Another Pyramid Con

trisontana

Sasahara wrote: »

It's shocking how poor at Maths people are.


Even the posters that know this was a pyramid scam failed on basic counting, quoting 7 people loosing money for every pay-out, when in reality it's 8 people that loose out per winner. It took almost 200 posts before someone go this right. :P


(Currently burning time while waiting for the Scottish referendum results)

Never mind mathematics, what about spelling? It's lose and losing, not loose and loosing!

yangptangkipperbang

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29251696

Nada666

I think people are being unfair. You have to be as sharp as a razor to avoid this sort of scam. To improve your wits, stick one of these on your head:

RuthnJasper

Someone tried to get me involved in one of these a few years ago - something called "Hearts". You paid £50 to join and someone put my £50 in "for" me when I said I couldn't afford it. However, the pressure to recruit new bods was relentless and embarrassing so I told them very quickly to forget it.

What stunned me was that these were all very well-to-do ladies, for the most part very intelligent. It just defeats me as to how people can't see these schemes for what they are. But perhaps, like Pay Day Loans, some people are so desperate they are willing to consider anything...

trisontana

RuthnJasper wrote: »

Someone tried to get me involved in one of these a few years ago - something called "Hearts". You paid £50 to join and someone put my £50 in "for" me when I said I couldn't afford it. However, the pressure to recruit new bods was relentless and embarrassing so I told them very quickly to forget it.

What stunned me was that these were all very well-to-do ladies, for the most part very intelligent. It just defeats me as to how people can't see these schemes for what they are. But perhaps, like Pay Day Loans, some people are so desperate they are willing to consider anything...

Was that the one operating in the Milton Keynes area?

You can see how brainwashed or gullible people were by these comments from a newspaper article in the South Wales Argus in 2008:-

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/3760775.Residents_warned_on_pyramid_con/

Well i know people who are on the charts and had numerous payouts!! People are too quick to assume, facts are fact, and not from a third party, the fact is it is working, i have been to a payout and seen it, the people there didnt look very vunerable to me, all were there of there own accord nobody forced into it.


I am sick of hearing about this Pyramid scam.... Wot we are doing is not a pyramid. The difference between the two is on the pyramid scheme the person at the top made money from everyone below them, this doesnt happen with ours, when you get to the top and you have had your money you come off the chart, the chart splits then the 2 people you have bought in go in for there payout... and so on .. No matter what anyone says this is all legal.. you have to win your money on the night and donate a certain amount to charity! Why complicate things by trying to work it out mathematical, you invest 3K and bring 2 people in behind as long as people keep investing and bringing the 2 people in it will keep going, if you dont bring 2 people in then you dont move up the chart!!! You know exactly where your 3K is going you give it to the person in payout on the night, if people dont want to do fine, but keep your opinions to yourself, alot of people commenting dont know the facts of what is going on and im sure if you did know you would be doing it like the rest of us!


On the other hand those two people could have been part of the scam and were trying to big it up and recruit more victims

RuthnJasper

trisontana wrote: »

Was that the one operating in the Milton Keynes area?

You can see how brainwashed or gullible people were by these comments from a newspaper article in the South Wales Argus in 2008:-

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/3760775.Residents_warned_on_pyramid_con/

Well i know people who are on the charts and had numerous payouts!! People are too quick to assume, facts are fact, and not from a third party, the fact is it is working, i have been to a payout and seen it, the people there didnt look very vunerable to me, all were there of there own accord nobody forced into it.


I am sick of hearing about this Pyramid scam.... Wot we are doing is not a pyramid. The difference between the two is on the pyramid scheme the person at the top made money from everyone below them, this doesnt happen with ours, when you get to the top and you have had your money you come off the chart, the chart splits then the 2 people you have bought in go in for there payout... and so on .. No matter what anyone says this is all legal.. you have to win your money on the night and donate a certain amount to charity! Why complicate things by trying to work it out mathematical, you invest 3K and bring 2 people in behind as long as people keep investing and bringing the 2 people in it will keep going, if you dont bring 2 people in then you dont move up the chart!!! You know exactly where your 3K is going you give it to the person in payout on the night, if people dont want to do fine, but keep your opinions to yourself, alot of people commenting dont know the facts of what is going on and im sure if you did know you would be doing it like the rest of us!


On the other hand those two people could have been part of the scam and were trying to big it up and recruit more victims

Probably - my experience was with the posh little Hampshire villages, but I know it had a far wider reach. The words you've italicised are almost word-for-word what I was told, however! "Hearts" indeed... for goodness' sake!

trisontana

There is a long article in today's Telegraph about the seemingly respectable women behind this con:-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11110946/The-story-behind-the-respectable-pyramid-scheme-ladies.html

As suspected two of them had been behind the earlier WISE scheme.

They were convinced G&T would be legal if they introduced an element of skill to the proceedings. What they came up with was the “charade” of a quiz question that a “bride” would have to answer correctly before claiming the £23,000.
But the questions – such as who lives at 10 Downing Street, name a piece of cutlery or what colour is a daffodil – were so easy, they were impossible to get wrong. In other words, there was no skill involved.



Not that Fox seems to have cared too much for her customers. Minutes from the meetings taken from her house show her to be something of a snob. She showed disdain for the “gum-chewing” attendees at one event and at another expressed “sheer indignation” that a “bride” had brought cava rather than champagne to celebrate her windfall.

SnowTiger

trisontana wrote: »

There is a long article in today's Telegraph about the seemingly respectable women behind this con:-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11110946/The-story-behind-the-respectable-pyramid-scheme-ladies.html

As suspected two of them had been behind the earlier WISE scheme.

Fascinating, as are the comments to the article previously hightlighted by trisontana: http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/3760775.Residents_warned_on_pyramid_con/.

Reading the article, I wondered if they had simply been a bit naive. Then came the revelation that they'd done it all before.

trisontana

The organisers knew exactly what they were doing. It's the poor people who they suckered in who were the naive ones. I'm glad that the police will be trying to get some of the money back of the ringleaders. Where that money will go I don't know. The victims or the government?

SnowTiger

trisontana wrote: »

The organisers knew exactly what they were doing. It's the poor people who they suckered in who were the naive ones. I'm glad that the police will be trying to get some of the money back of the ringleaders. Where that money will go I don't know. The victims or the government?

Are there victims?

Presumably those who parted with £3,000 knew they would have to persuade friends and family to take part in the scheme to profit themselves. They were part of the con, too.