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The Beginning
So a little bit of backstory: I was working at a plastic factory about a week ago. A relative of mine said there was a place hiring near his workplace and that I should go try it out. It was a pretty shady place.I worked there for 3 weeks and no one there knew my name, address, phone number, or any contact information of the sort. I also was not told any of their contact information, or how much I was getting paid for that matter. What you did at the job was basically you would show up at 8am, and place labels on plastic containers until your shift ended at 6pm. You got two 10 minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch.
After two weeks you got your pay in cash in an envelope. When I got my first pay it just said "China Boy" (lol) on the front of the envelope. From that I figured out that you pretty much get paid minimum wage, which is 10.25 here in Canada. The workers there were mostly comprised of immigrants I assume as everyone had a thick accent, relatively poor English and were either Chinese, or Indian. They were older people 30-50, and as someone that was 19 I felt incredibly out of place.
Three weeks go by and I decided that I have had enough, standing in one spot for 10 hours doing the same thing thousands of times was just so monotonous and mind-numbing. Machine poops out plastic container-> place label on container-> place containers in boxes-> rinse repeat. So I finally decide to quit and I go to the plant manager. This is the guy that basically walks around to make sure you arnt fucking up or slacking off, he had the best English in the factory by far and did not carry an accent. He asks me if anything happened and if I was dissatisfied, I simply told him that I didn't think this job was for me. He gave me his business card and told me to give him a call since there is a great job opportunity where I could make a lot of money. As a young and recently unemployed individual I was thrilled. He told me about how it was a financial services company, how he only worked at the plant part-time and that I should go to a meeting at 7pm on Tuesday(it was Thursday at the time).
New Opportunities
Now this is where the real dilemma begins. I go to this meeting quite a ways away from home(about 2 hours by bus). Get there, quite a fancy place I say to myself,big clean looking building, lots of offices, shiny trophies etc. Now lets call the plant manager Dave. Dave meets me outside, brings me to a small room filled with about 30-40 people with a large projector screen in front, everyone there very happy and energetic, lots of handshaking. Dave takes my jacket, gives me a name-tag and tells me to sit in the front row of the presentation. The presentation starts and they have representatives from Primerica tell us about what the company is all about, how people were making over $500,000 dollars a year through Primerica and how banks were ripping people off etc.
At the end of the presentation, the big boss man there tells us about how he drives a porche 911 and owns a gigantic house by the lake. Then he precedes to hand out cheques to people(which I assume are employees) in the audience. He asks them how they feel and they say they feel great etc. It felt like some kind of cult gathering. Everybody gets up shakes hands and leaves. Dave offers me a ride back to the subway station so I was like: "hey, I don't want to take a 2 hour bus back why not", but this was incredibly strange. Me and Dave barely knew each other, let alone have had a conversation that was longer than 5 minutes. When we get there, he gives me some documents, an application, a booklet on "How Money Works" and a Primerica pamphlet.
The thing is, to get started I have to pay $99 plus $25 each month. I don't know what kind of job where you have to pay to get in. Despite this I was pretty interested in the job; everything would be done in teams and I would be shown how everything works. So my question is should I dive in and take the opportunity or back out and tell them im not interested. I've read a lot of bad rep online concerning Primerica on how it is a pyramid scheme and a scam, so I'm pretty sceptical. If you've read this far, thanks for reading  Any advice would be appreciated.
Here is a link to their website: http://www.primericacanada.ca/
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its a standard MLM (multi-level marketing) LEGAL pyramid scheme. that being said, its possible to make good money from it (for the 1%). the rest aren't motivated enough and follow along dragged by the confidence boosters and artificially super-positive environment.
amway.com is the biggest one and may even be affiliated with this organization.
i've seen friends become rich by it but basically you give your life to manipulating people to join you and push yourself up, slowly pulling them up with you at a fraction of what you're making (the 1%). or you are the one being pulled up (99%)
edit: on top of that you are selling life insurance. well, i guess it really comes down to one thing -- are you willing to completely abandon any emotions about calculatedly manipulating people to make bad decisions for themselves, for your own benefit? if yes, do it; if not, dont waste your time.
edit2: you have to realize i know people in these organizations at a deep level and they employ the same tactics as the plant manager to get people to join them.........wow he fucking did carbon copy of amway sales method. and the meeting...designed to give the company legitimacy and make it look fancy.....its all teh same. mind = blown. its a fucking clone holy shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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do not get involved with this.
I PROMISE you will not be making millions of this "easy money".
It also has nothing to do with banking, all it really means by "banking" is that instead of depsosting your money in a bank... you give THEM your money.
You give them 25$ a month, its split per person above you.
Then when YOU recruit people, you make a share of their 25$ and so on.
Its just a pyramid scheme with a new name since pyramid schemes are illegal.
There is money to be... if you have no problem with scamming people out of their money for your own benefit. But if stealing from friends/neigbors/acquantances bothers you..do not get involved.
And I personally KNOW a man who made MILLIONS with one of these scam business. He is one of the top guys Associated with Monavie. (Basically a magical fruit drink that cures cancer... in reality its a pyramid scheme with a product, similar to amway.)
Yes there CAN be a shitload of money to be made...because people are so stupid and buy into "easy money" on a regular basis...ESPECIALLY in a down economy, people are so desperate.
But again, completely comes down to where you stand on the matter morally.
Also you have to realize, you will only MAKE money if YOU personally get thousands of people involved in this pyramid scheme..its how they work.
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My guess 'this job' is not for you. Its for people who mostly don't give a fuck about feelings and never make a second thought.
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Would you like to buy some magic beans?
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I know a little about Prime America because I work for another insurance company.
Prime America sells Term Life insurance and generally refuse to touch Whole Life. Different types of insurance meet different kinds of needs and refusing to touch an entire category is a little odd and Prime America employees get a little defensive about it.
Almost every Insurance Sales job employment works like a Pyramid Scheme, even the company I work at. You get hired and the person who hired you gets paid. You hire someone later and you get paid, as does the person who hired you. Some companies will keep paying recruiters as the recruits hit bonus on sales. Except most legitimate Insurance Sales position do not charge an entry or subscription fee, they'll just make your pay for your State License exams.
If you want to sell Life Insurance, join a better Life company like NY Life or Farmers. Hell if you want to sell Insurance, go sell Auto or Health Insurance, not Life. But, if you want to be part of a Pyramid Scheme go ahead if you can get yourself to take advantage of people.
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Thanks for the replies, Im not really down to take advantage of my friends/ family so I think i'll have to decline. I also dont know a ton of people that I could sucker into buying this stuff. Dodged a bullet there, almost got into some deep shit :/
Guess i'll give him a call, hope he isnt too persistent
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Your story almost sounds like it was from a movie or something, not saying it isn't real or anything.
But yeah like people said run away from that opportunity while you still can, and quitting the first job was a good call as well.
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lol sounds like a pyramid scheme bro
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I know my brother used to do some of the same stuff, were they got promised to earn "millions".
However, he ended up paying for a lot of stuff himself to start, and getting like ~15 dollar an hour and had really bad work times.
We convinced him to quit, and they reacted with not paying him his last paycheck (he didn't do a contract, idiot >_< ).
Anyways, i wouldn't recommend that kind of work to you, there's usually a reason why it's shady and they try to make it look like a once in a lifetime chance to earn the big bucks.
They are acting a bit to kind aren't they..
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Yep, it's a scam. Pyramid scheme like mentioned.
I was almost scammed when I lived in London by an extremely similar company (from the sounds of it). They were also Canadian lol.
Dont call him. Just ignore. Trust me.
PS: also LOL at that crappy website xD
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Big boss only has a Porsche 911? Doesn't sound like they make that much money
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Seen this before, even had a "associate" give me a oral presentation of all the special offers. The video he showed me screamed pyramid scheme just judging from how the reward system and how things generally worked. I pretended to be interested in a mild manner and at the end even agreeing to attend a "conference" (of course formal attire required!). After that I ignored all contact with this guy, yet he kept calling me and leaving voicemails about doing business.
I found it ironic that this guy was a school teacher. But good riddance.
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Yeah, I can't lie to innocent people and take away their time to improve the well-being of some company started for the benefit of some guy who wants to be rich. say fuck you to that. i'm sure i do similarly immoral things but it just pisses me off.
Ah the workplace. My greatest enemy.
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This is legal and more commonplace than you would think -- contrary to what some people are saying here. But what is true about what some are saying is how you have to be a certain kind of person to do it. They will want you start hitting up your friends & family, and ask them to hit up their friends & family, etc.
Just like any job that you want to get rich off, it will take hard work and you will have to conform to a certain lifestyle.
Honestly, as many negative connotations this type of job has, there are also many things you can learn from it that are transferable in the corporate world. If that's what you want to do and you're afraid of something like this, I would start to do some heavy soul-searching.
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EPT
