From time to time, I do a little shopping online. I actually prefer to purchase my consumer electronics this way, because I’ve generally found the price and selection far superior to what I can get at my local CompUSA. Then again, return policies are often a pain when hunting online for stuff (but, apparently, CompUSA has problems with returns as well.).
Anyway, while rummaging around the gigantic dustbin that is eBay looking at G4 iBooks and PowerBooks, I ran across a listing of “Powerbook for $150”. I thought that looked intriguing, until I read it and realized it was the same scam all over again:
THIS AUCTION IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY NOT THE ACTUAL COMPUTER!!!
This auction is for a link to a website where Apple Powerbook G4 are offered for the incredible price of $150.00. The items are brand new, never used, not refurbished or anything like that. All it takes is a little patience.
I finally decided over this weekend to get to the bottom of these “info” eBay postings. After too much research, time spent online, time spent verifying stories, I can boil down the reality for you in three words:
It’s a scam.
OK, yeah, wiser heads than me could have figured out right from the get-go that you’re not going to get a $1500 computer for $150. But I finally figured out how this scam works — and the people get you both coming and going on this one. You pay them X dollars for “information” on how to get a free PowerBook. Then they rope you into the “program”.
What’s the “program”? Well, they’ll call it “network marketing”, or “matrixing”, or “the grid”, or any of a number of terms to make you think it’s anything but what it actually is.
The scheme goes something like this: For $150, you buy yourself a “position” in “the matrix”. You sign up X number of people under you, and they sign up X number of people under them, and if you’re patient and work at building a downline, eventually you’ll be shipped a brand-new Apple PowerBook. Seems like a sweet deal, doesn’t it?
Well, unfortunately, these schemes are only quasi-legal, and normally cease to exist the moment there’s a lawsuit. And, as millions of Amway (*cough*, ahem, excuse me, “Quixtar”, billing itself as an “e-commerce company”) former resellers can attest, such schemes are the road to ruin for most of their proponents.
I got sicker and sicker the more I realized that I’d heard this same story over and over again. I respect “direct sales”-oriented MLM’s. The Pampered Chef. Home Interiors. Even, (ahem: link for adult couples only) Slumber Party. These are companies with some network marketing aspect, but the main goal is that you make your money selling the product. I can respect that. But organizations where the main goal is to recruit more people is just abusive. And they contaminate the relationships people value most: friends, colleagues, people at church.
In my opinion, the only ones getting the “free Powerbooks” from eBay “Info” postings are the con artists doing the postings, who are also probably using it to fill their downline. And the average person gets sidelined by these rapscallions, buying into a “something-for-nothing” dream… and gets the shaft.
Friends don’t let friends drive pyramid schemes.
$150 Pyramid
Matt,
I have a Alienware Area 51 w/2 GB Corsair RAM, P4 3.2GHz, 320 GB Seagate Barracuda HS, NVIDIA GeForce 5950 w/256 MB RAM video, DVD+-RW waiting for you, all for the amazing low price of $49.99. I just need you to have all your friends send me $49.99 to gain entry into this fabulous offer.
Send this out to 300 friends in the next ten minutes or a virus will infect your mp3 player, unless you delete the jdbgmgr.exe file in your Windows system directory. Alienware computers can also get you XANAX, increase the size of your m a n h * * d, and help you meet Christian singles.
I love the internet 🙂 Weed
Beef up your j04ns0n…
I too, love spam. I get literally hundreds of messages a day for everything from pr0n to mortgages to cheap v-1-a-g-r-a to the sad news that my member is no longer pleasing the ladiez. I guess there’s money to be made on these spam scams too… prolly in selling the list of valid emails you generate when some schmuck clicks the “stop sending me this crap” link. Also, you can make $400 a day working from home (sending spam to people with actual jobs, no doubt.) Can’t people just work for a living?
BTW, my favorite spam is this one…
carib fly freakish tumultuous imbrium juridic crouch done cheat peanut two dibble darken spay propelling valet bony tuskegee urbanite justiciable asocial adroit bog counterproductive crust congenial vitiate amman tumble hepatica schoolbook afield funereal emeritus astor anode rydberg braniff danbury scramble chic downstate diverge compete steak ovid plasmon slanderous duffy cipher evans mulligan hungary tenneco sneaky ok clause huston clarity acquaintance playground woodcock bellyache recitative cove deferrable monaural delicious volterra conformation dogtrot blomberg inaptitude deride glendale buxom almighty assuage adirondack compilation frontier wooster jonquil rudolf balzac bah escapade palmolive blowfish verity shan’t dizzy lamplight descriptive copybook —-501330277087215536–
When the Pyramid Falls
After college, I was duped into attending a pyramid marketing showroom by a mailman. This is embarrasing to admit. But I was working at the ocean and casually passing comments for a couple months, until he said he was starting a business and wanted us to get involved. I should have known there was a problem when I arrived at some cheap motel and there were hundreds of other potential business partners crammed into cheap seats.
Yes, if anybody wants a perfect example of the disastrous results of a pyramid scam, look no farther than Albania. Here’s a country that crumbled as a result of the government building their economy on what essentially was…a pyramid scam.
There’s something atrocious in building a business network that feeds on exploiting close, personal friends of everyone’s close, personal friends. I can’t endorse a program works enough people into the equation to where someone “you don’t know” is working the sales foundation and the money trickles up. So, like the U.S. economy at times, there’s a bunch of people doing nothing, and waiting for the bottom-feeders to push the revenue through their wallets.
Contrary to Matt’s assertion, it’s not totally illegal. Per contract law, there’s binding agreement and exchange of consideration. A “scam” would be defined as someone not providing goods offered, but pyramid marketing provide what is offered. However, I like using the word “scam” because there’s negative connotation and it’s good to discourage people from participating.
Overall, pyramid scheme-scams attract the lower-income class, snd the underoccupied, and turn them into rabid sales monsters. It’s disgusting.
— Sammy G
Legality
It becomes illegal when it becomes impossible to provide everyone in the “program” with what was promised. Mathematically speaking, in the Powerbook scam, only a very few could actually get the cheap powerbook because there are enough people on the chain below them. This is a true pyramid scheme. Take an example the old chain letter scam. Here’s how it “works”. You get a letter with 5 names on it. You send each person on the list one dollar, add your name to the top of the list and shift the bottom guy off the list. You then send the letter with the revised list to 20 “friends”. The idea is that you get a buck from each of those 20 people plus 5 levels of 20 people from each of those 20 people. Sounds great, right? What’s the harm, right? The problem is this, you can’t get 100 people to contribute $5 each and have the same 100 folks get 1000’s of dollars back. It’s an illusion. Multi-level marketing (like Amway, NuSkin, etc) is perfectly legal because no Golden Ticket is promised. You sell goods and make a portion of the profits based on your position. It is wholly inequitable but perfectly legal.
Saved from a mistake
Hehe, thanks for the research! I recently found the same thing on ebay, and it let loose my own curiosity as to what the deal was. Initially, I had thought that it might have been like the legitimate free ipod sites; I ran a google search for “free powerbook” and your entry here came up as #2 in the list.
actually me too
about the free powerbook thing i was hoping there was a gratis type site
free stuff
Thanks for the heads up. After actually receiving my free mac mini, free ipod, and free samsung 710N 17″ LCD monitor from Gratis Network referral programs, I sort of let my skeptical guard down. I’m looking into purchasing a powerbook right now, and will steer clear of these “information” links on ebay. Looks like I’m gonna be buying it from my school bookstore after all…