Pyramid-type gambling scam arrives in Tenerife from the mainland. Be careful.

Janet© · 16-11-08, 15:26

A con based on the pyramid system which has caused a furore in Spain itself, now appears to have arrived at Tenerife, so beware.

It has different names, whether Cells of Abundance, Bubble, Wheel of Fortune, amongst others. The con consists of convincing those who have been persuaded to a meeting (one such meeting has already been held in La Orotava) to contribute between 100 and 10,000€ (in La Orotava it was 100€) which will be increased eightfold in a short period of time.

The mechanism is apparently simple: a group of people enters a game in which they bet money and then recruit new gamblers who, in turn, feed the wheel/bubble/whatever with more investors. The original "investor" sees his position rise the more levels of unsuspecting people are brought in.

As El Dia's article says, you don't have to be a mathematician to realize that if someone puts in 100 and gains 800, then there will be 7 other people who have lost all their money, and to avoid losing their money, they need to recruit another 8 players every time someone gets paid out. The system therefore has an exponential growth of members who need to be recruited (1 to 8, 8 to 64, 64 to 512, 512 to 4.096, 4.096 to 32.768, and on to infinity). It's a system guaranteed to collapse rapidly and has cost people on the mainland a lot of money.

Regardless of the technicalities, just be wary. This scam is now in Tenerife. If anyone invites you to do anything with gambling, or gaming, or investing, with an eight-fold return ... WALK AWAY.

El Dia

John Sharples · 16-11-08, 15:32

I'm safe! They won't get money out of me, I wouldn't give a door a bang!

torrenter · 16-11-08, 17:56

I've sent this waning to 8 people with instructions to..

cinnamon · 16-11-08, 18:59

guess it was just a matter of time till this scam system would come over to tenerife..i remember years ago they warned against this on the german tv...

imablue · 16-11-08, 21:06

dont believe all you may hear on german broadcasts..........

paperlily · 16-11-08, 22:45

Thanks for the warning Janet - this went around the UK a few years ago - they called it Alchemy then -

cazten · 16-11-08, 22:55

I know people are vulnerable and sometimes a bit naive. But really, if things seem too good to be true and all that................................

These sort of scams have been around for so many years now, why do people still think they can make money out of them? The only people to make money are the scammers that set them up in the 1st place! (If they can avoid the law that is)

Rant over...............

Janet© · 16-11-08, 22:58

Just wondering whether they appear when times are hard, people become desperate, try anything ... and of course end up far worse than when they started ...

torrenter · 17-11-08, 10:14

Here's a useful site which explains various internet scams and keeps track of the latest ones.

The scammers are shameless liars and can be very convincing, often "grooming" a mark for months before asking for money, by which time sufficient bond of trust has grown to lower defences.

The internet is a dangerous place to play.

Janet© · 17-11-08, 10:20

Not sure from the article how this is organised, but it seems to be locally-held physical meetings. This would make the pressure much harder to resist, perhaps, if faced with a roomful of "investors".

Just be careful, because this scam is in Tenerife physically, not on the internet here.