Ever been hit up for a pyramid scam?

[Cali_Democrat]

So this guy I see at the gym often was talking about his multiple businesses and how he makes loads of cash. He wanted to go into detail about it with me. It did seem like he was blowing smoke out of his ass, but I decided to be nice and meet him up.

We met up at a coffee shop and it basically turned out to be one of those ridiculous pyramid schemes where you pay money and then recruit people.

What a joke. Do people actually fall for that shit?

When I see him again it's gonna feel pretty awkward.

LOL.

[SheilaT]

1. People do.

A couple of years ago an acquaintance got quite excited by some system that involved getting people to run their cable bills through a third party, which in this case would have been her. She gave me some literature on it, and so of course I went on-line and researched, and it was essentially a scam. I've since lost touch with that person, but I sincerely doubt she made any money.

And another woman I used to know got sucked into something that involved buying up foreclosed properties, and all I knew was that she was spending thousands of dollars for "training" and then was going to need to spend a lot more money to get lists of foreclosed properties to move on. Another person I've lost touch with.

[Cali_Democrat]

2. Ya...the "training" thing happened to a friend of mine.....

He was told that if he paid thousands of dollars for training material, they would give him the "knowledge" he could use to open up and run his own business.

I told him to run away as fast as possible.

[davidn3600]

12. They run those scams even on legit job sites like Careerbuilder and Monster

There are a ton of them on there... Which is unfortunate since people are looking for real jobs on there.

[LibAsHell]

3. People definitely fall for it. My roommate in college did and they tried me

The company was Quixtar. I don't know if they still exist but it's a copy of Amway. These dudes convinced my roommate to let them come to our apartment, and, once they arrived, convinced me to come to the living room to listen to their spiel. Immediately it went into details about how others who have done this are now swimming in cash. There was a particularly intriguing story about a military couple who had retired in their late 20's due to the money they'd made, focusing especially on the fact that they were able to afford a house in a fancy Atlanta suburb where a bunch of NASCAR drivers live (wooooow).

I immediately saw through it. My roommate understood it wasn't going to be like that but decided to try it to see if he could just make a bit of cash on the side. He ended up wasting a lot of time and making pretty much nothing.

Still, it is not impossible to end up banking off these things. You just have to have a huge network of gullible people and be a ruthless and sleazy salesperson.

[msongs]

4. your last paragraph sounds like religion lol...

"Still, it is not impossible to end up banking off these things. You just have to have a huge network of gullible people and be a ruthless and sleazy salesperson."

[tblue37]

21. I have heard that Mary Kay cosmetics works that way. A few people at the top

of the pyramid make decent money, but most of the women get stuck with a bunch of inventory they can't sell.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

5. There used to be a self-improvement channel

called TPN, The Peoples Network.

Even had a lady named Patricia Fripp on it giving self-improvement speeches. Yes, she's Robert Fripp's sister.

They wanted you to pay $50 a month and recruit people. I couldn't be that dishonest.

[951-Riverside]

6. I try not to associate with people who fall for pyramid scams

Its very difficult to have a normal conversation with them because most of the time they're thinking about how to get you to sign up for their scams and will do anything to make that happen including using children as pawns.

In the long ran you're better off not having any communication with him. I wouldnt even try to convince him that its a scam.

I learned my lesson the hard way.

[Mariana]

7. My husband's sister and her ex got into one, big time.

I estimate they lost a few hundred thousand dollars altogether. They were forever shelling out for products, training, and so on. They spent all their time trying to recruit everyone they spoke to in any context. It became impossible to have a conversation with them, about anything, for years. No matter the subject, they would find a way to parlay it into a pitch for their scheme. They were obviously miserable, but they tried to pretend that everything was great and they were making loads of money. My SIL started drinking heavily during that time and she still does to this day. Eventually they went bankrupt and divorced.

[pnwmom]

8. It happened to us twice. Friends invited us for dinner and then came the pitch.

What a disappointment.

[merrily]

9. Yes, they do. Especially when an "affinity group" is involved.

I know a woman who had been a nun. She left that, but remained religious and got taken by an allegedly religious group. For all I know, they were sincere. I know she was sincere because I've known her a long time, while she was a nun and after.

She got money and was recruiting. Then, she got sued or got into some other kind of legal trouble over it. I don't remember the details now. Thing is, she had become a nun at an early age, was naive and never heard of a pyramid scheme. Nor did she ever dream that anyone profession Jesus as savior would lead her into anything illegal.

All affinity groups are not religious, of course Some are ethnic. Some are immigrant-based, in general. And so on. But, religion does, IMO, add an extra dimension. For one thing, it's harder to distrust someone who has the same strong religious belief as you do than it is to distrust someone with whom you share only ethnicity. For another, it's harder to resist doing something that is supposedly for God as well as just your own self interest.

[Historic NY]

10. If you have to pay money in order to make money....run and run fast.

[FormerOstrich]

11. Now..now...not a pyramid scam....

a multilevel marketing opportunity!

I almost never watch TV and when I do it is even less likely to be "network" TV. However, I am addicted to "American Greed" on CNBC. They cover a lot of Ponzi scams. I highly recommend watching the show. It is sickening how insidious greed is and how specifically American Greed is behind the things we discuss here every day.

[SheilaT]

14. Hey, thanks!

I don't even own a TV, and only watch what I can get via the internet. I'd never even heard of "American Greed" until I read your post. Turns out I can watch either on the CNBC website or Hulu (which apparently still has me on HuluPlus, even though I dropped it months ago).

I'll check out an episode or two later on today.

[FormerOstrich]

15. Great....let me know what you think...

Of course, some episodes are better than others.

I've mentioned to others every now and then. Yet, I haven't found anyone else that has seen it before. Well except my Nephew and he is the one that introduced it to me. We record it and have "American Greed" marathons. Do you think that is greedy? Seriously I'd love to know what you think.

[DrDan]

16. I love that show and watch it quite often - it is shocking how

much some of those cretins have made off pyramid opportunities - but never knew when to quit.

Greed!

[FormerOstrich]

24. It is so shocking...

Most of the episodes I have seen are about Ponzi schemes and not Pyramid (but a scam is a scam is a scam.

I think what blows me away the most is apparently if you buy/flaunt a bunch of high-end cars and mansions people will trip all over their-selves to give you money. I so think the opposite. I assume of you buy/flaunt a bunch of high-end cars and mansions you are probably a crook and I run! Not that I haven't ever been parted from my hard earned dollars just not on one of those.

[BKH70041]

13. You have to be on the ground floor of a start-up that's eventually successful.

I know 3 people who were some of the first to sign up for Amway and they're very wealthy. Come in on it now and you'll just end up with a garage full of soap.

[alphafemale]

17. My sister has done that every few months for going past 30 years now..

excruciating.

[Shankapotomus]

18. A "friend" once was involved

in the MonaVie scheme and tried to drag myself and everyone they knew into it. Nothing can be more annoying when you see that coming.

It's funny how those "self betterment" schemes always seem to attract the biggest of the conservative jerk-offs. You see that shit happening you know your group has been infected.

[tblue37]

23. Mormons in Utah have the highest density of multilevel marketing

businesses in the US, according to a couple of articles I once read. Remember how Margene got caught up in one in the polygamy series "Big Love" on CBS? Apparently, the show's writers knew what was what.

[zappaman]

19. Yes and many of my friends fell for it.

Late 90s and it was called "friends helping friends".
They were in disbelief when i said no and told me what a fool I was when I tried to tell them it was a pyramid scheme.
Since they did not get in on the beginning, ALL of my friends lost what they put into it.
It rears it's head every decade or so...

[Populist_Prole]

20. Here and there. The soft sell though

Certain co-workers who try the soft sell to make me be envious of them, but they don't really pitch me hard ( to their credit )

The dead giveaway it's an MLM/Pyramid scheme is the deliberate vagueness they use to describe it. They always refer to it as "my business". If it were on the up and up they would say "my pressure washing business", "my computer repair business" or whatever. It reeks of bullshit and they act like I'm hitting below the belt when I press for specifics. They know damned well I'm right, and don't like it when I inquire why in "their business" the focus is not on a product or service, but enlisting others to join and do the same.

[JI7]

22. there was another scam someone else fell for and tried to get me to come along

she said it was some workshop, lecture or some shit that was going to show how you can make a lot of money on real estate.

she said how there were limited seats but she had some offer for 2 for 1 one and wanted to split it with me.