These days M/s Tianshi Int’l Pakistan Co. Pvt. Ltd (commonly known as Tianshi or TIENS) (SECP Reg#K-09031 of 2002-2003), a China based Pyramid Scheme is doing a roaring business with the support of highly influential people in Pakistan. They have recruited hundreds of thousands of people in their Pyramid Scheme!
The company has disguised its Pyramid activity with the help of MLM of spurious drugs which are high priced and not saleable so that the members ultimately rely on recruiting more members down the line and make commission that way. Such scams are referred to as “Recruiting MLM” that reward recruitment over retail sales or a “Product-based Pyramid Scheme”. Tiens is running a retail chain of stores under the name of BannerStore (SECP Reg# 0065384) as retail outlets for these spurious drugs. The BannerStore serves as the MLM front to disguise the underlying Pyramid Scheme. This scheme is bad for the people because:
1. Only the people in the top of the pyramid chain make money. The ones at the bottom of pyramid eventually lose when the scheme collapses.
2. It is Haraam! You are not selling any products nor providing a service. You are not trading. You are not manufacturing. You are basically enticing people to entice more people with greed. Members essentially become recruiters who are recruiting recruiters to recruit more recruiters! It is an endless chain of people recruiting people in their down-line!
3. Besides, the products of Tiens are made in China! They do not have any concept of Halaal or Haraam.
4. Ultimately it will collapse….creating legal problems. All the people in your down-line will realize that you misled them and sue you. You may lose your job and your reputation for good.
These thugs are exploiting mainly the students and the unemployed youths by giving them a false hope of employment and financial success. They are easily misled with promises of making their dreams come true. They get impressed by Foreign Styles, fairy tales promises, well dressed staff, modern outlook, trained presenters, and well organized functions in which they award high value gifts to few with a lot of pomp and show under the patronage of influential people. Tiens has created a high profile image by using photos of its Group President Li Jinyuan with prominent people, giving the impression that these people endorse the company. This gives this Pyramid Scheme the legitimacy it needs.
http://www.tiens.com/tiens/group/en/About/achievement_foreign_countries.htm
http://ph.tiens.com/tiens/ph/en/about/1132.htm
People believe it to be a lawful activity as it enjoys support of former Senator/caretaker president Mr. Waseem Sajjad. On Friday, March 18, 2005 Senator Waseem Sajjad inaugurated the office of Tianshi in Pakistan.
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-130552544.html
You can also browse through their Focus Magazines and see Mr. Sajjad active with Tianshi (click the top right corner of the e-zine to turn the pages):
http://www.tiens.com.pk/focus/focus_08.html
On page 35 of the following e-zine, you can see Mr. Waseem Sajjad with family in China during the 2009 Grand China Tour Promo of Tiens!
http://www.tiens.com.pk/focus/focus_09.html
In 2008, Mr. Waseem Sajjad congratulated the 13th Anniversary, as well as the inauguration of four BannerStore in Pakistan! Read on:
http://pk.tiens.com/tiens/pk/en/news/news_200812091556933.htm
To add insult to injury, Mr. Omar Sajjad, son of Mr. Waseem Sajjad is their legal counsel. People ask: “How can it be illegal when a Senator himself is promoting it and his law firm is their legal counsels? Clearly, the involvement and support of Mr. Waseem Sajjad is established with so many links on the web. It is saddening to see that such prominent lawyers represent and provide legal protection to such scammers because they have all the money. They will never help the people who are being exploited! Obviously, they cannot pay Mr. Omar Sajjad like Tiens!
Further, the spurious drugs are presented as herbal supplements with great medical benefits. This tactic is used to lend some respect and legitimacy to the scheme. Unfortunately, the drugs are spurious and have no real benefit. Besides, their price makes then unmarketable and the members make money from recruitment in their down-line.
Tiens claims that they are registered with SECP when in reality; they were never audited/inspected by SECP or any other regulatory authority. No one knows anything about the genuineness of their products and their financial affairs. No one knows the break-up of their income to ascertain the source of their income….products or pyramid membership income and the proportion of each in the total income. To date, no one has ascertained if Tiens has paid adequate taxes and if it even files Tax Returns! No one knows if they maintain a bank account and if they do, in which bank? No one knows how much money is being siphoned off out of Pakistan by Tiens! Given the fact that hundreds of thousands of people are involved already (according to one estimate, 1,000,000/- people) it is estimated that millions of dollars or trillions of rupees might have already been siphoned off out of Pakistan!
Tianshi is not only cheating our people, it is also making people consume spurious drugs with devastating side effects. The products are basically medicines but the company brands these as food supplements to dodge the health regulatory authorities. The Provincial Drug Inspector, DG Health Services, Peshawar has filed FIR No. 04/2008 under Section 27 (1) of the Drug Act 1976 and the case is pending in Peshawar High Court due to POLITICAL PRESSURE! So much for the freedom of Judiciary…According to the FIR, Tiens is involved in sale/distribution/manufacture/import of allopathic drugs under the garb of herbal/food supplements without having manufacturing license, registration from the Ministry of Health, which is violation of Section 23 (1) (a) (i) of the Drug Act 1976. One drug mentioned in the FIR was tested with presence of STEROIDS! Further, there are a lot of drugs that Tianshi claimed to have allopathic ingredients but actual analysis of the drugs revealed that none of them had any allopathic ingredient! So much for their drugs!
You can also read a report available on the website of the Federal Trade Commission of USA which has listed Tianshi in Appendix C on the last page as one of the illegal Pyramid/MLM Schemes whose plans were analyzed by the author of the report.
http://www.ftc.gov/os/comments/bizoprevised/comments/535221-00006.pdf
To make matters even worse, Tiens Pakistan is under the Tiens South Asia Region. The Regional Headquarters are in Chennai, India! All the data from Pakistan is being sent to India on 25th of every month. TIENS has members from all walks of life, including politicians and other influential people, government employees and military personnel from all provinces lured into their scheme. It is possible that all the data, including employer name, designation, address, contact numbers, emails etc. are available with the Indians. Imagine Indians snooping on mail boxes of people in government service, politics and even military! Clearly, given the current situation of Pakistan, Tiens is an extreme security risk for Pakistan.
Here are some general guidelines:
1. Avoid schemes that promise enormous earnings real fast or get rich quick schemes.
2. Avoid schemes that reward/give commission for recruiting members in your down-line.
3. Beware of schemes that ask new members to purchase expensive products. These schemes can collapse quickly leave you with useless stock.
4. Stay away from schemes that give more commissions on sales made by new members in your down-line rather than through your own sales of the products.
5. Beware of plans that claim to sell miracle products. If there was a cure for baldness, there would not be a single bald man on earth.
6. Don't sign-up in a sales meeting or any other high-pressure situation. Insist on taking your time to think about it. Talk it over with your spouse, a knowledgeable friend, an accountant or a lawyer.
7. Do your homework and verify the credentials from the websites of the relevant regulatory authorities. Also do a web search.
8. Always remember the Golden Rule: If it is too good to be true, then it must be False!
Here is an example of consequences:
In January 1997, a huge number of Albanians suffered huge losses when similar scams collapsed and resulted in a civil war, which killed 2000 Albanians!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_unrest_in_Albania
STOP TIENS/TIANSHI BEFORE IT HURTS US AND OUR BELOVED COUNTRY!
STAY AWAY FROM TIENS AND CONDEMN IT!
Please spread the message for public safety and for PAKISTAN.
