Summertime is here and the youth are out job-hunting again. Given last year’s experience with illegal pyramid scheme companies, we would like to set out here, in collaboration with the Direct Selling Association, the difference between legitimate businesses and pyramid schemes.

Pyramid schemes are forbidden by law under the Pyramid Selling Prohibition Ordinance and perhaps also under the Chit-Fund Business (Prohibition) Ordinance.

As a primer, most legitimate companies using the direct selling model have a venerable history of over 35 years, whereas companies running illegal schemes run for not more 2 years. Here is a list so you can check whether you are being conned.

	BONA FIDE SYSTEM	FRAUD
Entry Fee	Requires a minimal entry fee and it is not mandatory to buy a product inventory.	Requires participants to pay a large sum as entry fee and buy a huge amount of products as prerequisite for joining the company.
Sales & Marketing Plan	The sales and marketing plan is based on product sale. Distributor income is derived from the sale of high quality products at retail.	Neglects product sale and derives income from recruiting and entry.
Buy Back from Distributors	Does not require distributors to buy a product inventory and allows return of saleable merchandises within a reasonable period of time or upon resignation.	Prohibits return of merchandise or impose stringent rules on product return.
Customer Satisfaction Guarantee	Accepts product return from customers who are not satisfied with a product within a certain period of time.	Refuses reasonable request for product return.
Product Quality	Offers products of high quality and value. These products are competitive in the market and upon which distributors can develop their business.	Does not guarantee product quality. The products are difficult to sell because they are marked up beyond market prices.
Claims	Will not make unjustifiable claims or unrealistic commitment.	Always overstates products’ effectiveness, retail profit and bonus income so as to lure people to join the company.
Distributor Training	Has a comprehensive sales and marketing plan and professional management and provides training for distributors to assist them in developing their business.	Ignores distributor training or makes use of training as a means to generate income.

We live in a city where antitrust laws have done their utmost to the public good. Our cellphone plans are cheap, our food is quite cheap, our trains are on time and air conditioned, our airport is world-class… and the list goes on. Meanwhile, lets take a look at the stone-age cell phone plans in the USA!

It appears that the more you are taxed, the lower your quality of life. Or more accurately, the fewer Macs you can afford, the worse off you are.

Say, when you buy a car park space and the conditions say that one residential tenant shall have one car park space, can you park two vehicles on that space, one on top of the other, using a stacking device? Join the forum discussion on this post – (1) Posts

Donald Trump, if that means anything to you, has given his thumbs up to the growing trend of preventative health care by teaming himself up with a 12-year old Massachusetts-based health food company. Unfortunately for him, he has once again joined with the wrong partner. No one in their right mind would join someone else other than those with the best scientific team and most established distribution network in the market. If Donald did his due diligence, he would discover that Nutrilite, and not his new parter, is the only health food brand with their own certified organic farms across unpolluted lands in North and South America – and they’ve been doing it for 75 years with year-on-year growth.

Health foods are eaten over long periods of time, and it would only be wise to join those who have as much experience as possible. Foods are not tested rigorously by the FDA or equivalent organisations, therefore, it is imperative that the company making and selling these items be tested by millions of customers and by time itself. Nutrilite shines in that respect. In fact, it is the world’s first manufacturer of natural vitamin and mineral supplements. By turning his investment to a baby company with less experience and no proven safety record, Donald could be endangering the world.

From this diagram, one can see that competition / antitrust laws might not actually improve consumer prices for a commodity in developed countries.

The HK Department of Health has ordered the recall of 17 supplements for joints as the manganese content found in them differed to the amount declared on their labels. The department found they contained 10mg of manganese instead of 5mg as per the label – the suggested intake on the packaging would therefore induce overdosage. Manganese is an essential mineral but can cause neurological effects in high doses.

The products, under various brand names (PDF list), were imported by Dragon Link (International) Trading Company. The products were registered over-the-counter pharmaceutical products and supplied to medicine retailers.

Consumers are reminded to stick to reputable health supplement brands with over 70 years standing, such as Nutrilite, for their daily needs.

Recently, Coway Water Filters have found their way into the Facebook advertising system. The filters promote ‘safe’ water through their system of 6 filters. However it is not certified by any independent third party, let alone any reputable third party. Consumers are warned because filters that do not fully and properly treat water often end up making the water worse. It is doubted that Coway can live up to its claims.