There are a growing number of resources about multi-level marketing and related topics which you may find helpful.
| Books & theatre | Documentaries, interviews & videos | Articles & reports | Scholarly research | Podcasts | Activists, writers, researchers & groups | Events | International resources & articles |
Books & theatre
- Broke Georgia Goes Multi-Level, Donna Fernandez (fiction)
- Combatting Cult Mind Control, Steve Hassan
- Death in the Downline, Maria Abrams (fiction)
- Direct Selling: A Nonfiction Fable, Robert FitzPatrick
- Empty at the Top: Exposing Spiritual Dangers in Multilevel Marking, Athena Dean Holz
- False Profits: Seeking Financial and Spiritual Deliverance in Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Schemes, Robert FitzPatrick
- Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Thoughts and Beliefs, Steve Hassan (we especially recommend this book if you are wanting to help a loved one who is caught up in an MLM)
- The Game is Afoot, Elise Bryant (fiction)
- Hey Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing, Emily Lynn Paulson
- Homemaker, Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare (fiction)
- Hoodwinked: How marketers use the same tactics as cults, Dr Mara Einstein
- How to Sell a Romance, Alexa Martin (fiction)
- Influence: Science and Practice, Robert Cialdini
- Little Bosses Everywhere, Bridget Read
- Merchants of Deception (Amway), Eric Scheibeler (free download)
- Marauders of Hope, Aruna Ravikumar
- MLM is for Murder (Or, Your Side Hustle is Killing Us), John Bavoso (play)
- Multi-Level Marketing Unmasked, Jon M. Taylor (free download)
- Ponzinomics, the Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing, Robert Fitzpatrick
- Selling the Dream, Jane Marie
Documentaries, interviews & videos
- The American Dream Denied: Herbalife Victims Speak Out, Facts About Herbalife
- An MLM Expert on What Everyone Needs to Know about MLMs, The Financial Diet (interview with Bill Keep)
- Anti MLM Information from an Ex # BossBabe, Monica Siembieda
- Betting on Zero (Herbalife and Bill Ackman), Zipper Bros Films
- The Bitter Economics of MLM, Economics Explained
- Bridget Read discusses her book ‘Little Bosses Everywhere’ on multi-level marketing, Weekend Edition Sunday, NPR
- The Cult I Almost Joined — Young Living Essential Oils, Genetically Modified Skeptic
- Door Knockers: Arbonne, The Checkout, ABC TV
- The Downline, short film by Rachel M Weatherly
- Ellie Undercover: Secrets of the Multi-Level Millionaires, BBC Three (UK only)
- Exposing Multilevel Marketing (the Business of Using Friends for Profit), George Kamel
- Get Rich Quick, The Feed VICELAND, SBS
- How to make money in Arbonne (parody), münecat
- How to Spot a Pyramid Scheme, Facts About Herbalife
- How to Spot a Pyramid Scheme, Stacie Bosley, TED Ed
- Are make-up empires exploiting mums?, BBC Stories (cut down version of the Ellie Undercover documentary)
- I filed for bankruptcy after LuLaRoe and now work 2 jobs, VICE
- I quit dōTERRA and WHY, ButtercupDragon Mac&Cheese
- If You’re My Friend Then You’ll Buy This (parody), Leeann and Michelle
- Let’s Discuss MLMs, Pyramid Schemes and Grindset Culture, Mina Le
- LuLaRich, Julia Willoughby Nason & Jenner Furst, The Cinemart, Story Force Entertainment for Amazon Prime
- Multilevel Marketing, John Oliver, Last Week Tonight
- Multi-Level Marketing Companies are NOT Pyramid Schemes (They are Worse), How Money Worse
- Multi-Level Marketing Schemes, Samantha Bee, Full Frontal
- Multi-Level Marketing: Opportunity Knocking, The Checkout, ABC TV
- Multi-level marketing (MLM): Supporters vs Critics, BBC Stories
- Multi-Level Marketing Companies Do Not Belong At Craft Fairs! SAVY Writes Books
- The Multilevel Marketing Cults: Lies, Pyramid Schemes, and the Pursuit of Financial Freedom, James Jani
- The Real Truth About Multi Level Marketing | Scams, Lies & Pyramid Schemes, RawBeautyKristi
- Reps say the quiet part out loud, Sara Nelson
- The Secrets of Making Money on Social Media Through Multi-Level Marketing, Ellie Undercover, BBC
- The Slave Circle, Alex J. Semchuck
- The truth about multi-level marketing (MLM) pyramid schemes | psychology behind networking marketing, Dr Becky Spelman speaks with Josie Naikoi, Private Therapy Clinic
- Why I quit the MLM industry at the top, Not the Good Girl
- Why Women Are Quitting Their Side Hustle: Leaving LuLaRoe, VICE
Articles & reports
- $5 jewelry and an MLM conference gone wrong, Emily Stewart, Vox
- 6 Reasons Why MLM Companies Are the Absolute Worst, Dani, Travelling Jezebel
- A woman spent 6 years working for an MLM and made $1 million. She still warns others against joining and being exploited, Jane Ridley, Insider
- Australian MLM influencers are cashing in on the manosphere, Nathan Morris, ABC
- Buckinghamshire woman earned £1.17 an hour in Mary Kay, Eva Tawfick, Daily Mail Online
- The Case (for and) against Multi-level Marketing, Jon M. Taylor
- Coercive Techniques in Business Opportunity Cults, Douglas M. Brooks (conference presentation, ICSI conference, 2019)
- COVID cash: Pandemic pressures may push more women to consider direct selling opportunities, Miranda Caley, Capital Current
- Dear Friend Selling MLM Products, It Isn’t You, Mary Katherine, Scary Mommy
- The Eye on the Pyramids, Part 3, MLMs and Conservative Republican Infrastructure, Rick Perlstein, The Nation
- Gardaí alerted to illegal pyramid schemes operation on social media, Garreth MacNamee, TheJournal.ie
- Hey Hun! In women’s joblessness, multi-level marketers saw opportunity, Bridget Read, The Cut
- How MLMs and Cults Use the Same Mind Control Techniques, Casey Bond, Huffpost Life
- How the Pandemic Stoked a Backlash to Multilevel Marketing, Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic
- How to Get a Friend out of an MLM, Caroline Thomson, VICE
- Inside the Predatory World of Multilevel Marketing, Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein, The New Republic
- Inside the “Toxic” World of Women Selling you Everything from Supplements to Skincare on Social Media, Amanda Garrity, Good Housekeeping
- The Internet is Starting to Turn on MLMs, Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic
- The Lies of the Bossbabes—How MLMs are Holding Back Feminism, Jessica Wood, Medium
- ‘LuLaRich’ and pyramid schemes: 4 ways to tell if the company is a scam, Kerry Breen, Today
- MLMs are often seen as a great money-making opportunity. For this mum, the reality was anything but, Gemma Breen, ABC News
- MLMs: Lured into India’s get-rich-quick selling schemes, Rachel Schraer, BBC
- MLM schemes in the UK: The ‘cult-like’ beauty businesses in your DMs, Kirsty Grant, BBC
- Multi-Level Menace, Denise Sutherland, Skeptical Inquirer
- “My Sisters Turned Their Backs on Me”, Inside the Rising Anti-MLM Movement, Amanda Garrity, Good Housekeeping
- Network Marketing: A Cult for Mums? Kate Dyson, The Motherload
- Pandemic Schemes: How multilevel marketing distributors are using the internet – and the coronavirus— to grow their businesses, Abby Vesoulis and Eliana Dockterman, TIME
- Pyramid Schemes, Scamwatch, ACCC
- The Savior I Didn’t Sign Up For, Jennifer Rajala, #igotout
- Starving Artist? Don’t Join An MLM. Clarence, Pop of Colour
- The Five Red Flags, Jon M. Taylor
- The Nu Face of Pyramid Schemes? Richard Worth, The Overtake
- These Shopping-Oriented Pyramid Schemes Lure in Ladies, Then Steal Their Friends, Cash and Confidence, Kate J. M. Baker, Jezebel
- ‘They have you in a cultish grip’: the women losing thousands to online beauty schemes, Amelia Tait, The Guardian
- Thinking of joining a multi-level marketing scheme or MLM as your side hustle? Read this first, Deanna Grant-Smith and Laura de Zwaan, The Conversation
- Uganda’s Health Pyramid, Priya Biring
- What does the DSA, the ‘regulatory body’ for MLMs in the UK, actually DO? Hannah Martin, Talented Ladies Club
- What got left out of LuLaRich, An interview with Meg Conley, Anne Helen Petersen, Culture Study
- What is an MLM-Hun? The #Girlboss Guide, Karie, The Snapping Point blog
- What is Multi-Level Marketing? E. Napoletano, Forbes Advisor
- Why Reddit and TikTok are hating on MLM ‘huns’, Aimee Pearcy, Insider
Scholarly research
- An Examination into the Exploitative Nature of Multi-level Marketing Companies, Georgia Stocker, Thesis for LLM Criminology and Criminal Justice, Sept 2019
- Counseling Considerations for Clients with Experience in Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) Companies and Similar Groups, Haley C. O’Bryan, Masters thesis (PDF download), 2022
- Decision-making and vulnerability in a pyramid scheme fraud, Bosley, Bellemare, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Vol 80, June 2019 (research paper abstract)
- Downlining Disinformation: How MLM Distributors Use Gendered Strategies for Recruitment and Pastel QAnon Indoctrination, Frankie Mastrangelo and Gina Marie Longo, Social Media + Society, Vol 10, Issue 1, January 2024
- Greenwashing: A Study of Arbonne International, Annie Ringelestein, Villanova Environmental Law Journal
- Multi-level Lies, Alexandra J Roberts, Northeastern University School of Law, Jan 2024
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Multilevel Marketing, an unwinnable lottery: how MLMs illegally target women and minorities using deceptive and predatory recruitment practices and the need for specific and expanded legal protections, Taylor Walsh, The Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law, Vol 24, 2022
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The psychology of attraction to multi-level marketing, Lucas J. Dixon, Matthew J. Hornsey, Nicole Hartley, Cassandra M. Chapman, Justin P. Brienza, The Journal of Consumer Affairs, Vol 57, Issue 3, April 2023
- Theorizing #Girlboss Culture:Mediated Neoliberal Feminisms from Influencers to Multi-level Marketing Schemes, Frankie Mastrangelo, PhD thesis, 2021
- Unveiling irresponsibility by organizational design: A theoretical reflection on the multi-level marketing industry, Bettine Wils, Masters thesis, June 2023
Podcasts
- The Dream (essential listening!), Jane Marie
- A Little Bit Culty — Hey Hun; Emily Lynn Paulson on MLMs and Other Lies; Illusion of Hope, Douglas Brooks; LuLaRich Girl: Roberta Blevins on Life After MLM
- Cult or Just Weird? — Apples, Oranges and Roses, Part 1; Apples, Oranges and Roses, Part 2
- Hey Hun, Want to Talk About MLMs? 1A podcast, NPR
- IndoctriNation (about systems of control in general)
- Life After MLM, Roberta Blevins
- Sounds Like MLM But OK
- Sounds Like a Cult – Series 1, Episode 7: The Cult of Multi-Level Marketing
- Sounds Like a Cult — Series 1, Episode 13: The Cult of LuLaRoe
- Stuff Mom Never Told You — Women and Pyramid Schemes
- Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know — What is Multi-level Marketing?
- That’s a Cult? — MLM Schemes
- The Cult Vault — Episode 102 Multi-Level Marketing — Interview with Roberta Blevins
- This American Life — Wake Up Now
- Toxic Positivity
Activists, writers, researchers & groups
We believe in sharing the work of other anti-MLMers; however, inclusion on this list does not imply an official connection with or endorsement by the Coalition.
Some of these accounts are inactive but still have useful information in their old posts. Many of those listed below have multiple social media accounts (Instagram, X/Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn etc), which can be discovered via their links below:
- Alanda Carter
- Always Marco
- Anti-MLM boss babe
- Anti-MLM Mom
- Anti-MLM Weight Loss Coach
- BehindMLM
- Bill Keep
- Bottlesoup
- BotWatch
- Brandie Hadfield
- Crownless Princesses
- Danny de Hek
- David Brear
- Facts About Herbalife
- Flipping the Pyramid (commercial cult peer support group)
- The Finance Guy
- Jennifer Rajala
- Julie Anderson
- Máire O Sullivan (researcher)
- Megan ZonaLife
- MLM and Other Annoying ‘Job’ Adverts
- MLM Boss Babe
- MLM Confidential
- MLM Debunked
- MLM Exposed
- MLM Intel
- MLM Lies Exposed (private Facebook group)
- A (MLM) Skeptic
- The MLM Syndrome
- MLM Watch (may need to switch off your VPN to access)
- Mombie
- Not The Good Girl
- Not Your Basic Boss Babe
- Queen of Karma
- Reddit r/antiMLM
- Reddit r/DefectiveDetectives (LuLaRoe)
- Reddit r/LuLaNo
- Reddit r/MLMRecovery
- Reddit r/MLMscams
- Reddit r/MLMstories
- Reddit r/Youniqueamua
- Pink Truth
- Pinkwashed Nightmare
- Pyramid Scheme Alert (Robert L. FitzPatrick)
- The Recovering Hunbot
- Roberta Blevins
- Savy Writes Books
- Stacie Bosley (Professor of Economics)
- Streetonomics – The Finance Guy
- Talented Ladies Club
- Timeless Vie
- Tracy Coenen (forensic accountant)
- Truth In Advertising
- Unwash Your Brain
- Uzzies Uncensored / Amber
Events
Multilevel Marketing: The Consumer Protection Challenge Conference: [2025] [2024] [2023] [2022] [2021]
Hosted by The College of New Jersey School of Business
Includes videos of conference presentations
International resources & articles*
Non-English pages on our website:
- French: Pourquoi la vente multiniveau (MLM) ne fonctionnera jamais!
- Italian: Marketing multilivello — non funzionerà mai
Resources elsewhere:
- AntiMLM Facebook group (Burmese)
- 傳銷難做 逾7成賺無錢 僅千分之3年領逾30萬 (Chinese)
- 挣个钱比赌博还难，竟然还有这么多人做！(Chinese)
- Amwey Business (Czech)
- Het Multi-Level Marketing Forum (Dutch)
- Going against the slippery slope of a pyramid scheme, Hu Yongqi, China Daily (English, about China)
- Scam artists take advantage of downturn in China’s economy, Calum Macleod, ABC News (English, about China)
- Why China keeps falling for pyramid schemes, Eugene K. Chow, The Diplomat (English, about China)
- Corporate Frauds Watch, Shyam Sundar (English, from India)
- Marauders of Hope, (book website) (English, from India)
- Anti Lampe Berger blog (English, from Malaysia)
- Have Three Million People in Taiwan Joined a Business Cult?, David Vaughan, Taiwan News (English, about Taiwan)
- Taiwan’s MLMs Failing to Deliver, Steven Crook (English, about Taiwan)
- Anti MLM Movement Deutschland, Instagram (German)
- Direktvertrieb, Network-und Multi-Level-Marketing (German)
- MLM-Beobachter blog (German)
- La vente multiniveau, miroir aux alouettes 2.0, article in Slate (French)
- MLM: Ce qu’on ne vous dit pas, Facebook page (French)
- Trucs, astuces et motivation pour un mode de vie anti-arnaque Facebook group (French)
- The Dark Money, YouTube (Hindi, from India)
- Anti-Bisnis-MLM dan Bisnis Investasi Bodong blog (Indonesian)
- BUTAC — ” Una guida al network marketing (Italian)
- JuicePlus l’antitrust indaga sui prodotti dimagranti (Italian)
- Lyoness e il cashback: chiesti quasi due millioni indietro (Italian)
- MULTILEVEL MARKETING: come non farsi fregare | avv. Angelo Greco (Italian)
- Vendita piramidale e promozione ingannevole, sanzione da oltre 3 milioni a Lyoness (Italian)
- Usaha Negara China Dalam Membendung MLM Malaysia? Haiya!!! (Malay & English)
- O Esgoto do Capitalismo (Portuguese)
- Anti MLM (Esquema de pirámide) (Marketing multi nivel) (Spanish)
- Videos de MLM conferencias (Spanish)
* Arranged alphabetically by language. If you run an anti-MLM group or website in your country, or have links to online articles on this topic to share, please contact us. We are especially keen to add non-English resources.
Last updated: 26 January 2026