Today's blog post was inspired by a recent comment about "webinars" and their peddlers. A "webinar" is a lecture held on an internet platform, and unlike seminars, which are usually held in forums or halls, "webinars" require very little to host. This means the barrier to entry for hosting a "webinar" is very low, and people do not need to prove the veracity of their claims. To clarify, the "webinars" I'm referring to aren't real webinars, but rather sales scams and "MLMs" disguised as educational videos. There are plenty of actual webinars hosted by accredited professors and other experts, and they have designed their teachings to spread authentic information. Also, there are seminars that are held by fiction peddlers, such as Kiyosaki's real-estate seminars, but the cost of these seminars is substantially higher than that of a webinar. The cost of hosting a seminar prohibits amateur charlatans from entry into the seminar scams, but the internet allows people to enter the "webinar" scam field. This means people need to be more critical than ever about the information they are receiving online.
The internet and its proliferation of information comes with great opportunities for people to learn and to be swindled. Facebook is particularly dangerous since they decide what content is good for each individual and what is not. Their algorithms are designed to show a person what they think that person wants to see, and this includes which news sources they deem relevant, as well as which advertisements are most likely to be appealing to the person and their needs. Unfortunately, Facebook doesn't care about the authenticity of these advertisements and the bad actors, which can result in charlatans being given access to an unprecedented number of people for a few dollars. This also lends credibility to the bad actor's claims since, according to Facebook, they are allegedly trying to crack down on "Fake news" and other phony advertising.
YouTube has also given people an unprecedented amount of access to information and scams. The ability to load content on YouTube, with virtually no expense, has allowed lots of bad actors to come out and create "webinars". This gets compounded by the fact that YouTube also has algorithms that tries to find similar content to other videos and works handily with other platforms, such as Facebook, to further target people with specific videos. The bad actors are keen to these algorithms and regularly manipulate their videos and titles to fool the algorithms into thinking their content is something it isn't.
An example of this may be, a mother looks for part-time work-from-home on Google. Google then tells YouTube (their subsidiary) this person specifically searched for this type of opportunity and YouTube populates their recommended videos with free MLM "webinars". The "webinar" addresses specific concerns the mother has and how they can fix those problems by paying for another "webinar". Then that "webinar" says the key to the hidden knowledge is in a different "webinar" and focuses on selling their most expensive "webinar". This ultimately leads to a lot of wasted time and money, since these "webinars" hosted by "gurus" don't actually have the answers the mother is seeking.
Some examples of these bad actors are, Tyson Zahner, Eric Worre, John C. Maxwell, Robert Kiyosaki, Tai Lopez, and Tony Robbins. Please make note the last two are not specifically connected to MLM, but they still pull the same nonsense. These "webinars" are not exclusive to MLM chicanery.
I want to really emphasize these "webinars" are scams, and the people that host these "webinars" are looking to enrich themselves by taking money from their consumers. If they had the answers they claim, then they wouldn't be wasting their time making "webinars", but rather would be spending their time doing the very things they claim makes them rich. As Mark Cuban says, "If a deal is a great deal, they aren't going to share it with you."
The most important way to avoid these schemes involves the same way in which we critically investigate large purchases. The more research people can do about a "webinar" with a "guru" before paying for their services, the better that person will be equipped to deal with the deception. These bad actors don't want people to look for information about them on the web, just like Jimmy Kimmel wants you to forget he made his career from exploiting women.
The internet and its proliferation of information comes with great opportunities for people to learn and to be swindled. Facebook is particularly dangerous since they decide what content is good for each individual and what is not. Their algorithms are designed to show a person what they think that person wants to see, and this includes which news sources they deem relevant, as well as which advertisements are most likely to be appealing to the person and their needs. Unfortunately, Facebook doesn't care about the authenticity of these advertisements and the bad actors, which can result in charlatans being given access to an unprecedented number of people for a few dollars. This also lends credibility to the bad actor's claims since, according to Facebook, they are allegedly trying to crack down on "Fake news" and other phony advertising.
YouTube has also given people an unprecedented amount of access to information and scams. The ability to load content on YouTube, with virtually no expense, has allowed lots of bad actors to come out and create "webinars". This gets compounded by the fact that YouTube also has algorithms that tries to find similar content to other videos and works handily with other platforms, such as Facebook, to further target people with specific videos. The bad actors are keen to these algorithms and regularly manipulate their videos and titles to fool the algorithms into thinking their content is something it isn't.
An example of this may be, a mother looks for part-time work-from-home on Google. Google then tells YouTube (their subsidiary) this person specifically searched for this type of opportunity and YouTube populates their recommended videos with free MLM "webinars". The "webinar" addresses specific concerns the mother has and how they can fix those problems by paying for another "webinar". Then that "webinar" says the key to the hidden knowledge is in a different "webinar" and focuses on selling their most expensive "webinar". This ultimately leads to a lot of wasted time and money, since these "webinars" hosted by "gurus" don't actually have the answers the mother is seeking.
Some examples of these bad actors are, Tyson Zahner, Eric Worre, John C. Maxwell, Robert Kiyosaki, Tai Lopez, and Tony Robbins. Please make note the last two are not specifically connected to MLM, but they still pull the same nonsense. These "webinars" are not exclusive to MLM chicanery.
I want to really emphasize these "webinars" are scams, and the people that host these "webinars" are looking to enrich themselves by taking money from their consumers. If they had the answers they claim, then they wouldn't be wasting their time making "webinars", but rather would be spending their time doing the very things they claim makes them rich. As Mark Cuban says, "If a deal is a great deal, they aren't going to share it with you."
The most important way to avoid these schemes involves the same way in which we critically investigate large purchases. The more research people can do about a "webinar" with a "guru" before paying for their services, the better that person will be equipped to deal with the deception. These bad actors don't want people to look for information about them on the web, just like Jimmy Kimmel wants you to forget he made his career from exploiting women.
Kiyosaki is a major scammer and he got his break when some Amway leader started pimping his rich dad book. But his real estate seminars are a major rip off from all the testimonials I've seen and heard about.
ReplyDeleteJoe,
DeleteThe videos I have seen literally show Kiyosaki being a snake. He doesn't take responsibility for his seminars, the people that are staffed, or the fact that the company he partnered with has a criminal background. The man is the worst kind of scumbag, and the investigatory work John T. Reed has done on Kioysakiis an incredible resource.
MLM's are just a "Brainwashing" factory. It is just amazing. So many reports, claims, complaints against MLMs and yet, they still have so many followers. No doubts the people have a weak mind. f
ReplyDeleteAnonymous --
DeleteI definitely agree that MLM is all about "Brainwashing", but I don't necessarily agree with the weak minds. I think a lot of people are inherently lazy, and are simply looking for a shortcut. I also believe our community is doing a poor job preparing people for life, such as arming them with the ability to critically think. Finally, I believe there is a lack of care in the homes. There are more children than ever growing up in broken homes with parents that can't provide adequate fundamental life skills. The people lacking in a moral compass, with very little opportunity, leads to an exponential growth in confidence games.