Following is my illustration of a current pyramid scheme. You get a letter that says, “I am an attorney blah, blah, blah. Then there is an illustration of how somebody got rich doing what the attorney said. That is giving a gift which “is legal.” (Well, giving a gift is legal but a pyramid scheme is not.) I add a special instructions letter to make the program more acceptable to the disbelievers.

“CAST THY BREAD UPON THE WATERS: FOR THOU SHALT FIND IT AFTER MANY DAYS.” Ecclesiastes 11:1
(Carefully read the attached instructions to prevent failure.)

Hello! My name is Cathy O’Brian. I’ve tried the “Cast Thy Bread” program over 20 times. WE were in debt. We have two kids and we were both working but could barely pay our bills. I got this letter in the mail and I decided to give the principal a try. I could lose about $30.00 but that was the only risk. (You may know about the attorney that started this “legal” gifting program.)

I sent the person in the #1 spot $20.00, put my name in the #3 spot after removing the name of the person in the #1 spot, made up 20 copies and sent them to folks that send me offers. I knew they were likely to try my program because that is what they do. After about two weeks, after my name had drifted up to the #1 position, I received, and this is no lie, $18,000.00.

To tell you the truth, we paid off bills with our first money. That made life better but I thought that we needed a new car. If your motor is burned out, you need a new car. This time I paid $35.00 for a mailing list of MLM participants and sent out 300 names. To ponzi scheme attorney my BIG SURPRISE I received over $150,000.00. I decided I was just lucky but I have kept using the program BECAUSE IT WORKS FOR ME. Like I said, I’ve tried the program over 20 times. Sometimes I have got less than other times but I’ve always made money–NOT LOST MONEY! It will only cost you about $30.00 to give it a try. HERE’S HOW:

1. Wrap a $20.00 bill in a piece of paper and on the paper write: GIFT. You should add your name and address and you may request the person to add you to his mailing list so he can send you his offers but–you don’t have to do that. Just make sure it says GIFT to make it legal. SEND THE PERSON IN THE #1 POSITION THE $20.00 WRAPPED IN YOUR GIFT NOTE. (This program is based on honesty–failure in life is CERTAIN for the dishonest.)

1) K. Rodunk, 307 Sucker Rd., Huntington, NY 11743

2) F. Wilkins, 601 Fool St. NE, #11, Washington, DC 20017

3) T. Smith, 21 Dreamland North, Buhl, ID 83316

2. REMOVE THE PERSON IN THE #1 POSITION FROM THE LIST. Move the person in the #2 position into the #1 position. Move the person in the #3 position into the #2 position. PLACE YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS IN THE # 3 POSITION. Note: an easy way to do this is to type the list on your computer and paste or tape it over the existing list before making copies.
3. Make 20 or more copies of this letter corrected with your name and mail them out to those who send you offers, to a mailing list, or to whomever you please. One list company is El Listo at 1-888-xxx-3279. (There may be other list information with this letter).

“WARNING: CAREFULLY READ THE ATTACHED INSTRUCTIONS!”

(I added the following instructions to make the program more acceptable.)

HOW TO MAKE THE CAST YOUR BREAD PROGRAM WORK

YOU MAY FAIL IF YOU SIMPLY FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THE CAST YOUR BREAD PROGRAM LETTER. YOU DON’T WANT THAT SO LISTEN TO ME. THESE ARE THE FACTS:

1. The return required for Cathy to earn $18000.00 on mailing just 20 letters would have been about 50%. She would have had to have 900 people mail $20.00 to her when she reached the top level. That means that she could have got 10, they could have got 10 reaching a total of 100, and they could have each got 9 for a total of 900 people. Then those 900 sending $20.00 to Cathy would have given her the $18,000.00 she reported.
2. The average return for direct mail is 1-2%. This is a low-cost offer and the return could reach up to 6% at times. In my opinion from my long experience in mail order, Cathy mailed her 20 but kept mailing every week, or every day for that matter. When the checks started to come in, she could afford to make more mailings. I think that is the secret that she is not telling us about.
3. I like to get several hundred dollars when I send out a program. I like to assure that I will make a profit. To do that, I always assume that I will get a 0.50% or ½% return. That means that if I send out 1000 letters, I will get 5 orders for my product. If those five orders pay me $125.00 each, I will have covered the cost of mailing the 1000 letters and I will make a small profit. This is a single level program that I’m discussing in this example. There is no multiplication factor like there is in the 3-level program of Cast Your Bread. If my example program also paid at higher levels, I would get rich at just a 0.5% return. If I hit the average of 1-2%, I would get rich fast.
4. The Cast Your Bread program has three levels so you get a kick in the bankbook because of the three levels. Let’s look at a 2% return because I think that is easily made with such a program because of the low cost to enter. If I send out 100 letters, I will get 2 people to join, they will get 2, and they will get 2 for a total of 8. I get $160. I take my $160.00 and I keep mailing. When I get to 1000 mailings, I will have recruited 20 people. They will get 20 and they will get 20 and I will have a $20.00 payout from 8000 people for the sum return of $160,000.00. (You may not get that much but what if you just got one-tenth of that or $16,000.00?)
5. To succeed in the Cast Your Bread gift program (which makes it legal), just start mailing. If you can afford to send out 100, send 100. If you can afford to send 1000, send 1000. If you can afford to only send 20, then send 20 but keep mailing using your income to finance further mailings. You must be consistent to win. You must be smart (like me) to win.

NOW HERE IS WHAT THEY DON’T TELL YOU:

Warning: The attorney who started this program said it is legal because it is legal to give a gift. However, it is pyramidal by nature. If you get 8000 gifts then those 8000 must get 8000.

That is 64000 more people will have to join the program.

Those 64000 need 8000. That is now 512000.

They need 8000 so that is 4,096,000.

Next 32,768,000.

Next 262,144,000.

Next you have far exceeded the population of North America.

THAT IS WHY PYRAMID SCHEMES OR PONZI SCHEMES ARE ILLEGAL. Only the first people in make money because too many people are required for the late customers to make money.

THAT IS WHY THE NAME OF THE ATTORNEY IS NEVER GIVEN!

Don’t fall for these programs. Many programs similar to the above have been circulating for years. I get one of these in the mail every week. If you want to make honest money in mail order sell a needed proprietary product that folks can’t find at the local hardware store or grocery. This is true of Internet Marketing too.

MLM is legal if commissions are paid on several levels on a real product. Programs like the one above and illegal MLM programs (no real product, for example) are not often prosecuted by the government or local authorities. The reason is that they are after the big time high-cost program operators. That does not make the small programs beneficial to your pocket book.

Programs similar to the one described above are dead in the water. Stay away from them. Put on your thinking cap and come up with a niche product that will earn you honest money.