Re: Classic money-shuffling game

> Classic money-shuffling pyramid. 2-up compensation plan. The
> "product" is a overpriced sham report.

> The organizer, Eric Pantalone, may indeed have earned $20,000 in 3 weeks,
> and $50,000 in 90 days, but new joiners are not going to be so fortunate.

A friend of mine tried to get me into this. When I pointed out some red flags he quickly became upset with me. I hate to see him get into more trouble, but I'm not going to fight over it.

I have seen their flier and I've done a bit of math. They say that you send out 1,000 postcards and get about 20 people to sign up.

Level 1 - 1,000 cards - 20 people sign up
Level 2 - 20,000 cards - 400 people sign up
Level 3 - 400,000 cards - 8,000 people sign up
Level 4 - 8,000,000 cards - 160,000 people sign up
Level 5 - 160,000,000 cards - 3,200,000 people sign up
Level 6 - 3,200,000,000 cards - 64,000,000 people sign up
Level 7 - 64,000,000,000 cards - 1,280,000,000 people sign up

In about 6 months (level 6) 50% of the human inhabitants of earth have been sent cards and nearly 50% of all literate Americans are part of the program.

Since the Credit Bible probably has little information useful outside the US, I doubt that you'll get a lot of sign ups from Bangledesh. In truth, many of the cards will be sent to people that are already doing the program, or have gotten cards and decided not to try it. As this happens, the rate of response will fall off very rapidly. Otherwise, by level 7 you will be recruiting Klingons, because you've exceeded the population of Earth.

> Let's see - that money is coming in all in cash, cashier's checks, and
> money orders. He says NO PERSONAL CHECKS ALLOWED. Hmmmm.

> Trying to run it off the books, I bet. Time for a tip to the IRS I
> suppose. What's the tip-off reward running nowadays? 5%? 10%?

A good point. I read that differently. He also says to send by private courior, not by mail. Are these two moves to avoid mail, wire and/or banking fraud charges?

> I think I've just discovered another way to make money on-line! Report the
> cash-only perps to the IRS as possible tax cheats, and let them run the
> investigation! Hmmmmmm. Great possibilities. :-)

Does the FTC and/or SEC pay rewards?

Any business that is primarily based on exponential growth must stop growning at some point. If each level takes a month, you'll run out of earthlings in half a year. When you reach saturation, your "downstream" people will not break even. They will complain. You can keep them at bay with "You're not doing it right" and "I made $3.7 trillion in my first hour" kind of statements, but sooner or later, someone will come after you armed with a lawyer (if you're lucky). Since the program is no longer paying, it will fail to meet it's advertised promise. Once charges start getting filed, you may get pulled into the net. Even if you are just reprinting the literature you were given, you may still be responsible for the promises.