Written by
Liz Crawford
Very good link she posted:
Pyramid Schemes
Pyramid Schemes
The speaker claims that you can get rich, like him, by recruiting people to become distributors in an exciting new company. He explains that if you bring people into the business, and they recruit more people, you would earn a percentage of all of their sales.
You buy hundreds of dollars worth of the company's products on credit and become part of the speaker's “downline.” Not only is it impossible to sell the products you bought, but now even your friends and family are avoiding you.
The Law on Pyramid Schemes
Many companies that operate through network or multi-level marketing are in fact pyramid schemes. Promoters often claim that their program is legal because a product or service is offered. Under North Carolina law, a pyramid scheme is any plan in which a participant (1) pays money (2) for the chance to receive money (3) upon the introduction of new participants into the program.
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Local & State
Lexington, NC-- What if you could use a penny to buy an iPad? Turns out, you can, if you use an online penny auction. However, placing your bid will cost you more than pennies.
Here's how a penny auction works: An item is up for auction and people can bid online just one cent at a time. So the item is increased by one penny with each bid. Once the clock runs out, the last person to bid gets the items for what could be a few pennies.
But there's a catch.
You have to purchase your bids ahead of time. With the Lexington-based penny auction website, Zeekler, each bid cost you 65 cents. If you buy 100 bids that cost you $65.
That means, if you win an item in the penny auction, it may go for half the retail price or even more. However, you already spent $65 for your ability to place 100 bids.
Another catch with penny auctions, you cannot rely on that countdown clock.
"Each time somebody bids, the price goes up one cent and 20 seconds gets added to the clock so the auction continues as long as people want to bid and then when it's over, the last person who placed a bid wins the item for whatever number of pennies have been bid," explained Paul Burks, Zeekler owner.
Although, items may be posted for days, the action doesn't start until the end, since winning is all about being the last person to bid.
It's not easy to do, considering with every bid, 20 seconds is added to the clock. The bidding process goes on and on until people stop bidding and the clock runs out.
Burks told News 2 they are the number two penny auction website on the internet right now when it comes to traffic.
The North Carolina Attorney General's office told News 2 they have received a handful of complaints when it comes to Zeekler and their sister site, Zeek Rewards. A court has not yet ruled whether this operation is legal or illegal.
If you are unsure about buying merchandise from a retailer or operation, the NC Department of Justice recommends this website.
WFMY News 2
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