Here's an article I found which talks about this "secret" scam.
Can a leather briefcase containing 10 CDs, MP3 player (supposedly preloaded with 15 hours of instructions), 15 lessons (500+ pages) on starting the Internet Business, action planner, compact vision boards (whatever they are) and a $500 gift certificate be worth $1,995?
Granted, $500 certificate maybe worth just that (depends where you can use it). Unfortunate part is that this so called gift certificate cannot be used at Macy’s. It is only valid if you want to attend live “Secret” seminars.
When I wrote my original post about the secret, the website contained the graphic that clearly showed it to be a pyramid scheme. Since then, the secret website was modified- the graphic was taken down and more emphasis is placed on the product (the items listed in the firs paragraph).
So what is a pyramid scheme and and what is not? I am not sure I agree with Wikipedia’s definition of a pyramid scheme anymore. As I see it, some products sold at a price that exceeds (in, what can be called, a drastic manner) the real value of the product is a scam in itself. So what about their affiliate program? They do sell a product after all. Well in order to make money you need to become their affiliate and start selling the product. To me it is a pyramid scheme with a twist, where the twist lies in so called “product”. The product on its own will not teach how or help you to make money unless you become their affiliate.
So my verdict about the Secret is – SCAM and WASTE OF YOUR MONEY.
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The secret of getting ripped off on the Oprah show.
would probably pass this kind of thing by. But I could not help myself not looking deeper into this so called “secret” after receiving a request to review an affiliate website that promotes “the official secret seminar“(Google Search Result). While I declined to do a sponsored review of this site I have to point out that from an affiliate marketing point of view the website (or rather the landing page- the only page on the website) was very well done. But after clicking around and landing on the “merchant website” I found few things quiet disturbing. First the image below:
(Explanation: You Spend $1,995 + You get “ripped off”=”The Official Secret Seminar“)
Yep, MLM pyramid scam! While the website that contained this image had no mention of the fact that “the teachers” of the secret were featured on the Oprah Show, the affiliate site prominently displayed the clip from the show. So I went to the Oprah website and sure enough she did host a show, where at least one of the “teachers” (Rev. Michael Beckwith) was present. I wonder if Oprah even realized who were her guests. The show itself was centered around well acclaimed Australian movie, and probably had nothing to do directly with “the official secret seminar” (Google results).
I doubt if any of these teachers would ever read my blog, but just in case they do I have only one thing to say “SHAME ON YOU!“
I really do not want to go into the religious aspect of this, but if I did I would have one more thing to say to them “SHAME ON YOU!“