Why is Ponzi still so relevant?

The work surpassed the man and by far; it is sometimes implausible how when we hear Ponzi, all this comes to mind (not in order): Money, scam, people, rage, fake, and we completely forget where this name comes from, which certainly has its charm.

Carlo Ponzi, the Italian who became a millionaire in months, promised a return on investment of up to 100% in 90 days, and that in the end, it was such a big lie, that it ended up blowing up in his face. But for those details, there is St. Google. Here we go to something else.

A curious fact of vital importance: Actually the "King of the pyramid" is not the good Carlo, but William F. Miller, a New Yorker who pocketed 1 million dollars, which by today's date would be about 20 million back in the late 1800s, with a very similar scheme, but come on, nobody remembers him, but Ponzi, maybe the scheme should be called "Miller Scheme" but "Ponzi Scheme" sounds cooler.

Here is a link where you will find more detailed information:

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/analysis/the-history-of-the-ponzi-scheme/50000.article

Great people with good content

But anyway, to what I am going, since I promise that by the end of noise, this post will be long (I will probably take Fridays for special posts).

If you have already done your homework, or simply have access to the internet, you will naturally know what a pyramid scheme or Ponzi scheme, pyramid of abundance, loom, and any other name that works for macabre purposes (yes, stealing and swindling people is macabre). The point of all this is: If we know it's bad, but it's still going on.

Why do we keep falling for it?

This point is interesting because it basically invites us to ask ourselves what seems obvious, but is not. A very concrete reason for continuing to believe in what these scams promise is that they always seek to change the name of their "business". I mentioned it before: Loom, pyramid, flower, whatever works, and although they don't change the methods, they change how they show it.

Many people have argued with me and even friends by telling me, "It's just that this isn't like Ponzi's pyramid. Can't you see this is a flower?" And hearing that, I just slowly back away.

The promise of easy money

Since the world has been spinning, easy is attractive. And without quick results, it's even more so. Ridiculously large dividends make the future swindled opt for and end up glimpsed by what this financial mirage turns out to be.

The worst part is that the scammers usually show the "magic results" of the investments, which are never made clear for what use they are applied, and with that, they end up convincing the unwary who put their money in a broken sack.

It's not much money. If I lose, it won't affect me that much.

When the scam was in its infancy, there were literally immeasurable losses, so an interesting evolution was to look for an amount that would not break family economies, but would invite more interested parties. The typical, "invest 100 and look for 2 people".

It is incredible how many people who have lost their money, only say "well, at least it was no more", and the worst thing is that in the future they incur in the same situation again.

Lead image Castorly Stock on Pexels

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