The truth - it does work for some people. Most mlm companies that have been around longer than 5 years have built a reputation of paying their distributors on time and often carry exclusive products made in their own facilities.

But it is a business. You are selling direct to people in person, not through email or online. You may get leads online, but the ones making a decent income are going out talking to people or holding group meetings or giving seminars on their products, etc.

READ THE FINE PRINT: If a company requires you maintain a level of sales or recruitment, you will loose money, unless you either use their products/services, or are great at sales. Also watchout for MLMs whose only products are instructions how to recruit new members:

http://vandruff.com/mlm.html ・ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-Level...

http://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0065-mu...

http://business.ftc.gov/documents/inv02-...

One hilarious look at it is the Penn & Teller BS program episode on MLM