so my girlfriend is trying to find a job in chicago because shes going to be staying here for the summer. She just was telling me on skype about how shes going to sell makeup on the side or as her main job if it works out/she cant find another job. She explained that her friend has been doing it and that she would hook her up and show her the ropes. This triggered a reg flag in my head right away and I started to casually ask more about it. She goes on to tell me that its cool because her friend will get a bonus from the company for getting her onboard. I say "so she gets a cut of what you make" -- "well no, the company just gives her a bonus" -- "and that bonus comes from where? thin air?"

Anyways she started to get kinda defensive so I feigned defeat and went on to do some research. I found lots of sites explaining this company as a pyramid scheme and read some really sad stories about women getting way too deep in their inventory because of pressure from above to push product. So after reading a ton I link my girlfriend to a few sites and have her read them. At first see seemed non-receptive but the more she read I think she realized that I was really just looking out for her and that this was indeed a scam. Obviously shes not going to do it now.

Heres the problem though, one of the companies I saw discussed as a MLM ( multi level marketing scheme) was Melaleuca, a company of which my mom uses the productsand receives packages from on the regular. Im still reading up on this stuff and it seems like a milder scam than the mary kay make up scam that my gf was almost sucked into. But none the less there are some strange rules regarding minimum orders and membership fees. I think Im going to read more and then confront/ask my mom about this stuff. I was wondering though if anyone had any experience with this stuff or anything like it.