I have a friend who is a very high achiever. She graduated with distinction from the London School of Economics, has presented to the UN on issues of public health, and so on and so forth.

She told me that she is launching an app. The app provides consumers a 5-10% discount on major chains across North America, and a percentage of spending goes towards the company behind the app. The app has been in development for four years and has deals with companies like Bed Bath and Beyond, Home Depot, and Uber.

Initially I was impressed that my friend had managed to make these deals, and I assumed that she was going through another round of fundraising for her startup. I figured that if I threw in something like $500 and lost it, no harm done--but if the app were to be somewhat successful, then I could make up the investment through dividends or share price.

Nope. She left me a thirty-minute voicemail, most of it read off a script. The app has been in development for four years. It's run by some dude called Ken Dunn, who is notorious in the multi-level marketing/pyramid scheme world. Your portion of income increases based upon the number of people you recruit to the "core team" before the app launches. She doesn't know the name of the app, hasn't met the owners, and doesn't know how many people are involved. She then talked about spirituality, energy and Tony Robbins. I really don't want to know how much money she's put in or how much time she's spent doing free labour for the owners.

What the fuck? Have any of you encountered otherwise-reasonable people suckered in by MLM?