Ron Werner said:
[quote="Brian Robison":2xmnbfnb]
Pyramid schemes are illegal.
You mean like those deals where one guy is above 2 or 3 more, who are above 2 or 3 more each, etc, and the guy at the top makes money from the efforts of the poor saps below him, and the guy at the top always makes more than the guy at the bottom?
sounds like a boss employee relationship!!!
How big is your pyramid Ken?[/quote:2xmnbfnb]
Here ya go Ron
A successful pyramid scheme combines a fake yet seemingly credible business with a simple-to-understand yet sophisticated-sounding money-making formula. The essential idea is that the mark, Mr. X, makes only one payment. To start earning, Mr. X has to recruit others like him who will also make one payment each. Mr. X gets paid out of receipts from those new recruits. They then go on to recruit others. As each new recruit makes a payment, Mr. X gets a cut. He is thus promised exponential benefits as the "business" expands.
Such "businesses" seldom involve sales of real products or services to which a monetary value might be easily attached. However, sometimes the "payment" itself may be a non-cash valuable. To enhance credibility, most such scams are well equipped with fake referrals, testimonials, and information. Clearly, the flaw is that there is no end benefit. The money simply travels up the chain. Only the originator (sometimes called the "pharaoh") and a very few at the top levels of the pyramid make significant amounts of money. The amounts dwindle steeply down the pyramid slopes. Of course, the worst off are at the bottom of the pyramid: those who subscribed to the plan, but were not able to recruit any followers themselves.