Ponzi scheme got its name from Charles Ponzi. He began to engage in investment fraud from 1920, constantly attracting new investors' money and paying them to early investors. Early investors got a huge return on investment and announced that he was an investment genius, so more new investors came with cash. At this point, Ponzi took the money of these new investors and fled without a trace. About 40,000 people were involved in this scam, and the amount cheated reached $654.38+0.5 million. Ponzi ended up in prison. Ponzi scheme is the oldest and most common investment fraud and a variant of pyramid scheme. Many illegal pyramid schemes use this trick to collect money. This trick was invented by a speculator named Charles Ponzi. Ponzi scheme is also called "robbing Peter to pay Paul" and "empty gloves and white wolves" in China. In short, it is to use the money of new investors to pay interest and short-term returns to old investors, so as to create the illusion of making money and then defraud more investment.

Born in Italy, Ponzi was deeply influenced by his mother. Ponzi's mother always wanted her son to be a dragon, dreaming that one day her son would have a successful career and revive the family's unreachable glory. Ponzi entered the university of ancient Rome with his mother's expectation and the so-called aristocratic spirit. But compared with the real aristocratic dude, Ponzi lacks confidence in money. Ponzi's profligacy and extremely luxurious college life quickly made him a pauper playboy. Mitchell Djukov painted Ponzi in college with brilliant pen, and also painted a picture for Ponzi's future life: he lacked a solid foundation but pursued too much glory, revealing a flashy taste.

In pursuit of wealth, he will return to his hometown one day to cover up his shame in Rome. Full of confidence, Ponzi took the $200 from his uncle and went to America by boat to find his dream. The first stop is Boston. Ponzi and Boston are destined to write down a stroke in history, although it is not very glorious. When he first arrived in Boston, Ponzi didn't think of the shocking scam later, but was disappointed that Boston was not peanuts but mud. Ponzi left Boston nonstop and went to Pittsburgh to reunite with his relatives. Like millions of immigrants, they are struggling at the bottom of their lives.

Occasionally, the surplus was squandered, and this day came to an end in July 1907. Ponzi entered Zaros Bank and stepped into the financial circle. Zaros Bank first asked Ponzi to learn and practice the technique of "robbing Peter to pay Paul". When other banks give depositors 2% interest, Zaros Bank promises to give 6%. But in fact, the profit of bank investment is only about 3%. To pay 6% interest, we can only rely on this 6% as a bait to attract more people to save, and then use the money of new depositors to pay the principal and interest of due depositors. As long as depositors don't run, banks can always win time to turn the corner. Unfortunately, Zaros Bank was caught in the news and went bankrupt soon. Ponzi began to wander again, and a year later he was jailed for forging checks. After he got out of prison, it didn't go well. Only 17 days later, he returned to prison on suspicion of illegal immigration. Two imprisonments, as a stain of this life, eventually became the secret weapon for the Boston Post to expose Ponzi, and also won the Plic Award for the Boston Post.

After the turmoil, Ponzi came to Boston again and continued to pursue his dream of wealth. He was inspired by the postal certificate of the Universal Postal Union. After the war, due to the devaluation of many countries' currencies, for example, 1 US dollar can be exchanged for 6.66 Spanish pesetas. If the return vouchers are worth 30 cents (peseta, Spain), 22 vouchers of 30 cents can be purchased in Spain at 1 USD, which is equivalent to 6 cents when they are shipped back to the United States after deducting the handling fee of 1 USD, which means that 22 vouchers of 1 USD will become 1 USD when they are shipped back to the United States. This means that vouchers purchased in Spain will be exchanged in Boston, and there will be a profit of 10% excluding the handling fee.

It is a common practice in the foreign exchange market to profit from the exchange rate difference and the bridge currency in the middle, but this concept is still very advanced in the Ponzi era. The only problem with the Ponzi scheme is how to exchange vouchers for stamps in the United States and then exchange stamps for equivalent cash. However, Ponzi had no time to think about this problem, so he launched his plan ambitiously. He made a bill and promised to pay the customer 50% interest after 90 days. This is the famous Ponzi note.

A discerning person knows at a glance that this is not credible. In fact, if Ponzi's capital chain breaks within 90 days, making it unable to repay the debts of investors, it will be a fatal blow to Ponzi. But maybe 50% interest rate is too attractive, and people put their money into Ponzi scheme. Although no one knew how Ponzi made money, he soon became famous and became a rising financial star in Ran Ran, Ran Ran. Ponzi was soon intoxicated with this illusory dream. Money kept flowing, and Ponzi finally realized that his dream would eventually be shattered. So Ponzi thought that he should put money into industry, and after a period of buffer period, he gradually lowered the interest rate and finally made his dream come true. He almost succeeded.

But the judicial system and the news media finally beat Ponzi out of the water. The most famous scam in financial history was finally exposed. It is worth reflecting that despite the criticism, Ponzi still has many loyal fans looking forward to his comeback. Perhaps that is the magic of 50% return in a short time, which makes Ponzi's short figure shine like a giant. In fact, the whole thing is not complicated, Ponzi scheme is very old-fashioned, but thousands of people still fall into the trap, which may be because they are "greedy" rather than "cautious". /p-11463 49882708.html Madoff cheated many celebrities with this simple trick, because people are greedy. . . . . .