Thursday, December 02, 2004
Pyramid Schemes - That iPod Ain't so Free
It's amazing how quickly these "promotions" like the free iPods, flat screens, G5's, PC's, and Photo iPods are spreading around the Internet as somewhat gullible people try and cash in on them. I'm afraid I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you're really just being played in a classic pyramid scheme, and unless you were one of the first people to finish it, it's highly unlikely you'll ever fulfill the requirements to get your iPod. I'd like to quote a small part of Wikipedia's entry on pyramid schemes for this article.
Quote:
The key identifiers of a pyramid scheme are:
Three of those are italicized for a reason. They sound quite a bit like those "marketing promotion" programs operated by [color=CC0000]Gratis Internet[/color] (the people who run many of these free promotions) don't they? Sure, the early adopters have gotten their iPods, but at what price? Well, now we have to endure quite a few people on the Internet who want one too, so they're advertising and spamming like crazy trying to get 'em. Those who adopt too late will be unable to satisfy their necessary quota because everyone else will have already signed up. This type of stuff was outlawed back in the 1970's because it was innundating the mail system with worthless garbage, and plus quite a few people got ripped off too because they didn't understand what was happening.
It's just like the classic tale of the king rewarding one of his subjects by offering them anything they wanted. The subject requested that corn kernels be placed on a chess board, starting at one and doubling every square after. To make a long story short, all the corn in the world wouldn't be enough to satisfy the demand because just at square 24, 8,388,608 kernels would be needed. At square 64, a whopping 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 would be needed!!! The equation to see this is 2^x. With these free iPod schemes, the equation is more like 5^x. Obviously, it grows even faster.
That's the type of scam you're being suckered into, and they're counting on you not being able to find enough people to win your "free iPod", otherwise they would lose money and go out of business. As the saying goes, "there's no such thing as a free lunch".
Edit: As an interesting sidenote, some of the sites ask you for your zip code to see if they're recruiting in your area. It doesn't really matter what number you put in there... 000000000 will return a message saying they're accepting new recruits. Obviously they just want your personal info so they can spam you with other "get free stuff" schemes since you've already been suckered once. ¶ 3:16 PM
It's amazing how quickly these "promotions" like the free iPods, flat screens, G5's, PC's, and Photo iPods are spreading around the Internet as somewhat gullible people try and cash in on them. I'm afraid I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you're really just being played in a classic pyramid scheme, and unless you were one of the first people to finish it, it's highly unlikely you'll ever fulfill the requirements to get your iPod. I'd like to quote a small part of Wikipedia's entry on pyramid schemes for this article.
Quote:
The key identifiers of a pyramid scheme are:
- A highly excited sales pitch
- Vaguely phrased promises of limitless income potential
- No product, or a product being sold at a price ridiculously in excess of its real market value.
- An income stream that chiefly depends on the commissions earned by enrolling new members or the purchase by members of products for their own use rather than sales to customers who are not participants in the scheme.
- A tendency for only the early investors/joiners to make any real income.
Three of those are italicized for a reason. They sound quite a bit like those "marketing promotion" programs operated by [color=CC0000]Gratis Internet[/color] (the people who run many of these free promotions) don't they? Sure, the early adopters have gotten their iPods, but at what price? Well, now we have to endure quite a few people on the Internet who want one too, so they're advertising and spamming like crazy trying to get 'em. Those who adopt too late will be unable to satisfy their necessary quota because everyone else will have already signed up. This type of stuff was outlawed back in the 1970's because it was innundating the mail system with worthless garbage, and plus quite a few people got ripped off too because they didn't understand what was happening.
It's just like the classic tale of the king rewarding one of his subjects by offering them anything they wanted. The subject requested that corn kernels be placed on a chess board, starting at one and doubling every square after. To make a long story short, all the corn in the world wouldn't be enough to satisfy the demand because just at square 24, 8,388,608 kernels would be needed. At square 64, a whopping 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 would be needed!!! The equation to see this is 2^x. With these free iPod schemes, the equation is more like 5^x. Obviously, it grows even faster.
That's the type of scam you're being suckered into, and they're counting on you not being able to find enough people to win your "free iPod", otherwise they would lose money and go out of business. As the saying goes, "there's no such thing as a free lunch".
Edit: As an interesting sidenote, some of the sites ask you for your zip code to see if they're recruiting in your area. It doesn't really matter what number you put in there... 000000000 will return a message saying they're accepting new recruits. Obviously they just want your personal info so they can spam you with other "get free stuff" schemes since you've already been suckered once. ¶ 3:16 PM
