Pyramid schemes.

SideWinder · 12 Apr 2010 at 23:04

I was watching 'My Family' earlier on today and it was the episode that revolved around Susan and Ben being sucked in by a pyramid scheme. Just wondering if anyone knows someone who has been a victim of this type of fraud? Did they honestly believe they could become rich in a very short space of time? Anyone had their own experience of this?

Oh and...
If anyone is interested in becoming happy, i strongly suggest you become a better person by sending me £26.99 for complete happiness for the rest of your life.

DJMK4 · 12 Apr 2010 at 23:11

Back last year there was a sudden surge in my town, literally everyone was talking about it, I walked in the pub one night and was shocked at how many people were talking about it, this went on for about 2 weeks when I think people then realised it was crap

I'm guessing some stupid people payed other people, some if not most lost there money

it wasn't called a pyrimid scheme tho, they had renamed it and bought the who give a little to charity rule in as they found a loophole for the law

SlugForAButt · 12 Apr 2010 at 23:17

DJMK4 said:
Back last year there was a sudden serge in my town,

Wow, he was a fast Frenchman then?

DJMK4 · 12 Apr 2010 at 23:21

What on earth are you talking about

arknor · 12 Apr 2010 at 23:21

im in if im near the top

mavers · 13 Apr 2010 at 01:01

A guy at uni fell for it. First of all tried to get a mate and myself involved... much talking afterwards and explaining what sort of scheme it was, he still didnt get the idea. Oh well there's no helping some.

I think he may have broken even or made a very small amount (<£50)

Some people seem to believe in a free lunch. Its quite simple to me, if somebody is making a lot of money and its easy to do. Then there is something certainly wrong (otherwise we'd all make a lot of money), or the future profitability is severely limited (ie fixing pc's back in the 'day')

Shoseki · 13 Apr 2010 at 01:06

I was almost suckered into a pyramid scheme when I was about 13-14 , I couldn't understand how the business model was unsustainable. TBH, many different financial business models make very little sense unless you study them, so I am not surprised that people get suckered into dodgy schemes.

Jambo · 13 Apr 2010 at 03:35

A few of my (lady) friends are right in to it at the moment. I think they are doing okay but for the amount of work it is absolutely not a business. It will end in tears.

Robbo · 13 Apr 2010 at 03:49

SideWinder said:
Oh and...
If anyone is interested in becoming happy, i strongly suggest you become a better person by sending me £26.99 for complete happiness for the rest of your life.

Don't listen to this man!

I can make you even happier for a mere £25.99, sign up now!

Jimmeh · 13 Apr 2010 at 07:18

My missus got drawn in to the point of going to an interview. She was terribly excited about it all, the 'company' was going by a different name and the website looked quite professional. Alas, it was too good to be true and tears were had.

EvilOne · 13 Apr 2010 at 08:10

There should be a OCUK pyramid scheme we can all join

Cosimo · 13 Apr 2010 at 08:13

SideWinder said:
Oh and...
If anyone is interested in becoming happy, i strongly suggest you become a better person by sending me £26.99 for complete happiness for the rest of your life.

I’d be happier if you sent me £26.99.

footman · 13 Apr 2010 at 08:21

There was a pyramid scheme called "Hearts" or something similar a few years ago that was operated by women, no men allowed.
The idea was to buy a "heart" or part of one and sell it on. A few of my friends started to get involved and were quite surprised at my opposition to it.

It all ended in tears of course, for some odd reason the biggest losers were black women's church groups in South London, it caused some serious misery among vulnerable groups of people.

Third Opinion · 13 Apr 2010 at 08:45

A work colleague and his missus fell for hearts. They lost 3k, we were all begging them not to do but they were conviced they were gonna get 12k+ back. Of course they lost there 3k.

semi-pro waster · 13 Apr 2010 at 09:11

If you can get in during the early stages of a pyramid scheme and it goes on to become massively popular then potentially you can do quite well out of it but realistically that's unlikely and they are of course insupportable in the longer term as there are a finite number of people who could or would join these schemes.

Lightnix · 13 Apr 2010 at 09:16

simulatorman said:
I’d be happier if you sent me £26.99.

Wait, I can think of a compromise. Both of you send me £26.99, our group's net happiness will sky-rocket, guaranteed!

hood1971 · 13 Apr 2010 at 09:34

Both Bernie Maydoff and Alan Stanford ran massive Ponzi schemes running in the billions, paying investors interest payments from other investors money. If multi-millionares cannot get the simple fact that if something looks too good to be true, it probably is, then what hope for people desperate for a quick cash injection.

decmatt · 13 Apr 2010 at 09:37

My friend instead of going to university decided to join one (something to do with selling vacuum cleaners door to door, really expensive ones). Ended up he didn't make a penny, or sell a hoover (tried to sell all his student mates one). He even drove 80miles to take them his demo vacuum cleaner back, he wouldn't listen when we all told him it was a con, and even showed him websites saying so.

I get around · 13 Apr 2010 at 10:06

One of my mates grandparents is currently making a little money off one. Not a huge amount though.

I wouldn't bother.

callmeBadger · 13 Apr 2010 at 10:06

you just need to look into any of the companies or horror stories linked to Cobra Marketing.

These are the chuggers mostly who belive they will end up owning a business if they recruit enough chuggers themselves. I've lost a mate to this cult.