Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in Capital, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 30, 2018 - August 5, 2018

Do you want to make some extra cash?”

Now, before any of you think I have made a habit of hanging around dark alleys behind Chow Kit, I must tell you it was a casual acquaintance I happened to be having lunch with who asked me that question.

It was the day after the World Cup, which had left me singing La Marseillaise at random times and a lighter feeling in my pocket. It was then that this friend of mine decided to launch into her sales pitch.

I stopped her before she could go any further. “If you are telling me that I can make extra money by doing MLM or selling crack cocaine … I hope it’s the cocaine,” I told her.

I jest of course. The price of crack cocaine is nowhere near where it used to be, thanks very much Hollywood celebrities. But in all honesty, some MLM or multi-level marketing businesses can seem extremely shady, whether it is the businesses themselves or their marketing practices.

For every legit direct-selling company like Amway, there are 10 others that don’t seem as kosher. Take, for example, the most recent one to be raided by the authorities, MonSpace. It is a direct-selling company that, amazingly, doesn’t seem to sell you anything.

It does have an extremely slick and polished corporate video though, which seems to tell you it has a hand in everything from property to telcos to some reverse tanning salon that seems to turn you whiter.

And its founder, Datuk Seri Jessy Lai, comes across as the human embodiment of a TED talk. I must point out though that she hasn’t been charged with any wrongdoing, has been cooperating with the authorities, and is also involved in pyramid scheme YSLM.

I will leave that there then.

But the fact is that although most of us may be fairly knowledgeable and level-headed when it comes to most things, that all flies out of the window when it comes to money. We feel pity when we read about bomohs taking advantage of old ladies, yet are quick to believe an investment that promises a return of 20% a month.

The stats don’t lie. According to the police, one million Malaysians lost RM5 billion in “money game” scams last year, and that doesn’t even include those still waiting for a Nigerian prince to bank money into their accounts.

The sad thing is that most probably fall for such scams because they are struggling to make ends meet. We get a twinge of envy every time we see friends on Facebook posting their vacation photos with that insufferable #blessed, and we all want to do that too.

Take the case of the “hardworking” 20-something who bought a LV bag for his girlfriend because her back hurt. The story went viral because not only did he pretentiously document the whole thing, but he said he did so because that was what a “man” would do.

Although he did not say how he could afford such an expensive bag, he included #Amway in his post, which led many netizens to surmise it may have been a marketing stunt wrapped up in a love story. We all know it seems too good to be true, but at the same time, we want to be in that position.

The point is that although the authorities have been making efforts to educate people about Ponzi schemes, there is no pamphlet out there that will cure human greed.

So, as the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. If anything seems too good to be true, it probably is.

But then again, I actually believed England could win the World Cup, so … shame on me, I guess?

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