DizzyNugget
DizzyNugget

Pyramid scheme scam

Okay, so this happened to me last year. I was approached by a college alumni (got my number from college alumni group) who told me he had a side business going on which was leading him to earn more money than his corporate job and that he was going to leave the corporate for his “business”.

I was initially not interested but he was insistent and also I was looking to explore some options (may be my naïveté) that I asked him more and so he setup a call with his senior to explain more about this “business”.

Now this senior gave all sorts of gyaan regarding how to reach financial independence and picking up on the general mindset of how to make more money. They asked to create a list of 10 things that I desired the most at the point of time which could be solved with more money. I complied thinking it was a good exercise (again, I was a big fool). Now I was connected with another senior who gave all sorts of gyaan regarding how I could make more money and lead to financial independence.

Please note, during all this time I was constantly asking what the business idea was and how it would be achieved but got no response on the details and only white washing regarding how I should be prepared to do anything to achieve my dreams.

Now, it was revealed that I would need to put in 5L as investment to get bigger returns. Since I did not have that money in handy, I was suggested to get a personal loan through their agents. Also not to inform this to parents because they won’t understand this stuff and get “worried”. Luckily I did went with their suggestion and informed my parent about it. Thinking it was a startup idea, I got the investment from my father through an OD in my name.

Now we get onto a call two days later, where they reveal the company QNet and makes me purchase 5L of stuff from their website and explained the business model which was to get other people from your knowing to buy products from this company and get commissions on the sale.

Continued……

16mo ago
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FloatingCupcake
FloatingCupcake

Bruh... what even?! It's a well known scam. I don't understand how you were ready to put in 5L of your money without going for a simple google search.

All these IIT/NIT/IIM/AIIMS means they cracked a certain exam. It has nothing to do with guaranteed moral values or even basic common sense. Lesson learnt the hard way I guess.

DizzyNugget
DizzyNugget

Correct. I only listened because they were from my alma-mater. But surely broke my pre-conceived notions and made me learn the hard way.

FuzzyNugget
FuzzyNugget

You should inform all other alumni about this guy and make sure no one falls for same. How did you get into IIT BTW😛

DizzyNugget
DizzyNugget

Continued 2…

The reason I fell for this in the first place was because all these people were from IITs and were placed in well known companies and working on their regular jobs. That was the reason I listened to them in first place.

After all this shit, I realised how you cannot trust anyone in this world, least the people from your alma-meter.

ZestyQuokka
ZestyQuokka

You should name and shame them on public platforms.

JumpyPretzel
JumpyPretzel

Name and shame those IITians, that will be a great lesson to them. And don’t you know many of the top executives of QNet are under arrest? There are tens of cases against QNet guys by ED. One quick google search would have told you. This had come to me almost 7 yrs back and at that time only within a few minutes of talk I had realized it. Similar to this, there was other MLMs like EBiz, 10 yrs back. Google and a bit of common sense, helps a lot. I absolutely despise such guys who trap innocent folks. They must be named and shamed.

GroovyBoba
GroovyBoba

How y'all keep falling for MLM scams in 2023?
15 min in a convo and if the party doesn't share what the business is about then they either are a scam or naive to think idea is more important than execution. And In both of those cases you tell them to gtfo.

DizzyNugget
DizzyNugget

True dat. Learned this the hard way.

GoofyBoba
GoofyBoba

Can everyone stop dunking on OP? He shared an important lesson. There’s a first time for everyone. There’s no need to judge him for it. He did the right thing with the information asymmetry he was dealt with.

DancingDonut
DancingDonut

I've heard people making good money. Some of my close known people are doing this full time and are maxing out on commissions (6L per week). Sometimes I feel if it's a good idea to pursue this :/

DizzyNugget
DizzyNugget

My personal opinion that I realised after this. I would definitely not want to earn money by duping other people in any way that too my family members and friends. Better to be in a humble state than be ultra rich and scam other folks.

JumpyPretzel
JumpyPretzel

Yeah, defrauding people to make quick money appears good idea to many. So no wonder so many fraudsters have got into it. I just wish everyone’s name get printed and flashed prominently everywhere.

DizzyNugget
DizzyNugget

Continued 1…

Major target would be your friends and family. Now after this meeting is over, I have become skeptical. I am told about another meeting with the founder who is the mastermind behind all this stuff. In the meeting, I realise that this is all an elaborate scheme to prey on the gullible as the other audience member were people in need of money, retired Army officials and uncle aunties having free time and money. I quickly searched on the internet and found all kinds of shady stuff going on with the company.

After the founders meet, I again met with these people and told me reservations and could clearly see their attitude changing from polite to defensive. That’s when I realised I was screwed. I pondered on this shit all the night long and next day told them that I do not want to associate with them.

Luckily I was refunded for the products bought in India, but had to suffer in cancellations charges for foreign purchase and an event fee they took totalling 50-60k.

I told my father about this and he was supportive and I realised what kind of shit people are pulling up these days.

ZoomyJellybean
ZoomyJellybean

You got a part of money because they don't want to spoil their MLM business model tree for a leaf node. Loss you incurred is their fail case scenario, so the tree remains robust and keeps driven in recruiting new people as they know their time was not wasted.

QuirkyNarwhal
QuirkyNarwhal

Okay it was a relief to know that you got the money refunded and didn't actually lose 5L.

But these kinds of scams are very common. I don't know how you even agreed to put 5L into something even without knowing anything about the business.

But don't believe someone because of their alma mater or what you perceive to be true. Everyone has an ulterior motive.

And not every IITian is smart.

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