Do any of you remember the old "Chain Letter" times?

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Wood Butcher

Wood Butcher

Local Chapter Leader
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
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Westfield, IN, USA.
I was just thinking about the chain letters where you sent a letter to 10 or 15 people with 10 or 15 names on it. Those receiving the letter were to send a (fill in the blank item) to the person whose name was at the top of the list then add their own name to the bottom and remove the name on the top of the list so the same number of names was there at all times. There was a little more to it and someone here will remember all of the details but the bottom line was a gold mine. I was on one that involved bottles of aduld beverages. When I got on it the instructions said to send a bottle to the person at the top of the list AFTER calling them and asking what the wanted that was under $X. I ended up with dozens of bottles of really good refreshments and it cost me just one. One guy I knew received almost 200 bottles. Seems it was outlawed because of the postal regs or some such thing but I'm thinking that with email we could hit a big one here. The loosers are the ones that break the "chain" and don't follow thouugh. Anybody have more ideas or more complete or more current info on this?
Wood Butcher
 
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MAYBE

The first chain letter I ever saw was for fishing lures.

email chain letters are illegal as all getout if they involve money or other items of value. Start one of those and you could wind up in jail. It's possible (but I don't know this for sure) that just joining one can put you on the wrong side of the law.
 
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Wood Butcher said:
The loosers are the ones that break the "chain" and don't follow thouugh.
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Actually, the losers are the ones at the top of the list when someone else doesn't follow through.

It's a pyramid scheme, pure and simple. As an example (and I'll make this small so it's easy to see), suppose A starts one of these, with only three names on the list, and you only have to send it to two people.

A sends the list (with just A on it) to B and C.

B sends the list (with AB on it) to D and E
C sends the list (with AC on it) to F and G

D sends the list (with ABD on it) to H and I
E sends the list (with ABE on it) to J and K
F sends the list (with ACF on it) to L and M
G sends the list (with ACG on it) to N and O

Now H, I, J, K, L, M, N and O each send A a pen. Yippee! A gets 8 pens for free.

If everyone keeps it going, H (who sent one pen) will eventually receive 8 pens. That seems like a pretty good deal.

The problem is, it's not sustainable. And when someone both does not send a pen and does not forward the letter, that takes away not just the one pen from the person at the top of the list, also two pens from the second person on the list and four pens from the third person on the list.

In the end, it WILL fail, the few people at the top of the pyramid get a lot while paying nothing, some people in the middle get a lot while paying a little, and the people at the bottom get nothing even though they pay out.

That's why it's illegal.
 
Same thing

leestoresund said:
I'm pretty sure it was a Ponzi scheme, not a pyramid scheme.

Lee
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You are right it was a Ponzi because it involved investments. The difference between a A Ponzi scheme and a pyramid scheme is mostly in how they are used. Pyramids are usually associated with multi-level-marketing fraud and Ponzi's with investment fraud.
 
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