website, pinktruth.com. The fluff piece focuses on a woman who drives a “Mary Kay car” and reportedly has good pay. Yet at […]

  • Pyramid Scheme Alert update

    In late November, I announced that I had been appointed to the Board of Advisors of Pyramid Scheme Alert (PSA). PSA is an organization dedicated to educating consumers about multi-level marketing companies and pyramid schemes. While MLMs are technically legal […]

  • Press Release: Fraud Investigator and Former Mary Kay Salesperson Joins Pyramid Scheme Alert Board of Advisors

    Milwaukee, WI November 22, 2006 . Pyramid Scheme Alert announces that Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE has been named to the organization.s Board of Advisors. Her consumer education website, PinkTruth.com, which exposes and analyzes the business and recruiting practices […]