<prompt> Human: Hello rpersonal finance, thank you for taking the time to read this. So my girlfriends mom has had an obsession with shady companies that are going to turn things around for her. I cant blame her, being left a single mom with two kids she has always been looking for ways to make large amounts of cash quickly. Lately she has been involved with a cyrpto-currency company that uses an mlm scheme. Originally I was going to include the name of this company in my post but I have removed it because I am worried that it could bring this post to her attention. She is not a redditor but if she is really as high up in this company as she claims someone else in the company who is higher up and uses Google alerts could become aware of this post and bring it to her attention. I know they do because whenever I find something negative about this company online someone always turns up in the comments post with righteous fury about how the poster is a closed minded idiot who is not on the inside and is therefore OUTSIDE these people love using caps. If anyone wants to help me do a little research into this company and help me gather evidence, you would be my hero, just PM me and Ill send you the name. Anyway she proclaims this company is going to be bigger than bitcoin. It took all of two seconds of me looking into the company and its CEO to decide this was yet another scam. To anyone who grew up online its obvious that this is not legit. Well yesterday while we were over for dinner she began to talk about how the company had invited her on a cruise and what a huge honor it was. I ended up getting drawn into a conversation that I was unprepared for having only done minimal research and having come to a conclusion based only on my gut. One mistake I made was to repeatedly refer to it as a pyramid scheme which instantly made her defensive. She repeatedly asked me if I knew anything about network marketing or multi-level marketing. Which to be honest I dont, all I know is that when I see pyramid, network marketing or mlm, I turn the other way. I know there are some legit companies that use models like this though the only one I can think of is Avon. She is just the sweetest, kindest lady on the face of the planet. She has a wonderful heart and its in the right place. I believe that her love for her children, her inability to provide for them, and her complete lack of technical know how have made her incredibly gullible. For the past few weeks she has spent at least two hours an evening on online conference calls and is now planning to attend a conference on a cruise to Italy. Its breaking my heart to see her getting taken for a ride like this. Today my goal is to sit down do my research properly and present her the evidence in an organized factual way. My main concern is that besides these various networking companies she works for she has no income. She recently sold her house and is now renting and I suspect she is slowly draining away the money from the sale of her house while banking on the crypto-currency cashing in big time. She is constantly telling my girlfriend how big things are coming and telling her that as soon as she has money she is going to shower it on us. My biggest fear is that she is going to go broke with no one left to take care of her but my SO. The other sibling certainly isnt going to be any support as they are already living off of the system. We have a good relationship her mom and I and I dont want to ruin it however this issue is slowly pushing them further apart, my girlfriend simply cant take anymore empty promises. What Im looking for is firstly is advice for how to have this conversation. My gut tells me that I should make it less about the company because there is so little fact based information online. Everything I find is very black and white, its either this company is the next bitcoin or this company is a scam with little to no evidence backing either side. Thats why Im posting to rpersonalfinance, I feel like the conversation needs to be more about a realistic view of her finances and why banking on making it big with network marketing is an unwise use of resources money, time energy. I know very little about her current financial situation, all I know is what I can see from the outside and thats enough to scare me. Secondly Im looking for fact based information I can present to her on why she needs to be very careful when working with network marketing or MLM companies. She claims that she has a lot of experience with these companies and that she wouldnt go anywhere near this one if it wasnt for the fact that people she knows and trusts were behind it. These are people she has met through her work only, not people she actually knows. I researched the crap out of the CEO and he definitely doesnt seem like someone I would trust. These people are experts in taking advantage of people, I dont want her to be a victim. She has been involved with companies like this for almost 10 years and has built up quite a network of people whom she has never met but refers to them as trusted friends. Finally if there is anyone out there who is willing to help me prove to her that this company is a scam or at the very least compile a list of reasons this company is not to be trusted, I would greatly appreciate it. I feel very overwhelmed and Im not as good at doing research as I would like to be. Help or advice of any kind is appreciated. Thank you so much for reading this! This post has been read and is girlfriend approved, we both want to help her in the most loving way possible so I dont believe I am sticking my nose where it doesnt belong though I could be wrong about that. Edit: Company name is Gl0b4l C01n R353rv3 Edit 2: umetavoodoos comment really resonates with me and based on the responces Ive recieved so far I dont see much hope in convincing her this is a scam. SO I would like to try and shift the focus of the conversation to how I can get my SOs mom to open up about her finances. My SO and I are new to budgeting and financial independence. We have been using YNAB for 6 months now and I would like to try and get her mom involved in our financial planning. I think that by opening our finances up to her that perhaps she will be willing to do the same. Thoughts?Edit 3: Just wanted to thank everyone for the overwhelming help support, I havent had time to respond to a lot of the replies but there is a ton of great stuff for me to use and consider. You guys are great Assistant: A few things:1. If you plan to confront her with evidence facts etc. youll need a united front with your wife. Youll need to look over it together and stand firm about your conclusions. 2. Rather than convince her out of it, you could try to convince her into putting more time elsewhere in a part-time job or something along those lines. Anything to avoid putting all her eggs in one basket.3. Is she paying for these cruises and trips? If not, well she might as well milk it if shes going to be involved. If she is paying, then what kind of company has employees pay for their own expenses to attend work events?Human: She claims that she only has to pay for the flight. Then she said half the flight would be covered by one of her online friends.Assistant: I would be worried about how she could be taken advantage of after shes completely removed from all of her family and real life friends. What if they get her on this trip, and then they wont pay for all the things they said they would? She could end up stranded in a foreign country. I wouldnt trust these people...Human: Wow, never even occurred to me. However I am feeling there is less and less hope of convincing her this company could be dangerous. They compared it to pointing out to someone that theyre in a toxic relationship.  <response>: This is kind of related, but Ive read a lot of Jerry Springer style talk shows will pay for a one way ticket to bring people out, but then will refuse to pay for the return flight until the person agrees to go on the show. 