Pyramid Scheme Pariahs

[MysticMisty]

Also, my city has this carnival/fair/celebration thing with rides, games, candies and shit and a room with booths setup by members of the community. Someone had a Cutco Cutlery booth setup next two equally awful booths.

I know that one. At the local county fair they have a building set up for people to peddle their goods and services. My mom loves to check it out despite almost never buying anything. Good thing too because at least 95% (and I'm being super generous, it's probably more like 99%) of the booths set up are either scams or ripoffs (both?). I've never noticed Cutco but I am quite certain a good majority of the booths are related to pyramid schemes, or otherwise illegal goods (those 500 games in one cartridge deals come to mind). I honestly don't know why she's always insisted on checking it out.

 

[SuperJ]

otherwise illegal goods (those 500 games in one cartridge deals come to mind).

One of the best Yankee Swap presents I ever got was an N64 controller that plugged into the TV and played over 100 NES games. I think I still have it in a box somewhere. I may have to go digging for lost treasure.

 

[José Mourinho]

"First, let me assure you that this is not one of those shady pyramid schemes you've been hearing about. No sir. Our model is the trapezoid scheme, guaranteed to give you an eight-hundred percent return...."
(sirens are heard, and he jumps out the window)

 

[Beef Thunderpants]

One of the best Yankee Swap presents I ever got was an N64 controller that plugged into the TV and played over 100 NES games. I think I still have it in a box somewhere. I may have to go digging for lost treasure.

I've seen the Sega version in stores too. I believe they were very popular in Asia because they were far less expensive and more accessible than full modern systems.

 

[AnchuentProphecy]

Pyramid scam you say? Ask Bernie Madoff:

[youtube]S2nX3FdRyR0[/youtube]

Bernie Madoff was a Ponzi scheme

 

[homerbeoulve]

Bernie Madoff was a Ponzi scheme

And the pyramid scam actually have the same framework as the Ponzi scheme, seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme

 

[Bridechu]

One of the best Yankee Swap presents I ever got was an N64 controller that plugged into the TV and played over 100 NES games. I think I still have it in a box somewhere. I may have to go digging for lost treasure.

A friend of mine got the Guitar Hero version of this from his well-meaning grandmother for Christmas. It was a flimsy guitar you plugged in, and you could play copyright-free songs on three levels ranging from "Brain Dead" to "Physically Impossible".

 

[Pickle Man]

One of the best Yankee Swap presents I ever got was an N64 controller that plugged into the TV and played over 100 NES games. I think I still have it in a box somewhere. I may have to go digging for lost treasure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Player_Super_Joy_III.

That it? I remember the ads that the guy had to put in magazine because he got busted.

 

[SuperJ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Player_Super_Joy_III.

That it? I remember the ads that the guy had to put in magazine because he got busted.

That is it! Mine is blue. I had not heard that anyone got in trouble for it but I remember that the first time I plugged it in, I thought that there was nothing legal about what I was about to play.

 

[Surtur]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Player_Super_Joy_III.

That it? I remember the ads that the guy had to put in magazine because he got busted.

A bit off topic but I love Famiclones.

 

[ChameleonBody]

"'Kay, "

ONE MORE TIME

 

[c-no]

That is it! Mine is blue. I had not heard that anyone got in trouble for it but I remember that the first time I plugged it in, I thought that there was nothing legal about what I was about to play.

I actually remember owning a couple: the gray power joy that had a bunch of games on its cartridge and a blue power joy that had Super C.

A bit off topic but I love Famiclones.

Regarding Famiclones, I know they are popular in other parts of the world such as Russia where they had the Dendy (Among some other famiclones). Perhaps we should have a topic about Famiclones.

 

[Le Bateleur]

Kirby vacuum cleaners.

I had a friend in college who used to drive with no license or insurance, and did some occasional shoplifting. He signed up for a summer job selling vacuums to people who'd "won" a free carpet cleaning. He quit after a week because he couldn't cope with doing something he felt was so immoral.

 

[Hummingbird]

I remember getting an email from someone that linked to a voice recording about some millionaire (I forgot his name) talking about how the middle class will disappear in 15 years, how he's never had to take a sick day or struggle thanks to his system called "interest-free marketing". The obvious warning sign was that after listening to all ten minutes of it, he never went into any real detail about what "interest-free marketing" was. His website was no help in explaining it and all I could find was a book he wrote at least 30 years ago.

 

[ASoulMan]

I was involved in this recently. Here's my story.

Spoiler: "Social Affiliate Marketing"

I was contacted by someone I knew in high school about a "huge project" (Vemma BTW) that he and his friends were doing. I told him that I had a party to go to, so I told him just meet me at the party since we both knew the person who was holding it (they too showed curiosity). He discussed more about it and it got me interested, so later that night we got on a call with one of his uplines. I didn't become an official member until I bought product back in June 13th, a few days after the party. My mother and brother warned me about the company, since it sounded similar to Amway (which my brother did a few years back), but I continued because I wanted to see what would come out of it.

After a month, I wanted to quit. After a few weeks, I checked out Revanchist's website and learned more about Vemma and what it can do to people. I started seeing the meetings/home events and weekly calls as not inspiration, but more like some form of brainwashing. Seriously, you go to one meeting or call, you've been to all of them. And as you can see by the title, they referred to Vemma as a "social affiliate marketing" company, which is clearly not the case.

I also couldn't put myself up to calling friends from high school and college and family members after finding out more information. The fact that you lose money from the auto delivery system was enough for my mother to convince me to finally leave. I messaged my friend who got me in and told him that I had no more interest in doing Vemma (and left it at that), then cancelled my auto delivery. I wished I listened to my brother earlier but at least I didn't stick around for another month.

In fact, I'm actually glad I left. We were planning on spreading Vemma to where I go to college, where I'm planning on being a head writer for the student newspaper and president of the campus's student government tribunal. Just being affiliated with that would hurt my image and cause me to burn bridges with the people I made friends with. Because of my experience with this, I'm planning on doing a presentation warning about Vemma when I get back.

As of now, I'm going to return the product that came in recently. I also plan on ignoring any calls from the group that I was a part of, (or just cut them out entirely).

 

[PopOfColor]

My mother did MaryKay, longburger baskets and some candle shit when I was a kid. Pissed off everyone on our street. My dad makes good money she just needed a hobby really.

 

[RobeeSonee]

One of my friends from high school fell for these after graduation in a blinding succession. I now have this dreadful inkling that he might be trying this one too.

Spoiler

He was selling knives, herbal supplements, and insurance for three different scams by the time I started ignoring him. He had a lot of charisma, but I'm pretty sure he's still out there chasing one. What was funny was how often the people in high school that I had thought were smart kept falling for it. He almost got my little brother to join the knife scam but my parents refused to help.

Right after graduation one of my friends suckered me into attending one of these. I was expecting a job fair or something since he mentioned a part time job and we were going to a hotel. Then it seemed like a church service or something, except we were in a hotel conference room. I realized then that these were the dumb people from that friend's church.

I made the mistake of saying, "This is great, but I was kinda hoping the pyramid scheme stuff would end and we could talk business," to his mom, and within earshot of the people who were (presumably) higher in the pyramid. I felt bad, his mom was a nice lady, the friend was a cancer survivor, and his dad was a Vietnam vet. She even gave me gas money to get home afterward (because I was a poor 18 year old at the time). But I guess I didn't feel too bad, because the next week I told him I wasn't joining his fucking pyramid scheme and hung up on him.

 

[José Mourinho]

Currently, there's a trend on the YouTube comments where you can free Steam games by sharing a certain link to certain people. Once you get enough clicks you can supposedly get your free game. I'm gonna bet that you have to fill in a survey or shit or nothing once you get enough clicks.

{SITE NAME REDACTED (but seriously no point since Googling the description can give you the link anyway), )the best site for FREE Steam games!
To claim your FREE Steam game, all you need to do is share you referral link. It's EASY and FREE!
Share your referral link anywhere (Facebook, Twitter, Omegle, MySpace, Messangers, etc.)
Once you reach the required amount of clicks, your game will be unlocked then you will be able to claim it!

EDIT:

 

[c-no]

Currently, there's a trend on the YouTube comments where you can free Steam games by sharing a certain link to certain people. Once you get enough clicks you can supposedly get your free game. I'm gonna bet that you have to fill in a survey or shit or nothing once you get enough clicks.



EDIT:

I remember seeing this sort of thing on Facebook before. Friend of mine shared it and I clicked on it just to see because it said Steam. They make you think it's real but when you go to the website and look around, all red flags should go off when it says it is not affiliated with Valve, especially since the $100 card image is just the $50 card image.

 

[Artard]

He was selling knives, herbal supplements, and insurance for three different scams by the time I started ignoring him. He had a lot of charisma, but I'm pretty sure he's still out there chasing one.

If homeboy added Pre-Paid Legal to his downlines he could have had a whole violent assault ecosystem. Think of all the hillbillies that have snorted ephedra, injured themselves while stabbing their wives, gone to court and waited to collect the insurance money.