My Thai friend wants to invest in and work for a company called 'GUG Thailand'. Some sort of scheme to sell cosmetics and other sundries. It requires a hefty up-front down payment.

Has anyone had experience with this outfit?

Not Pattaya related. I will move it to General to see what they make of it over there.

Don't mean to be rude but reread your post a couple of times. As an alternative you could simply mail it to me. PM me if you need my address. Land of Scams, good luck, bewarey.

Pyramid scheme?

http://www.gug.co.th/welcome/

http://goldugoldbussinessthailand.blogspot.com/

Stay well away I would say

Edited March 12, 201214 yr by AdamBanks

Does anyone have any direct experience?

It openly advertises itself as a pyramid scheme. Unless you are right at the top then you will ultimately get screwed.

It openly advertises itself as a pyramid scheme. Unless you are right at the top then you will ultimately get screwed.

Agree, just run some of their blerb through google translate, you'll see in one minute it's a pyramid scheme / operation, which is illegal in many countries.

Under the photo of the massive 'elephant complex' in Bangkok (which is irrelevant to the company) there is the following statement (translated by google translate):

"Gold Gold is the company's direct sales company S.c.b. registration is required by law. Nr. Registration No. 0307/2741 marketing plan for its implementation. M & M (Multi Level Marketing) or the so-called multi-level compensation plan. The company has to make. Product quality standards, GMP and ISO 9002 standards and certified to NSF 70 and more than 50 countries around the world."

Some comments:

- Multi level marketing is just another name for pyramid scheme

- Multi-level compensation is just blerb, and another attempt to avoid using the word pyramid scheme.

- The company 'has to make'. Product quality standards, GMP and ISO 9002 standards and certified to NSF 70 and more than 50 countries around the world.

The words 'has to make' are marketing spin words.

Who

says they 'have to make'. ISO of itself is not a protector of product standards, ISO aims to indicate that a company has suitable procedures, and there's always the question 'when was there an actual /real audit which proves that the 'suitable procedures' are being religiously followed.

Google NSF 70 and you will no doubt see that this is just blerb which provides nothing to anybody who joined this scheme.

- I ran everything seen here through google translate, I couldn't find any testimonials (and do you believe testimonials anyway?).

How do typical pyramid schemes work (and for many people, the reason why they are illegal in many countries):

Step by step:

- Founder of the scheme and cronies automatically at the top of the scheme watching the bank balance grow and doing sweet FA to gain the cash flow.

- The bottom of the scheme:

- Continuous (high turnover) newbies, in great numbers) who get sucked in by the clever and slick sales talk and graphics. They try to sell but most have no real knowledge of marketing and sales and end up selling the products (more than needed) to either themselves or their office colleagues (who mostly get tired of this quickly), relatives etc., who also get tired of it. But meantime there is some sales and cash stream, and multiply this by the massive numbers of newbies and for the people at the top all is fine.

Additionally, many of the newbies eventually realize that the cost they incur (not reimbursed by the company) for gasoline, phone calls, lunches, etc., mean that they are in fact making a loss.

Never mid, the man at the top is just ordering his next Benz and he has the cash flow needed. .

Yep that sounds about right....

That is the most appalling website I have ever seen. I would not trust anyone who could not be bothered to scrape together a couple of thousand baht to build a proper website. Not that I would invest in any company in Thailand where I did not know the directors well anyway.