The anatomy of a Get Rich Quick scheme (Herbalife in disguise)

On Facebook you'll see many links on the right side of your screen like this one. There are the usual hints about being your own boss, working from home and earnings lots of money without stress.

When you click the link you are taken to a Facebook page and walked through a serious of steps beginning with:

The second step demands your name and email address.

Once you've entered these details you're then presented with a web page containing 9,617 words that does not, not even once, say what this "successful business" opportunity actually is.

It doesn't take too much digging to find out what this is really about. The Facebook "Info" page gives a clue.

The link goes to a site offering more untold riches that again neglects to give even the slightest clue about what the business actually is.

However it does include a number of testimonials from supposedly successful members of whatever this scheme might be.

However, it's curious that our friend "Moela Chiloane" appears to have said exactly the same thing about a variety of schemes, not just this one. A Google search for "Moela Chiloane" and "I am 28 years old" finds 294 different web sites.

Behind all of this is a scheme called "Elite Business Systems" who claim very clearly that they are not:

• "A lay on the couch get-rich-quick scheme
• Or, a do-little-or-nothing type of business
• A promise of overnight success"

but who then proceed to offer examples of various other people who have made fortunes with very little work. People who it must be said don't actually seem to exist other than on this and similar sites.

The truth behind all of this seems to be quite simple. The founder of this "Elite Business Systems", Shawn Lewis,  wants you to pay R297 for the "Elite Business Systems Starter Pack".

But what is the business behind all of this? Is it a pyramid scheme? No. From what I can gather it's nothing more than Herbalife, hidden behind an enormous amount of marketing hogwash.

My feelings about all of this? If this system is so successful why aren't they just open and honest about what this all is? Why the deception? Why the lies?