Showing posts with label morality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label morality. Show all posts

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Infinity 800 scam

Infinity 800 is a naked pyramid scheme. It barely does anything to hide the fact that it is a pyramid. Take a look:





A 2X2 Matrix here refers to a pyramid which must be 2 levels deep, each level doubling in size. The problem of course is that for any new member to achieve payout, they must recruit more members. When you join, you pay $260 for 2 figurative hot potatoes that you have to pass on.

As this continues, an increasing fraction of members will receive payout, however it will never exceed 1/4. When the system stops, more than 3/4 members will never see a single payout.

Now you might be thinking about this as being the same as a $260 lottery ticket. But that doesn't quite sum it up. In a lottery, you buy your ticket and wait to see if you're one of the lucky ones. With Infinity800, you have to actively find other people to pass the risk on to-- most likely people who trust you. You're taking advantage of someone else's trust AKA scamming. No matter how you look at it, the joining members are on the short end of the transaction.

Don't get sucked into this scam. They will tell you that once you complete a pyramid, the people below you will cycle and you will keep getting payouts for the rest of your life. Don't be fooled, each cycle requires more and more people to join, increasing exponentially. You cycle when you complete a pyramid, but for you to cycle again, the 2 below you then have to complete their pyramid, then the people 2 levels below you have to complete theirs! That's 6 times the number of pyramids that must be completed for you to receive payout #2 as compared to payout #1 which requires one pyramid (which is hard enough, and will already make you feel enough like a scumbag). The next cycle is going to require 24 pyramids. Then 96, 384, 1516 and you can see where this is going (multiply by 4 for each successive payout).

Most of the people you talk to won't want to join, those who do probably won't build their own pyramid, and even when they do, it only takes a few lazy people (or people who just decided they don't want to scam anymore) to be a weak link in the chain-- essentially shutting down the cycles.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Moral Poverty

I'm always stricken by the poverty both physical and moral in the world. In what situation is it ever OK to kill someone? Let alone someone who has nothing to do with you? So why do we allow bombings of civilian homes to go on? It makes no sense. I read a statistic today that 50% of women cheated on their husband and 70% of men did, while 80% of women thought of cheating and 98% of men did. I don't know how true this is but I find this disturbing as hell. What's wrong with us human beings? It would be different if we weren't jealous. But as it stands I can't believe how few people are really decent people. I still feel like the answer isn't going to come from negativity like feeling bad or guilty about this stuff. I think we should always be looking toward the future to create new connections and improving the world one step at a time. If everyone could take one step it would be 6 billion steps in the right direction. A ridiculous notion? Maybe, but it is one I hope I can live by. Just realize that no action is too small to be worth doing. The smallest thing as a well placed smile could improve someone's day.