Could Bernie Madoff be running a franchise operation?
Here we go again – the same headlines, the same accusations and the same agonized shrieks and violent threats coming from gypped investors. It all sounds so nice and familiar.
Virus Warning
If someone, anyone, whether his name is Ponzi, Madoff, Standford, Tannebaum or anything else, offers you a return on your investments of 20 percent per month, hit delete and run for your life. You were at the point of losing everything. You were about to be stung by the Ponzi virus. If you are having a genuine money problem, contact the Personal Money Store and take a cash advance in Connecticut. That way you may get a little less, but you will be free to move around town and spend it.
Money
Money is a strange thing – everyone wants it. They want theirs and they want yours. If they have some, they want more. Then they want yours no matter how little or how much you have. Some people cannot control their desire for money and will go to great lengths to get their hands on it. And some, of course, are prepared to sit in jail for it.
A recession
Every financial situation gives rise to a new crop of crooks, those who come out of the woodwork when they get a whiff of a new smell. The recession is producing its share of these people as well. Simply put, new financial conditions produce new challenges.
The recession factor A
One of the good (?) effects of the recession is that old and ongoing Ponzi schemes are not only affected, they are ravaged by the same fiscal turbulence pounding the world’s legitimate businesses. They have been collapsing at a record clip, exposing prolific, rampant and colossal frauds that have bilked investors of billions of dollars.
The recession factor B
The bad effects of the recession are that many more people are trying to set up fraudulent money making schemes. They use the low interest rates that prevail in such times to entice investors (read suckers) into placing money with them at high and unobtainable interest rates.
The latest
A South African by the name of Tannenbaum launched a scheme which has fleeced billions of dollars from about 400 investors, including some very high-profile businessmen. The scheme has been operating for about four years and provided investors a return of more than 20 percent over three months. In all honesty I ask you, if someone came and offered you an investment plan that would pay more than 20 percent over three months, wouldn’t you be suspicious, or at least cautious?
The high profilers
In every one of these Ponzi schemes that has burst into the limelight, we hear the agonized screams of the injured, the lamed and the ruined. “I put my life savings in there,” he/she sobs to the media. “How could my friend do this to me?”
It’s easy
According to the many Ponzi stories on the internet, it’s easy to get into this business. No start-up capital required. Just a little nerve and a great big uncontrollable desire to make money on someone else’s back.
