The ugly side of MLM: Silencing critics with blackmail
I’ve been writing about MLM in one way or another for a few years now and over that time there’s been quite a lot of discussion about why I publish under ‘Oz’.
Critics of my work use it against me as a grounding point to establish a lack of credibility and the inevitable ‘but you just work for (insert rival company’s name here)’.
This is a recurring theme that seems to pop up time and time again despite not showing any bias in the MLM opportunities that I’ve thus far reviewed and continue to offer coverage on.
Getting back to the critics however, one of the particular reasons I publish under Oz is that, like any other industry, there’s a lot of deceptive and malicious people in MLM.
When you start critically analyzing the MLM opportunities they happen to be promoting at any given time, they tend to get nasty and what usually follows are emails like the following one I received.
Oz,
I propose creating a website letting your readers know who exactly you are. The site would include your full name, address, pictures, videos, some of your online habits (torrents, message boards) and a few of your offline activities.
I think that your readers would have a different perspective if they knew that you were a twenty-something year old kid… you may even gain some courtroom experience if your personal information were made public.
Certainly your life would become much more interesting.
Imagine prospective employers googling you only to learn that you’re a bit of a bittorrent freak, who enjoys spending his free time talking trash about, well, everyone.
I know that there’s a lot of people who would like nothing more than to learn who you are. A lot of very wealthy people with the means and motivation to contact you directly rather than through a court system.
You’ve mentioned a few times that you were too busy for behindmlm.com…. is that still the case? Because if that site came down (completely) then there would be no reason for the new site to go up.
I could care less about ozsoapbox.com, but I do think you may have better things to do than write about MLMs.
The launch date of the new website is Wednesday. Are you ready?
The author of the email is obviously invested in the MLM industry and could come from any of the business opportunities I’ve so far reviewed.
Given my communications outside of BehindMLM itself, I have my sneaking suspicions who sent the email but I digress,
It’s not important who sent it, so much as the fact that it was sent at all.
Somewhere out there is a person involved in the MLM industry who thinks that sending out blackmail emails is acceptable. This person could be yourupline… it could be the CEO of the business you work for, or it might just be a newcomer to the business who started last week.
MLM stretches far and wide in scope and I certainly don’t mean to tar the entire industry with the same brush. Somewhere out there though at least one person thinks this kind of behavior is acceptable and that no doubt reflects on their MLM marketing efforts as a whole.
If they’re willing to subject me to such threats, I can only imagine what they’re willing to do to those whose personal information they have ready access to via business databases.
Here’s to staying safe, credible business ethics and the continued non-biased coverage of the MLM industry at large…
Oh, the threat is sometimes all too real, albeit, not blackmail.
Ted Nyuten’s website was DDOS’ed after he published a full expose on TVI Express back in May 2010. Who did it? No idea. (But who else can it be?)
http://www.mlmhelpdesk.com/2010/06/01/ted-nuyten-reports-tvi-express-is-behind-the-freedom-of-speech-ddos-attack-at-business-for-home/
I’d have thought ‘we’ll set up a website publishing your personal details if you don’t stop writing‘ constituted blackmail does it not?
Interesting reading that MLMHelpdesk post. All smiles and whatnot on the surface but dig a little deeper…
“if they knew that you were a twenty-something year old kid”
They don’t even know your age. They don’t know anything about you.
Its got Polaris Media Groups stink all over it.
I bet nothing happens, empty threat. We all know how much they lie.
Here is a translation of a mail I received from Per Gunnar Hoem (part of WMI Executive Committee) the day after he called me with a hidden number without presenting his name.
He had treathened me with legal action and violence if I did not stop blogging about WMI. I knew it was him, and confronted him the next day by e-mail. This was his reply:
It is funny that Hoem claimed that CCP had nothing to do with WMI, as he still is speaking testimonials about how CCPro/WMI changed his life: http://www.perfectprosperity.com/a-fresh-start/success-stories.aspx
It’s not very hard to guess who the sender is. Many focus on the person rather than on the actual case, but each one usually have their own special style.
The person is in an environment where bittorrent is a great sin – one of the greatest. He does not have much experience in this area, and has not gained particular theoretical insight either. The word “torrent” is mentioned in two different contexts, both from his own area of experience.
1. As some kind of “social stress”, something you should hide from the outside world.
2. As an obstacle for getting a job or assignment
Most of us would have chosen very different examples than bittorrent if we were to illustrate a point. In my environment, it is completely acceptable to discuss technical solutions in this area – just as acceptable as to discuss other program types. This is not an area that an employer will check.
This expression “everyone” relates to a person rather than a company:
If it was related to one or more companies he would have used the expression “any company”.
Here’s another expression that is obtained from the person’s own area of experience – “very wealthy people”. Most others would have probably chosen a completely different expression. The phrase could be pretty comical if people imagine the wrong person. I tried to imagine Prince Charles, Duke of Edinburgh, in this role – “contact you directly rather than through a court system”. The imagination of Prince Charles in this role only created confusion, but he surely meets the condition of being very wealthy. 🙂
NOTE: The expression “area of experience” is from google translate. It can also be translated into “point of view”, “imaginary set of rules”, “emotional values” and similar expressions.
@B.F.
Wow, some nasty stuff from Hoem there. Why is it that people’s professionalism goes out the window when you combine criticism with MLM?
Well, this is what he wrote in an e-mail and signed by his own name. Just imagine what he said when calling me with hidden number.
He did not want to tell me his name, but claimed that he represented Wealth Masters International. Pretty strange for a company that claims to be a leading international company in personal growth and wisdom.
But even if the threats were quite serious, I just had to laugh of his weird ideas. This seemed to make him even more angry, and he promised to meet me in court and “wipe the smile of my face”.
Were are you, Per Gunnar? I’m bored of waiting.
Maybe someone should start a MLM company in the ‘criticism management’ niche.
So wheres this website? Todays the day isn’t it?
Your guess is as good as mine.