WHAT IS A ‘DEVILCORP’?

‘Devilcorp’ is a term used to refer to sales/marketing firms under the corporate umbrella of Direct Selling corporations, such as DS-MAX, Credico, Appco, Cydcor, OneSourceProvider, and Smart Circle,

Sales people with these firms are recruited on self employment contracts, most often entirely commission based without a base pay. As a result, they can expect to work over 10 hours a day for 6 days a week, without any of the benefits of a full time employee, including a minimum wage. Depending on how many sales they are able to secure, and how many of these sales are later cancelled, salespeople can be at a deficit for over 60 hours of work.

Although firms will respond to complaints of being intentionally unclear or deceptive about the true nature of their roles with assurance that everything is explained over several interviews, every part of the recruitment process is designed to hide the street selling reality of the role for as long as possible. The job description and the company’s website minimise any mention of sales, and does no further to explain what ‘sales’ involves. Serious questions at the first interview are ignored, or met with jargon and language designed to confuse applicants. Some companies will also attempt to manipulate their online image by having complaints and negative experiences removed from search engines results, or by faking online reviews.

Consequently, applicants aren’t sure what they’ve actually applied for until the shadowing day, when they’ll travel a large distance with a Team Leader to a sales campaign. It’s on this shadowing day that the business is first pitched to the applicant. Make enough sales and they’ll rise through the ranks of the business until they become a team leader, and then in time open their own marketing firm. This is how the business model, in theory, spreads almost infinitely, limited only by the over-saturation of its own markets. Only a minute percentage of employees ever actually achieve this however, and even then the ‘owner’ is still at the behest of their parent company.

WHAT IS OSINT?

OSINT, short for Open Source Intelligence, involves gathering and analyzing publicly available information to address specific questions or problems.

In the context of companies like Smart Circle, Credico, Cydcor, or Appco, OSINT includes examining a sales office's social media pages, legal information accessible online (such as Companies House records), and individual’s shared experiences on platforms like YouTube.

In simpler terms, OSINT for these businesses means using online data that's available to everyone. We gather, analyse, and interpret this information to find answers to questions that are hard to get otherwise. Then, we’ll present this information in an interesting and easy-to-understand way.

For example, if we want to connect sales offices regarding a re-brand or promotion, this information isn't typically openly shared by companies like Credico. However, through OSINT, we can link offices by cross-referencing available information. By extracting an office owner's name from the 'Meet our CEO' page on a sales office's website, searching for this name on Companies House, and identifying the registered companies associated with that person, we can uncover details like a sales office's legal name and company number, and track their legal history of renaming and relocations.

WHAT ARE OUR GOALS?

Our ultimate goal is to make ‘Devilcorp’ as well known a term as ‘Pyramid Scheme’. For, if these businesses continue to deny being pyramid schemes (as if that was ever a self-assigned term) then a different, more specific term must be used that they are unable to deny.

Raise Public Awareness

Devilcorp are able to grow by exploiting the ignorant and the desperate. As public awareness of Devilcorp increases, more job seekers will be able to identify the tell-tale signs of these businesses and stay well away. We hope to do this by shedding light on their shady corporate histories and sinister online practices, and then by providing first-hand accounts of their recruitment methods.

Pressure Employment Review Websites

Marketing firms can manipulate their public image by faking reviews on employment review sites like Glassdoor, Indeed, and Google Locations. Common tactics include; a CEO reviewing their own business, employees being pressured/forced to give their employer a positive review and paying a third party to post waves of positive reviews. All these methods are against Glassdoor and Google guidelines. If Glassdoor and Google were made aware of the extent to which their platforms are being abused and exploited, then they could take the necessary steps to steps to stop it.

Change Employment Laws

Firms under the Devilcorp umbrella rarely pay their salespeople a minimum wage. They can do this because their salespeople are forced to sign self-employment contracts and are not legally considered employees. If legislative changes were made that prevented this abuse of employment law, and their salespeople were made entitled to all the benefits of official employees, then the Devilcorp business model would become considerably less profitable.

How Can You help?

Consider contributing to our community projects, such as by sharing your own experience within the Direct Sales industry on the r/devilcorp subreddit. Naming the specific sales office you worked with will help future jobseekers to avoid them in the future.

Write to your local political representative about Devilcorp operating in your area.

Inform as many people as you can! This industry quite literally profits off of ignorance, and every person you inform is money out of their pockets.