How "Newest Way to Wealth," which uses "Herbalife as...[its] front line 'product,'" became one man's "nightmare"

August 2001
By a former NWTW participant

The group known as the "Newest Way to Wealth (NWTW) has been using Herbalife as the front line "product" in their efforts to recruit people. I went to a NWTW seminar and saw all these Herbalife distributors talking about how they were making huge incomes with this mail order system.

I started with NWTW and within the first month had spent nearly $8,000.00! Far more than the supposed start up costs of approximately $2,300.00, which they had previously described to me.

From this point on it all began to turn into a nightmare. I was told to "do whatever it takes" to continue working my 90-day plan and "not to give up at any cost." If I stopped I would never move up their marketing plan and make my money back. So there I was, spending more and more money, just to "keep the wheels turning" and hoping that I could at least make my money back.

I was advised to order all these very expensive supplies, booklets and mailing lists and then set up three different toll free voice mail boxes. I also was encouraged to buy Herbalife products for myself, call all of these long distance training numbers every day, get a private mail box, open up a separate checking account, sign up with a credit card vendor, get an extra phone line at home and to always make the next training session and on and on and on!

They kept telling me to "get to all of the trainings no matter what and at any cost." That is, if I was going to be successful! So now on top of all my other expenses I paid for airfares, hotel rooms, car rentals and all the other expenses that went along with traveling to these trainings.

After almost four months of all this I am now nearly $30,000.00 in the hole!

Even worse, I was given scripts, which essentially told me to lie to prospective distributors about who I really was. This also said that I didn't have to answer up front questions and it encouraged me be evasive as to what I actually did, until it's too late for someone to back out.

NWTW does not fully disclose its true startup costs, nor the actual amount of money someone may spend. And it seems to me that people are to think they will be making $20,000.00 per month within 90 days or less--if they will just sign on with this Company! It's not until the next scheduled call that they explain the $20,000.00, is actually a gross volume sales figure and not net income! But by then you are already signed up!

I worked so hard all of my life to have what little savings I once had and now it's all gone! I don't even know if I will have a roof over my head next month because there is no money left! This is a travesty!