The other day I got a rather stuffed letter in the mail. It was from someone in Tennessee that I have never heard of. I do have relatives there and thought they might be sending me something. Much to my shock it was not from a relative, but a total stranger, he sent me a chain letter.Not just any chain letter, this was also a pyramid scam. Yet they tried to tell me it was not a scam. I mean the top of the letter clearly states "AS SEEN ON OPRAH & 20/20." Well I guess I'm wrong this can't be a bad thing, yet I still think this is a scam. Then I read on "THIS IS NOT A PYRAMID SCAM." Well if the letter says so then it must be legit.
The whole basis of this scam is you send six dollars (one dollar each) to six people. Then you mail out this letter to six people, put your name in the 6th spot and bam! You're making money. Yet there is another rub in this ruse to make even more money you send away for a set of labels so you don't have to bother your friends. It only cost forty-five dollars. Hey, they have a story in here about how some fifteen year old made a quarter of a million I mean I must be able to.
This letter is full of testimonial with names, but not one name from the person who created it. That should have been this guys first clue that this was a scam. If someone won't give you their name, then it's not legit.
The most interesting part of this letters is a diagram in the letter. With the 200 names you will make fifteen dollars then in turn those 15 send out more letters and from the new people you will get $225 and so forth and so forth. Here is the money breakdown in the letter:
$15.00
$225.00
$3,375.00
$50,625.00
$759,375.00
$813,615.00
In no way at all that could be a pyramid. I mean the top is flat so it's more like a rumbas and those aren't illegal. How has this not been stopped yet? Then on top of it who is falling for this scam? With the Internet all you have to do is type in datalineone into Google and the second and third listing are about how this is a scam.
I know times are tough, cheap get money quick schemes are not the answer. You just have to be smart about money. Then a few friends and I were discussing pyramid scams. The best place to be in one of this is right below the guy who started it. You are not fully at fault and he gets all the blame. Of course non of us wanted to be that guy so I guess our get rich quick plan won't work. I guess it's back to trying to make a living.
