So I’m sitting outside at a Starbucks enjoying the weather. At the next table over, a dude whom I think was in his early to mid twenties sits down and meets with a teenager (who later mentions that he’s seventeen). I sort of tune out, thinking it’s some kind of job interview, but as I overhear, it becomes extremely clear that the older guy is trying to recruit the teenager into a MLM scheme, using the normal car salesman like tactics to ratchet up the chance that this kid will sign up with him RIGHT NOW.
He didn’t, and they arrange to meet again later. I kept my mouth shut, but it was painful. The main reason I was considering standing up and telling the kid how much of a scam MLM is was that he was seventeen — the kid mentioned working for a living (at least one job while going to school) and I hated the idea of someone that young and unsettled in life sinking his hard earned cash into BS like that.
Why not be nice and helpful?
Tell him politely “excuse me but I overheard the conversation, and I once fell for a scam like that. It’s your decision,of course, but please be careful…you could lose a lot of money.”
If he wants to continue the conversation, fine. If not, say goodbye politely.
I probably wouldn’t say this to a total stranger if he was an adult. It would be none of my business, it might insult him, it would be rude, etc.
But for a 17 year old kid, I think it would be acceptable.
Better the kid falls for it now than in the future. I would leave it be. Anyway, we have no way of knowing if the kid was interested or of he was doing mental eye rolls.
There is an energy drink MLM recruiting teens right now, and a teen family member was interested. We sent him out to research it, fully knowing what he’d find, and he realized he had been taken. It was a good lesson.
You should have stood up, positioned yourself such that only the kid could see you, and once you had his attention, just shaken your head, "No! ", then just left.
Kid would have got your message, loud and clear, with the older none the wiser!
(But don’t fret too much, sounds like the kid didn’t bite. Take some comfort in that.)
These are money schemes with little return on investment for most of the people involved which is why they’re done using high pressure tactics. Warning someone of the hazards could save them a lot of grief.
I might do this. If I ever saw the kid again I might mention something. Otherwise it’s just not acceptable to jump into stranger’s conversations like that, even if I want to.
I do find myself wondering that question a lot, of when it’s OK to get involved. After watching way too many ABC’s What Would You Do series on youtube (scenarios are filmed with actors doing Bad Things), I think about it. (Though these scenarios are so in your face and heavy-handed, they bear little resemblance to reality.) They make it pretty obvious, so you see situations like a trucker convincing a teen runaway that he can give her a ride, abusive relationships, or two people on a date (where one person has slipped powder into the other’s drink secretly). Though a lot of them are things like a parent telling their gay child that homosexuality is a sin or a husband telling her wife she’s not thin enough. Horrible, but I’d feel odd inserting myself into the conversation.
I’ve only seen a little of that show. The situations are the type where everyone should do something. But the last one I saw was tricky. A young woman we verbally abusing a young girl. Several women gave her a piece of their mind, but many men just walked past. I’d be hesitant to step into that situation also, men have to be careful when dealing with women and girls. But I think I’d at least speak up and try to get others involved.
For the situation in the OP it isn’t even clear if there’s fraud involved, just a really stupid idea.
Yeah, there’s little gray area–it’s clear what you should do in those situations. There is one where it’s a guy trying to get a twentysomething girl involved in what appears to be a hostess/escort job. Sleazy, but I don’t know if it’s illegal. I guess I probably wouldn’t have intervened in the OP, but that social code just to not get involved in someone else’s conversation feels ingrained. Even when it’s in a positive way (you hear strangers talking about how great Orange Is the New Black and you want to give them a “Right on, and how about that Crazy Eyes?!”), it feels weird…getting involved to say, “Hey, that’s not a good idea, don’t do that!” is hard.
Though on WWYD, they make it easier by sending the actors away (to the bathroom, etc.) so the random stranger has a chance to talk one on one.
I think I’d say something. Maybe it won’t change the kid’s mind right now, but maybe adding one more negative to the preponderance of evidence for when he DOES make that realization.
I’d make it brief, but I’d say something. Too many MLMs out there taking advantage of people. And they always horn in on the people who can least afford to be taken in. The unemployed, the single moms, retirees, blue collar workers, young college aged people, people with no support system in their lives. They need to be stopped.
I would probably call my voicemail and have an extra-loud conversation with no one about how Jennifer totally got scammed by that multilevel marketing scheme.
