Monday, September 29, 2008

Ponzi Scheme

Anyone wanting to invest in a Ponzi scheme or How about a pyramid?
Recently a family member showed me a proposal made to him by an acquaintance. I looked at it and informed him that it was a pyramid scheme which by its nature was both improper, corrupt, and illegal.
"There's a sucker born every minute" is a phrase often credited to P.T. Barnum He was correct but he should have pluralized the word "SUCKER"
You have heard it said, "you can't cheat an honest man" because an honest man doesn't want something for nothing
The Genesis of this scam is to pay commissions for viewing ads on the Internet. An illustration was that you could earn $1.00 just for clicking in on Delta Air Line home pages. The deception is based on the knowledge that billions of dollars are paid by advertisers on the Internet. This is correct but these funds are generated by hundreds of millions of people clicking on web pages and the fees are paid by people with banner ads on that site. No one is paid to view any ad.
There were many in Colquitt County who got "taken." They are still naive. They are now expecting to receive parts of their funds back from the courts.
They have noted that $53 million was seized by the Attorney General. If there was $53 million still on deposit in the bank, you had better believe that much more had already been transferred to an offshore account. It is my impression that when this litigation is settled many months from now, that these people will think that the courts are no different from the original schemers. The bulk of the funds will disappear into the coffers of the courts and into the pockets of the minions who process these claims.
Most people understand the Ponzi or Pyramid plans. A slippery character will contrive what is some times called a multi-level marketing scheme. The man at the top, who is the start up man, gets a commission on all sales and induction cost under him. People are recruited at the next level. A part of their induction cost goes to the top. The third level is the same as the second with the exception that part of their induction cost and commission on sales goes to the second and part of the first. This multi-level marketing keeps on until the scheme reaches the saturation point. I.e., there are no new prospects (suckers). All of their induction cost has gone to the top and there is no way to recover the investment. He is a guaranteed looser. Also there are many between the bottom and top who never recover their total investment.
The top man is guaranteed to win the bottom man is guaranteed to lose. Thus, all are illegal in most states.
One of the sites indicates that every morning $86,000 is deposited in y our account. You may draw out what you need but at the end of the day there will be no balance. The site forgot to mention where the money came from to plug the account and was not clear, to me, what you had to do to draw down the account.
For more information go to You Tubes, click on adsurfdaily. But be careful and don’t get suckered in.
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