I never would’ve thought taking down a multi-level marketing ploy would be on the agenda for my very first week of college!
On the first Friday of Fall 2022 classes, I went to the For-Profit Opportunities Fair hosted by Beyond Barnard, Barnard’s career center. When I was there, I stopped by a booth held by a company named Primerica. Their representative was a super friendly, bubbly woman who seemed to truly enjoy her job. She said Primerica was a company geared toward helping middle-income families learn how to manage their money. She told me how most insurance companies aren’t transparent to their clients and lie to them about interest rates. Primerica’s aim is to help ordinary people gain financial literacy and see past what regular insurance companies are telling them. She mentioned the prospect of flexible part-time work hours, which seemed perfect for a full-time college student.
I thought to myself: Wow, this company seems super cool! I would get to truly help people and change lives. Her words seemed slightly bombastic and vapid, but I accounted for that with my lack of concrete financial knowledge.
I gave the representative my résumé, and she told me she’d call me in a few days to schedule a time to do an interview. That was quick, I thought. She took one glance at my résumé and agreed to interview me on the spot. I thought about all the other people who must have come to that booth too. They must have also gotten interviews. How many would that have been? I estimated it to be at least 50 other students.
The promise of an interview was exciting, but a part of me knew it felt too good to be true. I assumed the representative was just lying to me or letting me down easy—she would probably never follow-up.
A friend of mine, also a first-year, walked up to the booth, heard the same pitch, and was offered an interview. I was happy for her, but still suspicious—is this company really giving out interviews to everybody who drops off a résumé?
I later left the fair and told my parents about the encounter. They said they thought it seemed legitimate. Primerica is on the stock exchange, so they must be an actual insurance company. Above all else, I think they were just happy that I got a real job interview.
A day or two later, the same representative called my friend and I. I didn’t have my phone on me, so it went straight to voicemail. My friend answered the call, though, and told me the representative wanted us to go to the downtown office from 7:30 to 8:30 pm the upcoming Tuesday night for a “workshop.” Workshop? Why call an interview a workshop?
I kept thinking about how many people would be there. We got “interviews,” so it was reasonable to assume everyone else who went to the booth had the same outcome. How about career fairs at other schools? Or LinkedIn? There could be hundreds of people at this workshop, for all I knew. It felt off.
Later that day, I looked up Primerica online. The first thing that showed up on the “People also ask” section of Google was, “Is Primerica a legitimate company?” The response that followed was, “Yes, Primerica is a trustworthy company.” This answer was taken directly from the company’s website. I scrolled down and found two additional testimonials: “No, Primerica is not an MLM.” and “No, Primerica is not a pyramid scheme.” Understanding the basic concept of rhetorical ethos, I knew I couldn’t trust this. I decided to check out their Wikipedia page. Sure enough, it was listed as a multi-level marketing company (and even hosts lavish conventions).
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I told my friend about my findings. Although we understood what Primerica’s motives were and didn’t plan on attending the workshop, we were concerned about the other students who went to the booth at the career fair. We agreed to go to the Beyond Barnard office to call attention to the fact that there was an MLM recruiting students on campus. We knew we wanted to maintain respect—we weren’t going to walk into the office with an air of superiority and say, “Hey, there was a pyramid scheme at your career fair, by the way.” Instead, we were going to phrase it like a question: “Can you tell us how you think we should respond to this opportunity we were offered?” Then, we would weave in the facts of the matter.
We asked the secretary at Beyond Barnard who to talk to about a career fair question and were provided the emails of the career fair managers. A copy of my original email is provided below:
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The representative from Beyond Barnard responded quickly and asked if I could give her a call. I called her later that day and explained the entire situation in as much detail as I could remember. She told me that it sounded a little off, but that since Primerica has a Handshake profile, it means they’ve been vetted and are a legitimate company. (For reference, Handshake is the collegiate job recruitment platform that Barnard students use.) She also mentioned that a workshop could always mean a networking event instead of a job offer. Ultimately, she told me to exercise caution in my career search and that I did not have to go to the workshop unless I really wanted to. I could always call Primerica back and ask what the workshop entails.
I thanked her for her time and hung up, disappointed and unrelieved. That’s it? I knew it was an MLM. I understood that Barnard trusts Handshake’s vetting process and that the Beyond Barnard representative did her job properly, but I knew that the entire modus operandi of MLMs is their ability to slip through the cracks. I had to do something.
I remembered that I still had the Primerica representative’s number from when she left me a voicemail message. What else to do but call her and understand what was really going on? I dialed the number and the representative picked up after the first ring.
For many reasons, I did not record the conversation. Thus, the following interaction is a reconstruction based on my own memory soon after the conversation took place. Much of it is more or less verbatim, but the rest should be taken as paraphrasing. Please also keep in mind that I maintained a polite and cordial tone and that I have no personal grievance against the representative on the phone. I had no intention of going to the workshop on Tuesday, nor did I call just to “expose” the company. I simply wanted to confirm my suspicions and get to know the company better, keeping the interests of the college and my peers in mind. Below is a transcript of our conversation:
Me: Hi! This is [my name] from the Barnard career fair. I’m sorry I didn’t get your message earlier but I’m glad we got ahold of each other at the same time.
Primerica: Don’t worry about it! Would you be able to come to our downtown location on Tuesday at 7 pm?
Me: I’d like to think more about it before I decide to come. Can you tell me what exactly my position would entail?
Primerica: Well, I can’t tell you that because that’s what the 30-minute meeting would be for. Let me find your résumé real quick.
Me: You can’t give me a few sentences on what exactly I would do at the company?
Primerica: No. That’s what the meeting is for.
Me: What would I do at the meeting?
Primerica: Well, we give slides on who we are as a company and what we do. Then we’ll see if you’re qualified and do the interview, and you can get licensed.
Me: You have my résumé with you, right? Can you see if I’m qualified based on my résumé?
Primerica: No—what are you interested in?
Me: Like, what do I want to do at the company?
Primerica: Yes. You said you were majoring in psychology?
Me: Yes—I want to major in psychology but I also have experience with data and customer service.
Primerica: And what do you want to do with that?
Me: As a career?
Primerica: Yes.
Me: Well, I’m not sure yet. That’s why I went to the career fair. I want to keep my options open.
Primerica: See, we have written down that you want to keep your options open.
Me: Yes. So that’s why I’m interested in understanding what my role would be in the company before I come down on Tuesday.
Primerica: Well, what I don’t understand is why you didn’t ask me that when I was at the career fair.
Me: I wasn’t completely sure about what the company was yet, so that’s why I’m asking now before I decide if I want to come down to your office.
Primerica: But that’s what the meeting is for.
Me: Yes, but I want to understand what the company does before I come down, because it’s a 45-minute commute.
Primerica: If you’re not interested that’s okay, but I have somebody waiting outside my office right now for an interview.
Me: Okay, well thank you, and have a good rest of your day.
Primerica: You too!
How does Primerica assume somebody would apply for a job without even knowing what they’re applying for? Why was the Primerica representative so nice at the career fair, but strangely aggressive on the phone? It really got me shaken up.
After I ended our call, I called back the Beyond Barnard office. I told them what happened, and they agreed that it was very unprofessional. The representative told me she would escalate the process to the dean of Beyond Barnard.
I suppose my phone call had an impact, since the next day the Beyond Barnard office sent out a mass email through Handshake regarding Primerica. I am still hopeful that my efforts will prevent many Barnard students from falling into the Primerica trap, but am wary about students at other institutions. This mass email states that Primerica was removed from Handshake, but further inspection proved that they still remain on the website. I am unsure if only one Primerica location was removed, or if they were all removed and still found their way back.
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After all this, I called my dad to tell him about what happened. I didn’t understand why Primerica was allowed to come to the career fair in the first place. How can an Ivy League university let a pyramid scheme recruit their students?
My dad stated that it’s not solely the University’s fault, it’s Handshake’s. The vetting process in Handshake is extremely lenient. For his own company, he mentioned he didn’t have to enter too much information into the system and got accepted in as little as ten minutes. I recommend checking out this Handshake article to see how they “vet” employers. However, even if Handshake had stricter validation procedures, I’m sure MLMs would still be able to alter their wording and find a roundabout way to enter the system.
My dad also mentioned that Barnard isn’t meant to be on the defensive when inviting employers to career fairs. They’re on the offensive: their goal is to invite as many employers as possible, not keep them out. When a company seems eager to recruit, Barnard is equally as eager to host them. Thus, blatantly fraudulent companies are the exception, not the rule. Besides, MLMs tend to target college career fairs.
Where do we go from here? Handshake, an otherwise trustworthy job recruitment platform, let in a pyramid scheme. Not only that, but an Ivy League university invited a pyramid scheme to its career fair. But it’s hard to place the blame. And is that productive, really? Why should we direct our anger toward the victims rather than the root of the problem? These MLM companies are talented at slipping through the cracks and targeting weak spots. Still—our institutions must develop protocols so that they know how to spot a scam. Unfortunately, one layer of vetting will never be enough.
After additional research, I discovered that Forbes included Primerica as one of “America’s 50 Most Trustworthy Financial Companies” in 2015. Their list was compiled by “Aggressive Accounting and Governance Risk” scores, which include “high-risk events, revenue and expense recognition methods, SEC actions, and bankruptcy risk.” Thus, the criteria for “trustworthy” according to Forbes was only based on financial reliability.
AM Best, an insurance credit rating agency, also had positive things to say. They gave Primerica an A+ Financial Strength Rating, which is defined as being “assigned to insurance companies that have…a superior ability to meet their ongoing insurance obligations.” On their page about Primerica, U.S. News lists only the words “AM Best Rating A+” instead of mentioning the fact that this is only a financial review, not a multifaceted assessment.
It’s evident that even commonly-trusted sources of information can fall victim to yellow journalism. When Forbes says a company is trustworthy and U.S. News reports on its A+ rating, you assume that their reporting is holistic and dogmatic. With further inspection, it’s more often the case that these news outlets indulge in cherry-picking. Thus, they lack contextual information about Primerica’s unethical business practices and employee satisfaction.
If there’s anything to take away from this article, it’s that you should be wary of everything you come across and trust your gut instincts above all else. If something feels wrong, it probably is.
Primerica Group Photo via Flickr
Primerica Convention via Flickr
Handshake Screenshots via Author
19 Comments
@Anonymous I just think that its kind of funny that this company is now clearly sicking their employees on this article to write mean, ill-conceived and often poorly worded comments, when it literally only makes them look much worse and keeps the page updated and more likely to show up in recent search results when people google their name. Like, this really just makes their brand look petty, to have their employees come in and single handedly blow up the comments on an article thats over a year old, written by a college undergrad and is seemingly entirely fact driven and based on their personal interactions with one of this groups employees. But I mean, hey, you all are the big shot company, do you.
@Anonymous This is the longest eyed rolled I ever eyed rolled
@S You literally have no proof and I think you need to relax and not let something minor, like them being a college job fair, affect you so much. It’s not that deep lol.
@Maria Good morning my name is Maria Hernandez I am from Florida I take my career very serious I am a representative for Primerica I am securities licensed and life licensed series 6 26 and 63 my licenses are regulated at federal and state level.
I find ir very upsetting and also very unprofessional to allow someone to call a legit public traded company that is by no means a pyramid scheme meaning they are calling the company a fraud.
I don’t think publicly defaming a Company should be allowed as it could involve huge potential legal consequences.
@Anonymous I appreciate the effort in this article, but please do more research.
@Anonymous First, you were looking for a paid hourly position at the time. Primerica is not that, it is better than that. You get the opportunity to work towards building a business…a completely different world. However, I do agree that the representative was not forward with you and gave you the run around, huge mistake and I do apologize on their behalf. Just like any other business (i.e. MacDonalds) where you will have a GREAT experience and customer service compared to the same business located in a different city, state or town. Good luck to you and your future endeavors.
@John Thank you for sharing your experience! I would be mindful of stating that a business is operating under illegal practices (pyramid scheme) unless there is clear evidence. Though an Anecdotal experience can be insightful, that doesn’t draw a clear picture (good or bad) of an entity.
Primerica is publicly traded and has major shareholders in the market like (Vanguard, Chase, Wells, Charles, BlackRock, and a lot more). When a company is traded on the stock exchange they are held at a higher standard as it relates to their business practices, financials, code and ethics, because there are more entities that are vested in them. So it would be almost impossible for any company to have illegal business practices without being noticed due to quarterly and annual audits from a federal and state level.
The business structure is one like a real estate brokerage. They recruit people and pay for them to get their state license to transact business as a life insurance agent and even an investment broker if they wish to take that career path. And just like a real estate broker who has agents within his/her business, anytime a licensed agent transacts business within your organization, you receive a override. Or some people decide not to recruit at all and just sell products as they wish as a licensed agent. Which is perfectly fine since you’re a 1099 (contractor).
Like with most MLMs, Primerica is a VOLUME business. The more agents they can recruit, train, and develop, the more policies, mutual funds, 401ks, annuities, etc can be sold.
Side note. A person does not get paid any money for recruiting someone. That would be the definition of a pyramid scheme. You and or your team have to transact business! (provide financial products).
hope this helps you or whoever might be reading. blessings!
@Samantha I’m a law student and I was recently recruited by a primerica representative through my LinkedIn account and I’m so thankful for this article. It’s frustrating that students can be targeted like this.
@Anonymous I am truly surprised that your school would actually allow you to write an article without stating the facts and not understanding that they could get sue for defamation and slander by the organization. Even the title to your article is deceiving. You did not get recruited. That’s a lie. I hope you & your school was given permission to post those photos that was posted in your article. I highly doubt that John Addison gave you permission to post a picture of him on here.
@Bailey Regarding the positive reviews on Forbes, US News, etc:
I worked in marketing and can tell you definitively that these “Top [whatever number]” lists are 100% pay-to-play. Companies buy their way on to those lists. There is no integrity in them whatsoever. It’s a scummy, widespread practice of modern marketing, and one of the primary reasons I bowed out of the profession. Deceptive only begins to describe it.
@Rick Primerica is a financial service company with a multi level marketing pay structure,I noticed you keep saying Primerica is a pyramid,I doubt if you actually now what a pyramid is,the are Illegal number 1 and they certainly don’t let them in the NewYork stock exchange as a publicly traded company.Look up the top 100 companies that have invested in Primerica, the top investor is Vanguard so you mean to tell me no one told the Primerica’s a pyramid before they invested 500 million dollars,you my friend need to do real due diligence😂
@Blessed j I would love to connect with the author of this post as I felt similar in the beginning – however there is more to it than that.
@Anonymous I was confused to why you said it’s a pyramid scheme when the only thing you did was talked on the phone and that’s it! It’s just how you based things of?
You didn’t go to the meeting to see what they want to show you.
And you said it yourself it’s a legit company.
You should read what you wrote first.
@Albert This article is based on bad faith so I imagined a dialogue..
– Its a Pyramid Scheme
– Ok so it’s illegal you should call the police..
– NO ITS NOT THAT ILLEGAL… ITS ILLEGAL BUT LEGAL YOU KNOW ?
– Didn’t get it, what do you mean ? Are you getting paid to recruit ?
– No
– Are you getting a license, a training and are you going to get paid when you sell their products ?
– Yeah
– Ok so why are you telling people its a scheme.
– Saw it on Reddit.
Euh..!
@Anonymous I’m not licensed. But I’ve passed my exam. Ive gone to a meeting, each time being told I should set up another meeting to speak with someone higher up in the company. To what end? I’ve met so called regional vice presidents within the company, who”ve told me they been with the company for years and how much money I could be making. When they themselves don’t seem to be doing to well or working other jobs making less. I think I’m done with insurance before I even get started.
@Bailey Multi-level marketing companies aren’t illegal (in the US)… despite having the exact same structure and predatory practices as pyramid schemes. So calling an MLM a pyramid scheme might be “inaccurate,” depending on how you look at it, but it’s really just semantics.
MLMs are pyramid schemes that worm their way out of being denoted as pyramid schemes by the FTC.
@Anonymous And this is on the 1st page of a Google search for Primerica. This kid has 0 clue what he’s talking about. Wikipedia page is your source?
@Anonymous Great article!
@CU Grad Excellent article. I hope that SEO’s pick this up and bump it very high. Primerica is just another of the sleaze MLMs masquerading as a legitimate business. Snake oil. It’s as bad as Herbalife or Optavia. Barnard and CU students do not need to be subjected to this madness. Thanks for calling it out. The only people who get rich in MLM schemes are the ones at the top!