Why Ponzi-Schemes work on people — Don’t read this if you are into MMM, iCharity, Ultimate Cycler or any other pyramid scheme
[Read to end]
All these ponzi schemes prove that people don’t care about where the money is coming from as long as its coming.
Interests over morality and caution
All those morality debates and stuff don’t mean nothing.Caution is relative, people can avoid smoking yet drive often without seat belt. Morality is relative. Politicians that end up embezzling large funds meant for the people don’t even see it as a sin or something wrong to do. You’ll still see them attending to prayer houses and even donating to them.
This is because of a simple reason, morality is a human invention, an after thought. Human instincts of survival has always been with humans, and indeed all living things.
So?
Morality and caution fly through the window when interests come in through the door.
Basically, a ponzi-scheme follows this pattern:
Ponzi-Schemer: I’ll take 30% of some else’s money + 100% of whatever money you give me and give back to you if you can temporarily give me your money and invite 5 other people to give me their money too.
Person: You mean, I’ll benefit without doing any extra work? Done. Here is the money. Let me call my people to borrow me more money so I can give you.
People: Hey, Person, this guy is a scammer.
Person: And so what?
People: This guy will run away with people’s money at some point.
Person: The scheme works for me, I just got an extra 30%. Just keep doing all your loooong financial analysis :)
This is the typical way advanced fee fraud works
Compare it to the pyramid scheme sample above.
Fraudster: (Cold calls potential victim on phone with hidden number) We have lot’s of money to give you, but first you have to give us a little money to process the receipt and other documents.
Person: Wow! I don’t know who you are but shut up and take my money.
Fraudster: Thanks. But then you have to bring just a little more. The reason is that our accounting officer was arrested by custom officers for wearing a blue jeans on a Sunday evening. We need to bail him out fast before custom officers find out that he is about to give you some huge money.
Person: I just gave you all my savings, but please wait, I have friends to borrow from. Let me call them. Alright, here it is, take more money that I just borrowed.
Fraudster: Thanks alot. Mr. Conehead Snowball will call you in a shortwhile and transfer the funds to you.
Conehead Snowball: (calls with hidden number) Hello, the online transfer isn’t working. I have sent Mr. Blue sky to get you the money in cash. He needs to board a private vehicle service to avoid loosing the money on the way. You need to send him some money urgently or loose everything.
This cycle will continue until they have completely drained the victim of all possible finances. This works almost all the time and in different scenarios.
How it works
As you can see these two follow the same pattern. The victim pays the scheme some money, then suddenly realizes that they have lost 100% control of the money. They are now at the mercy of the schemer. They just have to do exactly whatever the schemer instructs if they ever hope to get back their money and maybe some profit again.
Guess what the schemer gives as the first instruction? “Go get your friends to pay us too, (or no money for you at all :) )”
Soon as this happens, the schemer now have enough money to pay off the first victim, if they wish. In the case of a ponzi scheme, they’ll keep paying off till the pyramid reaches a critical mass, then they’ll freeze the service and run away with everyone’s money.
In the case of fraudsters, they’ll never pay off anyone. They are not building a pyramid, just a one-off stint.
Notice that the customer doesn’t ask much questions about the source of the money and why they should suddenly get bigger returns without any extra work?
Good explanation works wonders!
The reason is that, good scams start with very good explanations. The scammer takes time out in the first call to ‘explain’ what the scheme is and how the victim will suddenly make X+X% of more money if they join in ‘now’.
If you were thinking your customers need you to have a perfect product before they can squeeze out their hard earned cash to purchase it, ***in Trump’s voice** “ Wrong”. You just need to put them through on how the product will BENEFIT them, “Bigly”. And save them tones of extra work.
Here are screenshot examples of sales pitches of ponzi schemes flying around on social media. Note that, in most of these cases, the poster has already put their money into the scheme and now battling to get more people to put their money in so they can get some promised % percent profit.
Here is another one.
Some observations of why the sales pitch works.
Create content people want to share
I once read a quote that changed my life forever, it says
If you treat a customer well, they become a walking advertisement.
I can’t remember where I read it, but it makes a lot of sense. But note that, these schemes work sometimes even without ‘treating a customer well’. Yes, customers do get treated well when they get bank alerts of extra % on the money they ‘invested’. But fraudsters don’t ‘treat a customer’ well. They just give the customer the impression of getting treated well soon.
Keep the user’s benefit part straight to the point
Notice that all the parts where the user has to make money are short and straight to the point?
4 lines at most, and use figures with currency signs. There is this theory that users are dumb and impatient. You’ll need to come clean and straight to the point. If they have any doubts here, the whole deal fails.
Gain their trust and Clear their doubts early enough, it works!
Also worthy of note is the fact that the first paragraph is always aimed at clearing the victim’s doubt and suspicion of fraud. Some fraudsters introduce themselves as pastors, some as doctors. In the case of Ponzi schemes, some try to use words and names that already has integrity and global recognition such as ‘crypto currency’ , ‘bit coin’ etc.
Explain how easy it is!
Hard work is hard. People will do anything to live an easy life. If your product makes life easy, make sure the customer understands that on first impression.
Nigerian fraudsters have proven that people can make huge financial decisions and even go borrowing from friends and family within 24 hours if you can just convince them that they will get a higher percentage of whatever money they put in…without doing any extra work.
Call to action!
Put links and phone numbers they can call to join in instantly.
Can this marketing strategy work on your legal product?
That’s the whole point of this article, can it work for you? Legally?
These are ponzi-schemes, which may or may not be considered a fraud depending on how you look at it. Some countries have it outlawed, others don’t.
But like I showed earlier, this same marketing strategy works for outright frauds. Nigerian advanced fee fraudsters make between $12b — $14b every year from the US alone, using this same marketing strategy.
So far, it works on ponzi-schemes and outright frauds that have no product. If there is one thing this whole thing proves, it is that if your customers are having reservations about paying for your product, you are not marketing it right to them.
The question is, can this sales pitch and strategy work for any other product and service? Legally?
Let’s go over it one more time:
1. Establish Trust — Maximum of 4 lines
2. Explain what the user will benefit — Use numbers, Chats etc
3. Explain the easy thing they have to do (How it works) — A few more lines with more numbers and clear cut description.
4. Call to action — phone numbers, links
5. Leave your contact for support
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