Are these MLM things you guys are talking about the kind of thing I experienced when I tried job hunting the typical way? If I'm right they're essentially these weird and phony looking marketing companies that aren't necessarily outright scams but certainly they don't operate legitimately. One of them called me back after I applied randomly so I decided to do a background check on them and discovered all kind of shit and more recently I heard a news item on the radio about how they were taking advantage of people like me basically and trying to convince them they were doing legitimate work and were going to get paid.
I guess if I had to describe them properly it wouldn't be a scam I guess you could say the real way it works is like affiliate marketing, the problem is this is clearly that unpopular and everything they're forced to lie about it in order to sucker people in so they claim you can earn cash etc. etc. and in reality what you're doing is door to door sales etc. and trying to convince people to buy whatever product the marketing company has been assigned to sell. The difference between these guys and affiliate marketing is that they're running around outright lying to people about who they are and I'm not entirely sure why they do it really lol, probably because more honest affiliate marketing is all over the place right now.
There are some really nasty ones in the US. (not arguing all MLM schemes are scams, or even scammy -- I even pitched a business idea which used MLM just a few months ago)
Not too long ago, I almost interviewed for a scammy charity fundraising MLM (cold calls to raise funds for unknowns [likely people involved] and promising a salary but really giving commission) after sending out a resume to just about everyone I could find. I initially agreed without looking into it much, then was hesitant about driving 40 minutes out, so read up on them. My second response was "Sorry to have taken your time up, but I no longer have interest in an interview after reading more about the company." She didn't even bother trying to defend against it. Thinking about it more, I should probably file a formal report if they're still operating.
I'm not sure why peddling is still considered legitimate, anyway. I don't think I've ever had a peddler come to my door and talk honestly. The whole time, I'm trying to get them out and fighting the urge to point out inconsistencies in their story. For example, just a couple weeks ago, a young woman walked in our garage and closed the garage door (thinking it was a doorbell). It turned out she was selling textbooks for children (yes, in 2013). She initially started by saying she was majoring in education and decided to start her own business (going door-to-door out-of-state selling textbooks for a company established over a century ago -- lie #1). I incidentally started preparing lesson plans for our daughter a month ago partly using the new Common Core Standards (set of guidelines and expectations for K-12 students) documentation, so I asked her about it and noted how relatively rigorous the new standards are. She hesitated and made up a story about the books being "compliant" with Common Core standards (lie #2), and how kids are expected to do advanced algebra in 2nd grade (lie #3 & 4 [she obviously isn't majoring in education]). She prattled on a long list of people in the neighborhood who purchased books from her, and happened to note one of our neighbor's kids (who's also a mother, and who we've never spoken to -- we generally don't speak to any of them, and not about anything personal) said we were very active in our daughter's upbringing (lie #5 [don't take that the wrong way]). She had a 6-minute timer she reset at least three times, and kept giving us a bunch of books to thumb through. We're both too polite/cowardly to simply say "we're not interested and get out, lying scum," so we kept half-heartedly going along with this until we ordered $400 in textbooks after seeing they had a return policy.
The closest experience I've had to a legitimate peddler was once when a guy replaced our fence and, after finishing, decided to shout, while outside, at my wife about Jesus. He gave her a horribly-written book he himself'd written trying to discredit carbon dating with hilariously stereotypical (and irrelevant) arguments like "scientists want you to think we came from monkeys but that doesnt [sic] sound right to me. Does it sound right to you?!" At least he wasn't trying to sell the book.
