Pyramid schemes.

Pyramid schemes, no matter what they are called, are illegal in the UK and many other countries as a business model. If you can't spot one, then you frankly deserve to lose money on it.
 
My Mum nearly got suckered into a pyramid scheme a long time ago. The guy was on the phone to her for hours each night trying to get her to take part and telling her to get all her friends together and put him on loud speaker.

In the end someone told her that it was a con and she told him she wasn't interested. I bet the guy was gutted after spending so long on the phone trying to draw her in.
 
Had an American flatmate who joined one called women helping women - tis sort of a variation on a traditional pyramid scheme basically it keeps splitting into small groups and once you've got 8 people joining at the bottom you're out and the two people below you each head two separate groups and start getting payoffs from the new joiners...

They all have little group meetings/conference calls where they discuss 'issues' and basically have some fluffy BS hippie type bonding session headed by the current 'leader' and they're all encouraged to actively recruit other women to help 'empower them'.

Basically she started explaining the thing to me and I said 'erm isn't that a pyramid scheme' - clearly they've been brainwashed into objection handling this - the marketing for this thing not only takes advantage of all the fluffy girl power nonsense but also explains very carefully that this isn't a pyramid scheme (technically it isn't exactly but same principle) but is all about empowering women etc...

I was about to argue with my flatmate and warn her not to put any money in when she explains that she's already got 20 grand from the thing.... sad thing is technically 1/9 people can cash out from these thing and she happens to be the current leader, has put in her 5 grand a few months back and just needed 4 more women to join and she will get 40k.... there wasn't much arguing with her after that - 'but its a big scam' can be met with 'oh well how come I've got 20k from it already' - tis a very nasty scheme in a way, as it keeps splitting the journey to the top is fairly short and the women are basically seeing their close friends or friends of friends getting large pay offs which all helps to make it seem more real. There also seems to be a sentiment that the people who aren't getting paid off very quickly just aren't trying hard enough to recruit new women...

I do worry about her - presumably at some point a bunch of women in Miami are going to all wonder why they aren't getting their 40k... the whole thing will blow up, lots of friends/family members will get upset at each other/ask for money back that's presumably already been spent etc... tis pretty evil stuff. Presumably whoever sets them up starts the first group and then joins in further down in several other groups then basically does a runner after cashing out a few times from various different groups - then they just leave a bunch of women who keep the cycle going for a bit until everyone gets wise to the fact that it isn't really a free lunch.
 
I remember being adamant when i was younger that i could make big money out of one. Was a chain mail involving something along the lines of a list of 5 names, you send £1 to the name at the top, remove their name, move everyone up one and add yours to the bottom. Free moolah when your name reaches the top :D
 
I remember a few female friends getting suckered into that hearts one a few years back, they just wouldn't listen to reason.
 
Multi level marketing can be as the income can potentially be derived from two sources - selling a the product to outsiders and simply recruiting more sellers..

I guess if someone is in a scheme which pays commission for recruiting more sellers and where most of their income is derived from recruiting more sellers then it isn't really that different to a pyramid scheme
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom