Or by her participating that she is knowingly involving herself in a scam. Which, yeah, it’s just books - but it’s pretty obviously a pyramid.
No shame if you don’t see how it’s a scam, the cozy blanket and glass of wine are meant to throw you, and they chose 36 because it’s a confusing enough number where you don’t think too much about how it grows.
She gives one book to her upline. She then sends out post to 36 more people to give her 36 books. Each one of them then needs to find 36 people each, which is now 1296 people in that level if they each want 36 books. Thus the exponential pyramid. Of course there is zero way each of them will find that many people, let alone the levels below that. It’s a scam that benefits those higher up, and the ones lower will likely not receive anything.
Of course she sees nothing wrong with that. She said “Sometimes I get books, sometimes I don’t, that’s just part of the game”. Which… it’s not a game when it’s real money being passed around.
On top of that, whenever we see a pyramid scheme we should be stamping it out - hard. Folks, please spot the signs and point them out. Don’t be afraid to comment on posts calling them out as scams.
Edit: To be clear the idea of a growing book exchange isn’t a bad one, as explained in the comments though the way to make it not a scam is to make it 1:1. You either send a book and receive a book, or if they like the 36 number, you change it to “I’ll send a book to whoever sends me a book!”. Then it’s a true book exchange.
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Imagine having to read 36 books that people stupid enough to participate in this would have chosen for you. Congrats! Here’s 18 copies of The Secret and 18 copies of the bible.
The Fault in Our Stars
The Fault in Our Pyramid Scheme
Yeah my immediate thought was what to do with duplicates
As with most things, I’m betting on the people who made it knew it exactly, and a lot of other stupid people jumped at the idea.
At some point I feel it is just easier to go to the library. You need to return the books but they are also not random books the sender didn’t want.
Local library might even have an ebook lending service, in which case, you wouldn’t even need to go anywhere. And the ebooks automatically return themselves.
And the ebooks automatically return themselves.
FUCK I’ve been wasting so many USB drives
USB drives? FUCK I’ve been printing them out on my inkjet to return.
If they wanted me to read about their scam, they shouldn’t describe it over a stressful image of red wine and an open flame resting on a 1x6 on a beige couch.
I scrolled back up and was immediately overwhelmed with anxiety
I’m just waiting for the cat to jump up on it and screw up everything.
Why do people even buy furniture like that? Do they think it’s going to be immune from stains?
Upholstery covers with different colors and fabrics exist. Washable covers exist. My great grandma has a turn of the century sitting room set with colorful covers for each piece that matches the seasons. My own couch is a cream color with washable covers. Scotch guard also exists. Stain removers even exist and they do work (especially carpet cleaners).
Do you mean upholstered furniture? What’s the norm for furniture where you live?
No. Beige or white furniture.
If you get a book back, it’s not a scam because it’s not designed for you to profit, either monetarily or materially. It’s obviously misleading saying you’ll get “up to” 36 books back, but that’s not guaranteed and shouldn’t be expected. If someone joined such an exchange (and it was trustworthy), they should think of it as a random book swap and expect to get a surprise book back in exchange for theirs. Anything extra is simply a bonus.
1 for 1: no one gets rich, and no one gets scammed, in theory…
If everyone is putting in one book, for you to get 36 books, 35 other people have to get 0 books.
“a maximum of” 36 books.
Again, it’s unrealistic to expect 36 good books be sent to you, but I guarantee some people will send along more than 1 book, which I assume accounts for the “bonus” ones…
Right.
As described, for you to get two books, someone else got zero. For you to get three books, two people got zero.
The median person gets zero books. A few lucky people get 2-36 books.
Edit:
She gives one book to her upline. She then sends out post to 36 more people to give her 36 books. Each one of them then needs to find 36 people each, which is now 1296 people in that level if they each want 36 books. Thus the exponential pyramid.
If sounds like the book goes to your upline, and you only get as many books as you recruit people.
Yeah it’s very simple if you send one and get one back it’s just a trade. If you send one and get more than one it’s a piramide scheme.
It’s not terrible or anything, but at some point (the bottom) of the piramide a lot a people end up without any books, no way around that.
While the authenticity of this is dubious, I don’t think OP knows what a pyramid scheme is…
Look up MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) schemes if you need a reference point.
It’s a pyramid scheme that doesn’t appear to involve money.
An MLM for books would be charging for the books and an enrollment fee. Typically in a pyramid scheme the buy-in is the fee and nothing ever comes back to the enrollee that isn’t enrollment fees from others.
In this case the books are the enrollment fee.
Just because the stakes are low doesn’t mean it’s not a pyramid scheme. You buy in, and then you recruit others to buy in by paying you. Pyramid.
Now, if it was a ping that said “send me a book and I’ll send you one back!” That would be a fun way to do a book exchange. But it’s not, there’s no reciprocation.
If you need any proof that pyramid schemes will never go away, just look at the number of downvotes.
I know, it’s disheartening, but still. I know I’m personally more compromised then most. My mother lost everything in Mary Kay, an MLM - and I mean everything. Lost the house, car was repo’d, all on the promise that she kept getting that if she hustled harder she’d be a millionaire. She now works at Walmart working paycheck to paycheck in her 70s.
Because of that I’ll call out scams like this whenever I can. People are dumb, and gullible, and don’t see that if it’s too good to be true it probably is. There’s 2 big types of dissenters I’ve seen in this thread. First group don’t think it’s a big deal (and in my point of view it means you don’t care as long as you get something out of it, just don’t think about the people who lost below you. Second group are the ones don’t see how it’s a scam at all. Both of those groups are prime MLM targets, and while the stakes are low here it’s important to know the signs so you can see it when the stakes are high.
How is money being made in this? I don’t get it. It’s books- not money.
Just get in the moment
It’s a twofold scam.
One, because the person is buying new, it’s driving up sales to a bunch of “confirmed” addresses, which is an important metric for Amazon sales.
Two, the “random” destination is a second customer’s address, and the friend is being an unwitting proxy in a drop shipping scheme.
Wouldn’t the drop shipping scheme require the scammers to know which books they need? In this case they are taking blind submissions, how would a drop ship operation work if you don’t know what your possible inventory will be?
Realistically, you’re getting 36 copies of Dyanetics
I kinda like this idea; on a one-to-one basis where the maths works out that is.
At that point I’d say it would be easier to start a book club, and instead of following some dooha’s list from up-on-high, the members just share their favorites.
The idea of an anonymous book exchange is fun - but the way to do it fairly and not as a scam would be to say “whoever sends me a book I’ll send one back!”. That would remove the pyramid from the equation, everyone would be guaranteed a book back for everyone they sent.
This is a bizarre scheme, i would not want to receive 1296 books, let alone however many the top gets.
I have this great angle for stocking my new bookstore…
It’s a mild scam. More like chain letters used to be than Amway or something with a structure putting a bunch of wealth in the hands of one person. But, you’re right. It’s stupid, even if mostly harmless.
This is what I was thinking at first. This just looks like classic chain letter.
But on rereading, it appears that the person at the top is controlling who’s sending books to who, and might even be dictating where you buy the book from, which is definitely a scam.
My guess on how this works. Upon DMing the person in control, you’re instructed to buy a book from a specific website (that they control) and have the book shipped directly from there to the “stranger.”. However, “stranger” doesn’t actually exist, no books are ever sent, and the person running this whole scam is just pocketing the money rubes spend on “books”.
As someone else said, it may be to see who’s likely to fall for more sinister scams, or a phishing scam to get people’s addresses etc
There is an large electronic store near me. At the cash register they have “mystery boxes” where you can buy random shit that you don’t know what you get, ranging from 10 to idk, 500 dollars. I always imagine every time someone buys irl lootcrates, they end up on some sort of list, because these people would buy anything.
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Oh this gave me a nice nostalgia hit! Back in the late 60s I think it was, there was a similar scheme where you sent a dollar to the address at the top of a list of ten names, added your name to the bottom of the list and sent the list to ten other people. There were various other chain letter things going around, threatening a curse if you didn’t pass them on, but this was a specific cash one. I had quite an argument with the idiot who sent it to me - he said the chain wouldn’t work if I broke it. You were supposed to end up with hundreds of dollars.
That’s a pyramid scheme
Yes, my friend did several of those in the early 90s. He mailed many dollars. Never did he get a dollar.
This can be a marketing/scam strategy, you send a new book, and they send their marketed(marketing) or old (scam) book to your supposed secret friend, then re-sell your new book.
I seen stuff like this before, and I think I know how it’s supposed to work.
The “stranger” recruited the person who posted this to OP’s friend as one of 6 people. Each of those 6 people recruit 6 others, who send the books to the stranger (their friend’s friend), hence the 36. OP’s friend will be asked to recruit 6 people in turn, and each of those recruit 6, who then send books to OP’s friend.
I think it’s a bit dodgy that they’re being asked to buy new, but I’d be more concerned that these kind of schemes can be used to feel out who’s likely to fall for more sinister scams, as people feel they’re getting a lot back for very little.
Plus, it only takes a few levels (13 if my maths is right) before there are more (far more!) recruits needed than people on earth.
It’s a chain letter.
Your math is correct.
Of course there is zero way each of them will find that many people, let alone the levels below that. It’s a scam that benefits those higher up, and the ones lower will likely not receive anything.
And part of the scam is to tell people that there’s still time to be one of the early higher ups scamming other people!
I think the only issue is this person not realising if you have 36 people buying 1 book and sending it, 36 people are not getting 36 books. They’re all getting one. Though, it could be a ring where you read then send, so you eventually cycle through to all 36. Issue there is reading speed varies so one person will end up a bottleneck but I mean yeah.
Either way, at this point just make a book club or go get friendly with your local librarian (I mean talk with them you perverts) and they can usually suggest books you would like but may not have chosen for yourself.
Edit: I understand it’s probably supposed to be a pyramid scheme but nowhere is it said in the picture you’re supposed to get other people to send you books and etc, just hey I’ll give you an address to send a book and you’re get a book(or 36).