Other the past few days, I have read many statements like:

"If you have proof of a conspiracy, why don't you report it to the police?"

And:

"There's no such thing as a conspiracy."

The problem with these blanket statements is, they often confuse the issue.
In many cases, the issue is not really a "conspiracy," but is actually just
a con game.  We all know that con men exist, and that they often carry out
elaborate schemes, which they often get away with.  However, not everyone is
willing to believe that Senators, Presidents, and Judges may be con men.

The following story is a firsthand account of a real conspiracy, which
happens to also be a confidence scam.

Looking through the want ads last year, I came across the following ad:

MARKETING - Crazy female executive seeks motivated employees to work in all
areas, advertising through management.

You can probably look through your local paper right now and find many
similar ads.  Usually, the companies are involved in door-to-door sales, or
"canvassing" and "distribution."  These bottom-feeding companies pollute the
classifieds section like a cancer.  While they may have questionable
business ethics, however, they are not actual criminals.  While they may
have a business strategy based on multi-level marketing, this is usually
just an incentive program to motivate middle management.  They may be
greedy, but they are not always criminal.

Being one who has an interest in con games and conspiracy theory, I have
often responded to these ads, for the purpose of learning how the business
operates.  Door-to-door sales is also an easy way to make a few hundred
bucks on short notice, and is a useful skill for any drifter or would-be con
man.

This particular ad turned out to be more surprising, though.  After hearing
the standard answering machine message about the next "group interview," I
followed up on another ad:

INTERNET - Seeking ambitious self-starter for growing field of online
marketing.  Big pay, and lots of travel.

Would you believe they had the exact same answering machine message?

In fact, I counted six ads with different phone numbers, all for the same
company.

Recognizing the unprecented chutzpah of these people, I had to go to the
next group interview.  Were they selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door?  Was
it a bizarre natural gas speculation scheme?  My curiousity was peaked.

Arriving at the group interview, I was first asked to submit a resume.  We
went through the formal routine of normal employment interviews, and I was
then informed that I would be perfect for this line of work.  "Barbara," the
interviewer, appeared to be overly curious about my internship with the
police department, but other than that it was just a standard formality.

Then the "group interview" began.  This is a pretty standard procedure for
door-to-door marketing schemes.  It's a boardwalk sales pitch, ranging
anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours.  The goal is to get everyone so
excited about the product that they can't wait to go sell it themselves.

However, I was again surprised by this company.

You see, the woman doing the sales pitch started by attacking University
education, the job market, and capitalism itself.

What was she selling?

Water filters and organic shampoo.

What was she REALLY selling?

The criminal lifestyle.

You see, this water filtration system was just a red herring, a McGuffin.
To sell the product, all "employees" must BUY it first.  Not just one at a
time either.  This company requires an initial investment of $5,000.  The
rube who gives up his life savings must then recruit other suckers to make
back his money.

To make his money back, the victim must actually engage in the scheme
himself.

By first convincing the audience that they can't make it through traditional
means, this woman's sales pitch is aimed at persuading them to engage in
their criminal enterprise.

Ever heard the phrase "you can't cheat an honest man?"

I was about to walk out, but then the ringleader appeared.  The President of
the company himself.  This, I had to see.

The man looked like a cross between Tony Robbins and a TV evangelist.  He
was wearing a $3,000 suit and a Rolex.  No kidding.  I've seen a lot of
middle managers in sales, and they all dress the part, but this guy was way
over the top.

He repeated more of the same; that you can't make it through traditional
means, but he found a way to beat the system.  He described how he got into
the business:  By selling his pickup truck to invest $5,000 in another con
artist's scheme.  He described how he learned from this man, and went on to
start his own company, carrying out the same scam.

This company started in West Virginia, he said, and has recently expanded.
They plan to expand more soon, and the people who get involved now can move
with the company to new cities.

(This is how Ponzi schemes work.  They're fly-by-night operations that leave
town once the market has dried up.  Due to the pyramid structure of their
scam, there are always more new "investors" and ultimately a large number of
suckers will lose their investment when the operation moves on or is forced
out of business.)

Anyway, at some point I stood up in the middle of his talk.  I said, "I have
a question.  What's a Ponzi scheme?"

The man was speechless.

"Barbara" suddenly appeared and whisked me off to a side room.

At this point, I was furious.  I could see the excitement in the rubes' eyes
and knew that several of them were about to get fleeced.

"This is a fucking criminal operation," I yelled at her.  "You people should
be sent up the goddamn river!"

What was her response?  A blanket statement of denial.

"This is not a Ponzi scheme," she said, "Because the Ponzi scheme is based
on investments for non-existing products.  We have products."  (This will
become important later.)

It turned out this woman knew exactly what a Ponzi scheme was.  What's more
shocking is that she then continued her attempts to recruit me.  "Skeptics
are often the most successful people in this business," she said.

This is an important point, because what she said amounts to, "Those who
know this is a scam are often the best at scamming people."  Or, "Those who
can see through con games can often perpetrate them."

See what I'm getting at here?  The con man is a person who dupes the
unassuming public.  He's a trickster.  Therefore, a rube would never make a
good con man.  They're only useful as victims, not as co-conspirators.

I yelled at the woman, "Oh, he's good.  I'd like to learn from him, but I'm
not about to pay $5,000 to do it."

The next day, I called the newspaper asking them to remove the ads.  They
promised to look into it, and said the ads would be removed if my claims
were verified.

Over the next several weeks, the ads continued to appear.  I also saw ads in
several other publications, identified myself as a consumer rights activist,
and called on them to remove the ads.  Only one publication actually removed
the ads.

I then called the local TV station and informed them that there was a con
artist operating in the area.  It would make a great human interest story, I
told them.  Interest was decidedly lacking, however.

I then called the newspaper again and spoke to several people in the news
department.  They expressed interest, and said they would look into it, but
no article ever appeared.

I then called the city prosecutor's office.  This is where it gets
interesting.  It turns out they were aware of the operation, and an
investigation was already underway.  However, because I was not a victim of
the scam, my testimony would not be helpful.

In that and subsequent conversations with the DA office, I learned that
pyramid schemes are difficult to prosecute due to the legal definition of
"Ponzi scheme."  A Ponzi scheme is literally a pyramid investment scam which
does not involve actual products.  To take down a pyramid operation,
criminal intent must be proven.  It has to be proven that the goal is not to
sell products, but to recruit investors.

I then called the newspaper again, informing them that the company was under
investigation and repeated my firsthand account of how their scam operates.
For the next several days, the newspaper issued a disclaimer in the help
wanted section:

"The paper cannot be held accountable for fraudulant classified ads and does
not endorse any advertiser."

As this company was a major customer of the newspaper, placing up to six ads
every day, one could hardly expect them to do anything about it.

Why were there so many ads every day, though?

Using several different aliases, I responded to each ad.  Usually, it was an
answering machine, but I did sometimes reach live people.  It's frustrating
to interrogate any receptionist, because they're given strict guidelines on
how to answer questions, but the fact that these people were actually
engaging in a criminal enterprise made them even harder to deal with.

You can only get in one or two questions before they realize they're giving
away too much information.

Here's what I gathered, though:

The ads are placed by "employees" of the company.  The person who placed the
ad then interviews respondents.  So, "Barbara" must have placed the ad I
responded to.  The person who placed the ad and does the initial interview
receives a commission if that respondent is recruited.

Office space is also rented by the "employees."  Not only do they make an
initial investment of $5,000, but they also have to pay rent for the
priviledge of working in the office, which was another big shock to me.  I'd
heard of white slavery operations, but never actually seen one.

("White slavery" is a fairly controversial term, because it's been used by
racists in the past.  I'm only referring to the con game here.  The mark is
usually either a day laborer or a prostitute, and the "employer" charges
them exhorbitant fees for various "privileges" like rent, food, or clothing.
The mark gets so deep in debt to the "employer" that they're forced into a
kind of slavery.)

As the months went on, I realized I was slowly approaching kook territory.
To the newspaper, this was a non-story.  They make money from ads, and they
aren't responsible for the real or imaginary crimes of their clients.
There's a criminal enterprise operating in the city?  Big deal.  That's just
business as usual.

So, what has this investigation led to?

Absolutely nothing.

The company has left the area, and ads no longer appear.  I have no evidence
that my efforts had anything to do with the operation moving on.  I don't
know if the city prosecutor had anything to do with it either.  So, did the
good guys win?  I'd like to think so, but it seems to me that the operation
just came to its inevitable end:  moving on once the market dried up.

That it continued for so long means the bottom of that pyramid must have
been huge.  It would by no means be hyperbole to estimate that hundreds of
people in this city were ripped off for $5,000 each.  And just imagine how
many victims there were in West Virginia.