A pyramid scheme (a/k/a franchise fraud) is an investment fraud scheme in which someone is offered a distributorship or franchise to market a particular product. This involves a fee to become part of the business. The real profit is earned by the sale of new distributorships and not by the sale of the products. Typically, the scheme is sold by telling new subscribers that they can remake their original investment by selling distributorships to two or more people, and so on. Soon, the lower levels of the pyramid are unable to find more people to buy into the scheme, and the scheme collapses. (Source: FBI )

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• 13/07/2009 -- FBI releases 2008 Mortgage Fraud statistics (0)
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business litigation, criminal law, fraud

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