Get poor quick schemes.

[Workingman]

Why do people fall for them?

I know they are sold as 'get rich quick' schemes, but they are so obviously not.

Six women have been convicted of running a pyramid scheme costing punters (fools) in the region of £20m. The women didn't market it as a pyramid con, but they didn't hide it either. There is a clip of one of them 'selling' it at a Tupperware type party and she explained it in great detail and still the idiots bought in at £3,000 a throw!

Now some of the 'victims' are calling for compensation for their losses because they were told it was legal and that the paperwork looked legit and that they could not lose.

No, boys and girls, you were greedy. You wanted a free lunch and and money for nothing, and you sold the scheme to yourselves.

[TheOstrich]

Just looked pyramid schemes up on wiki, out of interest, and it seems they've been going on for around 100 years. It is indeed greed more than anything else that's the attraction, and of course the financially poor and the less savvy will be duped. I guess it's a fact of life that humans have been conning each other in some shape or form throughout eternity.

Back in the 50's when I was a kid, there was a similar sort of scam but largely non-financial (well, it was in theory a good deal for the Royal Mail). Do you remember chain letters? Copy a list on a postcard, but put your name at the bottom, and take off the name at the top. Then send the postcard on, within 7 days, to 6 of your friends, telling them to repeat the process. You should personally get back about 7,500 postcards at the end of the second month ......

Then they became more sinister, gypsy's curse on you if you didn't comply, and / or bedbugs in your pyjamas.

I remember I did it the once, and didn't even get a single card in reply!

Are chain letters still around today?