Pyramid scheme fraud

It is a scheme where a fake organisation enrols innocent people into a business offering worthless products or investment plans. It happens at multiple levels where a recruit is asked to bring others to join the plan to earn money. 

One has to pay a fee to get into such schemes, and then you create a chain of people by asking others in friends or family to join. If you get recruits, you are paid out of the receipts. 

Such schemes require recruits to keep the chain going. Every new person brings in the joining fee and basic deposits to pay the former members. 

The money offered by recruits is not invested in products or the production of any item. All the funds collected through the people who join the chain are passed up the chain. Such plans are unauthorised and worthless; if you lose money, there is no chance of getting it back. 

Those who start the scheme are at the top of the pyramid and get the highest portion of the earnings, and in the end, all the recruits lose their capital.

Such trades are illegal because it is not based on actual production and sale. Instead, the fraudsters use pressure tactics or bogus claims to get rushed decisions from the investors, and they give no time to consider the nature of the business. 

Instead, they offer attractive brochures and documents with graphs showing long-term huge gains in future, which attract new investors into their plans. 

Although their offers appear legitimate, they use technical terms and offer lucrative job titles to the trainees, who are asked to pay to join and learn business tricks; those seeking supplementary earnings through small investments register to their websites as it appears professional and credible. 

People contacted for such offers should check the firm's authenticity, investigate its status on authorised websites, and check the contact details and work histories to learn more about them. In addition, they should seek expert advice and conduct independent research on their business profile to ensure the offers. 

How To Know If You Are a Victim?

• If you are approached by someone offering multiple-level investment plans that claim to deliver huge profits quickly and have no associated risk.

• If you are asked to pay a fee to join the firm.

• You are pressured to contact others who can join the scheme and are told you can earn from each new member you bring.

• If you suspect you have been defrauded, report it to the authorities.

• If you are an active member of such a scheme, try to break off contact and not invest more into their plans.

How To Protect Yourself?

• If you consider investing in any such scheme, try to find all the information and conduct complete research. Do not be lured by attractive profit rates or colourful brochures.

• People who join such schemes are often asked to sell products with no resale value. One should inspect the items carefully before buying or selling worthless items to close friends or family. 

• If you have already provided all your bank details and other information, alert your bank.

• Always keep multiple copies of all the documents you receive from such firms, as they can be used as evidence to report to authorities.

• Such groups often share the personal details of people they have already targeted. Hence, if you have joined such schemes, you may be approached by similar platforms that use different identities but could be the initial operators' partners.

• Those who have fallen for such schemes may be contacted by them impersonating law enforcement or lawyers, who advise paying some upfront fee to get the lost money back.

• Raise concerns if you suspect fraud and have lost money in such schemes.