WARNING

The company, officially named Scentura, operates in many areas under many different business names to avoid too much bad press. The local company name -- such as "International Design" in Chicago -- is a name the local distribution manager has decided to use for their operations in a certain area. A quick web search will tell you why. The name "International Design" is generic enough to disallow any curious soul to do a search on the name, but search for "Scentura" and you will find hundreds of horror stories about this company. These people lie for a living. What they do is at best unethical, and at worst illegal. Much like scams such as Amway or CutCo, Scentura is constantly being investigated by the IRS for fraud and illegal business practices. The Federal Trade Commission has been alerted of this company and others like it, but strong legislation does not exist in this area, and little can legally be done to stop them.

I have seen many of these, but this is the first time I have actually been flat-out lied to.  Not simply “mislead,” but lied to.  I have been promised a management position in charge of 7 to 10 employees with the (vague) job description of general office management.  The caption on the ad even read “SPORTS MINDED,” thus leading me to believe that sporting goods had something to do with the company.  This is, of course, a complete untruth.  Nothing you have heard so far has been true, and only a person with no moral scruples could even say it is “technically” true.  This goes beyond the usual intoxicating language that is usually used for these businesses.  This should be illegal.

From a former employee: “They charge $27 per bottle. If they have at least 20 people sell 50 bottles every month they would make a net profit of $13,500. Even after the trainees take there cut the company makes a little over $11,000. That is a lot of money to be making a month and if you quit they can hire 20 more people and make more money.”

The crux of the scam is so vital to the business that they even have an acronym for it: FFAR.  It stands for Friends, Family and Relatives, and that’s who you’re supposed to “practice” selling on.  This is the cornerstone of most “direct marketing” pyramid scams.  The newbie salesman must first practice the pitch to his or her parents and grandparents, and since many of them tend to be teenagers or early 20-year-olds, the relatives usually buy something out of pity.  This results in a few quick sales for a company that would have never even come close to getting those sales on their product’s merit alone.  That, combined with the sales kit that you usually have to purchase, results in a small but notable profit for the company.  After these FFAR sales the vast majority of workers realize that this isn’t a real job at all, and quit.  Of course, no one cares that you have quit, because you’ve already made the company a few bucks and there’s another sucker just waiting to fill your shoes for the next few weeks.

Now, each individual only makes a few sales, which is why they must recruit people by the score in order to make any real money.  That is why they snag people with well-worded ads and flyers aimed directly at the semi-clueless young person hell-bent on making a dent in the business world (or your average Joe looking for a job in my case).  Usually, they promise things that they technically can deliver, such as management (you manage yourself!) and pay rates like $20 per hour (which mathematically works out only if you make an insane number of sales per day).  In this case, however, they have crossed the line into actually deceiving people.

This is a pyramid scheme and it is illegal.  Do not believe in any of it for one second.

From Mike Barrick, a 10-year employee of the company: “You tell them all that they can do it if they make enough sacrifice, burn bridges with their family and friends who try to talk them out of it (in effect, alienating them from everyone but other people in the perfume business), Put the blinders on taking all focus away from any ‘Pre Scentura’ values/priorities and they can be successful.”

For the “successful” people in this business, their lives are ruled by greed.  They are trained to rationalize their own immoral actions by dismissing those who fail as somehow not having the business-savvy that they obviously have, when in fact the only savvy they do have is the ability to scam kids into effectively stealing money from their parents and grandparents.  Many of those who succeed only see good money for a very short period of time, and as with all pyramid schemes, the money eventually filters to the top two or three tiers anyway, leaving the rest to wonder what happened to the last 5 years of their lives. 

For each one of the thousands of horror stories you hear about scams like this, its advocators will be happy to provide glossy booklets of the many millionaires who worked up through the system.  For once, I’d like to see them list how many people they had to deceive to get there.  Hard work alone does not a successful businessman make.  It takes a lot of work to rob a bank, but I wouldn’t call the thieves “good businessmen.”

NOTE: These business names were provided by individuals. If you believe that one of these businesses has NO connection to Scentura or a business model similar to the one described on this page, please email me with a description of how the business ethically makes money and I will correct the list.

For more information:
http://www.scenturacreations.com
http://www.geocities.com/scentura99
http://www.qdeckers.com/scentura

Asst. Mgr/Mgr Trainee
**ATTENTION**
I NEED PEOPLE!
Expand. Co. needs staff.
Serious $$$ working w/
non-serious people.
Must like music & fun.
Call Liz:  412-798-3202

from a scam-watch newsgroup

Posted by JeffODW on May 02, 19101 at 19:16:34:
In Reply to: Re: Scentura Creations purfume scam. posted by Amy on October 30, 19100 at 11:37:12:
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU BUY ANYTHING FROM OR CONTINUE WORKING WITH SCENTURA!!! IT'S A SCAM!

IF YOU MEET SOMEONE SELLING THIS: Please do NOT buy anything from this SCAM COMPANY! They sell cheap rendition cologne door-to-door, and if you ever meet one of these salespeople DO NOT PURCHASE THE PRODUCT! It's a fake, and countless hopeful teenagers are being fooled into peddling this stuff! Only by cutting off the flow of buyers and salespeople can it be stopped!

FOR THOSE INVOLVED: I assume by now that you have been told that this is a 'perfume distribution company'. Distribution in this case means 'walking the streets trying to sell perfume for pennies a day'. DO NOT CONTINUE WITH SCENTURA. Tell everyone in your 'class' who will listen the truth - Scentura is a losing battle that will leave you broke!

The 'Management' title you have is nothing but a name - you are not 'managing' anyone. The way the office is making money right now is by having you drop bottles for 29.00 in FFAR (Friends, Family & Relatives). The office keeps 19, you take 10.00. THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN. On the street, you will have to push the bottles for 11.00 to 19.00 to make your quota, and will have NO CASH. The office makes it's money on 'Friends and Family' - meaning yours.

Everything you have heard thusfar is scripted. The phone interview, the first meeting, and the second 'group' interview. Scam tactics such as 'fear of loss' are taught, and used on you to not only hook you in, but to get you excited about being broke for the entire time you are with this office. LARRY HAHN DID NOT CALL THE OFFICE TO START A CONTEST. This is another scam by the owners to suck as much cash out of you as possible before realizing that you are being taken for a ride.

The 'paid business trips' are a lie, as well. Called a Satellite, you basically go to another city and get rid of as many bottles as you can in a weekend. You have to pay for the hotel room by working insane hours and selling 'room bottles' - bottles that are supposed to pay for the room. All it does is take money out of your pocket, so in truth you pay for it on your own.

They define 'Job' as Just Over Broke. I guarantee that you will never be as broke as you will be with this 'company'. Fox 2 News in Detroit did an expose on Scentura, and reported exactly what I am telling you now. This is a pyramid scam (even though they tell you it's not. PLEASE OPEN YOUR EYES), and the fat rolls of cash you might see in the hands of the 'owner' are nothing but bill money. They toss it in front of you so you think they are wealthy and successful. Chances are that the office is going broke, because statistically you can't keep up mass volumes of sales in one area for that long. Most offices have a 1-year lifespan, and when the office goes down, you will receive NO SUPPORT FROM SCENTURA. You will be working 16-hour days just to make a few dollars.

There are other setbacks, as well:

The second you join Scentura, your name is red-flagged by the IRS. There is no accurate way to keep track of your earnings, and the IRS has been severely cracking down on Scentura 'Distribution Center' owners.

There are lawsuits being filed against these 'distribution centers' as we speak. The false advertising and stupid promises made by them have preyed on young people for far too long, and finally someone is doing something to stop it.

Police officers DO NOT TOLERATE solicitation on the streets. Business-to-business is a gray area in law enforcement, and if you are found selling (I know you are told not to use that word, but that's what you're doing!) on the street, you will be ticketed and possibly arrested. County and City ordinances vary on this topic, and it would do you good to check with the laws of your city. Your office owners need you to make street sales, so they will not warn you about possible consequences.

Please realize before it's too late that this is a scam. Learn from countless others who have fallen victim. Why do you think the company website has no contact information? Because of all the complaints they would be getting! The reason the Better Business Bureau has no information on 'Scentura' is because the corporation makes no claims to the offices, and therefore cannot be legally tied to its practices. It's another scam tactic to keep you feeling safe, since you will have trouble finding information on the individual offices. Especially since they have such a short lifespan, and complaints can take up to a year to be investigated.

PLEASE MAKE COPIES OF THIS AND GIVE IT TO EVERYONE IN THE CLASS! Warn people you know not to buy the products, and help us bring this scam down! You can be successful without this, and will be happy you walked out the door.

from http://dcregistry.com/forums/employment/messages/6112.html

Name: Mike Barrick
E-Mail: [email protected]
Date/Time: November 06, 2001 at 9:44 AM
Subject: I was a regional manager with Scentura Creations for 10 years....I know all the Good, Bad & the Ugly.
In Reply to: DO NOT WORK FOR SCENTURA CREATIONS PERFUME! It's a scam! posted by Maida on April 25, 2001 at 3:21 PM

I can tell you, from the perspective of someone who ran a distribution center, and had numerous offices beneath me........... everything you would want to know about this "opportunity". I am not a basher and really not all that biased........I just know enough that I now do something else.

Scentura's real opportunity is for you to learn the direct sales game ( an invaluable lesson btw ), and once you are ready in the eyes of your office manager, Scentura will consign you about $3000 worth of perfume ( which costs Larry Hahn about $300-$400) so you can start your own business, recruiting and training people to do the same. Thats it!! That is the golden opportunity that you have been promised.

You will at that point take all the same risks of any other entrepeneur.......including signing your name on the lease for an office space, spending money on advertising before making a dime, etc...

Can you make money doing this?? Absolutely. I made over $1,000,000 doing exactly what I just described.

Will you learn alot in the process?? Absolutely!

Here is the problem.....Not many people would warm up to the idea of selling stuff on the street while virtually going broke ( more on this later), so the recruiting office owners have to make it sound extremely appealing. If they described it factually ( like I have above ), they couldn't recruit enough people to stay afloat. They pitch the opportunity to all the recruits just like the sales people pitch the perfume to people on the streets. This is where the ethical boundary gets crossed. You have to put your own good before the well being of anybody else in order to be successful in this setting. Most that walk through the doors for an interview will never make a dime doing the perfume business, but you ( as an office owner ) don't make any money telling new recruits the truth. You tell them all that they can do it if they make enough sacrifice, burn bridges with their family and friends who try to talk them out of it ( in effect, alienating them from everyone but other people in the perfume business), Put the blinders on taking all focus away from any "Pre Scentura" values/priorities and they can be successful.

Please understand as you read this.........I was the guy telling you all this. Everytime I think of that time of my life, I am filled with shame and regret rather than pride. Yes, I was successful in that business but it was at the expense of others. Good people quit working for me ( financially they had no choice ), and I shunned them. That was what I was taught. Anyone that did Scentura for any period of time know the saying.." The weak fall by the wayside, while the strong survive". The lack of moral terpitude is what you can expect from your experience with Scentura Creations. Nobody cares about you.

I learned alot of things while I did that business but I learned some of my most valuable lessons after leaving the company. Business does NOT come before family. You can't achieve success at the expense of others without it eventually coming back to bite you in the arse. Most importantly, money is NOT the most important thing. It can make things more comfortable but in the end, your cars, jewelry, houses, etc... don't mean a thing. Things you buy with money only provide short term happiness which always goes away. The joy I derive from my wife, children, family and friends is long lasting and more important than any of the superficial BS.

Any Scentura owners that stumble upon this post will surely rationalize that I sold out for a low income/non stressful lifestyle but you would only be half right. The businesses I am now involved in make me the kind of income I only experienced during seldom "highs" with Scentura, while only requiring 25-30 hours a week. More importantly, the people that work for me make good money and can believe what I tell them.

Hope this helps some of you understand what it is you are contemplating. Good Luck to all.

Btw.........I included a page from the "Scents of Pride" magazine from my time in the business. Take not of the fact that not one of thes four top offices from this bulletin is still with the company. Are they all weak or dishonest blowouts??? or did they all figure out there are better ways to make a living?

http://www.kidschairs.com/ScentsofPride.htm