The pyramiding scams that had victimized so many people before with their get-rich-fast scheme seems to linger up to now and never really disappeared into oblivion. This time, though, they seem to have transformed into something subtler.
What makes them different nowadays is that they have products to use, to promote, or to sell, and most of these are food supplement products from herbs of all sorts. With this alone, one can already spot the shrewdness of their scheme—riding on health-related issues. They know that people could be so stingy on other necessities, but when it comes to addressing the illnesses that risk their health, they could spend all their earnings.
No such products were involved in the transactions made by the numerous pyramiding companies before. All one had to do was to put in cash, as a new recruit, with the assurance that said money will multiply in the long run. But one had to be so aggressive enough to recruit other investors that will be added to his downline, otherwise, the return-of-investment would be unlikely. One could lose his investment, then, with no one else to blame but himself.
In reality, too many people had indeed lost their money in such investments though they had recruited others to join the scheme, which turned out to be a big scam. Again, they themselves were to blame for that loss—they joined rather late. Had they joined earlier, they could have recovered their investment and earned a lot. In short, it was just the earliest members, and the founder of the scheme, that had enriched themselves in the process.
Sad but many of these investors just did not run after their losses, perhaps due partly to their embarrassment as stupid recruits. Charged to experience, they would say. Negligible for those with meager investments, but for those who put in much, that was such a devastating experience. Could have been akin to getting bankrupt in business, or losing in a gambling spree.
Fast forward now. We don’t hear of those pyramid scams nowadays, more so that the government had intervened and declared them illegal. But the metamorphosis seems to have occurred, and what we have now are something more, again, subtle. The get-rich-fast formula remains, but here come these companies that offer similar promises though equipped as they are now with products as fronts. No more pure-cash transactions: they have products to divert your attention to.
But if we will trace closely, the same scheme is in place. They would recruit a potential member, make him invest a given amount considered as purchase money for the products, make him sell those products or use them himself, and make him recruit other investors as well either as product users or mere sellers. In the process, huge earnings are promised, though the idea is the same—recruit other investors or one would earn nothing.
These schemes are all over social media nowadays. They would attract people with high income using only the gadgets and all, but in the process, only the earlier members in the upline are earning much at the expense of the later members. Still a scam by any standard.
