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MLM / Direct-Sales Income Pitch
Each point below names the source it comes from and what that source actually says.
The FTC staff report reviewed 70 multi-level-marketing income disclosure statements. In that evidence set, low or zero participant earnings were common, many participants made $1,000 or less in a year, and at least 17 of the reviewed companies had disclosures where most participants made $0. The source also matters for what it does not cover: it is evidence about the disclosures reviewed, not a promise about every company or every seller.
The FTC's business-opportunity guidance says earnings claims need written substantiation and buyer-outcome information. That is why selective screenshots, top-seller stories, or numbers that omit expenses are treated as warning signs rather than proof of a normal sales opportunity.
Company names, products, and compensation plans change, and not every pitch gives the same disclosure. The durable warning is the pattern the public evidence can support: low or zero earnings are common in reviewed disclosures, expenses are often missing, and earnings claims need substantiation.
A top seller's story can be true and still be useless for the decision. The question is what ordinary participants earned after expenses, including the people who made nothing, and that is exactly the context selective stories tend to leave out.