Why I’m Here
By Scott Johnson
Frank Parlato and I spoke again today and he asked me to write this article and said he would put it on his website for all to read. I’m here for several reasons, but first, here’s some background information:
A few months ago, I stumbled across the NXIVM story regarding Sarah Edmondson’s scar, revealed by the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/nyregion/nxivm-women-branded-albany.html
I noticed how similar the story sounded compared with my Amway experience – not the cauterized scar, but the human manipulation. Then I searched the internet for the background of NXIVM’s founder, Keith Raniere. When I came across claims of him being in Amway before founding Consumers’ Buyline and NXIVM, it all made sense, because I saw so many similarities between what I experienced with Amway and the NXIVM story.
It didn’t take long to find Frank’s site, easily the most prolific and comprehensive source of all things NXIVM. Even Raniere, “the world’s smartest man” would not wake up one morning and suddenly decide to start an MLM, it simply isn’t reasonable. But he did learn MLM scam fundamentals while in Amway.
I’ve confirmed Raniere’s Amway involvement with three separate individuals who were around in the days during and shortly after Raniere left Amway, and all three said they were either in Amway with Raniere or they heard him refer to being in Amway. Even more similarities between Amway and NXIVM were apparent while reading some of Frank’s articles.
I called Frank back in the April time frame and related the above information. He stated NXIVM was pretty much over, as Raniere had been caught in Mexico and the remainder of the cards were likely to fall in place quickly, and he was looking for a new challenge. He said Amway could very well be next on his agenda.
Here are the major reasons I’m here, in no particular order:
1. To help people understand NXIVM better by providing insights regarding how NXIVM was able to manipulate people, because it’s similar to how Amway and other MLM scams manipulate people. Many people are confused by how NXIVM could do what they did, and I know how they did it, by both personal experience and extensive research on the topic;
2. To bring a questioning attitude and new facts and logic to Frank’s posts as well as people making comments, instead of simply “piling on” and joining the “popular” discussions;
3. To bring more attention to Amway and other MLM scams. While NXIVM may have a more dramatic story line, MLMs scam literally 10s of millions of new people around the world every single year. However, instead of focusing on the well-to-do with expensive “intensives,” MLMs are an “equal opportunity” type of scam, targeting the wealthy and poor alike. Unfortunately, it’s the poor who have less access to information available on the internet, and therefore are usually more successfully targeted, which means the financial damage is far greater.
The readers of FrankReport.com could have a major influence in shutting down these scams by spreading the truth about how they operate. Think of the positive change that could occur by not just lobbing random comments on Frank’s website, but carrying this message forward. You could be part of a team that would be very proud of working together and protecting others against MLM scams.
4. As the information has evolved, it is very likely likely NXIVM is just a part of a much larger child/human trafficking scheme, something many of us (would YOU?) would be willing to be cauterized like Sarah if we were able to expose it and get it shut down, or at least a large chunk of it. Think how rewarding that would be.
While on the phone today and after hanging up, I thought about some suggestions for Frank, such as:
1. Allowing me to help him take out stupid comments. Presently, we defined stupid as the “person” who is trying, very unsuccessfully, to impersonate me. There are many other comments that I personally consider non-productive, but I would leave it to Frank to make the decision on which ones stay and which ones are flushed. After all, it is his website. We are both firm believers in free speech, but pornography on his site goes beyond reasonable. Hopefully, the person is some 13 year old with too much time on their hands, as an adult should have better things to do. I value free speech in part because it exposes those whose ideas represent inferior thinking. For now, Frank is handling the impersonator and he did not even bring up the topic of banning me, but did ask to tone it down a bit. I will, but it takes 2 to tango, folks….
2. I also recommended people use the same name when they post. Ideally, their real name, which would cut down on all of the flame-throwing significantly. If you don’t feel responsible enough to do that, at least a consistent name that ties back to an anonymous social media account or has a gravatar that identifies you as an individual, but is still anonymous. Otherwise, it’s hard to get a feel for who the comment comes from, their pattern of ideas, etc.
3. Related to #1, answer reasonable questions. Otherwise, the comments are an almost complete waste of time and effort. Actual discussions that result in more facts and logic being introduced lead to making real progress while discussing an issue. Not answering at all, or answering in a non-responsive/off-topic manner, is quite useless.
4. Trying to intimidate someone by putting their personal information in the comments, such as address, relatives not involved in the discussion, etc., is simply juvenile and not productive. It says a lot more about who you are than the person’s personal information, and it ain’t good. Those who don’t push back on violators are just as responsible, if not more responsible, as we already know the person posting the information is acting like a child. Knock it off.
That’s all for now. Let the comments begin.
