{"id":5531,"date":"2010-12-11T14:00:29","date_gmt":"2010-12-11T20:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/?p=5531"},"modified":"2011-08-19T21:28:54","modified_gmt":"2011-08-20T02:28:54","slug":"atlanta-newspaper-examines-mlm-scheme-stream-energy-ignite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/atlanta-newspaper-examines-mlm-scheme-stream-energy-ignite\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta Newspaper Examines MLM Scheme Stream Energy \/ Ignite"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Robert FitzPatrick of <a href=\"http:\/\/pyramidschemealert.org\">Pyramid Scheme Alert<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In a <a href=\"http:\/\/pyramidschemealert.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Ignite.AtlantaCJ.PyramidScheme.pdf\">feature report<\/a>, a major metropolitan newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, examined the MLM scheme, Stream Energy\/Ignite, focusing on the question of whether the company is operating a disguised pyramid scheme. Stream is a reseller of utility services, gas and electricity, and operates in several states. Ignite is the multi-level marketing \u00a0sales division. \u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The company uses a pyramid pay plan to enroll salespeople, each of which pays several hundred dollars to join the plan and then an additional \u00a0monthly charge to participate. \u00a0The newspaper asked Pyramid Scheme Alert president, Robert FitzPatrick, to analyze the company\u2019s payout disclosure. The analysis revealed that less than 2% of Ignite salespeople make any profit. Stream Energy\/Ignite is the subject of a class action lawsuit brought by consumers claiming the company operates a pyramid scheme.<\/p>\n<p>Stream officials told the newspaper that it has 400,000 customers and 172,000 salespeople, an apparent \u00a0ratio of less than two retail\u00a0customers per salesperson. \u00a0The company did not divulge exactly \u00a0how many of the salespeople are also \u201ccustomers\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>To gain commissions from \u201cdownline\u201d purchases and sales each salesperson is required under the pay plan to have four customers, (called Energy Accounts). However, in order to qualify for rewards,\u00a0the plan\u00a0allows the new recruits to count their own personal\u00a0purchases as two retail sales. <strong>Personal purchases, therefore, become an additional investment made by new recruits to get in on the recruitment-related rewards.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The analysis also showed that less than 2% at the top of the Stream\/Ignite sales pyramid received 55% of all commissions. The article noted that the Governor\u2019s Office of Consumer Protection\u2026 \u201cwill investigate the matter again, due to issues raised by the AJC (Atlanta Journal-Constitution).\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Robert FitzPatrick of Pyramid Scheme Alert In a feature report, a major metropolitan newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, examined the MLM scheme, Stream Energy\/Ignite, focusing on the question of whether the company is operating a disguised pyramid scheme. Stream is [&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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[184],"tags":[1037,836,1036],"class_list":["post-5531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pyramid-schemes-mlm","tag-ignite","tag-robert-fitzpatrick","tag-stream-energy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Z0e-1rd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5531","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=5531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sequenceinc.com\/fraudfiles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}