It's just like spam. In the past, you had to pay for a stamp to send your scam out. That limited the reach of the scam, because eventually, all those pennies

It's just like spam. In the past, you had to pay for a stamp to send your scam out. That limited the reach of the scam, because eventually, all those pennies added up. In the age of the internet and email, while there are costs to send vast amounts of email, it's a tiny fraction of sending physical letters. MLMs in the Internet age are analogous. Once, you had to pay for 'inventory' then actually take time and expense to engage your marks and sell them on the shill. You had to set up an Amway or whatever party, or harass someone at the grocery store, or take advantage of your family and friends. Now, you get website for a few bucks a month, a FB/YT/Twitter/TikTok/etc web of accounts (including copious sockpuppets) for nothing, maybe pay a bit for an 'influencer' to feed you some eyeballs, and you're able to reach thousands or more. It's all a matter of percentages at that point.