TheBanyanTree: Zeek Rewards as a Business Model?

[Monique Colver]

I'm sorry about your friend, Jim.

And it's true -- the same people keep doing the same things, over and over.


Monique Colver
An Uncommon Friendship: a memoir of love, mental illness, and friendship
Now available at
Amazon<http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Monique+Colver>
and
at www.AnUncommonFriendship.com <http://anuncommonfriendship.com/>
www.ColverPress.com
monique.colver at gmail.com
(425) 772-6218



On Sat, Aug 25, 2012 at 12:28 PM, Jim Miller <jim at maze.cc> wrote:

> Thanks Monique,
>
> This is interesting news. I have an 80 year old friend who invested his
> $10,000 with out asking me for an opinion, and then kept asking what I
> thought about it. He couldn't run his own computer and friends kept posting
> his daily ads.
>
> I couldn't get enough information from their website to tell me anything,
> but I know a Ponzi scheme when I smell one and just told him, if it worked,
> I was happy for him. I continually received assurances that it was
> legitimate, but it wasn't worth my time to go further in discovery. He got
> back his first $1000 a few weeks ago, after five months with promises of
> the same or more every month for life.
>
> I'm not surprised to find that it was shut down and pleased that it was. I
> only question the SEC taking this long to do the job. I'm sad for my friend
> who couldn't afford to lose his money and who is too naive at this stage of
> his life to question his friends who led him into the scheme.
>
> It's always the old adage, if it sound too good to be true, it is. Because
> I've been an aggressive entrepreneur my entire life, these opportunities
> have come to me often. No one asks anymore, but people I know, who should
> know better, get stung time and time again. What is it about greed that
> seems to destroy logic and reason. Or maybe they never had it in the first
> place. A subject for another time. I'm sure that it would offend many.
>
> Jim
>
> On Sat, Aug 25, 2012 at 11:47 AM, Monique Colver
> <monique.colver at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > Earlier this summer I was contacted by someone who was interested in my
> > book and who wanted to meet me. Naturally I was flattered, it being my
> > first book and me prone to flattery. So we set up a time to meet, and she
> > asked me for two books to sell to her.
> >
> >
> > We met, and we talked, and it was good. Such a nice woman, but I think
> that
> > of everyone who shells out money for my book, so what do I know?
> >
> >
> > Towards the end of our conversation she started talking about a business
> > opportunity. I run from business opportunities because I’ve been so lucky
> > to have been approached numerous times for business opportunities.
> > Instantly my positive feelings about this woman were replaced with
> > suspicion – did this woman really buy two books just so she could
> inveigle
> > me into listening to her sales pitch?
> >
> >
> > Since she had bought my book, two even, and expressed such interest in
> it,
> > I felt I could at least hear her out, and she asked that my husband and I
> > come to her condo to meet her partner and talk about it.
> >
> > And show up we did, though late. It was pouring rain, and when we got to
> > the building it turned out to be one of the condo buildings we’d looked
> at
> > once. On the river, with a great view, but with hallways that went on and
> > on and on . . . and hers was at the very end, on a corner.
> >
> >
> > After our twenty minute hike down hallways we arrived, and the
> presentation
> > was in full force, and the room was filled with people, all eager to make
> > some money or coerced into attendance. Or maybe a little of both.
> >
> >
> > It was the same multi-level marketing scheme that I’d heard before. The
> > business model was sort of like this (I say sort of, because the
> objective
> > is to make it as confusing as possible): As an “affiliate” (read:
> victim),
> > one “buys” bids for the Zeekler auction site and gives them away. This
> > drives traffic to the Zeekler auction site, where people purchase things
> at
> > pennies on the dollar.
> >
> > If you’re not familiar with penny auction sites, the reason you can get
> > things for cheap is because 1) you’re not really paying in pennies, and
> 2)
> > “people” bid on items. Bid vouchers are used, and they cost more than a
> > penny, but we’d rather say penny because it makes it sound like you’re
> > getting a good deal. And maybe you might, and maybe you might not,
> because
> > by the time you win the bid, you’ve spent who knows what. And if you
> don’t
> > win the bid, you’ve just spent all those bids that you paid for on
> nothing.
> >
> >
> > Anyway, so the scheme works like this: Affiliates post links to the
> Zeekler
> > site to drive traffic to it, and then buy bids to give away, to drive
> > traffic to it.
> >
> >
> > What they don’t tell you is that the Zeekler site has very few items to
> bid
> > on, and it’s not a very active site. All those links that are being
> posted
> > are being posted on sites that are set up to host spam like this. No one
> > looks at them. No one clicks on the links.
> >
> >
> > They say the money comes from all the people bidding on the products on
> the
> > site – the profit is distributed to affiliates on a daily basis, or to
> > their accounts, or something like that.
> >
> > That’s what they SAY, but the money is really coming from the affiliates
> > who buy in to be a part of this great money making scheme. Of course, the
> > more you invest to get started, the more money you’ll make, so go all in!
> >
> >
> > Let’s say you give me five bucks because I told you it’s a good way for
> you
> > to make some money. Then I have my five bucks, and then you say, “Where’s
> > my money?” That’s when I tell you that in order to get your money, you
> have
> > to get 5 or 10 people to give you 5 bucks. “Okay,” you say, “That makes
> > sense.” So you do, because you’re charming and you can sell this product
> > like nobody’s business.
> >
> > So you get your money, and by the way, I get a share of the money they
> gave
> > you too, because, after all, it was my brilliant idea that started it.
> >
> > Then those people have to sign up people to get back the money they
> > invested . . . and every time I get a share, and you get a share, and
> > everyone along the line gets a share, which means we need more people at
> > the bottom. This is why it’s called a pyramid scheme.
> >
> >
> > Anyway, the presentation was confusing because they were trying to sell
> us
> > on the idea that it wasn’t a Ponzi scheme, that it was a real product,
> but
> > since it wasn’t, obfuscation was the order of the day. I didn’t like the
> > sales tactics either, especially of the woman’s partner, but that’s
> normal
> > for me. I’ve worked with high pressure sales people who sell air for big
> > commissions, and I generally find them vapid and annoying.
> >
> >
> > And not terribly bright, when it comes down to it.
> >
> >
> > We left at the end, acting like we cared just so we could get out without
> > being talked at some more.
> >
> >
> > A day or so later the woman texted me, asking when we would be signing
> up.
> > I responded with my own text, which went something like, “No, we’re not
> > going to.”
> >
> >
> > She responded with, “May I ask why?”
> >
> >
> > And that was the end of it. What was the point of responding? So she
> could
> > counter whatever I said with more talk of how this was too good of an
> > opportunity to pass up?
> >
> >
> > A few days ago the SEC shut Zeekler down. Because guess why! It’s a Ponzi
> > scheme! That just really made my day. I know, I know, there are
> affiliates
> > out there screaming, “but I was making money!” And the people who made
> > money, who pulled theirs out before it was shut down, are saying, “hah!
> Got
> > mine!”
> >
> >
> > Look, I know we live in a culture where many people are struggling
> > financially, and I know many people are just looking for a way to make
> some
> > money. But how do people not understand that money isn’t free? How does
> it
> > even make sense that people just handing money to other people and then
> > getting other people to hand them is a valid business model?
> >
> >
> > There is no product being produced. There are no services being rendered.
> > There is no utility, which is an economics term and doesn’t mean the
> lights
> > aren’t on.
> >
> >
> > There’s nothing there. It’s just people giving other people money, and
> the
> > people at the top get the most, and if you’re lucky you’re not one of the
> > suckers at the bottom when the entire thing collapses in on itself, which
> > it will, because eventually there will be a shortage of victims to draw
> > upon.
> >
> >
> > But people want to keep doing this, and they’re looking for other schemes
> > to buy into even as they bemoan the loss of their money. There’s a whole
> > class of people who truly believe that buying into something that
> produces
> > nothing is a valid business model, and that as long as they get theirs,
> all
> > is good.
> >
> >
> > All I really wanted to say was: this is not a valid business model. You
> > want to make some money? Go produce something, provide a service, do
> > something useful. Live a little.
> >
> >
> > Monique Colver
> > An Uncommon Friendship: a memoir of love, mental illness, and friendship
> > Now available at
> > Amazon<
> >
> http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Monique+Colver
> > >
> > and
> > at www.AnUncommonFriendship.com <http://anuncommonfriendship.com/>
> > www.ColverPress.com
> > monique.colver at gmail.com
> > (425) 772-6218
> >
>