Transcription
An insider’slook at theworldwide,systematicconspiracyof lies that isAmway / Quixtarand theirmotivationalorganizations
NoticeBefore and while completing the research contained in this book, both myfamily and I received death threats. Out of fear, I had chosen the pseudonym "JohnJacob" at the time. I have since decided to both go public and publish in my ownname, Eric Scheibeler. The text is being updated to reflect his now.This text is the original and contains the family pseudonym "John Jacob" andthis note is included to explain these references.Your Help Is NeededFirst, save all of your books, tapes, CDs and literature purchased through your upline's tools resources.Secondly if you are a distributor or have been one, your testimonial could be very helpful. Please send theamount of your net income/loss along with details of representations that were made to you to:enschei@yahoo.comYou May Also Fax testimonials to 570-227-0060.These testimonials will not be made public and will only be shared with regulators, consumer advocatesand government investigators. Putting up this site and releasing the book Merchants of Deception globallyfor free is something that I have morally compelled to do. I am however, not naïve, and am aware that bytaking these actions I am literally stepping in front of a bus.Someone had to or it would never have stopped.Legal Defense NeededFrom what you have learned upon reading this site, you probably have a good idea what is going to happento me for exposing this global fraud. At the very least, a good number of attorneys are to immediatelydescend upon me from Amway and its Kingpin distributors.All of their actions will be made public. Despite this, I will need some of the best legal counsel in thecountry. If you can refer a very large firm that would have an interest in a high profile free speechcase/defense, please contact me immediately at enschei@yahoo.com.It appears that Amway’s Arbitration agreement and gag order were forced upon all of us to simply aid theperpetration of known fraud and is therefore invalid. I will be silenced only when the public is safe.
Support NeededIf you would like to make a donation to support me in my legal defense andefforts to bring about regulatory justice, it would be very much appreciated.You can do so by going to:http://www.paypal.comto use Paypal's ultra-secure servers to send monetary funds, even if you donot have a Paypal account.My account for donations is my email address:enschei@yahoo.comCOPYRIGHTALL CONTENT 2004 Eric N. Scheibeler & merchantsofdeception.comThis book is FREE to use and distribute for non-commercial (not for profit) purposes only. By downloading this file, youacknowledge that the book Merchants of Deception and its associated web site www.merchantsofdeception.com and asupporting PowerPoint presentation as well as the related compilation of terms and data (collectively, the "Content") arecopyrighted.You agree to comply with any additional copyright notices, information, or restrictions contained in any Content available on oraccessed through the book or its web site. Users of the book Merchants of Deception and its associated web sitemerchantsofdeception.com may use the Content only for their personal, noncommercial (not for profit) use."Free" content may be freely downloaded, copied, stored, distributed and published for your personal use or noncommercialdistribution consistent with the terms defined in this Agreement. When using the "free" content, you will maintain and include allcopyright and other notices contained in such content, and retain full acknowledgement of the authorship.Except as expressly permitted by the copyright laws, no copying, storage, redistribution or publication of any content for profit ispermitted without the express permission of Eric N.Scheibeler or the owners of such content or their authorized persons if otherthan Eric N. Scheibeler.
People’s Perceptions of . . .Merchants of Deception"Mr. Jacob's book is a chilling portrayal of the process by which intelligent people canpersist for years in pursuing the Amway dream while making no money. It is all themore significant because he earned his way to one of the highest distributor levels in theCompany. He understands the subtle methods used to keep distributors reaching for thebrass ring even in the face of dismal earnings and how they are prevented from learningfrom each other that many, if not most, are in the same boat.Jacob describes the mental conditioning that diminished his ability to make criticaljudgments in the face of overwhelming factual evidence and his guilt about not attendingmeetings even after he had decided to leave the company. I learned of similar experiencesfrom ex-distributors when I interviewed them for the State of Wisconsin's Amwaylitigation in the early 80's. Such conditioning may explain why the tax returns (obtainedfor this litigation) of all active Wisconsin Direct Distributors, the company's top 1%,showed an average net income of minus 900. Why did these men and women persist inearning their way to Direct Distributor status under these economic circumstances?John Jacob’s book answers this question for those whose minds are clear enough to readits pages." BRUCE A. CRAIG, retired Assistant Attorney General,Wisconsin Department of Justice - Office of Consumer Protection.(This statement is my own and not that of the State of Wisconsin)"They have diamonds, limousines and mansions. John Jacob has a book. With cashcontributions to politicians they seek to influence regulatory agencies, state laws andnational trade policies. In telling his story, John Jacob asks for legality, honesty and fulldisclosure. They pay ex-presidents of the United States, famous televangelists andmotivation speakers to prop up their image. John Jacob stands on his own and speaksfor himself. And they have a raucous army of followers, clingers and defenders who singand shout their praise. John Jacob gives voice to millions more who are silenced bydeception, manipulation, fear and shame. With such odds arrayed, Amway and itsrelated motivational organizations are no match for the thunderous truth of John Jacob'sexposé." ROBERT L. FITZPATRICK
Author of False Profits: Seeking financial and Spiritual deliverance inMulti-Level Marketing and Pyramid Schemes“John Jacob's new book, Merchants of Deception is a must read! It reveals the innerworkings of one of the largest privately held companies in the world, whose distributorforce has used deceit and mind control techniques to ensnare millions of people aroundthe world. Cult mind control techniques are not only used in religious groups - theyhave entered the world of business - and everyone must become aware of it, or risk theconsequences. John Jacob has shown in this book, how intelligent, educated mainstreamcitizens can be seduced and controlled. After his years of committed leadership withAmway, he experienced most of the characteristic psychological problems people haveafter walking away from a cult. As a licensed mental health counselor, I can say that Iam convinced that there is a cult mind control problem with the Amway Motivationalorganization's system. I have been counseling people with cult mind control problemsfor over twenty years, and John Jacob’s problems fit the classic profile. I am so pleasedto see that he has worked hard on his recovery and that he is so dedicated to share hisexperience and knowledge. He is courageous and I heartily applaud the release of thisimportant, new book.” STEVEN HASSAN M. ED, LMHCPresident of the Freedom of Mind Resource Center www.freedomofmind.comAuthor of Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think forThemselves“Misconceptions abound about people who join groups-- but Amway? Why, this groupis main stream, these are people just like us--wanting a better life, sacrificing family-timeto make just a little more money. From Jonestown to Heaven’s Gate we have foundcomfort in believing, ‘Those folks are a bunch of nuts-- Thank God I’m not like them!’John Jacob’s chilling portrayal of life inside a professed money making machine willconvince anyone who ever said, ‘That could never happen to me’, to think again-- It canhappen to the best of us.” DEBORAH LAYTONAuthor of Seductive Poison, A Jonestown Survivors Story of Life and Deathin the Peoples Temple.
“John Jacob was an Emerald in the Amway business, well on his way to Diamond. InMerchants of Deception, he has drawn a brutally honest picture of high-levelachievement in a large Amway Motivational Organization (AMO). He describes vividly: the poverty-level lifestyle he lived as a ‘successful’ Emeraldhis gradual descent into mindless loyalty and obedience to the all-powerful uplinethe enormous inconsistencies between the promises and the realitythe demands on him and his organization to pour money into the system that wassecretly making their ‘leader’ wealthy beyond the bounds of avaricehis huge financial, spiritual, and relationship losses, and those of the people in hisgroupand the nightmare of emerging from the deceptions and mind control.After working as many as 100 hours or more per week for nearly ten years in his questfor a lifestyle of freedom to enjoy his family, and achieving a level that fewer than 1/10thof 1% of all distributors ever achieve, Jacob’s life began to unravel. Desperately clingingto the hope that what he wanted to believe about ‘The Business’ and ‘the upline’ wastrue, in the face of mounting evidence of lies and deceit, Jacobs suffered through monthswhere he was nearly catatonic as the internal and external battles raged. Through theblack pall of deep depression, enormous financial losses -- including bankruptcy andimminent home foreclosure -- through the demoralizing realization that the 100 hours ofwork per week he had poured into ‘The Business’ had only served to take him awayfrom what was important to him, and through a serious death threat, Jacob emergesvictorious.Is he wealthy? Not by a long shot. It will take years to overcome the financial andemotional depredations of the fraud he was lured into. But he has his self-respect, hissanity, his faith and his family back.While there have been other books which exposed the AMO's deceptions and lies, anddiscussed the cultic mind-control techniques used to entice prospects and keep thempouring money into their uplines' pockets, none has the raw, emotional power of thispersonal account of one man's descent into the AMO hell and back again.” RUTH CARTERAuthor of Amway Motivational Organizations: Behind the Smoke andMirrors“After 4 years of ‘business building’ and not even making 2500 in volume, our family wasbreaking apart and we were near bankruptcy when I said I'd had enough. Our childrenwere suffering while we put their needs on hold until we ‘got free.’ A few months after I
quit the Amway business my wife filed for divorce because I had suddenly become a‘dream stealer’ and a ‘loser.’ This book chronicles exactly how the AmwayMotivational Organizations expertly use psychological, emotional and financialdeception to, at all costs, increase their secretive income source. My family and financesare but one of the many casualties. This book is a gripping, well-documented whiteknuckle express to the darkest depths of deception and betrayal.” ASHLEY WILKES, photographer/filmmaker“Merchants of Deception by John Jacob is the engrossing account of the author’srecruitment into a cult, his rapid advancement as a recruiter of others, his awakening aftermany years of mind-dulling dedication to the cult ideology, his disconnection anddeepening disillusionment, and his progressively strengthening personal resolve thatwhat happened to him will not happen to others. The author could have entered into aneasy and lucrative settlement with the cult gatekeeper (Amway) that would have sealedhis lips and sealed the fate of many, many others. But he didn’t. The resulting book is amodern story of awakening to the existence of an elaborate evil, and searching for one’sown redemption.The untimely and mysterious death of my son was the beginning of my own discoveryof the evil that cults perpetrate. The story of Noah’s death in Time: ‘Scientology, theCult of Greed,’ May 6, 1991, and Readers Digest: ‘A Dangerous Cult GoesMainstream,’ October 1991, resulted in an extensive public awakening. Americans,however, still have a great deal to learn about the manipulative and destructiveorganizations that riddle and subvert our society. John Jacob’s book is an importanttestimony and will help make the world a better and safer place as it advances eachreader’s understanding.” EDWARD A. LOTTICK, M.D.“In Merchants of Deception, John Jacob does a chilling study of how a destructive cultcan subtly, yet completely, take over one's life and reshape one's thoughts however theleadership of the cult wishes. Though I was never a member of the AmwayMotivational Organizations, I was a member of a destructive cult for six years, and all ofthe exploitations that John describes in Amway's MO also apply to me. The financialexploitation, the powerlessness before the leadership, the reforming of one's thoughts sothat the group and its goals became the focus of one's life -- all were present in myexperience, and the experiences of thousands of people who have had their lives taken upby one of these destructive groups. John goes through very explicitly how anyone,given the right circumstances, can be taken in, and I highly recommend his book for those
interested not only in the practices of Amway's Motivational Organizations, but inthose of all destructive cults and who want to learn how to protect themselves and theirloved ones. NICK DICIACCIO“As a mental health professional who works with people in cults and an ex-cult membermyself (6 years in Scientology), I have to say that John Jacobs has done a masterful jobat illustrating, in this compelling book, how certain business groups can have the verysame cultic dynamics as the more well-known religious cults. This book is a page-turner.John Jacob tells the story of his experience within the Amway ranks, from his earliestrecruitment, to his decision to leave the organization and the emotionally and financiallydevastating aftermath. This is an account I have heard many times before from ex-cultmembers. This could just as easily been the story of any ex-member of any well-knowncult, since the dynamics were the same. In the organization I was a member of, therewas information that people were not told about, until they were both very emotionallyand financially committed to the group.Controversial information was given only very gradually and people were toldacceptable truths. Had I known this information from the start, I never would havegotten involved. The same holds true for John Jacob’s experience within the AmwayMotivational Organization. In my group, we were encouraged to perfectly ‘duplicate’the material that came from our leader. No creativity or originality was allowed. Dittofor the Amway group, who even used the exact same term that we did (duplication).People who left the organization were considered to be miserable, degraded, losers whohad committed crimes against the group. Members were made to fear leaving the group,which was seen, in our distorted, indoctrinated state of mind, to be tantamount tocomplete personal destruction. Once again, we see this pattern throughout John Jacob’sexperience. The aftermath of the emotional traumatization ex-cult members go throughafter leaving is also the same. If anyone thinks that cults have to necessarily be religiousin nature, they need to read this book, which solidly proves otherwise. I highlyrecommend that anyone who's life has been touched by the cultic experience, read thisbook, whether it be the professional, the ex-cult member, or a family member with aloved one involved in a cult.” MONICA PIGNOTTI, MSW, CSW, ex-Scientologist
In the first half of the 20th century someone wrote that: “The broad mass of people fallsvictim to a big lie more easily than a small one”, someone else that: “Work will set youfree”. In the second half of the 20th century the instigators of the so-called “AmericanWay Association” (a.k.a. “the Amway Corporation”), Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel,have amassed hundreds of millions of dollars by following the first of these maxims andby promoting the second as “the supreme truth”. At the start of the 21st century theirvictims number tens of millions in 80 countries internationally; my own brother is one ofthem in England. However, it is generally accepted that, to lie to people in order to gettheir money, is fraud, which is a form of theft. A former US Marine, John Jacob, was avictim of the Amway lie. He was deceived into working hard in pursuit of a cruel illusionfor almost ten years of his adult life; what he lost was far more precious than hismoney—his human dignity. John Jacob’ book is not just an insider’s description of theoccult system, which DeVos and Van Andel have baptised “multi level marketing”, but animportant social document bearing witness to the most dangerous phenomenon facinghumanity-ritual belief instigated for the purpose of human exploitation (a.k.a. destructivecultism). As a result of his discovering free information published on the Internet, whichthe criminal controllers of Amway had tried to suppress, John Jacob was finally able tobreak the chains, and escape from his psychological prison. As you will discover whenyou read this book, his ordeal did not end there. He could have run away, but he took theconscious decision to stand his ground and fight against this evil. I salute his courage! Bythe way, the first of the above maxims was published in 1925, in Adolf Hitler’s “MeinKamf”, the second remains painted above the gates of Aushwitz. DAVID A. BREARAuthor of “Amway” The American Dream Made Nightmare (France)As one who has spent years researching and writing books and developing analytical toolsfor assessing the harm from network marketing programs, I am frustrated with thedifficulties in getting regulators and consumers to look at the impossible math of all typesof product-based pyramid schemes. The math and legal issues are enough to condemnhighly leveraged breakaway compensation programs such as Amway’s. But Mr. Jacobsreveals a dimension with Amway that sets it apart in a class of its own – the extremecultism that has grown up within its ranks. Based on Jacobs story, and my ownbackground in psychology, I have to say that the psychological and social damagesuffered by many Amway participants is far greater than any of us had imagined.Amway would have you believe that failure to make money in their program is due tolack of skill or effort on the part of participants. Jacobs paints an interesting picture of
Amway dreamers subscribing to a continuing stream of sales tools and training to helpthem be successful at doing the business. What is comical here, is that almost no one inthe program stops to ask whether their financial losses might be due to a fraudulentsystem, rather than to their own inadequacies. Jacobs was one of the few who finallycame to realize that failure to profit as promised had far more to do with Amway thanwith the distributor. He is like the child in the fable who shouted, “The emperor has noclothes.”Jacobs and I both see cognitive dissonance as an appropriate explanation for the disparitybetween the belief systems or better judgment of participants – and their deceptivebehavior. In order to succeed at Amway, one must first be deceived, then maintain a highlevel of deception (with the assistance of cultish control mechanisms), and finally goabout deceiving others. Jacobs story is a chilling portrayal of just how true that is. Thebook is a great read, one I could not put down until it was finished.Jacobs has it right now, and is doing penance by telling his story withcandor and courage.-Jon M
brass ring even in the face of dismal earnings and how they are prevented from learning from each other that many, if not most, are in the same boat. . recruitment into a cult, his rapid
