Thousands of victim testimonials have poured in from around the world in response to the free book Merchants of Deception. Hearing from all these former IBO's has been a true learning experience as the documentation trail continues to deepen.
It seems that each line of sponsorship or Amway/Quixtar motivational organization represents to their downline consumers that they are the fastest growing, most profitable, most ethical Christian leadership, largest etc...
Judging from the representations I have reviewed it appears that the best line of sponsorship to get in is that of Double Diamond Fred Harteis. According to Mr. Harteis, while speaking to consumers at an open recruitment meeting to induce participation, he advised the crowd that he "and a few other guys helped develop 2200 millionaires. It is a very simple process."
Apparently you will not become a millionaire right away and Mr. Harteis provides a personal guarantee of success if you follow his guidance. Specifically, he advises, "Now I want to tell you somethin' else. I'll personally guarantee ya any level of success you want, if you just do what I tell ya. And there's a seminar coming up. Ya need ta get there."
Luckily you can make a lot of money very quickly on your way to becoming a millionaire if you work with Mr. Harteis. He advised recruits of very specific earnings expectations. Specifically, he advised that, "within three to six months from today .... within three to six months let me show you how we helped several thousand people add over $3,000 extra".
That, apparently is just the start as Mr. Harteis advises the group of what they could anticipate in addition to the above. In the presentation of the sales and marketing plan Mr. Harteis told the group present, "let's look for starters at adding... making another fifty to another one hundred thousand dollars a year, for starters. All right, I'll show you how to make a lot more if you'd like to .. we do. All right, I wish that is all we had to pay in taxes in a quarter. Now lets look at adding, within two years from now another 50 to 100 thousand a year or a lot more."
There is apparently a 100% success rate in Mr. Harteis' system. He clearly states that "We have a special system that works.. 100% of the time for 100% of the people that follow it."
You can hear many of these representations in Mr. Harteis' own voice at
http://merchantsofdeception.com/casestudiesHarteis.html
Should consumers flock to get in Amway or Quixtar to earn these tremendous incomes and have their success guaranteed? Each of these statements is completely fraudulent and also in violation of the IBO rules conduct. The downline motivational organization of Harteis in the UK, IBS, just had it's tool business banned after government intervention.
Sadly, the corporation has been well aware of these deceptive practices for many years. I reported activities of this nature directly to then President Dick DeVos as well as Dan Bailey in Rules and Conduct six years ago. Actions were taken against me and my sole income shut off for nearly a year subsequent to my reporting that the Harteis downline were being defrauded. I simply wanted to protect our loyal friends in the business and thought Amway/Quixtar shared that same motivation. Another IBO who lost $34,000 in Mr. Harteis' "success system" reported the fraudulent business practices to Dick DeVos and the IBOAI Board by certified mail in January 2001.
http://merchantsofdeception.com/files/ShawnDerrickComplaint.pdf
The reality is that there appears to be a near 99% loss rate for those IBO's who are induced to invest in the system to "guarantee" their success.
These two accounts could seem anecdotal. A large number of other vicitms of this system in the US and UK have since contacted me and provided heart wrenching stories of economic loss and broken promises. A sample can be viewed at:
http://merchantsofdeception.com/files/HarteisVictimsTestimonials.pdf
...some of these allege losses for individual families as high a $40,000.
Despite this, the Harteis leaders implore their trusting group to 'never quit". Specifically, Linda Harteis spoke to a group of IBO's and said in a meeting that was recorded and sold as tape of the week, "But, I want to tell you, if you just keep the faith and you keep plugged into your upline and you listen to the tapes and you plug into the system, you are gonna make it. You just hang in there and don't you ever quit, cause quitting's not an option. We love you."
How did the corporation and the IBOAI Board respond to certified mail complaints of fraud and deceptive trade practices? Sanctions were placed upon me after making
the reports and in 2004 Fred Harteis was elevated to President of the IBOAI Board and allowed to serve on the Legal and Ethics Committee. See PDFs here:
As Amway now faces potential closure in the UK for business practices like those detailed above, it is making public statements that they are reviewing their\ global business practices. Sadly, this is hard to take seriously as the documentation seems to support that
senior management had full knowledge that the distributor force was being defrauded in tool systems as far back as the early 1980's. See:
http://www.amquix.info/amway_directly_speaking.html
How many decades should it take to address the issue?
If you were in the Harteis group, please send your story and the approximate amount you made or lost to enschei@yahoo.com.
Thank you,
Eric Scheibeler
