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Ponzi schemes (pyramid schemes)

The lesson is always: verify before trusting.

Today I want to talk about this topic because it is still present in several companies that offer it and that have people who trust them to invest their money.

For all “investors” who are part of Ponzi or pyramid schemes that promise returns of more than 5% per month with investments in forex, cryptocurrencies or stocks through “trading”, I recommend reading this content.

In 2021, the king of fraud, Bernie Madoff, passed away. His death reminds us that his tricks of a con artist live on. Madoff left a lesson for investors: always verify and trust only after you have done your own research.

Madoff died at age 82, after serving 12 years of a 150-year prison sentence for defrauding investors of about $1 billion.

In 2008, Madoff admitted to running a massive Ponzi scheme in which he used money from some of his investors to make payments to others.

A Ponzi scheme is characterized by simulating non-existent investments and “paying” the “profits” with money from new investors or from those who “reinvest” their “profits” excitedly, until the fraud is finally discovered and most lose all their money.

Madoff had been a prominent member of the securities industry and chairman of Nasdaq. His victims included inexperienced investors as well as famous personalities such as director Steven Spielberg, actor Kevin Bacon and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel.

Investment fraud victims typically fall into three categories:

  1. People with limited financial resources: Their lack of skepticism is because they cannot afford to be careful.
  2. People who trust recommendations from people they know: they skip due diligence by relying on the word of others.
  3. People motivated by greed: They ignore the warnings that “if something is too good to be true, it probably is.”

Madoff's death reminds us that the tricks he used are still relevant and continue to ensnare investors in other scams.

Don’t trust blindly; always verify. Ronald Reagan said when negotiating with the Soviets: “Trust, but verify.”

When it comes to investing, be especially skeptical from the start. It doesn't matter if a family member, friend, or spiritual leader recommends a financial opportunity; check for yourself. If someone claims to have a license, verify its authenticity, legality, and validity.

Beware of high-earning recruiters. Scammers use people who “early made it” to lure others. The initial financial success of these shills makes the company and earnings seem legitimate.

That's what happened with Madoff. The first investors seemed to make a lot of money, but they were paid from the funds of new investors. Based on the recommendations of these people, other investors were attracted to the Ponzi scheme.

If you don't understand how money is invested, run away. You need to understand how your investments generate a return. Many Madoff victims admitted they had no idea how their money was invested. They couldn't explain how Madoff achieved double-digit returns year after year. When pressed, Madoff wouldn't explain his investment strategy.

“There was a myth that he created around it: that everything was so special, so unique, that it had to be secret,” Wiesel, who died in 2016, said during a panel discussion on the Madoff scheme.

At the time, Wiesel said he lost his life savings and $1.4 billion from the foundation he founded.

If you are discouraged from asking too many questions, you are about to be ripped off. Madoff grew restless when pressed for details about his extraordinary investment strategy.

Madoff was considered an investment legend before his downfall. We now know that his true legacy was using the same old scammer tricks, duping investors for years.

How was he finally discovered? It was his two sons who reported him to the authorities and refused to be part of his empire of deception.

If you are interested in generating money and multiplying it, do it yourself with work learning in Master in Sales the most modern ways to achieve it in a real and practical way through your own sales skills, trust in yourself and develop your talents.

Any opinions? This is the raw reality.
Thank you for reading, Dr. Roch.