Is MPB is a Scam?
The business promises that you get a big pay off and just need to find 2 people who each find 2 people to buy in
and get $200 in groceries or a transferable to a $200 WalMart gift card plus a $10 web site fee.
This is a play off the standard AMWAY model of a 6 person group in Multi-Level Marketing. But the difference
with MPB is that you are not selling anything for real, you are just getting what you get if you go to Wal-Mart and
buy a gift card for $200 and Go Daddy and get a $10 web page.
So if I am dumb enough to buy into this scam, I get 6 others to give Gary Calhoun a total of $1470
with the promise that he will pay me a $300 commission for doing the leg work of finding 6 others to buy also.
Yet what is the character of Gary? Is he reputable? Is his business ethics above reproach?
According to the FDA he has marketed products using illegal wording for which he was given a warning letter
for having made what the FDA claims is fraudulent misrepresentations about a drug or food supplement and
he has sold such via mail or advertising that contained wording which is not allowed by the FDA.
See: http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/2006/ucm075758.htm
Gary's other companies:
http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=34371
http://sta.rtup.biz/profiles/blogs/another-matrix-scampyramid
So given this evidence I have reason to question the way Gary does business to start with.
So if each of us dummies that gave the $210 to Gary get our gift cards and he makes good on the purchase
that will cost him $1400, and don't forget the $300 commission, then Gary will pay out with commission
a total which in my math book equals $1700.00
So $1470.00 minus $1700.00 equals a MINUS -$230 in the hole in the first matrix 2 X 2 see FTC link
http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/other/dvimf16.shtm This matrix MLM model is Bernie Madoff all over again!
So with each "CYCLE" as MPB calls it, the hole gets deeper for the Madoff want to bes'. As each person
has to find 6 more to get the $300 commission, it gets more difficult to find enough to get the commission and
the additional gift card or $200 for a total of $500 each cycle So lets do the math and see how it adds up:
DOWN LINE LOSE IF EVERYONE CYCLES Money Con is Holding for you & Everyone
1 YOU $ 200.00
6 -$230 -$1560.00 $1470.00
36 -$500 -$8280.00 $7560.00
216 -$49,680.00 $45,360.00
1296 -$298,080.00 $272,160.00
7776 -$3,888,000.00 $1,632,960.00
46656 -$23,328,000.00 $9,797,760.00
279936 -$139,968,000.00 $58,786,560.00
This is what I call the Level 8 scam, which means by level 8 the one who started it will be on the run.
The house of cards depends on the next victim to pay for the level above until the hit or miss time runs out.
With these types of pyramids the break out point to run with the money is at level 7 or 8 leaving right after
paying out to level 5 only. That way it looks good cause you just paid a quarter million in commissions.
Bernie Madoff had his scam running for years by getting fresh faces and money by paying at level 5.
When the shell was exposed he was into level 10 in the matrix and there were not enough rich folks
to keep the scam going, he had reached the saturation point.
So As you see above, 10% of the USA must join which with most MLM's is the saturation point of tolerance
before the neighbors and family start to run away when they see you coming. Now many say that calling out
this kind of scam is not brotherly and will attack you using your faith in an attempt to shame you into submission.
This is designed by the wolf so he can fleece the flock.
When I was young I watched my business go from a million dollar
venture to a flop when a scam artist used similar claims of "Christian brotherhood" to gossip, manipulate, and
scam the church out of millions from the members. A dear friend and brother who is a minister in Cleveland
also had to leave a congregation when he got involved with such a scam artist and it cost the church
hundreds of thousands and forced him to move to pastor another church.
Now in a real sales business when you make a sale, you get a commission or a small part of the sale as earnings.
In real MLM programs, you would earn a smaller commission for getting a friend or family member to join and sell too.
For example in Amway you get say 10% when you sell a product like a food bar and when your cousin who
joined sells one you get 5% of his sale. The Multi-level is for COMMISSIONS for products and the
cost of goods sold never equals the amount of commissions paid. That is NOT what we see with MPB when
we do the math above. You never earn any commissions on the groceries sold by your down line, you have
to keep getting more people to join to earn any money at all.
THE COST OF GOODS AND COMMISSIONS IS GREATER THAN THE EARNINGS!!!
DDD! $1470 IS NOT EQUAL TO $1700 AND WILL ALWAYS BE $230 SHORT!
Similar scams have been on the internet for years. The "gifting" scams are set up in a business model like
this one. With "gifting" the con artist gets a bunch of people to send out $10 in birthday cards to a list
of so called "other gifting" friends. By the time the list gets to you, it has a sales pitch that says look at
all of my friends that have made so much money. In reality these illegal letters and chain mail come from
the 'White Settlements" or "Irish Settlements" in the south of the USA. In those communities they have been
doing this for decades. They name all their sons the same name. For example Ed Lewis comes from a long
line of Ed Lewis named men who has brothers, 3 or 4, who are named Ed Lewis. His cousins are named
Ed Lewis, as is his uncle and his children. When a major news program investigated this band of Gypsy like
con families the reporter found a neighborhood where everyone in a 4 block area had the same name.
Now when you mail out your list of 10 to 20 "gifting" birthday cards to the top 5 or 10 on the list, in fact,
the top 10 or 20 are all friends in a con network that have polled resources to get lots of people to fall
for the scam. They build the "gifting" 2 X 2 Matrix so that the numbers above work in their favor.
By the time the matrix reaches thousands, they lose their birthday card addresses and move on with the
money. The US Postal Inspector and investigators post warnings on their web sites to try to make the public
aware of these scams and inform the public that participating in them is illegal. Yet still chain letters and emails
go out every day with phishing and other theft attempts from places all over the world.
The promise of BIG MONEY is always a part of this type of business model. But when you do the math,
any wise business person can see that the profit level is not sustainable. The average markup on products
is about 10% to 35% on food products. With some charity type candy sales the price is elevated to give
a 50% margin to the charity. But when you go to Wal-Mart and buy the candy bar that is $1 that candy has about
33 cents in profit. The same is true with other food products. Many products have lower margins of profit that
are not near that amount of profit due to advertising, payroll, other costs and taxes.
So just because someone says they are a "Messianic Jew" or that they are "Christian" does not mean that
they are bright enough to figure this out or that they are even aware that they are being stolen from.
So when you point out the scam expect to be attacked. To spite the attacks and the threats,
I still will expose the scam for what it is. Many so called "Church Members" are hood-winked by these crafty
con men. The usual means they use to attack you is to get a faithful convert within the community in good
standing to make false accusations against you, spread gossip, and call you evil in some way. They seek to
get people to not listen to your evidence. That is the goal of the attack and it is always tied to name calling
of some sort like "evil brother", "false apostle", or some sort of questioning of your motives.
This is where they get you. They play on your greed and the promise of big money as long as you hold
to the party line and canned arguments. They try to get you to get all emotional without looking over
the facts and understanding what is really happening here. In all the commotions, you run to the defense
of a perceived brother or sister, and they are walking out the back door with your cash. Now you are embarrassed
and not likely to run to the FTC or the Attorney General to lodge your complaint with the hundreds of thousands of
others. They have gotten you to demonize a true brother who was just trying to get you to see logic
and not get taken. Now you can not face the truth about what has happened and return to that
real brother and admit you were wrong. Most likely by now you have already blocked him on
MySpace or FaceBook and so he would much rather you stay away from him or her also.
Acts 20:29-31 For I know this, that
after my departing shall grievous
wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse
things, to draw away disciples after them.
Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three
years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
Using believers to try to get rich while pretending to be a "brother" is nothing new. There are a bunch of these
type in the Irish white settlement villages where tons of Lewis's and other names have streets of people who all have the same
name, there cousins do too, and they move from town to town to scam and steal, dragging in who ever they
can to steal from. These groups known as the "Settlements" in the deep south of the USA
have been known for these types of activities including home repair scams and other business cons.
When you just work the math here, the house of cards must fall some time. This MLM is
only 4 months old while I write this, it should reach critical mass by the next 6 months to a year.
The sad fact is that now with facebook and myspace type sites, this type of scam is becoming more
prevalent and the FTC and FBI can not keep up with the list of complaints. States Attorney General's
offices have little time for the little scams and when they grow big and hit the Fed's radar, the one who
started it all is already in Switzerland and gone to South America or somewhere where the trail will
never catch up with them. The scam artists in that took my business in the 1980s went to England, and to this
day there are members of that church who dislike me for exposing the conman. Yet he got deported
and all total had millions from the people who he stole from, just leaving on the INS ticket minutes
before the Secret Service agents got on his trail.
The money is in the Swiss Banks now. Soon more will be bilked from thousands online when another
unwise or foolish person falls for the tricksters who prey on the unsuspecting friends on social networks.
And if you don't believe me then send me and all my friends on Facebook $10 and we will send you
the deed to the Brooklyn Bridge.
So who's purpose do these MLM and prosperity gospel groups laden scams serve???
Could it be Satan? Another great tool to divide the congregation and stop them from becoming what
Yahshua wants it to be, His Spotless Bride!
REMEMBER the Messiah said: "You can not serve two masters, you serve either Yahweh or Money".
So if you have a real business model that is going to pay a fair commission and do so paying a fair earning
and quality product in exchange for a fair days labor, then you can do such without attacking a brother,
hiding behind a web page on the internet where your name and image are not up front, and by following
the ethics and teachings of the Messiah.
SO IF YOU GOT IN MPB TRY THIS, DEMAND YOUR MONEY BACK !
According to State and Federal LAW you must give a person a NOTICE OF CANCELATION
for any IN HOME or INTERNET sales of any product, membership, or service. That means that
in for example New York, you have by law 30 days to cancel any in home purchase. That is
IF THEY PROVIDED A WRITTEN NOTICE OF RIGHT TO CANCEL AND A FTC
COMPLIANT SIGNED NOTICE OF INFORMATION ON HOW TO CANCEL AND WHERE
AND WHO TO SEND THE NOTICE TOO IS IN WRITING!
If no written cancelation notice is attached to the sale, then you can cancel at anytime forever by law.
I searched the MPB web site and saw NO notice of cancelation warning or disclosure required by law.
On my sites you will see the Notice for in home sales required and a return policy. There is no need to
hide behind a company name hiding who I am from the light of day because I have made good to my
customers when they have had a complaint. In 15 years in business I have only had one person return
the product after the legal cancelation period was over. I did not by law have to take it back, BUT I DID!
And I refunded their money in full.
That is the very reasons why my REAL NAME and REAL PHOTO are on ALL my web sites or linked
to them. No one has to hunt for who I am and where to send the letter of complaint. When I sell cookware
or Books, you see who you are dealing with and where to return the product. When I hire someone to sell
my products, they get a fair commission and a fair value to offer. The Quality speaks for the product, the warranty
stands by the claims, and you won't find any FTC letters about some unfounded claims against me on
FDA or FTC web sites. If I get one, I will respond and correct the matter immediately and that will go on in
public where everyone can see.
Check out the company reputation first before getting involved with businesses that have only been in this
business for 4 months. Are they piggy backing off some other business that has nothing to do with them?
Are they structured in such a way that the profit margin is visible? When I sell a thousand dollar cookware
set of stainless steel pot and pans, you see that the lifetime warranty and the quality are beyond question.
The value is in the quantity and the profit is visible. You know that the margin is 1/3rd for product, 1/3rd
for costs and operations, and 1/3rd for commissions and profit. That is what the good business model
does, make a mutual win win operation where customer and sales staff all can be proud of doing business
with you without having to defend the owner for past questionable activity or arguments about
slandering someone you have had as a friend for years and go to worship service with long before the
newest fad MLM has broken apart the fellowship that should be based on Messiah rather than who I can
get to join my profit margin and make me money at church.
By the way, if you do a YouTube search you will find hosts of videos on the MPB both pro and con.
Many of these videos call MPB a scam and spam and have not been sued or taken down by MPB.
If I had a legal business that was being slandered by thousands on YouTube I would have my lawyer
do something about it. Mr. Calhoun has not done anything to stop this and everyone I have met and
talked to in the business do not have a clue about what they have been suckered into buying other
than a claim by one man that he has cycled 40 times and got paid. (so he says).
The house of cards will eventually fall under its own weight and by the time the Feds get off their
coffee break to attempt a take down millions will be changing hands. In most of these cases, the con
pays some fines and do a 5 to 10 years in federal prison while the money trail remains untraceable and
the criminal gets out a multi-millionaire to write a book on how he beat the system and stole millions.
Most fade into the background noise and never get caught, move to Brazil and other south sea Islands
full of these now rich tricksters.
And for those who desire to sue me, My attorney is Mark Hollenbeck in Bradford PA, So send your
letters to him and all valid claims will be addressed in court. As for the others who will slander me for this
report and math, I am the FREE PRESS, who will not go down lightly with out a FIGHT!
Signed Cpt. Daniel W. Merrick, Ph.D. Minister and Brother in Messiah
US Army DAV Retired, Businessman with Ethics who is not afraid of the truth.
Host of "Instructions To Money Radio"