Today was a really bad day for me. I found out that recently, at least 3 co-workers had become involved in a pyramid scheme. A company called Elite Resurrected. Seems to be quite popular.

Of course, it claims on its Web site that it is NOT a pyramid scheme, and give some flimsy excuses for calling themselves something else (nothing new about that), in this case, something like a "gift exchange program". One of my friends said "I know about pyramid schemes, and this is not one of them." However, it was quite clear that you are expected to give ("donate") money to somebody with the expectation of receiving several such gifts eventually.

They present themselves as a church, of all things - or something of the sort - and claim that they are registered as a non-profit organization.

One thing that is quite worrying is that in a Google search for that company, first of all you will see a full page of links to sites that actually praise this company - as if somebody took a lot of trouble with "Google-bombing". It takes some time to actually find some site that exposes them as a pyramid scheme.

They - or the sites that praise them, which are probably controlled by the same ... errr... people - claim to be in business for several years - which is very doubtful for such a business model.

The Web site, for those interested, is https://secure.eliteresurrected.org. You may also want to compare the article on "pyramid schemes" in Wikipedia, for a start.

And now I must leave - I feel like going to the bathroom, to vomit.