Vemma Temporarily Out of Business for Running Pyramid Scheme
Nutrition drinks, energy drinks, and weight management products are the three main items sold by Vemma Nutrition Company. This company skyrocketed about four years ago when high school and college students got word about the benefits from the company. Vemma targeted young students by promising that if they were to sell their products, they would essentially start earning a high salary. Well, unfortunately that was not the case.
It was my Junior year of high school (2011) that I started to hear a lot about Vemma. One friend of mine in particular had started to work with the company and started spreading the word throughout the rest of our campus (aka I went to a boarding school). At first I had no idea what he was talking about, but I soon caught on. He would get packages of little energy drinks sent to him that all had the label ‘Verve’ on them; this was Vemmas energy drink product. The little cans were soon seen all around campus, for my friend was selling them amongst my fellow classmates. Before I knew it, he had several more students selling the products as well!
I was intrigued by the sudden interest in the company and wondered why so many people wanted to become involved with selling these products. When I spoke to my friend he began to tell me that it was a great way to learn marketing skills and earn a generous amount of money as a student. He said if you were to manage your products the proper way, and have enough people join under your name, that you could start making so much as $50,000 a week! After hearing such a large number, I knew I wanted to become involved.
I sat down with my friend and started discussing how I could start selling the Vemma product and soon I found myself not wanting to sign up. Vemma works by using a point system, the more points you get the more money you make. You, personally, have to put down a payment of $600 to start up. Not to mention you also have to spend $150 a month in buying products to sell. That’s $750 of my own money to start! I decided at that moment that I no longer wanted to sell the product.
I forgot all about Vemma until the other day when I saw it on the news. “Vemma temporarily shut down for running pyramid scheme.” This is all you hear on the news when it comes to Vemma. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the company has been temporarily shut down for running a pyramid scheme in which they promised students a high salary if they were to sell the products, when in reality most people just ended up losing money. Although I saw this coming for a while, most people believed in the product and its system. I wonder what will happen next. Better yet, what will happen to all the students who lost so much money to Vemma?
