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Considering Starting a Ponzi Scheme (legal)


mki

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Posted in OT because this really has nothing to do with marketing.

So, I've come up with a way to create a legal ponzi scheme. It doesn't actually take investment money so it's not a real ponzi scheme but the mechanics of it are virtually the same.

So people "get in on it", the more people that join equates to less opportunity for each individual, and the more money I make of course.

At the end of the day, you know, I just want money.

Should I go through with this? It wouldn't be very difficult for me to setup and I'm pretty sure I could get approved on FB to run the ads.

This is totally legal but I admit that it's probably the most evil idea I've ever had.

This would definitely be one of those things where if you found out that a friend was involved in it, you would /facepalm.

Edit: After a little big of research, as it turns my idea is actually illegal. Oh well. I wasn't serious about it anyways.

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29 minutes ago, mki said:

Posted in OT because this really has nothing to do with marketing.

So, I've come up with a way to create a legal ponzi scheme. It doesn't actually take investment money so it's not a real ponzi scheme but the mechanics of it are virtually the same.

So people "get in on it", the more people that join equates to less opportunity for each individual, and the more money I make of course.

At the end of the day, you know, I just want money.

Should I go through with this? It wouldn't be very difficult for me to setup and I'm pretty sure I could get approved on FB to run the ads.

This is totally legal but I admit that it's probably the most evil idea I've ever had.

This would definitely be one of those things where if you found out that a friend was involved in it, you would /facepalm.

I've had ideas like that, I suppose.

Don't do it. You'll end up hating everyone that participates, because they are fools. And the weight of your guilt for taking advantage of people will become overbearing.

These ideas are fun to think about, because it means you are clever. But if you have any conscience at all, you'll soon be miserable. 

 

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10 minutes ago, Claude Whitacre said:

I've had ideas like that, I suppose.

Don't do it. You'll end up hating everyone that participates, because they are fools. And the weight of your guilt for taking advantage of people will become overbearing.

These ideas are fun to think about, because it means you are clever. But if you have any conscience at all, you'll soon be miserable. 

 

Vague details sent via PM. Let me know if you want in on this. 👍

Don't repeat what I said in the PM please. 😀

By the way, as always, my idea probably already exists somewhere.

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2 hours ago, mki said:

Posted in OT because this really has nothing to do with marketing.

So, I've come up with a way to create a legal ponzi scheme. It doesn't actually take investment money so it's not a real ponzi scheme but the mechanics of it are virtually the same.

So people "get in on it", the more people that join equates to less opportunity for each individual, and the more money I make of course.

At the end of the day, you know, I just want money.

Should I go through with this? It wouldn't be very difficult for me to setup and I'm pretty sure I could get approved on FB to run the ads.

This is totally legal but I admit that it's probably the most evil idea I've ever had.

This would definitely be one of those things where if you found out that a friend was involved in it, you would /facepalm.

Edit: After a little big of research, as it turns my idea is actually illegal. Oh well. I wasn't serious about it anyways.

Pity, I was interested in investing a considerable amount of inheritance money coming to me shortly. But, since you came clean I am going with my original idea of taking it to a casino and putting it all on red on a roulette table.

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48 minutes ago, Lanfear63 said:

Pity, I was interested in investing a considerable amount of inheritance money coming to me shortly. But, since you came clean I am going with my original idea of taking it to a casino and putting it all on red on a roulette table.

My idea was to turn one of those cash for survey sites into an apparently illegal lottery.

It seemed like a really good idea while I was doing my daily exercise. Oh well.

The way I had it structured, I thought it would have counted as a sweepstakes, nope, definitely not legal.

There was an MLM angle too, seemed good to me.

So it was an MLM, lottery/casino, ponzi scheme, involving incentivized offers...

Shrug. To me, it seemed like all of the "building blocks for success" were there.

I was mentally visualizing the "I spent my paycheck buying scratch off tickets" type people spending all day filling out surveys and spamming their Facebook page for referrals for chances to "win big."

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16 hours ago, mki said:

So it was an MLM, lottery/casino, ponzi scheme, involving incentivized offers...

An employee of mine told me about this great MLM he was in. He showed me the payouts, the levels, everything.  He told me that he re-invested everything back into the MLM, and he was going to get a second mortgage to go "all in".

It took a few minutes to add it up, but I mentioned to him that they were paying out $1.25 in commissions for every $1 they took in. Virtually the definition of Ponzi Scheme. For some reason, this didn't register with him. So when the company closed their doors a few months later....he lost his home. (his wife left him)

Ponzi schemes work because greed is a powerful impulse, and it shuts down the reasoning faculties. It's why people still send money for "Nigeria" windfalls, they used to spend money on chain letters, and buy lottery tickets. And it's why some MLM people think they are making money, when they are really just spending money.

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8 minutes ago, Claude Whitacre said:

An employee of mine told me about this great MLM he was in. He showed me the payouts, the levels, everything.  He told me that he re-invested everything back into the MLM, and he was going to get a second mortgage to go "all in".

It took a few minutes to add it up, but I mentioned to him that they were paying out $1.25 in commissions for every $1 they took in. Virtually the definition of Ponzi Scheme. For some reason, this didn't register with him. So when the company closed their doors a few months later....he lost his home. (his wife left him)

Ponzi schemes work because greed is a powerful impulse, and it shuts down the reasoning faculties. It's why people still send money for "Nigeria" windfalls, they used to spend money on chain letters, and buy lottery tickets. And it's why some MLM people think they are making money, when they are really just spending money.

I was tempted to join this company who invested your money in small trees and sold them, you got back all your money plus 25%..A Bonsai Scheme. 

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2 hours ago, Claude Whitacre said:

And it's why some MLM people think they are making money, when they are really just spending money.

Warning: This response is a little all over the place.

I steer clear of MLM unless it's something like tiered commissions on sales.

As an example: some affiliate networks pay a small percentage to an affiliate for each conversion that an affiliate they signed up gets. The percentage is usually small around ~1% and I'm aware that the network commissions are generally 10-25%, so I know that it's not a scam.

I realize that when people are talking about MLM, that's not what they mean.

Things people generally mean when they are discussing MLM are usually a range from stuff like Herbalife (over priced products that likely don't work and the "executives" don't want to know what the individual sales people are doing to generate the sales, which is usually lying or scamming.)

To pure MLM with MLP as a business model where there's no actual product, as an example; stuff like MOBE which was shut down recently. -> https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2018/06/ftc-alleges-mobe-tells-whale-tale-misleading-money-making

If you read the comments there, there's still people defending it that don't understand how it works or what's going on and are still suggesting that the people who didn't make money just "don't know how to run a business."

They don't understand that the training programs are specifically designed to warp your brain so that you don't realize that the sales training is the product...

No offense to any religious people here but it's well known among people who study MLMs that they specifically target religious people because they are more likely to believe information based upon faith. It's much easier to financially exploit a person who believes things with out having to see evidence of their existence.

Personally, I operate my business by observing results from test data, not because I "believe in it." I know it works because I can subtract my costs from my revenue and see that the difference is a positive number.

As an example of religious exploitation; watch this video (it was edited for humor.) I did some digging on this and the products are legit and cost is about the same amount as the "gift." I personally would consider what's going on in this infomercial to be a scam. They are telling people that an apocalypse is about to occur and your money will become worthless, so you must act quickly to "give them your money" so that you can get food.

PS: I would place a two significant wagers that the man with grey hair and beard, (not Jim Baker) regarding his sexuality (I'm not saying that there's any wrong with that) and whether it's a good idea for him to be taking care of young boys with out supervision from their parents. I know that I'm judgemental and a bad person, I'm just saying that with all the recent revelations of sexual misconduct that I'm "a little bit skeptical."

 

 

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1 hour ago, mki said:

No offense to any religious people here but it's well known among people who study MLMs that they specifically target religious people because they are more likely to believe information based upon faith. It's much easier to financially exploit a person who believes things with out having to see evidence of their existence.

MLMs target religious people because they are members of a church, which means a ready source of "distributors". 

I made it 17 seconds into the video and my brain started screaming. Sorry. 

Decades ago, i had it in my mind that these fool deserved whatever they got, because they were fools. But I was wrong. A dog doesn't deserve to be fed poison just because it doesn't know any better. We have to be responsible for what we teach others....what we get them involved in.

These people are guppies, being led by sharks. Diseased sharks. They think they are there to learn..They are food.

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4 hours ago, Claude Whitacre said:

I made it 17 seconds into the video and my brain started screaming. Sorry.

Oh so you didn't make it to the part where he eats the rice and uses a shovel to mix the rice and the cheese sauce together? That was the good part.

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if'n you want trooly lame opinion, I skipped mosta the thread cos I a mortal ditz.

Thing 'bout schemes is ... who benefits?

Cos I gotta tellya, swankyin' around a palace mebbe cool for Moi ... but less'n I can persuade alla the hunky guys diggin' around in the fields for POTATOES that ima worth BEEFIN' UP FOR, prolly my allure is a phantom.

(That's why distractin' DRAGONS are so cool, btw — not that I can summon 'em up from outta noplace to dropdead effect without I beguile no wizard guy from outta his unbeguilable wizardy whatevah.)

(Plus also that whole Frog Prince deal. Call me practical, but proto-regal exotica of a squishily amphibian nature don't nevah got my tongue lappin' up its ass.)

(Plus extra also if'n we all gowin' Heaven unless we kinda AIN'T, our aintsiness prolly worth zillions to anywan figures they nevah evah gonna make the 2120s even though they let their kids starve bcs CRYOGENICS.)

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