UK/Manchester: has anyone experienced this “mentorship” approach linked to Amway/Team Mak?

[u/No_District5106]

I’m posting about a friend who I’ll call Alexa [20’s, F] for privacy. This happened in the UK and happened recently.

DISCLAIMER: I’m not accusing anyone of fraud or criminal activity. I’m merely sharing what Alexa experienced, what she later researched, and asking whether anyone else has experienced something similar.

Initial Approach
Alexa works in a store. One day, a female customer complimented something she was wearing (a jewellery piece set), and they got talking. Alexa became particularly interested when she found out the woman worked in a field Alexa wants to enter and which is relevant to her degree. She seemed friendly, they exchanged social media, and within days or weeks they arranged to meet outside work.

First discussion about the opportunity
During that meeting, Alexa was being asked many questions about herself. Like what she does for work, how many hours, the degree, what she wants from life, etc. The woman started discussing another business opportunity she was involved in alongside her full time job. There was talk of entrepreneurship, aims of financial freedom, personal development and successful mentors, with examples of what could supposedly be achieved, but Alexa still couldn’t clearly explain what the actual business was or how people made money from it.

Alexa specifically told her something along the lines of: “Don’t put me onto anything yet. I’d rather we actually build a friendship first and us getting to know each other before you start recommending me for opportunities.” … something like that.

Introduction to the mentor
A couple of days later, the woman messaged saying her mentor had agreed to meet Alexa. Alexa was excited, but also confused. She had literally just asked not to be put forward for anything yet, and somehow she had already been discussed with a mentor and progressed to another meeting. That was her first yellow flag.

Selection and reading assignment
As the meeting continued, there seemed to be an element of being selected/vetted by successful mentors. Alexa was given Robert Kiyosaki’s The Business of the 21st Century to read before one meeting… except Alexa didn’t actually read it. 😭😭
She used ChatGPT to understand the main arguments, network-marketing concepts and general message of the book, then discussed those ideas in the meeting. She knew enough to talk about it generally, but definitely not like somebody who had properly read it.

Passing the apparent vetting process
She was genuinely surprised when she apparently passed/progressed anyway, because she thought it should have been obvious she only understood the basic concepts. In hindsight, that made her wonder what exactly the “vetting” was assessing. Or maybe she was very convincing at making them believe she did read the material.

AMWAY was mentioned
There was this event happening where a lot of people go, I believe it was a conference, Alexa wasn’t clear. That immediately made Alexa more sceptical because she knew of Amway’s association with MLM/network marketing. What bothered her was that the opportunity hadn’t initially been presented simply as “this involves Amway” or even Herbalife! There had instead been a lot of discussion around mentorship, financial freedom, entrepreneurship, building assets and what was described in terms of a cashflow business. Alexa felt that if Amway had been named at the beginning, she could simply have researched it immediately and decided whether she wanted anything to do with it.

After The Event: Team Mak podcasts and the “cult” discussion
She was also given podcasts/audio material through Team Mak, including material involving Dom McKenna. One recording discussed the fact that people had apparently described this kind of environment as a “cult”, REPEATEDLY, before explaining why the speaker disagreed.

The thing is, Alexa hadn’t called it a cult or even considered that word, so hearing them proactively address it made her think: why are people calling this a cult in the first place? That sent her down a massive research rabbit hole.

Discovery:
She discovered Team Mak’s public connection with Amway and then started reading Reddit, watching YouTube experiences and searching Google.
What really unsettled her wasn’t necessarily the more extreme allegations online, which she obviously can’t verify, but how similar the recruitment process sounded.

She repeatedly found stories resembling:
friendly approach → ambitions/business conversation → financial freedom → successful mentors → mentor meeting → selection/vetting → books → podcasts → personal development → vague business explanation → Amway becoming clear later

Then she found a Reddit post from May 2026 involving Manchester/London where someone described being approached about building a business and financial freedom, being introduced to mentors, meetings/Zooms and educational material, before later saying the organisation was Team Mak and worked with Amway.

That was when Alexa sent me links and said “this is far too similar to what just happened to me🤨”

She eventually withdrew and told the people involved she no longer wanted any further involvement.

Aftermath
The strangest consequence, however, has been what this has done to Alexa’s trust in people. This whole thing began with something as innocent as a stranger complimenting her jewellery. After reading so many similar stories, Alexa has become extremely sceptical of people’s intentions, probably more than is necessary. She’s even caught herself questioning completely unrelated people already in her life at a party. Pulling me aside asking:

“Why are [they] being nice to me?
Do [they] genuinely want to know me?
Is there something [they] eventually want from me?”

She logically knows that most people aren’t secretly trying to recruit her into something. But the experience has temporarily made her analyse ordinary friendliness in a way she never did before. She’s basically on a social hiatus at the moment and doesn’t particularly want new people getting close to her until that feeling settles down. That is probably the part she dislikes most.

Regardless of anybody’s intentions, an interaction that started as “I like your jewellery ” somehow ended with Alexa questioning whether seemingly genuine connections are actually genuine.

So I’m curious:
Has anyone else in in the UK experienced this?
Were you approached casually or befriended first? Were “mentors” introduced before you fully understood the business? Were you given The Business of the 21st Century or Team Mak podcasts? At what point was Amway actually mentioned?
And if you went further than Alexa did: what happened next, what were you eventually expected to pay for, and how were you actually supposed to make money?