From: rbakker@nl.oracle.com (Rick Bakker)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: Pyramid scheme/scam
Summary: Sender reports on NSA BOM
Date: 20 Nov 92 18:45:56 GMT
Reply-To: rbakker@nl.oracle.com (Rick Bakker)
Distribution: sci.skeptic
Organization: /etc/organization


It's hard being a sceptic, sometimes I wish I could just say "That's just
a load of digestive byproducts" when I just *know* it is and waste no more time
on it. But, it was not to be, and maybe by writing this I can save some 
fellow sceptics a wasted evening attending an NSA "Business Opportunity
Meeting" because they can base their refusal on this article instead of
a "closed mind".

It's a theory of mine that every young couple, faced with financial realities,
goes through an easy-money phase, when they are susceptible to chain letters,
network marketing and other pyramid schemes. Some friends of mine were bitten
so in order to help them fill their quota of possible converts I went along
to the BOM last Monday.

NSA (National Safety Associates - or is it a thinly-veiled front?) started
out in '69 with smoke detectors and in '87 (according to the opening speaker
who conveniently skipped their near-bankruptcy in '86, and then later spoke
of what a stable company it is) switched to air and water filters and 
network marketing. This is the ol' Amway style, where people get other
people to get other people to sell it to other people and collect commission
on what their pyramid, sorry network, sells. This is surrounded by stories
of people who made a fortune on it all, and this serves to get people into
first a selling then a buying frenzy (when selling turns out not to be so
easy and your friends start avoiding you). "You don't have to get great 
numbers of customers," we were assured, "just five good people." And 
then they get five good people, and so on. NSA seems to work on five-level
pyramids so if everyone present in the room achieved this, and supposing
the lowest rung found five people each to actually *buy* the stuff, then
we're talking about an involvement of 50*(5**6) = 750000+ people. It's
hard to grasp such a number, let alone explain it, or organise it.

These pyramid schemes usually do okay for the ones that get in early, which
we were all of course assured we were and were urged to do, independent
of whether the merchandise has any merit. It seemed to be reasonably good
stuff (to a layman) but even I could pick out some obvious cons. I experienced 
for myself how the water filter turned a glass of disgusting vinegar
water into tasteless clear water, but was taken aback by the crowd's 
silent acceptance of the tale about how it's too difficult to change the
filter so you can just throw away the (pricey!) machine after the 
guarantee runs out but oh, we're such an environmentally-conscious company,
we'll give you ten percent off your next purchase if you allow us to 
dispose of your useless machine in a responsible way. Like swap the filter
and sell it to the next sucker!

I find the whole idea quite dubious. The filter doesn't claim to hold 
back germs or bacteria so false security could abound,
especially when you have people desperate to sell it to prove their 
sceptical friends wrong. I have a lot of faith in the water that comes
from the tap, various governmental agencies guarantee its safety and it's
constantly monitored, but nobody monitors what comes out of their mysterious
filters. The air filters were even more ridiculous - there was one with 
a two-year guarantee that was supposed to hold back radioactive particles!
I don't know about anyone else, but if any radioactive bits came blowing 
through my house I wouldn't want to have a machine there catching them 
for a two-year stay.   

The evening ended with a marketing expert praising network marketing 
"which accounts for 40% of Japan's GNP." No wonder Japanese audio 
equipment is cheaper in Europe than Japan.

Summary: *AVOID*

Rick Bakker

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