News is often reported around the world about financial pyramid schemes that have collapsed, generating huge losses for its participants.

Organizations considered as pyramid schemes generate interest in the community by offering gigantic monetary benefits for the recruitment of new participants instead of selling a product or service. 

When the pyramid stops attracting new customers or the scammer considers it has raised enough money, it disappears leaving only losses to the people who contributed their savings.

How do these scams work?

They are called that because their structure resembles a pyramid, where the person who starts the scheme is at the top, recruiting a second level of people, and these at a third level and so on. 

There, each of the participants must invest an initial amount to belong to the pyramid, which goes to the benefit of the person who recruited it.

But … What makes them Pyramids?

The main characteristic of a pyramid is that it does not carry out any commercial activity, that is, it does not offer any service, nor does it buy and sell goods, it is only dedicated to the illegal collection of money, money that at some point is going to end, so that this scheme will always have the same end: collapse. 

Despite the efforts of the Government and financial institutions to mitigate this crime, the situation is still recurring, as the administrators of these pyramids continue to find in many people the perfect “cocktail” of qualities, which make them prone to fall into their networks.

Methods used

Some methods widely used by the pyramids is to place advertisements in different media under the title of “Business Opportunity”, “Earn Much Money”, drawing the attention of many people with the aim of becoming financially independent. 

These methods have been changing according to the proliferation of technology, being common to find pyramid systems managed exclusively by social networks, having as a method of recruitment of members who must make a consignment to a certain account promising that the next consignments will be made to them.

Safe victim

Evaluate if these are your behaviors and look for other alternatives that do not put your investment at risk:

  • If you have urgent money needs. Generally, when money is urgently needed, people tend to be more likely to fall for scams that promise large and rapid profits with which they will solve their financial problems.
  • If he is impatient. This is one of the most important factors for which anything will be done to avoid waiting for a benefit, so it is much more likely to be tempted by the supposed possibility of obtaining short-term profits.
  • Look for earnings too high. It is not conformity, but when it comes to investing, it is better to be cautious. Remember that because of greed many have suffered great losses.
  • If you have never had investment experiences. In this case, the most advisable thing is to advise and investigate the products that exist in the financial market, in order to make an investment in a safe and informed way.

Get help from experienced Fraud Investigators.

Remember …

When trying to make any investment, look for as much information as possible and detailed about the organization and the people who manage it, especially how they get the high returns they offer.

The Government has been taking increasingly stringent measures for these scams, if it is shown that there is fraud or abuse, the Superintendency will order the liquidation of the company and may impose sanctions on its administrators, ranging from fines to their removal and inability to trade.