Hi Did you hear all the screaming last week? Apparently, the FTC is implementing a new rule called "The Business Opportunity Rule" MLMers have been screaming long and loud that it's going to affect legitimate mlms. Here's how the FTC describes it; The proposed Business Opportunity Rule would prohibit business opportunity sellers from failing to furnish prospective purchasers with material information needed to combat fraud and would prohibit other acts or practices that are unfair or deceptive within the meaning of section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. ("FTC Act") Here's a couple of excerpts from the "rule" [page 6] Since 1995, the Commission has conducted more than 11 business opportunity sweeps, many with other federal and state law enforcement partners, to combat persistent business opportunity scams... [page 7] Deceptive work at home schemes are a persistent type of fraud, preying upon stay at home parents, the physically disabled, non-English speakers and others who cannot obtain employment outside of the home. Heh, heh -- the one on page 7 sounds like someone at the FTC knows what goes on at Adland. lol (Sorry, bad humor. But true) If you're a glutton for punishment, you can read the whole thing here; http://www.ftc.gov/os/2006/04/R511993BusinessOpportunityRuleNoticeofProposedRulemaking.pdf (Dry reading, with some good parts) So - the MLM folks are hollering that the new rule is going to make it way too hard to recruit people if they have to provide proof of track record. I dunno... I think it's a lot like a policies page. You put the information up and people click to agree to it without bothering to read it. That's what people do. (unfortunately) Where's the hard part? What do you think? Do you think we need some kind of rules to clean up the "biz opps" out there? And if we do, should they be at the hands of the government? If not, at whose? Go ahead... ramble. I did. :) Linda

Hi Linda, Yes I did hear about this one, and although I'm on the north side of the Can/US border, the FTC ruling could have an affect on us here as well. What I'm seeing (at least from my perspective) is a knee-jerk reactions on both sides of the debate. First we have the regulators who are reacting to the political pressure from the publics growing stand against MLM or NWM. It could be campared to the gun registry up here. We have crime with guns so they sought to control all weapons and in doing so made "criminals" of many law abiding citizens who disagreed with the draconian measures contained in the new registry, and the registry did very little to curb the criminal use of firearms. It's not as likely to be as simple as requiring someone to post a disclaimer (that most people won't read) I'm afraid. More likely the FTC will also look to require a cooling off period (a week or more), more paperwork and filings, and all of this means time and expense. Will this hurt the scammers and prevent them from abusing the unsuspecting masses? I see this type of legislation as hurting the legitimate and smaller operations more than anyone else. The scammers operate outside the law already, and will continue to skirt any laws that are put in place regardless, a more effective action would be to put more money towards prosecution and education The understanding of what is going to be required of them (and what it's going to cost them) is what's causing the smaller or legitimate owners to react in total rejection to the need for reform of the industry to prevent or minimize abuse of the unsuspecting. We can't just close our eyes to the problem, because all too often those who are harmed worst by these predators will in the end become a liability to the State through bankrupcy or social assistance programs. I'm all for developing new rules with some stricter disclosure requirements, but by placing severe restrictions on MLM marketing the danger is that they will be putting legitimate owners out of business. I hope they come up with something that will be effective and target the REAL crooks here.

That is the problem with all laws ment to regulate any industry. The smaller one will be hurt for a while. And as you say, scammers dont care. They will find the way around.

Hi Linda, I have heard of this, and know that the people in MLM's are very upset. It sounds like this law is trying to protect them. But I also think that scammers will just find another way. Sort of a "d--ned if you do, d--ned if you don't situation. Your Good Friend Deborah

Hello Linda, Thanks for beinging this to my attention! Everything out there proclaims to be legal and legitimate. It's though to try to make a buck, without getting bit in the butt by it. How do you know for sure, if a program is not bogus? Mary