MOTIVAČNÍ SEMINÁŘ AMWAY Some 200 edits have been done to english article about Amway just during last 20 days – the same amount of edits took over a year to do before the attack. That is the result of ongoing Amway zealots activity on english Wikipedia. It had been all started on March 8 by user with nick „Historik75“, who was soon reinforced by user „Icerat“. Who are these guys and what is their goal?
User Icerat, well known as ibofightback, is Australian David Steadson currently residing in Sweden. It is well known Amway zealot active over a decade and also active (or used to be active) Amway member with proven result of 3% (what a success!) in his Amway business. He is also IT guy and owner of over 20 websites dedicated to Amway, where he publishes spinned pro-Amway propaganda.
Historik 75 is czech version of ibofightback. Online active for over 2 years and also owner of around 20 pro-Amway websites in czech and most probably way more succesfull in Amway, as he reached 15% some 7 years ago, though no evidence of further successes exists since then.
These two guys joined together and have been non stop editing english Wikipedia for some 20 days already. What are their goals? According to Historik 75 claims it is well sourced and balanced articles about Amway and MLM in general on Wikipedia.
What does he really mean by such a claim? Well, check this:
https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amway
It is article about Amway on czech Wikipedia and Historik75 control this page daily for some 2 years already. Erased all the criticism and does not allow anyone to add some. The same „balanced“ attitude is shown also here:
https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%AD%C5%A5ov%C3%BD_marketing
Again, no criticism is allowed, only „criticism“ is, that he mentioned 1979 FTC ruling, that is all.
This „balanced“ attitude is currently being applied to english version of Amway article on Wikipedia. Both guys had already been accused of canvassing and starting edit war. No matter what, they just continue their job, with little respect to opinions of regular Wikipedist.
Constant erasing of whatever is not pro-Amway, sort of attrition war, which Historik 75 did on czech Wikipedia would not be a good strategy, as it would cause instant ban for both, so in this case Historik75 and ibofightback applied salami tactics.
They are constantly reshaping and reformulating (ie. spindoctoring) existing text and slowly, bit by bit, erasing texts and links, which provided full picture and also trying to add pro-Amway or straight Amway sources.
In this manner article about Amway losses denied at tax court published in Forbes had already vanished. Historik75 claims, that it is not related to Amway!!!:
Of course it is, because at first it clearly shows the income (sorry, losses) opportunity in Amway – total net loss of over 190 000 dollars during 6 years of building Amway business. Secondly, you can see the dedication of these people – they were recruiting, visiting Amway gatherings etc. Other Amway claim is, that they provide their IBOs with superb educational system for the business and yet after 6 years of generating losses these Amway victims do not have any business plan, nor are able to fill their tax declaration correctly??? What an educational system!!!
But what is most remarkable is, that till this couple was buying goods and generating points to the uplines, everything was ok, but once they got into problems with tax court, did they got any help from Amway? No! Amway turned its back on them and Historik75 described the couple as tax frauds, though there are dozens of similar cases all around the US:
http://riles52.blogspot.cz/2011/06/selling-soap-as-hobby-amway-ibos-in-tax.html
This is prevalent for current Amway IBOs – to describe those who left as failed and incompetent. Yes, that is the system where „we all help each other“…
I unsuccesfully tried to quote czech Diamond Roman Hassmann, as I have the record, where he claims something remarkable:
„Anybody who joins the system should meet the criteria – show plans, have a list of contacts, join the educational system, and do points (buy goods). There is no point in someone joining the business, where we all buy, and do not buy. It does not make sence to register someone to buying business and tell him, that buying is not the condition. So if you recruit someone, buying Amway goods is essential condition.“
Yet Historik75 disregarded even the words of his probable upline as out of context and twisted. Of course he did, as such a words clearly shows, that Amway is not direct selling company, but just another product based pyramid scheme – closed system where money flows from lower ranks up to the Diamond kingpins through overpriced products.
But there is more evidence to be found. This is a part of diploma thesis of Amway IBO Lucie Lipovská, who as a part of her MLM thesis joined Amway. Needless to say, that at least at the time she wrote her thesis, she was pro-MLM:
„To be eligible for bonuses in Amway, you have to meet the points criteria – 200 points in turnover each month. It means some 8-10 thousand CZK. I was told several times, that I have to learn to do these 200 points monthly myself and within my family, but I cannot imagine this.“
Yes, the evidence out of naivity is the best. In the light of last FTC decision against product based pyramid scheme Vemma, we would like to know FTC opinion on Amway behaviour overseas.
Year ago, I have also tried to add hidden camera reportage to czech Amway Wiki article. It was shot by Slovak TV reporter, who infiltrated Amway recruiting gathering:
I went through the reportage carefully and identified the company as Amway, based on warranty and also Amway dispenser ball, as it is the product not sold by any other MLM company on CZ/SK market. Reporter also described manipulative recruiting techniques, which are part of Amway so called educational system.
However Historik75 found the reportage biased and said, that it is recruiting party of some other MLM company and that he has a clear proof of that. Based on this claim he erased the link from Wiki and had not allowed it to be added to the article since then.
We urged him several times, on Wiki and on our webpage to prove, that the reportage is not about Amway, but till this day he failed to do so – Historik75 is proven sneaky spindoctoring liar.
If Historik75 and ibofightback, will be allowed to continue their rellentless PR efforts on Wikipedia, in course of few months Amway article on Wikipedia might be well changed into MLM Ode to joy…