Money making schemes

Given a chance who would not like to make a quick buck? Especially when all you have to do is something is as trifle as to make an idea go viral from the point of view of a marketer. Little does the subscriber of this idea know what lies beyond the obvious, for all he/she is concerned about is the return on investment; which going by pure numerical terms is too good to be true. This is where people fall for the prey to such schemes. Very frequently we come across these lucrative schemes that promise ridiculous rate of returns for a small investment. Few of the investors would even vouch for the authenticity of the benefits but almost every single scheme is an elaborate plan to con people. PONZI SCHEME Back in the 1920s, Charles Ponzi(Italy) burst into the limelight in the US. At a time when the banks had a 5% annual rate of return, Ponzi committed to returning 200% of the money invested in 90 days flat. He used arbitrage as a method to pay back the investors. By the time the plan fell apart, he had duped millions. Ponzi Scheme, named after Charles Ponzi is one of the most predominant way to make quick money by getting in more and more investors. Lately, the number of scams and magnitude of wealth lost in the Ponzi Schemes have seen a drastic rise. The plan is successful until the number of investors is more than the number of people to pay back. Our report would contain: 1. How a Ponzi Scheme works 2. Characteristics of a Ponzi Scheme 3. Detection and Prevention of Ponzi Schemes 4. Discussion of a few major Ponzi Schemes unearthed 2008 - Bernard Madoff, founder and chair of NASDAQ confessed to having run a Ponzi Scheme. The money involved is a staggering $65 billion. 2001 $240 million lost in Haiti i.e. 65% of the nations GDP 5. Statistics

PYRAMID SCHEME A subset of Ponzi Scheme, the Pyramid scheme is a much more organized way of money laundering. While it is illegal in some countries, it continues to flourish in others. In actual reality, at any given point of time 87% of the investors stand a chance of losing their money. Our report would include 1. How a pyramid scheme works 2. Validation on 87% of investors losing their money at any given point of time 3. 1994 Romanian Pyramid Scheme (Caritas) 4. 2008 Colombian Pyramid Scheme 5. Legality of Pyramid Schemes We shall also cover ethics associated with the above mentioned schemes in detail in our project report.