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From: rjn@hpfcla.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: Orphaned Response
Message-ID: <34800009@hpfcmp.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 11-Dec-85 02:13:00 EST
Article-I.D.: hpfcmp.34800009
Posted: Wed Dec 11 02:13:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Dec-85 05:44:57 EST
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Organization: 11 Dec 85 00:13:00 MST
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re: "What was Ponzi's full name?"

You may not need to know.  Ponzi and pyramid schemes are different.

Ponzi:    Usually  a junk bond (or stock)  scam where last week's  investors
	  are paid out of this  week's  sales of bonds or stock.  No product
	  or reinvestment is necessarily involved.  You head for Brazil when
	  your  cash on hand  peaks.  A  recent  example  of a Ponzi  is the
	  lactic  culture  scam, where people who thought  they were selling
	  their milk mold for  cosmetics  were  actually  being  paid out of
	  sales of "starter kits" to new clients.  The U.S.  Social Security
	  System is also a Ponzi.

Pyramid:  A widening  heirarchy of  "distributors",  where the real money is
	  made by signing up new distributors  and not by selling  products.
	  A chain letter is a classic pyramid scheme.

Regards,                                              Hewlett-Packard
Bob Niland                                            3404 East Harmony Road
[ihnp4|hplabs]!hpfcla!rjn                             Fort Collins CO  80525

PS. No, I don't know his full name.