"STRAIGHT-LINE DOWNLINE" PYRAMID SCHEMES

The greed and get rich quick factor really works with the Straight-line Pyramid Schemes. The words “Automatic Downline Building” are usually associated with this type Pyramid Scheme plan. They were born in the late 80’s by mail and were very quickly stomped to extinction on the local and state level. It did not take a regulator at any level to figure out that the “room or panel” illustrated in the “Airplane” Pyramid Scheme had been converted from a room of people to a Pyramid Scheme line of people. Much easier to form a line than to fill a room! With the popularity of the Internet booming it proved to be a perfect medium for this linear pyramid. The number of people varies before the “cash out” is possible. Generally it is around 60 people. An example of earnings is $100 in and after the 60 people are in you cash out at $600.

Illustration Of Single Line Downline

Actually the credit card companies have had as big a hand as the law in stopping these Pyramid Schemes. The scrutinizers at banks figured out very quickly that the line was the same as Airplane/Gifting rooms when it came to Pyramid Schemes. Pay Pal and other online payment transactions companies followed suit. In fact deals like this single line and other Pyramid Scheme deals have made it hard for legitimate MLM companies to get credit cards. Despite the failure rate of Pyramid schemes like this, they have been widely copied and promoted Internet wide.

Ed. Note: Single line downlines that do not require money (no consideration) to join are not illegal, but shaky. This has been used as a popular Internet recruiting device. People join and wait to see if people below them pay money and join the company. That is used as a recruiting lever to get the people above to join. When it was new the single line downline was a powerful tool and produced large Internet based downline builder groups.