Anatomy of a Scam

I have been a victim of a scam and hence I have bought this ‘wisdom’ by paying a BIG price. Now I am experienced to advice others!

The foundation of all scams is ‘greed’ of the victim. The scamster knows this very well and he exploits this. Due to this greed we are lured into parting with our investments/ money in the hope of some fantastic returns. Ultimately it turns out too good to be true – the fantastic returns remains a fantasy and we lose the entire investment.

It all starts with a small group of people who invest and start receiving fantastic returns. Then they go out and spread the word. So more people turn up and invest in the scheme. The money received from the next round of investors is used to give the promised returns to the earlier investors. Thus the circle keeps widening. More and more people are lured in as they see others are making fantastic returns. Finally one day, the Ponzi scheme is no longer sustainable or the promoters of the scheme feel that they have reached their targeted collection. Then the promoters suddenly disappear.

I was approached for such a scheme by a very dear friend. I advised him to stay away from such schemes as it was a scam. It was impossible to get those kinds of returns. For almost 2 years I did not invest in this scheme. In meantime my friend was getting good returns.  Finally I was convinced that this was not a scam and the promoter was really genuine. So even I invested. I got fantastic returns for 6 months – almost 40% returns. Then finally the scam came to light and I lost 60% of the amount invested; forget about the returns. Later on I discovered that the friend of mine was actually an agent of the scammer. Had I known about the agency part, I would never have invested. Ultimately I lost my money as well as the friendship.

I did not blame my friend or the scammer for this loss; I blamed myself. I succumbed to my greed and that was the real reason why I lost my money. So why blame others for our own foolishness? I thanked God that he had taught me a lesson when my wealth had not grown real big. I promised that henceforth I will never allow my ‘greed’ to over-rule my judgement and I will build a huge financial base. I have so far stayed true to my promise.

Today I openly share my experience in my wealth workshops. I don’t want more people to fall victim and lose their hard earned wealth. It takes years to build your wealth and these scamsters can take it away in a whistle. Basically they are exploiting your greed and if you can control your greed you will not fall for their tricks.

If somebody promises you returns that are unbelievably, then that’s what it is- it is unbelievable. Do not believe them. Have faith in your own judgement and listen to your inner voice which says “Golmaal hai, bhai sabh Golmaal hai”.

Want to share your story about such Golmaal? Do write in at aipichai@gmail.com