{"id":17707,"date":"2017-06-09T07:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T12:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/?p=17707"},"modified":"2017-06-09T07:01:52","modified_gmt":"2017-06-09T12:01:52","slug":"ponzinomics-mlm-fraud-and-the-ftc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/ponzinomics-mlm-fraud-and-the-ftc\/","title":{"rendered":"Ponzinomics: MLM Fraud and the FTC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ponzinomics-robert-fitzpatrick.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload alignright  wp-image-17708\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ponzinomics-robert-fitzpatrick.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ponzinomics-robert-fitzpatrick.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"157\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27275%27%20height%3D%27157%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20275%20157%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27275%27%20height%3D%27157%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ponzinomics-robert-fitzpatrick-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ponzinomics-robert-fitzpatrick-768x439.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ponzinomics-robert-fitzpatrick-800x457.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ponzinomics-robert-fitzpatrick.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/><\/a>Robert FitzPatrick, president of Pyramid Scheme Alert has written a new book about multi-level marketing and how the FTC allows these pyramid schemes to exist. In <a href=\"http:\/\/pyramidschemealert.org\/ponzinomics-explains-how-and-why-the-ftc-protects-multi-level-marketing\/\">PONZINOMICS, the FTC\u2019s Protection of Multi-Level Marketing<\/a>, he discusses the political interests involved in MLM and the lack of action by FTC officials.<\/p>\n<p>What is &#8220;Ponzinomics&#8221;? FitzPatrick uses the term to describe the scourge of multi-level marketing, which is nothing more than a pyramid scheme, but has been presented as a viable business opportunity. The government in the United States has gone so far as to protect these criminal enterprises which prey on millions of people each year, using <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pinktruth.com\/2016\/03\/29\/comparing-mary-kay-to-a-cult-part-2\/\">cult-like tactics<\/a> in furtherance of their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/2015\/03\/multi-level-marketing-is-not-a-business-its-a-pyramid-scheme\/\">pyramid schemes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The book talks about the lure of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/2014\/12\/herbalifes-fake-business-opportunity\/\">(false) income opportunity<\/a> and the use of testimonials and the flaunting of wealth to draw people in.\u00a0 FitzPatrick also discusses the tactics used to draw in new victims, as well as &#8220;blaming the victims&#8221; when <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pinktruth.com\/mary-kay-facts\/myth-of-mlm-income-opportunity-99-lose-money-in-mlm\/\">the venture inevitably fails<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll update you here when the book is available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert FitzPatrick, president of Pyramid Scheme Alert has written a new book about multi-level marketing and how the FTC allows these pyramid schemes to exist. In PONZINOMICS, the FTC\u2019s Protection of Multi-Level Marketing, he discusses the political interests involved in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[824,184],"tags":[997,2902,836],"class_list":["post-17707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consumer-protection","category-pyramid-schemes-mlm","tag-ponzi-scheme","tag-ponzinomics","tag-robert-fitzpatrick"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Z0e-4BB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}