DSDOMINATION.COM scam?

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Baiting Guru Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 2163

So an old friend of mine started pimping DSDOMINATION.COM on facebook recently.

I cant really figure out what it is or what it does but apperently she's selling via dropshipping on ebay or amazon. With every message she tells she's making money, and it's easy for other people to do the same. Why she wants to start competition when she'selling so well is beyond me.

I'm getting the feeling this is some sort of pyramid thingy or an other scam. But i don't really have the time to look into it.

Opinions?

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 07 Oct 2010 Posts: 82

Its multilevelmarketing. Only those who are at the top will make money on this, in my opinion.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 4:45 pm

Looks like a (possibly) genuine service, difficult to assess without logging-in, can you share your friend's link for us to use to join the site? - By PM if necessary.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 4:55 pm

It's a scam http://www.hotinyuma.com/2013/10/ds-domination-scam-alert/

They have no real product apart from an informational video. Quite possibly verging on a pyramid scheme and most certainly against eBay rules.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 6:01 pm

There's rhetoric on both sides, I don't see any testimonials by those who have been scammed. (Unlike the article above, I don't count pricing something higher than where you buy it to be a scam.) I'm not certain what is against the terms & conditions of E-Bay here.

Giving incentives to those who ask others to join is not a scam - see dropbox/vimeo et al..

Exclusivity of joining to those invited by members is not a scam - see gmail as it was four years ago.

Price gouging is not illegal. Everybody who's out to make a profit does this.

Marketing hype is not illegal, in fact it's virtually compulsory in marketing.

Selling a marketing video is not illegal.

Acting as a middle-man and taking a commission on every item bought aand sent is not illegal.

Charging for the time items are stored (if they do) is not illegal.

Employing self-employed salespeople, who have responsibility for their own marketing budget is not illegal.

Sure, we can say "caveat emptor" but I'm curious, where is the scam exactly? Can anybody see it clearly?

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 6:29 pm

eBay may have watered down their rule then, earlier in the year they were actively closing down or warning people who were drop shipping.

There is also the fact that this is not really drop-shipping. Legitimate drop shipping companies take an order from one of their members and then ship the item to the end customer with no marketing literature in it (and the members own details for contacts). DSDomination involves ordering something on Amazon then changing the delivery address to that of the person you sold the item to - Amazon are not a drop-shipping company.

The <strike>fools</strike>business people getting involved also leave themselves open to lots or reversals on eBay from people who realise what is happening and open a claim for non-delivery - it's a bit difficult to provide proof when you didn't actually post the item yourself and your only evidence is Amazon's records.

As to being legal to sell a video - sure, but having a hierarchy of people introducing other people to sell the video is verging on a pyramid scheme and other MLM schemes have fallen foul of that.

As Mister Volleyball says, only the people at the top will make anything from it as they get the referral fees and don't bother with any selling.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 6:35 pm

Quote:

DSDomination involves ordering something on Amazon then changing the delivery address to that of the person you sold the item to

That make the people who join very vulnerable, I agree. This is the first time I've encountered Drop Shipping - I didn't realise it was looked on so harshly by E-Bay. There's still a lot of questions I have unanswered though.

The illegality of Pyramid schemes is not in debate, if this fits the definition may be. I'm no lawyer, but the business may have hit on a technicality to make them squeak through.

Don't join, it's too high a risk - seems like our position at the moment, I'm fine with that.

ETA. It sure does seem to be against Amazon's terms of service though:

Quote:

This license does not include any resale or commercial use of any Amazon Service

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 6:56 pm

The points you raise are valid - as you say, price gouging and marketing hype are not illegal. So, if you buy something on Amazon and have it delivered to you and then stick it on eBay for a profit no one cares (except the person who bought from you) - you're an entrepreneur. The problem with that is that you lose some of your profit on the double shipping (unless you can get free shipping), but there is money to be made (or used to be).

Having had a quick look at eBay's rules they do seem to have relaxed them on drop-shipping (it's a totally legit and accepted method for small businesses starting out), but I don't think they would look favourably on this method.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 7:06 pm

Sorry, I edited without re-loading the page, didn't see your reply.

It sure does seem to be against Amazon's terms of service though:

Quote:

This license does not include any resale or commercial use of any Amazon Service

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 8:37 pm

Almost certainly an MLM company, any time people push harder on getting new recruits than selling products, you know it's an MLM. All MLM's fly close to the pyramid line, some moreso than others. If you want to know the reality of being inside one of the biggest MLM's out there AmWay, search for Eric Somethingorother 'Merchants of Deception'. At one stage it was a free PDF, you can still find mirrors of that. This guy was an Emerald (is near the top) and the promised millions kept falling to arrive, despite them having everything in hock to maintain the illusion with flash cars etc.

And all MLM's burn up social currency - pretty fast way to stop getting invited to parties is to try to recruit friends into MLM's. And the huge majority of distributors end up financially down on where they started.

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 11:41 pm

Most of this stuff is very Foreign to me but I find it very interesting and informative.

The talk of Price Gouging reminded me of a time where it ran Rampant. Ice Storm 98 was a funny time (for me) but others didn't have the time of their lives as they were subjected to paying whatever the Heck a Retailer decided to charge. New York State actually stepped in and seems to have made a Law that 'Discourages' such:

Quote:

The price gouging statute was enacted to protect consumers in times of emergency situations where disruptions in the marketplace substantially limit competition. This law protects the public by prohibiting sellers from taking advantage of the crisis by charging excessively high prices which do not reflect the customary value of the item.

Source:

http://www.ag.ny.gov/press-release/ice-storm-price-gouging-victims-receive-refunds

Sorry for derailing this Thread a bit or changing it's scope. Carry on eh?

Baiting Guru Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 2163

piecrust wrote:

Looks like a (possibly) genuine service, difficult to assess without logging-in, can you share your friend's link for us to use to join the site? - By PM if necessary.

she is not using a link to join the site but the messages are dodgy as hell

Quote:

I really can get used to this extra income.
Do you know how to copy and paste & want to learn how to make money with dropshipping and selling on Ebay?

If you want to have chat feel free to add me & pop me a line.

This is a screenshot of my paypal account from the last week... how often do you want to get paid?

Quote:

Today I decided to spend the profit I made today ( One day only profit) with my Ebay Business ...
And I bought:

I can guarantee that this costs more then the GBP12 for the Ebay Course I followed.
Join me: http://dsdomination.com/sp/pro?aid=XXXXXX

Quote:

Me is a happy bunny.... look at my total sales on ebay from just the last week!

attached to some messages are images of her sales.

Something is wrong. But i need some ammo.

edit: found a link its in the first quote. But i edited out her name

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 11:10 am

Are you sure her accounts haven't been phished? it just looks too spammy for a real person to be sending to someone they know.

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 11:15 am

^^^ You've never had a friend who's discovered a wonderful MLM opportunity then?

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 11:21 am

Actually I haven't. I can imagine they would be a bit obsessive at first and a bit desparate later. but as for this:

Quote:

I really can get used to this extra income.
Do you know how to copy and paste & want to learn how to make money with dropshipping and selling on Ebay?

If you want to have chat feel free to add me & pop me a line.

This is a screenshot of my paypal account from the last week... how often do you want to get paid?

That's what stood out for me. If the person writing this was writing to Klasvaak, it would be more personal and hey would already have a chat contact set up (or just not use it anyway). This looks like bulk spam.

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 11:24 am

They're pretty much told what to write to people - so yes, it is bulk spam - send it to all your friends, family, acquaintances.

As MBL said "all MLM's burn up social currency"

Baiting Guru Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 2163

Oh no, her account isn't hacked. She posts this shit on her wall. And replies to people who ask about this she also replies to people who say its a scam. But after that i think it goes via private messages.

That girl is dumb as rock, and i need some really good info/strategy if i confront her. Can't argue with stupid.

And allthough it's fishy as hell, i am not sure it is a scam.

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 2:40 pm

I'm having a similar problem. Many of my friends here in SEA have a social network friend who offers some stupid MLM or paid survey scheme. They send out a photo of someone holding money along with the blurb and tag ALL their friends. I consider it spam. Not a scam but unethical all the same, not to mention as annoying as heck. I report every single one that appears in my news-feed. Evil or Very Mad

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Sep 2013 Posts: 2205

I was invited to a "party" once, only to find out it was an MLM thing, it was one of the better known companies like Amway or something... I was the "mark"... everyone there was already part of it and every single person there know would come and "casually" talk to me about how amazing the business was. It was miserable.

The funniest part was they basically would not accept NO for an answer, and I was sent away with an informative packet on the company. It was full of charts and graphs that made NO mathematical sense. Just random charts that proved that the end result would be that you become wealthy.

The funniest thing was a CD was basically titled something like "8 reasons you shouldn't believe anything you hear about our company on the internet." The reasons were stuff like, #1 - Most people are losers. #2 - The internet is full of whiners, etc... Quite amusing to say the least.

Believe it or not, I passed on the amazing opportunity.