One Year Later, Zer01 Web Site Disappears 155
alphadogg writes "Zer01 Mobile — making promises of flat rate, no contract, unlimited cell phone service — made its grand entrance at the annual CTIA wireless convention about a year ago, but now the company's Web site has disappeared. The site recently began redirecting visitors to Google.com. Zer01, which was lauded for its plans in the mainstream press, aligned itself with a multilevel marketing company called Global Verge (whose founder had earlier been convicted of securities fraud), and the two companies began recruiting salespeople who paid a monthly fee to be part of a sales program. (Since then, Global Verge and Zer01 parted ways and Global Verge filed a lawsuit against its former partner.) But no mobile service from Zer01 ever materialized. Salespeople were promised payment based on how many other salespeople they signed up to the program, although few appear to have received payment. But as late as the fall CTIA show in October, Zer01's CEO was still promising to launch the mobile service."
MLM Scam strikes again? (Score:5, Insightful)
So, based on no further information than that in the article... can you say Multi-level marketing scam? I knew you could
People never learn (Score:5, Insightful)
Breaking News: Pyramid Schemes are Sketchy? (Score:3, Insightful)
"Salespeople were promised payment based on how many other salespeople they signed up to the program, although few appear to have received payment."
The only newsworthy part of this is that Slashdot and others thought this business model was newsworthy in the first place.
It's a Pyramid Scheme with the phrase "Cell Phone" tacked on, anyone who bought into this deserved what they got.
Re:When will people learn (Score:5, Insightful)
The human condition... (Score:5, Insightful)
Cosmetics are generally useless from a utilitarian standpoint, and yet mass marketing pushes that shit out to the female demographic as if they would evaporate without it, and now we're stuck with the fucking Barbie generation. Give somebody the hope that you can fulfill their dream, and you will have their wallet.
Our Old Friend (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:MLM Scam strikes again? (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:When will people learn (Score:3, Insightful)
Greed is probably the greatest foe of common-sense.
I say "probably" only because I think religion is neck-and-neck.
Combine the two, and, well...you end up with the likes of the Trinity Broadcast Network and Joel Osteen.
Re:When will people learn (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not implying that I expect the majority of people to be "good" at math and logic, I just expect them to not be retarded either. Clearly I'm going to have to work on my expectations, as they are off a bit.
Re:When will people learn (Score:2, Insightful)
You can be bad at math without being worse than average. It's possible for the average to be bad. If 80% of people answer 5 when you ask them for the square root of 36, then 80% of people are bad at math.
Re:When will people learn (Score:5, Insightful)
Most people are bad at math and logical reasoning. The sooner you accept that, the sooner the world will suddenly make sense.
Meh. Many people are greedy fools who think they're smarter than average and can't be easily tricked. Con artists have time-tested, good methods to exploit these attributes. Pyramid schemes are actually a great tool for exploiting people who think they're smarter than average - after all they only have to con X other people into the scam and then they're set. Clearly they're going to be able to find X other people who are dumber than they are that they can exploit and get money out of. And the X other people they con into the scam? Who cares - they're idiots and shouldn't have let themselves get conned into a pyramid scheme...
Nobody in a pyramid scheme thinks they're going to be left holding the bag at the end. That's how pyramid schemes work. They work great even if all of the participants are fully aware of the fact that they're in a pyramid scheme because everyone at every level is convinced that it's only the suckers below them who are going to lose their shirts and that their own risk is minimal. Even if everyone has awesome logical reasoning skills if they start from a faulty premise (i.e. I'm too smart to be left holding the bag at the end of this scam) they're going to reach a faulty conclusion.
Re:MLM Scam strikes again? (Score:4, Insightful)
From the summary:
What more do you need to know?
Re:Piramid scheme anybody? (Score:3, Insightful)
If the expected returns on the investment does not meet the expected payouts and the difference is made up by new contributors then it is by definition a pyramid scheme.
Social security funds are invested in treasuries. The expected returns on those are crap (since interest rates are being held low). And of course the Treasury doesn't have the money to pay back those bonds anyway - the government balance sheet is in the red. Of course it can print it, but that leads to a whole bunch of other problems.
What would happen if SS contributions were cut to 0 tomorrow - no more contributions to social security (the equivalent on no one earning any taxable income). Could SS make all the payments it is on the hook for now? What about when the baby boomers all retire? If not then it is a pyramid scheme since it is relying on future contributions not investments to make payments.
Re:When will people learn (Score:2, Insightful)
You fail to grasp the postmodern movement. In the modern epistemological paradigm, if 80% of people agree that the square root of 36 is 5, then the process we are morally obliged to embark upon is a redefinition of what the square root of 36 is, followed by a re-evaluation of all of the principles that are based upon the old, now-incorrect fact.
Failing to undertake this could result in children being left behind. We cannot afford to allow this to happen. Thus, we must allow not allow inflexible principles of mathematics to handicap the education of our children or the development of society as a whole.
(Just in case it's not clear: This post is sarcastic.)
Re:MLM Scam strikes again? (Score:3, Insightful)
Tupperware parties ?
Re:MLM Scam strikes again? (Score:3, Insightful)
I use this criteria for telling off a MLM distributor:
If you can get me a better deal by buying your product through you as opposed to what I can buy at the local Wal-Mart or from other local retailers, I'll buy it from you.
Sadly, I have yet to get a single MLM marketer to take me up on the offer. The truth is they can't compete except on sky high promises and on schemes that ultimately put so many hands into the profit stream that you can't get a reasonably priced product even if you tried. In fact, as a part of the sales pitch they will start to tell me that I can get these fabulous discounts if you become a high ranking salemen, which is where you can start to have prices compete with conventional retail outlets. The truth is even with these so-called discounts they still aren't all that good of a deal.
What these companies are selling is dreams, and as such it is a scam. The 17% to non-members may even be high, but I'd have to agree with you that it is a problem.
Re:When will people learn (Score:3, Insightful)
People in financial trouble tend to get desperate and throw all logic out the door. I got taken for an incredibly stupid scam, once. It was one of those "The post office is hiring. Pay us for the training kit" scams, and I cannot stress hard enough that it was stupid. But, I had an unemployed wife and a baby to support, and I had just lost my job.
Things seemed desperate, and in those situations, people tend to throw logic out the door. So, the problem isn't just that most people are stupid, and some of us are smart. It is that our critical thinking skills are often impaired when we are at our most vulnerable, and that is the truly pathetic thing about these scams. Get rich quick schemes are not taking advantage of the people who have some money and want more. They're most effective when taking advantage of the people on fixed incomes, the unemployed, and anybody else who doesn't know how the next bill will be paid. They are profiting by kicking those of us who are already down.