Another Pyramid Con

forumfan_2

The 'WISE' scheme is seems to have taken over my local area (just outside Bath). I can't believe how many people I know that have signed up to it... and many of them are people who you would think would know better.

Between me, my mum and my best friend I think we have been invited out to one of these evenings nearly 20 times already. My next door neighbour has had a couple of parties and the cars have been double parked along two streets

From what I can gather, even if you get a payout you have to 'reinvest' a certain amount of money, none of the money is ever banked and if you can't afford it then you can get someone to sponsor you so that you don't miss out... how can this be right?

Sorry that this is a bit vague but I didn't want to ask too many questions just in case one of the 'investors' got the impression I was interested!

docbrown_2

If you go into these things understanding the implications and knowing that there is no guarantee that you're going to come away with thousands of pounds, then i dont see the problem. I know people who have walked away with 5 figure sums and whilst its still thriving in the Bath/Bristol area, which it is, then i say 'why not?'. Yes, eventually people will lose out, but everyone knows the risks... Over the 10 or so years i've been playing the national lottery i've probably spent well over a thousand pounds.. I know its a different scenario, but let people make up their own minds about WISE and just dont label it a con without knowing all the facts

trisontana

docbrown wrote: »

If you go into these things understanding the implications and knowing that there is no guarantee that you're going to come away with thousands of pounds, then i dont see the problem. I know people who have walked away with 5 figure sums and whilst its still thriving in the Bath/Bristol area, which it is, then i say 'why not?'. Yes, eventually people will lose out, but everyone knows the risks... Over the 10 or so years i've been playing the national lottery i've probably spent well over a thousand pounds.. I know its a different scenario, but let people make up their own minds about WISE and just dont label it a con without knowing all the facts

Of course it's a con. It's a pyramid scheme . Just do the maths and you will see that most people will lose their money. That is a fact

trisontana

To help you do the maths go here :- http://www.homepage.net/pyramidcalculator/ and run some figures through the calculator. You will see that most people will just lose their money. A few will get rich, at the expense of the many who won't

ManAtHome

docbrown wrote: »

Over the 10 or so years i've been playing the national lottery i've probably spent well over a thousand pounds.. I know its a different scenario, but let people make up their own minds about WISE and just dont label it a con without knowing all the facts

It advertises as a lottery does it..?

£1k over 10 years is not quite the same as £3k in an evening now is it.

And from Tony Heatherington - "I wanted to invite the people behind Wise to comment, but their leaflets carry no names, addresses or phone numbers."

Don't all reputable organisations publish full contact details?

Or perhaps you could enlighten us to all the facts before we label it as a con?

Leothecat

docbrown wrote: »

If you go into these things understanding the implications and knowing that there is no guarantee that you're going to come away with thousands of pounds, then i dont see the problem. I know people who have walked away with 5 figure sums and whilst its still thriving in the Bath/Bristol area, which it is, then i say 'why not?'. Yes, eventually people will lose out, but everyone knows the risks... Over the 10 or so years i've been playing the national lottery i've probably spent well over a thousand pounds.. I know its a different scenario, but let people make up their own minds about WISE and just dont label it a con without knowing all the facts

This is a con - there is no other label for it!!! I cannot believe that anyone would try and defend it as anything else. The people at the top will make money - they will not work for this money nor will they sell a product. In fact they will con (probably their friends and family) out of money by telling them that they cannot loose out. Eventually the people at the bottom will loose their money because there are no new people to be recruited. At this point, friendships fall apart, families stop speaking to each other and in the worst cases (as happened where I live) people turn to violence! THIS IS A CON - AVIOD!!!

pinkwitch_2

This is the biggest talk about subject in the school playground at the moment where i live.
I even had my name down (i know i'm stupid,you don't need to tell me)but thankfully bad press came out in the local paper, and i managed through a good friend to remove my name this week.
It is a con when you do the calculations but when people in the playground tell you they are getting £24,000 it's hard not to be sucked in.(i was!!!!)

ManAtHome

That's the big problem PinkWitch - it does sound very plausible only having to get a few people to sign up. Everyone thinks they only need to get a few people, but as you realised it's a bit like the "penny on the chessboard" trick.

Start at a corner of the board and put a penny in the square. Then put twice as many pennies on the next square, then repeat... You're over £20 million quid by the time you've filled half the squares (Excel gives up at square 37 at 687 billion quid).

Now try it placing 8 times as many pennies in each square...

Penelope_Penguin

The *women empowering women* scheme was run in our area a few years ago. It was set up by a successful business woman, who convinced people that she wouldn't get involved in something that wasn't a good investment :eek: :eek: :eek: She spoke to me about it, and got very sniffy when I poined out that the numbers just didn't add up. She showed me some very impressive paperwork, but wouldn't let me take it away.

When it all went t1ts up, she walked away very nicely, and lots of people lost thousands. She then played her trump card, and offered to *help out* those people who'd lost. They now worship her, as they all believe that she did this from the goodness of her heart, rather than redistributing a small amount of the money she'd obtained by fraud, IMO.

Penny. x

trisontana

When the "women empowering women scheme" was operating in Milton Keynes the organisers used the National Hockey Stadium to hold their meetings. The local radio station repeatedly warned the stadium about this dodgy operation being run from their premises but they didn't want to know. They were content to take to money for the room hire with no questions asked.

Of course this scheme collapsed with many women owed thousands of pounds and with just a few lucky ones walking away with a vast profit. I seem to remember that, as in the case mentioned above, a couple of prominent business women (members of the Chamber of Commerce) were the organisers and chief beneficiaries of the scam.