[froz_v]

Hey my fellow e90post family,

I have just found this new website and it is about getting paid to shop and I wanted to share it with you guys. It is like what groupon and liked sites is doing by combining buying power from everybody to get amazing deals from retailers. But the difference is that you are getting cashback (2-50%) from the retailers instead of being limited to certain deals and certain time periods that you can purchase the deal.

Some of the partner stores in my site include:
Tire Rack 2% cashback
Vivid Racing 2% cashback
eBay 2% cashback
TigerDirect.ca 2% cashback
CarCostCanada.com 2% cashback
Bath & Body Works 2% cashback
Beyond The Rack 3% cashback
Buy.com Canada 2% cashback
Saks Fifth Avenue 2% cashback
bookit.com 2% cashback

And much more, there is about 4000 partner stores avaliable and a hotdeal section with 1200+ coupon codes updated daily.

If you guys have friends in the states, you can referal them to the site to use restaurant.com and get $100 dinner vouchers for $8 with the coupon code DINE. I used it when I was in NYC this past week. Ontop of it, you get 0.5% of whatever your friend buys while they enjoy the cashback.

I would greatly appreciate it if all of you guys would check out the website and sign up to give it a try and give me feedback on my services. BTW it is free to sign up to enjoy the great cashback program.

If anybody has questions about the site or is interested in getting to know more about it, feel free to PM me anytime

The website is:
www.marketamerica.com/goldentouch

I hope this website can put some money back into you guy's wallets as modding season is comming soon. I hear we are in for an early spring!

Thank you

Eric

[gaifaun]

is this the same "market america" that uses the pyramid scheme to get members to join and promote nutritional OPC isotonix, cosmetics, toiletries and whatnot? the more people you refer the more "commission" you get out of each one and the more products they sell you get a cut from it too...

[TheDarkone]

how did this make it past the spam filter?

[froz_v]

Originally Posted by gaifaun

is this the same "market america" that uses the pyramid scheme to get members to join and promote nutritional OPC isotonix, cosmetics, toiletries and whatnot? the more people you refer the more "commission" you get out of each one and the more products they sell you get a cut from it too...

I dont think there is anything wrong with this website, they may have their own "exclusive" products; however, we all cannot ignore the fact that from using this portal (for free) we can get extra cashback from retailers that most of us are already going to buy from on a day to day basis but will not even get the chance to see any of our hard earned money back into our pockets.

example,
lets say you are going to buy a set of tires from Tire Rack, do you think that after you check out, will Tire Rack say, "hey, you spent $800 today so we are going to give you $16 back into your pockets." They will not because all of us as singles have no buying power; but, if we group our buying power together, like what groupon, teambuy, dealfind, etc, is doing we can get retailers to give us money back on our daily expenses. So using this free service, you can get $16 back on your tire purchase. How is an extra $50-100 rebate on our monthly occuring expenses anything bad.

I actually showed this website to some family friends that joined the company before and hated the company!! But they all enjoyed the webportal because of the extra money flowing back into their pockets from shopping that they are already doing daily.

I have heard about all the negative sides of Market America, my mom actually joined this 5-6yrs back, so trust me I heard plenty of negativity of this company. But if you actually get to know the company with an open mind, it will actually surprise you how it the complete opposite of the pyramid scheme. Also, how much the company has grown over the years. You guys can all search for Market America's aquisition of shop.com and see the news it has been generating. Actually, we are all already in a pyramid scheme take CPP for example because we are putting our money in (at the bottom) and directly paying for the people that are have retired or retiring (at the top).

Also, you can use whatever credit card you want at checkout to get your airmiles, aeroplan, or other point system without being limited to only using your rebate reward card for cash rebate because you are already getting it from the portal. This is called smart shopping not pyramid scheme, money is hard to earn in this economy.

I think anybody that is business minded will actually like this company because at the rate it is going, it will replace Amazon because it is offering what Amazon already have and ontop of it, it is offering what Amazon does not have which is cashback.

[m42stanle]

Originally Posted by froz_v

I dont think there is anything wrong with this website

No, and if you had just posted the general link to the website with some advice like, "make sure you use a disposable e-mail and don't give out any more info than you have to" you wouldn't be getting this response.

But you DIDN'T do that - you posted the "shopping consultant" referral link that ensures you get a cut of any referred purchases. (aka, the "top of the pyramid" link) Even setting aside the fact that you violated the terms of the forum (no commercial posts from non-sponsors) this is just sneaky.

BTW that site (like any multi-level marketing system) is absolutely a pyramid scheme. It's not a Bernie Madoff level scam that is going to wipe out anyone's retirement savings but it is based on exactly the same model. Your cash back is coming from the revenue generated from selling the personal information of the people you are able to refer. Since the population of those with the discretionary income to shop at these places is not infinite, the model is not sustainable.

And finally, as much as we hate those CPP deductions this is not a pyramid scheme. We contribute present day dollars to fund the retirement of our grand kids and withdraw dollars contributed by those before us. I don't get $100 more in retirement per month by referring my friends and co-workers to my CPP contributions link. Also -- unlike MLM scams, and notwithstanding some hiccups in population growth trends -- the model is more or less indefinitely sustainable.

[Andy M]

Originally Posted by m42stanle

No, and if you had just posted the general link to the website with some advice like, "make sure you use a disposable e-mail and don't give out any more info than you have to" you wouldn't be getting this response.

But you DIDN'T do that - you posted the "shopping consultant" referral link that ensures you get a cut of any referred purchases. (aka, the "top of the pyramid" link) Even setting aside the fact that you violated the terms of the forum (no commercial posts from non-sponsors) this is just sneaky.

BTW that site (like any multi-level marketing system) is absolutely a pyramid scheme. It's not a Bernie Madoff level scam that is going to wipe out anyone's retirement savings but it is based on exactly the same model. Your cash back is coming from the revenue generated from selling the personal information of the people you are able to refer. Since the population of those with the discretionary income to shop at these places is not infinite, the model is not sustainable.

And finally, as much as we hate those CPP deductions this is not a pyramid scheme. We contribute present day dollars to fund the retirement of our grand kids and withdraw dollars contributed by those before us. I don't get $100 more in retirement per month by referring my friends and co-workers to my CPP contributions link. Also -- unlike MLM scams, and notwithstanding some hiccups in population growth trends -- the model is more or less indefinitely sustainable.

+1

[froz_v]

Originally Posted by m42stanle

BTW that site (like any multi-level marketing system) is absolutely a pyramid scheme. It's not a Bernie Madoff level scam that is going to wipe out anyone's retirement savings but it is based on exactly the same model. Your cash back is coming from the revenue generated from selling the personal information of the people you are able to refer. Since the population of those with the discretionary income to shop at these places is not infinite, the model is not sustainable.

Please tell me how this website is different then groupon, teambuy, dealfind, etc. You post a referral link and yes you can probably get 0.5% of whatever other people buys but isnt the other websites doing the same thing thru social shopping when everybody saves money here and there while expanding people power?

I think people will actually benifits from the 2-50% cashback on purchases that they are already making.

Why not take a look at the stores that have partnered with the website and think if this is a scam why would these stores be appart of a scam. Do you think Walmart, eBay, Saks, etc will be willing to risk their reputation by partnering with a pyramid scheme?

All I wanted to do was to share this great website to people looking to save some money if I have violated any rules please delete this thread mods

[m42stanle]

Originally Posted by froz_v

Please tell me how this website is different then groupon, teambuy, dealfind, etc. You post a referral link and yes you can probably get 0.5% of whatever other people buys but isnt the other websites doing the same thing thru social shopping when everybody saves money here and there while expanding people power?

Sure: the crucial difference is the business model. If you had posted a link to a BMW-related Groupon we would not be having this discussion.

The value in a business like Groupon is that it can act as an intermediary to bring large numbers of willing buyers (who get a deal on a product or service in a local market) and willing sellers (who provide deep discounts in exchange for the chance to showcase their product or service). The model is flat - those who sign up for the deal at midnight save the same amount as those who sign up 2 mins before it ends. It's also city-focused (this is key - MLMs don't work as well in small markets as the pyramid collapses faster) and usually involves service industry businesses like restaurants. For example, today's Toronto Groupon is for a half off lift ticket at Horseshoe. Many of those who purchase this deal will also partake of high margin products/services like ski rentals, food, etc, etc. Some of these will decide they like skiing and come back again so the initial discount is a marketing investment from the seller's point of view. But I digress...

In contrast there are some concerns in the link you posted. The first red flag is the recruitment element: this is the hallmark of a pyramid/MLM scheme. The proportion of dollars from recruitment gives you an idea of how big the scam is. At the worst extreme is the Bernie Madoff - it's pure ponzi with new dollars paying off the top of the pyramid until the whole thing collapses. At the other end, many MLMs like American Marketing, Amway, etc are able to escape prosecution by keeping a bare minimum of dollars flowing from actual product sales. Even in these less extreme cases, only about 1 in 10 will actually earn any meaningful amount of money from MLM.

The second red flag is that American Marketing is not adding any value in the transaction here, so where is my 2% (and your 40-50% cut) ultimately coming from? When I buy tires from Tire Rack, this is a very different purchase from a 50% off ski lift ticket. I am buying a commodity item at (or close to) the lowest advertised sale price in North America. It's a pretty safe bet that there is not 40-50% of margin in that transaction to pay you and your higher-ups your "shopping consultant" fee. Some of this will probably come from sketchy-but-legal activity like selling personal information, ad revenue, etc but a chunk of this is "downline" money which is where the pyramid comes into play.

In this case your "downlines" aren't sending you money but rather disclosing personal info and associating themselves with a site that will presumably later push higher margin products like vitamins and "Ultimate Aloe Cranapple Juice." The model is probably legal (for now at least) but you can't be surprised when you post links to it on public forums and get criticism. Plenty of people have (or have family who have) been burned by these schemes in the past.

[99three]

+92

[SSM46mt]

Originally Posted by m42stanle

Sure: the crucial difference is the business model. If you had posted a link to a BMW-related Groupon we would not be having this discussion.

The value in a business like Groupon is that it can act as an intermediary to bring large numbers of willing buyers (who get a deal on a product or service in a local market) and willing sellers (who provide deep discounts in exchange for the chance to showcase their product or service). The model is flat - those who sign up for the deal at midnight save the same amount as those who sign up 2 mins before it ends. It's also city-focused (this is key - MLMs don't work as well in small markets as the pyramid collapses faster) and usually involves service industry businesses like restaurants. For example, today's Toronto Groupon is for a half off lift ticket at Horseshoe. Many of those who purchase this deal will also partake of high margin products/services like ski rentals, food, etc, etc. Some of these will decide they like skiing and come back again so the initial discount is a marketing investment from the seller's point of view. But I digress...

In contrast there are some concerns in the link you posted. The first red flag is the recruitment element: this is the hallmark of a pyramid/MLM scheme. The proportion of dollars from recruitment gives you an idea of how big the scam is. At the worst extreme is the Bernie Madoff - it's pure ponzi with new dollars paying off the top of the pyramid until the whole thing collapses. At the other end, many MLMs like American Marketing, Amway, etc are able to escape prosecution by keeping a bare minimum of dollars flowing from actual product sales. Even in these less extreme cases, only about 1 in 10 will actually earn any meaningful amount of money from MLM.

The second red flag is that American Marketing is not adding any value in the transaction here, so where is my 2% (and your 40-50% cut) ultimately coming from? When I buy tires from Tire Rack, this is a very different purchase from a 50% off ski lift ticket. I am buying a commodity item at (or close to) the lowest advertised sale price in North America. It's a pretty safe bet that there is not 40-50% of margin in that transaction to pay you and your higher-ups your "shopping consultant" fee. Some of this will probably come from sketchy-but-legal activity like selling personal information, ad revenue, etc but a chunk of this is "downline" money which is where the pyramid comes into play.

In this case your "downlines" aren't sending you money but rather disclosing personal info and associating themselves with a site that will presumably later push higher margin products like vitamins and "Ultimate Aloe Cranapple Juice." The model is probably legal (for now at least) but you can't be surprised when you post links to it on public forums and get criticism. Plenty of people have (or have family who have) been burned by these schemes in the past.

thank you

we need intelligent new member like you joining here