Network Marketing is a business model in which a member profits from the sales and subsequent recruitment of members that he/she recruits. Members typically pay a large sum of cash to join, then attempt to recruit others in order to profit. Members are lured in with empty promises of money for nothing. Sadly, several companies seek out teens and young adults via social media to line their corporate pockets.
These shady companies are legal per se, according to a 1979 Federal Trade Commission ruling because they do sell a product. Yet, for many companies the product only exists to fill the loophole. Their primary goal is pyramid-style recruitment. For this reason, the FTC strongly warns against these companies.
This must stop. Let's call these pseudo-pyramid schemes what they are: illegal.