Since its founding 11 years ago, Pyramid Scheme Alert has battled an epidemic of Ponzi and Pyramid Schemes in the USA and internationally. The schemes operate as multi-level marketing, home-based businesses, gifting clubs, investment schemes, buying clubs and under other disguises.

Our Directors, Advisers and supporters have researched and analyzed pyramid schemes and have worked to clarify what Pyramid and Ponzi schemes are and are not. We have written books and articles, provided statistical verification, testified as experts in court, assisted journalists, appeared on television to explain pyramid fraud, and spoken to large groups.

We have seen that the biggest reason people fall into Ponzi traps is not greed, but lack of understanding of what  Ponzis or Pyramids actually are.

Now, the question about what a Ponzi scheme is has been focused on Social Security when no less than a presidential candidate charged that Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme.  Pyramid Scheme Alert offers a direct, factual and reasoned answer to this erroneous and misguided charge and bogus controversy. We encourage every consumer to read the article and to send it to others who may be confused about the debate and rhetoric.

See the full article that answers the question: Is Social Security a Ponzi Scheme?

The widespread lack of understanding in America regarding pyramids and Ponzis is not an accident. Ponzi/Pyramid promoters aggressively cultivate confusion. It helps them to lure people in, prevent victims from complaining to the police and to ward off the news media and investigators.

The dis-information campaign includes the common false claim that any business that “sells a product” can’t be a pyramid. Another widespread diversion is the nonsense that all corporations are pyramids because they have levels of managers. These ruses serve to protect the real and harmful pyramids that make fraudulent claims of “unlimited income” based on “endless chain” recruiting of “downlines.”

But the largest and most insidious case of  dis-information and deception is the claim that the American Social Security system is a Ponzi scheme. This false claim discredits a program that benefits millions and sows fear and resentment among us all, since everyone pays into Social Security. Meanwhile attention is diverted from real scams and swindles. Confusion among the public increases, while the professional scammers get away with even more fraud.

Many uninformed people, including well-intentioned politicians and pundits, sincerely believe this slander on Social Security. When they repeat the charge,the people  they influence become all the more vulnerable to being ripped off by real Ponzis and pyramids.  They see Ponzis where they are not, and they don’t see them where they are in plain sight.

In the article, “Is Social Security a Ponzi Scheme?” Pyramid Scheme Alert directly answers this question, and provides the reasons why Social Security is not a Ponzi and has nothing to do with a Ponzi. This is not a matter of opinion, but factual evidence and math.

In this current environment where Ponzis and pyramids are spreading, ignorance is not bliss. It is folly, and it can have ruinous consequences. Don’t be misled or diverted. Understanding why Social Security is not a Ponzi helps everyone know how to identify and avoid the real Ponzi scams that masquerade as investments and “home-based” businesses.
