News

Media: Why social media is rife with multi-level marketing schemes

QUT Centre for Justice member, Professor Deanna Grant-Smith, appeared in a number of media reports this week discussing how social media has become the new ‘front door’ for many multi-level marketing schemes with people using the platform to sell products, but also to recruit friends for financial gain.

“The business model, which is legal in Australia, typically lures people in by promising them that if they purchase a large amount of product at a near wholesale price, they’ll make a return on their initial investment once they’ve sold more products and in some cases recruited their friends to do the same. But most rarely turn a profit, said Professor Deanna Grant-Smith, from the Queensland University of Technology School of Management.”

Read the full story here.

This story appeared in Daily Telegraph, The Australian and Hobart Mercury.

Professor Grant-Smith has worked extensively in enriching public understanding and awareness of exploitative work practices and constraints to equitable access to education and employment across a wide range of issues with a social justice dimension including issues including unpaid work, multi-level marketing, transport disadvantage, employment fraud, employability, and the widening participation agenda.

Professor Grant-Smith has written a QUT Centre for Justice Briefing Paper on this topic.

Read more about Professor Grant-Smith’s research here.

Comments are closed.