In the current era, with the growing scarcity of employment opportunities, people are falling victim to scams. Taking advantage of people’s desperate situation, these scam businesses are growing rapidly and making a fortune. Recently, there has been increasing scepticism regarding some media and marketing firms presenting themselves as having genuine business models but operating as pyramid schemes. One such name that has come up in online forums and feedback is Limelight Media. The company presents itself as a viable platform for selling digital media or marketing jobs, but its employees have serious complaints against the company’s operating methods. Let’s check out the accusations of the Limelight Media pyramid scheme to understand the dangers that come with these types of business schemes.
What is Limelight Media?
Before we delve deeper into the allegations, let’s get a quick overview of Limelight Media, the business in question. Limelight Media claims to provide job opportunities and training in the field of Digital Marketing. Founded by Mark Barron, a well-known digital marketing entrepreneur, the company quickly gained attention. This business mainly recruits fresh graduates, telling them they will quickly learn entrepreneurial skills and advance in their careers. Young people in need of a stable career and work experience naturally found interest in this business. However, their work experience here did not go as planned. Employees complained that the business was a scam and was misleading young individuals.
Limelight Media Pyramid Scheme Allegations
Even though Limelight Media has not announced itself as a pyramid scheme, the company’s recruiting practices say otherwise. Here are some of the most serious accusations against the company.
- Deception and Unpaid Work: The allegations of the recruits of this company mainly involve payment-related issues. They complained that Limelight Media does not pay any base salary, and the payments are mainly commission-based. This system takes advantage of desperate job applicants who end up working long hours with no guaranteed pay. There is also a claim of deceptive job advertisements, where the job descriptions for “media positions” are actually for door-to-door sales.
- More Stress on recruitment than Product Sales: A major red flag of pyramid schemes is that the income of the business comes mainly from recruitment. The same thing happened in the case of Limelight Media. Some of its ex-employees claimed that the company pressured them to focus on recruiting new team members instead of selling media products or doing any actual media-related work.
- False Promises: According to the accusations of the employees, Limelight Media promises to give quick promotions to the managerial level, where each employee can have a team. In reality, they will only get a promotion once they fulfil the target of recruiting new employees. It does not depend on any other capability or performance.
- Exceptionally High Turnover: Apart from not giving a decent salary, Limelight Media also has a high turnover rate. They pressurise the employees to perform better to keep their jobs, creating a toxic work environment.
Tips to Identify a Pyramid Scheme
Signing an employment contract without knowing full details about the company can get you into a lot of trouble, one being the pyramid scheme. Learn to identify the red flags of this scheme. If the company has a pyramid scheme-
- It will emphasize more on recruiting people rather than actual work
- The management will make unrealistic promises that might seem too good to be true
- The job description will be vague, missing the important information
- The company will have a high turnover rate and an extremely toxic work culture
Always stay away from this type of job. Remember, there is no easy way to get a job; working hard is the key.
