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Originally published June 6, 2024

WARNING: The contents of The Canine Comical are purely fictional and intended to be humorous, satirical. Readers are advised not to confuse them with real incidents. 

   Imagine you're running a lemonade stand to get a PS5, now how would you do that quickly? Because you want the PS5 now! Here’s the solution, just give benefits to your lemonade buyers  to invite others to buy your lemonade and do that with the newbies and do it again and again! Sounds like a good idea, right? Well the answer is… NO! It isn’t, this is because this is what we call a Pyramid scheme and as stated by website ct.gov, or the official Connecticut state website.

“Pyramid schemes are illegal under state and federal law. If the plan's way of making money is based not on selling a product or a service, but on recruiting new members into the plan in order to get paid, it is an illegal pyramid.” 

Now that you know that Pyramid schemes are  illegal, but what are they? 

“In these schemes, each participant puts up a set amount of money to "buy in," such as $1000. The first participant gets paid out of receipts from new recruits. New recruits then go on to recruit others. As each new recruit makes a payment, the persons above him in the pyramid get a cut. The potential for large sums of money is promised, as the "business" expands. Persons who get into the scheme early do make money. However, later participants get less and less because it becomes harder to find people willing to pay in $1000.  Any offer that requires upfront money with promises of big profits, which offers no goods or services but is dependent on recruiting others, should be considered a possible illegal pyramid scheme.” 

This quote also from the ct.gov basically states that you can't have your purchasers get benefits for having others sign up for the scam, as you don’t get value unless you get others to get scammed to repeat the cycle of scamming, which is really bad. Now that you know what the Pyramid scheme is and that it’s illegal now it’s time to identify the triangular scheme. 

“I could also identify a Pyramid scheme by researching the investment opportunity and asking lots of questions"  Mrs. Koeing said. “One thing a Pyramid scheme might do minus the definition is fall apart leaving the ‘bottom’ tier investors with little money, while those who started the scheme run with the money.”

Some examples of Pyramid schemes are websites like Xi-in, Schemu, and other organizations that leave the bottom tier nothing, like the school.

“All of the teachers know each other so well somehow, although there hasn’t been anything else sketchy about the school, the only way all the teachers could know each other so well is if they’ve been recruiting each other!” 

Eighth-grade student Trisha Manic said as she realized  the truth, “THE SCHOOL IS AN ILLEGAL SCHEME!”