>I would disagree with calling multi-level marketing a fraud. With companies like Mary-Kay, Amway, Tupperware, etc. there are actually many people making money by selling the product. I will grant that there is a over-hype in getting people involved but the bottom line is that the bottom line actually moves the product (My wife used Mary-Kay and my mother loved Amway cleaners)
What I have seen with MLM so far, I would say that quite often - not necessarily always - it is a fraud, although it may be hard to find a law that they break. It may also be difficult to draw a neat line between legitimate businesses and frauds.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)