VC Turns Down $1 Billion >>
<< eTailers Suck
 tdicon 


Stupidity

by Mike Masnick

Wed, Nov 29th 2000 3:28am





Online Pyramid Scheme Closed

from the work-from-home! dept

I think the "Work From Home!" spam is one that I receive more often than just about any other these days. I've gotten good at deleting it. Apparently, however, some people believe it. In fact, a Connecticut couple just settled with the FTC for running a pyramid scheme that was simply about sending out spam to recruit more people into the pyramid scheme. The scary part is that they made nearly half a million dollars off of this scam. This means many many idiots out there actually sent them money. To make matters even worse, they only had to give back $72,000. These people made out like bandits.

1 Comments | Leave a Comment..


If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...
 


 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1.  

    If it sounds too good to be true...

    identicon
    Ryan, Nov 29th, 2000 @ 8:14am

    In my opinion, if people were dumb enough to shell out the money, well, then they deserved it. The old adage still holds true in the electronic age. Didn't the SEC or FTC or someone only order that kid (who spread rumors and caused that stock - I don't remember which one - to drop 60%) to only pay back about the same amount off the half-mil he made off the whole deal? I don't know why they don't ask for the whole amount back, plus an extra fine, say, what they were fined in the first place. I think that would be a more enticing lesson. If I were these people, I know I'd be thinking, "Wow, I break the law, and all I have to do is pay 1/7 of what I made off stupid people? What a career!"

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Save me a cookie
  • Note: A CRLF will be replaced by a break tag (<br>), all other allowable HTML will remain intact
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>

VC Turns Down $1 Billion >>
<< eTailers Suck
 tdicon 

A word from our Sponsors...
Follow Techdirt
Flattr rss rss
Essential Reading

Hot Topics

New To Techdirt?

Explore some core concepts:

read all »

A word from our Sponsors...

Close

Email This