Few days ago, one of my friend asked my opinion about this "investment" opportunity that was given to him.
The deal is as follow: Invest 5,000 pesos and get 22,500 after 3 weeks.
Waw, that's an investment that give a 450% return. You must be stupid if you don't sign for it.
Even if it looks nice, I started to ask him questions.
Me: How can they promise such a huge return?
Him: they invest it in gold.
Me: How is that possible, gold has been going down since a 2014 and I showed him a graph showing the price of gold is going down.
Him: ...
Then I started searching about the gold company that offers 450% return. Here's what I found:
- It banks/capitalizes/earns on the appreciation value of gold through a "swap program" where the product is bought by means of an "order table" comprised of 15 people spread across 4 LEVELS.
- New members/gold traders enter the order table's lowest level (Level 4) composed of 8 people.
- Above them are 4 people (who came before them) in Level 3.
- Above these 4 people are 2 people (who came before the 4) in Level 2.
- On top of the table is that sole person (who came before all of them) in Level 1.
- The person on Level 1 is the "graduating" member/gold trader who will "EXIT" the table or "graduate" (internally called a "pay out") as soon as all (15) boxes/slots are filled.
- This person on Level 1 will receive either a 15 grams 14K gold pendant or its cash equivalent of P25,000 -- whichever he/she prefers.
What surprised me there are those words: LEVELS, GRADUATING MEMBER and EXIT.
This is a pyramid scheme!
What is a pyramid scheme:
