Last year I was looking for work and got hooked in by this scam. I went on cragslist (the main US public forum for various transactions: labor, jobs, pets, used appliances and furniture, dating, prostitution (I mean adult companionship *cough*), you name it) looking for help wanted ads and saw an attractive, but highly vague, posting offering $17 per hour. I was dubious, but it was too good to pass up. So I showed up at the location at the given time. It was a messed up commentary on the American economy at the time, but I, as a young dude, was there competing for work with adults in their 40's, who showed up in suits and ties. After being instructed to wait for awhile by a pretty secretary, we were shuffled into a conference room at the back of this small retail space. A couple surprisingly young men, "managers," showcased a bunch of admittedly impressive knives to us, displaying their ability to carve up pennies, and describing why they were an attractive item for the food service industry due to their durability and the ease of their cleaning. As hired salesmen, we were to give this same seminar to prospective buyers. And the more knives we sold, the more money we got, and there were opportunity for advancement in the Vector (the 'entity' which owns CutCo) company. It seemed really good. After a private interview, I was told that I was selected for hiring. But here was the catch: we had to put down $200 to buy our first set of knives, that we would use to showcase the product to potential buyers. This cause on of my eyebrows to inch upwards. I went home and googled CutCo, to find what I had expected: a handful of disaffected former "hired salesmen" talking about how, after they had purchased their set of knives, the CutCo headquarters had closed up shop, and the "managers" could not be found, hide nor hair. I thought back to the tiny retail space, with the little secretary desk and the peculiarly bare conference room. I realized that the place was being rented, and that, were I to buy a set of knives, it was likely that these sharks would vanish, once they had my and everybody else's money. A mean scam to take advantage of desperate people in a bad economy.
When I was in my early twenties, I was intrigued by a similar advertisement. They were selling a weight loss drink. The 'company' had set up a small office space with one office. After an awesome presentation we were all asked to wait to be interviewed. There was only one office and like fifty people. The process was seemingly quick. They asked a few questions and then I was accepted as a member of their team. I could move up to an agent position immediately if I purchased a case of their product (which had about twenty jugs of the supplement) for $400! To add insult to injury he says that's over $1,000.00 in profit that I could make. I left. In hindsight I really don't even know what was in the jugs. They didn't hand out a sample. All but one of the cases were sealed tight. It is a shame that people prey on people like that, we are all (hopefully in some way) trying to survive, enjoy, and/or find meaning in life. Glad you weren't a victim of this scam. Unfortunately, there are plenty out there.
Scammers have a grab bag full of Freudian illusions they pull over on the people who show up. One of the tricks that CutCo used on me was that we were taken back to be interviewed in pairs. The psychological effect of this is that you feel like you're competing with the person being interviewed next to you. Then, when you're told privately if you're going to be accepted or not (I think they handed out plastic coins, with some having marks that indicated acceptance. It was something utterly absurd like that), you feel like you've made a real achievement. Excitement, hope, and promises of big money are often utilized to manipulate people emotionally. Of course, the staple "holy water" that (I think) everyone already knows, that can dispel these tricks and illusions, is to know that if they want money from you (especially when it's a significant sum) before you get money from them: then bingo, it's a scam. And it's important to keep in mind that, the way they do this, it might not technically be illegal. As long as they have a real product, and it's not literal snakeoil, then they can turn around and say "oh, well it's not our fault that all these people invested in our program, but then didn't have the necessary dedication or sales skill to make it." I remember as well, after the interview, when I was feeling very pleased with myself, I got on the bus and bumped into another young guy who had been at the "conference," or whatever it was they called the scam. I had pitied him during that event, and felt awkward for him, because he had seemed so cripplingly stiff. I was sure he wouldn't make the cut, but on the bus he told me he'd been hired. That was when I really started getting suspicious.
