Article ~ Get-Rich Quick Schemes

If you're trying to earn money online, you may be tempted by opportunities that promise quick payouts and huge returns. Like most things in life, things don't usually happen that easy. If you see opportunities like this, they may use unethical methods of making money...or worse yet, be completely illegal.
In many of these schemes, only a few people make money and everyone else loses their entire investment. Getting involved in these schemes is never a long-term plan for financial success online.
There is one simple rule to spotting get rich quick scams, no matter whether they are sales oriented, money investing, or other things. That is, the proposal seems too good to be real. Believe your instincts, because they are right.
Pyramid schemes first appeared in the latter half of the twentieth century, starting with chain letters. Basically, a pyramid scheme involves the selling of the possibility to earn money, and does not usually involve any tangible goods.
Probably the oldest, and most familiar pyramid scheme, is the chain mail. This is seldom seen today, mostly because there are cheaper ways to bilk people than using the U.S. mail, and it's also illegal.
The first schemes were pitched in terms of receiving an impossible sum of thousands of dollars, all from sending X dollars to the first person on the list included with the letter. You would then remove that person's name, add yours to the bottom, and send out ten (or more) copies to people who also wanted to become rich.
Naturally, not everyone who got one of these letters, participated. But the success rate was big enough to make it worth the effort, because the more letters sent out, the bigger the returns, even if your success rate was only 2-3%. Depending on how long the chain had been going, there could be several hundred or thousands of letters out there with the same list of people you got, and the first person on that list was going to make out like a bandit.
As a money making scheme, it's pretty much a dinosaur these days. Chain mails do still make the rounds occasionally, usually amongst friends, but for the purpose of sharing things like recipes, or gathering squares of material to make pillows.