Profile

Relationship to MLM: his mother is an active member (since 2015)
Company (Company A): sells beauty and health products; founded over 10 years ago
Family: father, mother, older sister, S-san

How it began

My mother had been interested in fortune-telling and spirituality since I was a child. She'd sometimes recommend meditation training or obscure books; at the time, still not understanding the world well, I simply went along with what she said.

She'd had chronic back pain since her school years. Her job was as a meter reader for a power company — lots of walking, physically demanding work that likely strained her back further.

In 2015 she quit the meter-reading job and became a Company A distributor. The trigger was likely that the author of a spiritual book she loved was promoting MLM; I don't know why she chose Company A specifically. At the time I thought, "she's doing something a bit odd, but she's worked hard for us all these years, so let her do what she wants" — and mostly didn't interfere.

I became a member myself, too

Around the same period, I was recruited by a university friend into a different MLM company. Dissatisfied with my job at the time and craving some excitement, I signed up. But I was quickly persuaded by another friend to see the reality of MLM, and used the cooling-off system to cancel. This became my introduction to how the MLM mechanism works and how badly it's perceived.

My mother's changes

My sister and I both eventually moved out, leaving my mother living with my father. In April 2021 I got married. Around this time my mother began frequently pushing anti-vaccine content — sending suspicious YouTube videos, warning that "people who got the vaccine are dying one after another."

With the wedding approaching, I kept quiet about having been vaccinated, worried it would cause trouble. But she kept asking "did you get vaccinated?" repeatedly, and eventually, worn down, I told her honestly. She responded with "Traitor! Liar!"

In December 2021, during a visit home, she gave my wife and me Company A products (a T-shirt and leggings) as gifts. She had given us products before too, and though I didn't want them, I'd accepted them. My wife didn't want them either but couldn't refuse, and we ended up taking them.

Exchanges with my mother

In February 2022, visiting alone, I told her: "please don't give us Company A products anymore." She replied, "It's a gift — you shouldn't worry about it, just accept it, this is a parent's love." When I asked why we couldn't accept it, I explained the poor public perception and risks of MLM, to which she said:

"It's cruel to judge our work badly just because of the public image. Please use the products, watch Company A's seminar videos, and come to understand how good they are. That's how we'll grow closer." It went nowhere.

I also told her: "If Company A's products are really that good, why not just advertise normally instead of using a socially controversial method like MLM?" She replied: "Company A strategically uses network marketing. Regular advertising costs money the company doesn't have. If they did that, our jobs would disappear."

She now sends me LINE messages about once a week — "look how much better this person's body got from Company A products!" — along with vaccine-related articles. I ignore all of them.

How relatives are responding

Recently my sister showed signs of agreeing with our mother's LINE messages, so I asked her about it. She's become a Company A member herself, buying products monthly, and she and her husband apparently enjoy using them. When I told her Company A is an MLM company serious enough that police have issued public warnings about it, she said:

"Mom has learned firsthand that without health, work and daily life are no fun. Please understand that using Company A products so she can rest more is an expression of a parent's love. Also, Dad still works, but if Mom and Dad were alone together all day they'd both lose their minds — so setting the MLM issue aside, having some human connection or purpose in life matters." My father still works on weekdays and isn't particularly interested in the MLM either way.

How I feel now

My mother is desperate for us to understand the value of the products, more than she is focused on earning money through MLM — she won't listen no matter what we say. Because she's so devoted to the products, telling her you can't actually make money, or that public perception is bad, doesn't really land.

My sister, meanwhile, seems to be buying products out of consideration for our mother's feelings — but that kindness is only deepening our mother's dependency on the MLM. I wish she'd realize that sooner.

Through joining this community, I've learned how many people share similar struggles. Every organization seems to use the same methods to indoctrinate members. I've also realized that the right distance and approach differs depending on the relationship between the person concerned and the member.

Going forward, I plan to:

  • Explain the risks of MLM to my sister and father, seeking their understanding
  • Keep calmly telling my mother I don't need the products, and explain the risks of MLM depending on the situation
  • Help find something else she could do — she believes MLM is the only work she can do at this point, and with her back condition worsening in her sixties her options are limited, but I want to look for alternatives

← Back to stories