Photo by William Iven on Unsplash
It’s 2018, we’re all on social media all the time and pyramid schemes are thriving. I’m sure you have received a DM on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook that started with something along the lines of “Hey girly!” and ended with “Would you be willing to try *insert scam product here* heavily discounted?” It’s annoying, it’s a waste of time, and as a culture, I say we stop the Skinny DM all together.
The biggest problems with people selling Skinny Tea, LipSense, It Works, etc., they overload our timelines with bad memes, stolen photos, and silly sales tactics. Distributors clog our DMs with pretty much the same message over and over again because they want our money. They are also one very small step away from peddling a pyramid scheme. These companies that our mom’s friends, alumna sorority sisters, and friends cousins aunt’s are selling are considered Multi Level Marketing businesses (MLM for short). The only thing that separates an MLM from a pyramid scheme is that the product comes first in MLM and is legal, whereas a pyramid scheme sells a business idea and is illegal.
Anytime someone asks you to join their sales team on Facebook or Instagram, they’re actually asking you to make money for them— it’s called “downline sales.” Basically, they recruit team members who have to buy their own product and then they get to keep the money from anything they sell. You have to spend money to make money, but the person who recruited you, keeps a small percentage of your sales via a paycheck from the company. That in itself is shady, but the issues don’t stop there.
These companies train their distributors to target their friends and family and with the surge in social media use, they can now target virtual strangers on the internet. They also use this opportunity to push the hard sell. They ask you to drop hundreds of dollars on a starter kit (when you’ve never tried the product), and then they ask you to join their sales team via the humble brag. “I make $5,000 a month from home!” “I’m my own boss and now I have the freedom to do what I want, when I want!” “I earned a free Mercedes Benz just by having fun and selling *insert product here*!” Please, for the love of God, stop with the humble brag. It’s so obnoxious, and no, I still don’t want your product.
Aside from the shady business practice and the overpriced questionable products they sell, they are super annoying. At this point I don’t even bother checking my Insta DMs, because I know they’ll either be a creepy guy or a random girl trying to sell me wraps to make me skinnier.
You can make those wraps at home for way cheaper by putting lotion on your stomach, then wrapping over it with plastic wrap, and leave it on overnight. It doesn’t make you lose weight (neither do the wraps), but it does make you sweat out water weight to make you appear thinner for a day or two. It isn’t safe to do it often (same with the wraps), but you can do it before major events to make your clothes fit better without Spanx.
They all post the same photo of their miracle product and inspirational quotes with captions about making thousands of dollars a month. It’s like they don’t realize we can spot a scam from a mile away. I know you don’t drive the newest Lexus, girl from ninth grade biology, I also know that the fake tanner you’re selling can be bought for $6 at Target instead of from you for $80.
We as a generation need to stop the Skinny DM in its tracks. There is a set of social media rules that should never be broken, the first being: Thou Shalt Not DM Anyone Creepy Things About Or Pictures Of My Penis and the second (almost as important) being: Thou Shalt Not DM My Friends And Strangers About My MLM. The best way to stop the Skinny DM is to block and walk, we need to block people who slide in the dms with MLMs and never acknowledge their existence again. The next best route is to be direct; respond back with a “no” or equally crazy response (your pick, but please don’t be threatening or violent). With all of us working together, we can end the era of the Skinny DM.