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 testimonies shared on platforms like YouTube and Reddit.

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?

At Devilcorp.org, our mission is to make information about the direct sales industry as accessible and widely understood as possible.

We want Devilcorp to become as recognisable a term as pyramid scheme, giving people a clear and undeniable way to describe exploitative companies that hide behind vague titles like "marketing" or "charity fundraising."

These firms rely on public ignorance to survive. By exposing their shady corporate histories, manipulative recruitment tactics, and fake online personas, we help job seekers recognise and avoid them. We also highlight how these companies flood platforms like Glassdoor and Google with fake reviews, often written by managers or posted under pressure from staff, to maintain a deceptive image. This behaviour violates platform policies and must be challenged.

We support legislative reform to prevent companies from misclassifying workers as “self-employed” to avoid paying minimum wage. If these workers were given the rights they deserve, Devilcorp’s business model would lose its edge. Our goal is simple: shine a light, spread the word, and give people the tools to protect themselves.

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.