Women only -pyramid scheme-have you heard/done these?

[veronica]

this has been bothering me and I keep forgetting to post. A few weeks back, a friend of mine (not that close), tells me she is on her way to a meeting for a women's club. she has "donated" $5,000 and will come out earning $50,000. While she is part of the group, she does events, recruits new people, etc. etc.

My mind was screaming "pyramid, pyramid" but she goes on to tell me how it started in Canada, moved to Florida and has been legal for over 20 years here. It is called "women of heart" and I just googled it, found their site but was interested in all the other "pyramid" results of my google search.....


So-anyone btdt? These are illegal-so how is this still going on-I guess the whole community outreach aspect lets it slide a bit....wondering if anyone has done this. She donated in October and there are 8 hearts left to fill before she is finished but I am not quite sure how many people go in a heart. Then she tells me, well, you can't earn that return on an investment in a year with any other investment....Uh, I am a CPA with an MBA and totally understand how the "return on this investment" is attractive but you know, the whole "illegality" of it all isn't that attractive to me....

so-please shed some light for me.....

[melissaflorida]

I live in S. Florida and it has been all over the news. Totally ILLEGAL. They are looking to throw or have already thrown some of the ladies in jail.

[misshollygolightly]

Eeek--sounds more than suspicious! Can you warn her to get out before its too late and/or report the group to the Better Business Bureau?

[MamaMolly]

Sounds sooo fishy. I'd be far more impressed if she actually had the $50K in her pocket. I have a feeling she'll only have bad karma and a $5K loss.

[Sillygirl]

Your friend is pretty dumb about money.

[chicagoprego]

I feel like every few years I read about this on the internet, in a different part of the country...

Totally illegal. Even more disappointing is that they like to hide this illegal activity under the guise of "women helping women" or sometimes have a Christian overtone to the whole thing.

/I can't stand Mary Kay, either, for similar reasons (multi-level marketing is not yet illegal however)

[MontrealMum]

Wasn't a huge one (or more) of these shut down big time back in the 80s/90s? Many of the higher up women went to jail and pretty much everyone lower down lost all their money including their original investment? Am I the only one old enough to remember this, so that my first reaction would be to run screaming? Gotta say, I'm shocked that this stuff is still around and that people are still falling for it.

[veronica]

Yeah-I was pretty dumbfounded how brainwashed she was. Actaully saying, "it's not a pyramid...at Christmas we chose 4 familiies and hosted their holiday, including presents. And If someone wants to join but can't pay initially, a member will pay their $5 and at the end, they split the $50K"

She did say that back in the fall , when it hit our town, ladies were lining up and cashing out the same day and that she joined a bit too late.....

Not sure if I would report to the BBB-this place has a website and seems to be affiliated with a church, I am sure they have/are been investigated.....

[brittone2]

Gotta say, I'm shocked that this stuff is still around and that people are still falling for it.
:yeahthat:

I don't get how someone wouldn't have heard that this was a scam at some point in the last decade or more. Yikes.

[SnuggleBuggles]

:yeahthat:

I don't get how someone wouldn't have heard that this was a scam at some point in the last decade or more. Yikes.

If I were spending $5000 on something I would research the heck out of it first. It sounds like google pulls a bunch of scam warnings when you search so it's not like that info is hard to find. I don't know how people fall for these things.

Beth

[s7714]

One of my co-workers tried to get me into something very similar many years ago. About a year later several people my co-worker had been recruited by got arrested for running the pyramid. He was questioned by the police too, but managed not to get charged. There is absolutely no way I'd ever participate in something like that.