“Let’s say you want to make $10k. You start now, you gain 6 initial recruits, 3 under each leg. You help each of these 3 recruit a further 6 people under their legs, so now each of

your

legs has 18 people. Each of those, you help recruit another 6 under them. This can be done in 3 months.”

“Once you balance out both legs, you get a 7% commission on the 100-odd people in your earning leg; 7% of $168k is around $9-10k.”

In the binary compensation plan, an affiliate has two legs: A, the power leg, and B, the earning leg. There is little distinction between the two, and affiliates are free to allocate their recruits to either leg. However, an affiliate can only earn a commission on recruits allocated under the ‘shorter’ leg, or the leg with less people, which will be the earning leg. Hence the ‘longer’ leg is called the power leg.

To my mind, this system is ripe for abuse. Hypothetically, affiliates can be encouraged, by their superiors, to recruit under the power leg so that they will not get paid for their recruiting activities. This means that even if they get disillusioned and quit ICS after several recruitments, they have successfully recruited their friends, earned money for the company, and not been paid a cent for it. But that’s just my opinion.

Under the plan, you can supposedly earn $10k in 3 months, and earnings will multiply from there on out through the pyramid effect.

Jordan’s comments seem to indicate that the commission is kicked up three levels, hence at least 21% of the sign-up fee is paid to ICS affiliates. So far, the proposition sounds excellent for the individual who is signing up. Just recruit a few friends, and start earning.

The Friend Connection

Andy was recruited by a close friend, Indra (not his real name), an ICS affiliate and subordinate of Chanuja’s.

“When I signed up, I wasn’t thinking about the money. I was thinking about how much I trusted Indra.”

Mirza has a similar story, “Indra and I had been looking for jobs together, so when he told me about this opportunity, I assumed it was legit.”

During the sharing session they attended, only Indra and his superior, Chanuja, were present. After Chanuja’s sharing, Andy says that he was “pressured into joining by Indra”.

They both signed up for the $1,688 care affiliate package. During the sign-up, Mirza was “already doubtful”, but trusted his friend and decided to pay anyway.

They were added to WeChat groups that only included four people: themselves, their recruiter (Indra), and two superiors, Chanuja and Selva. Soon after, they attended an ICS training session to learn the tactics of ICS recruiters.

ICS recruits who want to broach the subject to their friends are advised to describe the platform as a new opportunity they’ve just discovered. Additionally, they are told to probe for the prospect’s budget, and how much they’d be willing to pay for signing up with ICS.

Selva told Mirza not to “give them the company name” as they will simply “search [it] online”. Instead, affiliates should say that it’s a collaboration with plenty of companies, that it will take very long to explain. Instead, their friends should should come for the sharing session.

In this way, ICS prospects are dissuaded from finding out more for themselves before being influenced by the mind-bending pitch that I received from Jordan earlier.

Mirza shows me eChat messages from his superiors, Selva and Chanuja, instructing him on how to interact with his prospects.

“Add a paragraph”

“Put a smiley”

“Send [the message] to me first so that I can verify before you send him”

When it’s time to complete the sell, Andy explains how affiliates are taught the ‘Two Options Approach’. For example, when inviting a prospect for a sharing session, say: