The scheme is like this - you put in money and you earn 20% up to 50% interest in a short time like a month or a quarter (3 months). Last year there was a scam like that which fooled so many investor with an estimated gross reaching a billion dollar. Amman Futures Group is led by Malaysian named Amalilio. Victims included Mayor Co of Pagadian city who invested millions of pesos. It was getting popular with the high interest yield until Mr. Amalilio vanished without notice (although later traced in Malaysia).
Anything "guaranteeing" interest in double digits in a year or less is gonna be a scam. It's hard to even find legit decent bonds these days paying much more than 5-6% a year. And those that do pay such interest that are of anywhere near decent credit quality that trading in the secondary market are going to be quite expensive these days.
If it sounds too good to be true.... Anyone expecting to receive those kinds of interest rates from a simple deposit is not thinking clearly... it's quite simple: If you can get loans for less than 5% from a bank then why would you pay double digits for the same loan from another person?
As others have said, unfortunately anything that sounds way too good to be true, ptmrobably means that it is. Nothing can guarantee you a profit, there's always going to be some risk involved, so if you see marketing saying they'll guarantee you profit, or you can't lose, then avoid it like the plague.
Sounding too good to be true is most likely a scam. But to the minds of the greedy, that scheme of earning blinds them no end. There are people who sell their houses to join that investment scam. And now there is another scam in the news and most of the suckers are from Quezon City. They were promised high interest earnings that they believed so they put in their money to ONE DREAM, that's the name of the company. Now, the president is missing and the office is padlocked. The victims are at a loss.
I know people who sold homes, rolled over 7 figure retirement savings, etc to invest in a scam back in the late '90's. They lost it all. The signs were all there that it was too good to be true, but those investors were overcome by greed. And of course some don't even know better, which is really a shame.
I agree the same rule always applies...if it sounds too good to be true then it usually is. Nobody can really guaranteed you double digit interest in the span of a year. Sadly though people fall for scams like that all the time, that is why there are so many scams going around. There are always people out there who they can convince its a good deal.
My husband related of his uncle who had planned to invest his retirement pay in such a scam. My husband strongly advised his uncle against the idea but the uncle reasoned that his close friend had been with the business (of investing money) for more than a year already and is getting rich by that. Fortunately, the uncle got sober when he got the money and realized that his close friend was actually making up stories as part of the sales pitch in fooling prospective investors. The rule of thumb is always that adage - too good to be true.
Pyramid scams have been around for a long time and will continue to stay around as long as people keep falling for them. They are a no win situation because there will never be enough money at the bottom to keep anyone from losing out, not to mention they are illegal.
You are right. Pyramids scams have been with us since a long time ago. Now I remember when I was in grade school, there was a woman who comes to our house often. Sometimes she brings some snacks of native delicacies which I terribly enjoy. I didn't know that the woman was convincing my mother to put in some money in their business - lending to the poor. Fortunately my mother had already uncovered their gimmick.