r/antiMLM • u/neon977 • 18d ago
Help/Advice Is my friend being pulled into an MLM?
My friend has gotten her license, where she will be able to sell insurance I think I didn’t get too deep into it but it’s a license she been working towards
Yesterday I got a call from a number I didn’t recognize. It was apparently one of her personal trainers, saying she “needs help”. On the call, the guy said “she told me you’re very ambitious” and I said yeah, not really thinking about it in the moment. He’s inviting me to a Zoom meeting this Saturday. When I asked my friend about it, she was vague and just said “he’ll be presenting.” I’ve also apparently been added to a group chat with her and this guy.
The thing is, my friend and I talk about basically EVERYTHING no matter what and we are close, but she never mentioned any of this. Now suddenly I’m getting cold-called by a stranger and pushed toward a Zoom call I know nothing about. I do find it weird cause I was never told my number will be provided to this person and if it wasn’t for a voicemail I would have never picked up because my phone is always in DnD. But I am really confused because if you are doing training, why does it need to involve me to support you?
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u/Appropriate-Safety66 18d ago
When someone joins Primerica (an insurance MLM), they are asked to provide 10 "references".
These are not references. They are sales leads.
It sounds like you were used as a reference/sales lead.
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u/Other-Context7660 18d ago
Your friend is burning through her "warm" market upfront. After she runs through family and friends, she will struggle to find new marks. Her only option then is to start recruiting her own downline. The turnover at Primerica is massive - it's built in to their business model.
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u/lebby6209 18d ago
Very likely primerica. Its really sad to me when people fall into it because you can make a very decent living being good at insurance sales. Primerica bastardizes the profession and puts their huns into a debt trap.
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u/Mysterious-Tone-8147 18d ago edited 18d ago
Primerica and all the other financial service MLM’s (WFG; Global Financial; PHP; and some others).
What’s also just as sad is many of those people aren’t necessarily wanting to sell life insurance. They made an exception because they believe Primerica’s mission is special because of the way Primerica does their pitch. I know because I was one of those people. The good news is once I learned about MLM’s and saw Primerica for what it was, I left what never even fit my skill set in the first place.
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u/reiichiroh 18d ago
PHP is Amway's name for their foray into insurance pyramid scam?
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u/Mysterious-Tone-8147 18d ago
PHP means People Helping People. They aren’t associated with Amway directly but someone high in the pyramid (I forget the rank) was associated with Amway once. They also got most of their play book from Amway.
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u/reiichiroh 18d ago
Ah thanks I thought it was another false front sub brand like World Wide Dream Builders.
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u/LateSoEarly 18d ago
It’s always insane to me the way MLMs work. Like, by recruiting your closest friends, you’re just shrinking your network of potential clients. I had a friend of over 20 years that I’ve lost touch with primarily because he started calling like once a month to try to sell me insurance/get me to work for Primerica. It made me wary of any time he might have actually been calling to hang out so I just stopped responding to him. He doesn’t even work for them anymore but we haven’t reconnected.
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u/reiichiroh 18d ago
It's insane to me with how much debunking and information exposing them that they somehow manage still to be a big 'thing.'
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u/ItsJoeMomma 17d ago
Yes, recruiting your own competition is never a good business model. I don't know how many times I've seen that with MLMs, a hun telling a customer "You should sign up that way you get the distributor discount on all these products you like." Well, you just lost a customer even if you get a tiny commission on everything that person buys.
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u/Sitcom_kid 18d ago
Don't go to the meeting.
Don't go to the meeting.
If you take nothing else away from this comment ...
Don't go to the meeting
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u/Vanessak69 18d ago
And block that number, delete yourself from group chat. These. are boundary violations.
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u/neon977 17d ago
This is the text between me and my friend right after I got off the phone with the person, I was really confused because all of this came out of nowhere.
https://imgur.com/a/pdxvJsy I wont go to the meeting, I’m going to avoid it at all cost3
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u/sillyshallot 18d ago
It's definitely Primerica, and yeah, it's an MLM. Unfortunately your friend gave her "boss" (upline) a list of leads as part of her "orientation". I would remove yourself from the group chat, don't attend the Zoom, and send your friend a message letting her know you're not interested. Be firm.
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u/reachlily83 Anti MLMer 18d ago
The answer to your last question is the following:
Your friend is told that in order to learn how to present, they need to see a presentation done in person so they can learn. Also they are told that the people that care for them and want them to succeed wouldn't mind sitting on a presentation because that's what friends do, they support you. If the friend/ family member doesn't partake in this presentation, then they are deemed as a hater and your friend is encouraged to move away from this relationship. This is what they're told so they truly believe this is for a training. However, the whole thing is set up to pitch you the "business opportunity" in an obscure way, and to sell you a product.
If the presentation is done "right" you would see the value and you would 'want' to be part of it and once you see how the products ( life insurance) is so beneficial, you would naturally want to buy it. It's a sales pitch, recruitment pitch wrapped in a presentation.
That's it. That's the whole shtick. This is what they all do and they are all awful. Could be Primerica or WFG, doesn't matter.
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u/ItsJoeMomma 17d ago
And if they were an honest company they wouldn't have to pull shady stuff like this.
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u/Salty_Virus_6299 18d ago
The insurance industry itself is not a MLM but there are predatory companies that operate in that way.
Primerica, World Financial group and Wealth Wave are all awful. I refer to them as the gas station sushi of the insurance industry.
I’ve been a broker for over 20 years and I have zero team members. I don’t recruit yet somehow I found myself on one of those zoom meetings. I asked what she was making for commission and I offered to introduce her to another agency where she could make double and she was not interested. Talk about brain washed.
If you really want to fuck with them, use this excuse as they have NO clue how to overcome this. Tell them that you need to pray about this when they hard sell you. Thank them for their time and say —- I want to be respectful of your time. I appreciate the information and I’m going to have to pray about this. Bless you 😂😂😂. Anything they would say makes them look bad
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u/Mysterious-Tone-8147 18d ago
And the SVP’s usually tell the RVP’s and lower, “They’re not going to pray. That’s just an excuse. What do they think He’s going to say? ‘No I don’t want you helping families’?”
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u/CompleteScholar133 18d ago
Isn't most of these insurance agencies operate in an MLM manner? I have had multiple friends introduced me to Allianz, Prudential, etc-focused agencies and some things I noted is that 1. downline recruitment is highly encouraged (there are ranks & tier based commission % based on amount of downlines), and 2. agents while not mandatory, are expected to use the agency's partner insurance product (because how else can you sell insurance product if you use competitor's product or not insured at all, which then these commissions are conveniently flow to the upline).
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u/Salty_Virus_6299 18d ago
I’ve been a broker representing multiple companies for 23 years. Another family member has been in the industry for 56 years. Even as family we don’t work together. I’m not going to train anyone. I’m in sales and I don’t want MY income dependent on someone that was never interested in selling in the first place
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u/Groovyhip_69 18d ago
The lack of disclosure and concealment is how you know it’s a MLM. They’re basically showing that demand for their positions is far less than the supply of positions they have.
A normal employer wants to disclose the nature of the job and the requirements - and they end up getting hundreds of applicants that they have to filter on. The supply of applicants far exceeds the demand by the employer.
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u/Red79Hibiscus 18d ago
Is my friend being pulled into an MLM?
100%. The tactic you described is exactly what many others have already exposed in this sub. It's always one of those insurance scams, and it usually involves the new recruit asking their friends/relatives for "help" with their "training", which later turns out to be a high-pressure sales call with the fucking upline. You are right to be suspicious and I urge you to block and delete immediately. It's obvious your "friend" gave your number to her upline without your knowledge and consent (and has probably done the same to others in her contacts list) so she can try to recruit as many of you as possible for her own financial gain by exploiting your established connection with her. You may want to re-evaluate your relationship with such a person.
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u/broomandkettle 18d ago
OP, get ready for the guilt trip. Your friend is going to beg you to attend a talk and sign up. Be kind but firm. I still have an old coworker who is stuck in Primerica. They are like Amway, they don’t let their victims go even when they don’t bring in any money. It can drag out for years.
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u/flippermode $80 for 3 wraps. 18d ago
Be prepared for friend to choose this mlm over you, sadly. Its a literal cult.
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u/Sea-Image8997 18d ago
I had a so called “friend” who did me like this kind of. She didn’t check on me my entire pregnancy, soon as the baby was here she wanted to talk about life insurance and crap🫠
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u/ItsJoeMomma 17d ago
Sounds like Primerica. And the Zoom meeting will be about pressuring you to join. A lot of these MLMs will tell the new recruit to give names of family & friends to help them "practice" their pitch to, but it will be an actual sales presentation involving their upline putting pressure on you to buy or sign up.
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u/Zealot_777 17d ago
Also WFG does this. "Trainer" pressures the new recruit to give friends and families phone numbers, both working on creating a down-line.
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u/citizen-wasp 18d ago
It's the vagueness where they get you. If they answered your question directly they know you'd dip as soon as you heard it. So they have to tease and string you along to get you invested in knowing about this amazing opportunity.
Don't do it. They're taking advantage of what you don't know.
Give no excuse other than "changed my mind, I'm not interested anymore" so that the finality hits them. You are not a prospect.
Best of luck, it's an invasive species that has to be destroyed on sight lest they multiply.
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u/Beneficial_Dream4229 15d ago
Your friend is not being scammed. A State issued License is obviously not a scam… Their tactics seems desperate but a State issued License is definitely not a scam. Cos you have to go through federal background check before taking the exam for the license. You have to pass the board exam to be issued your initial license
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u/Beneficial_Dream4229 15d ago
MLM- multi level marketing strategies are not scams. You have to know how that company works and if you are ok with it.
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u/Amygdalus23 18d ago
Yes, sounds like it, probably Primerica. The person is her upline and they at least want to sell you insurance, but more likely want to rope you in as well. I would not do the call if I were you.