Once more I can't just use an emoji to agree - every thing you say is so accurate.
Having saved and also invested pension money, I now sit with a rental property with tenants who have been destroyed by lockdown and simply cannot pay rent. Of course we can't even consider evicting them - it's not their fault that they have been retrenched, so goodbye that income. Savings now returning whatever low % it is so have to mine capital for living expenses.
Alternative investments are imperative before my cash-flow burns me out. I looked at a thing called Praesiduim Wealth and was suspicious. Was offered a "front row seat" in investing in Vaultage and it looked far too much like just giving away a crypto investment to someone who just sounded to public spirited to ring true. Then started looking at MTI last year and wasn't happy but also found the first part of this thread. SO I have been lucky but could probably have been scammed by someone cleverer than the 3 I avoided. That's why I have sympathy for people who go into schemes out of desperation and absolute disgust for the likes of Cheri et al.
Sjoe, there are so many of us in a similar situation - good people trapped by a corrupt Government on the one side, Big Business on the opposite side and Shills in the middle like sharks. So pretty much shark bait.
Welcome to the middle class.
In my post which you replied to I would like to add:
I'm not defending the people who make Ponzitivity a career.
Schemes like MTI wants the people like
@Def-e-nition 's friends to invest. Those are the investors they are after, not the small-fry putting in $100 and then taking out $500 before you know it. They need the small-fry to get to the big fish.
The big fish normally make minimum fuss and normally do not recruit either. The big fish will normally put their money in and just draw living expenses on a regular basis. The big fish don't prowl the internet looking for gossip on their 'investment'. Because the big fish don't recruit, they may never come into contact with anyone explaining to them that this is all a scam - for if that happened they most probably would have checked into the validity and then taken out their money.
The small fry just get hyped to the point where they are pretty convincing. They might say to the big fish that: "I've put all my money in and have been getting consistent returns for 6 months now - without any issues"
Well that may well be true, but the big fish probably do not hear that the small fry only put in $100 ("all his money"), have taken that out already, nor that he is recruiting like heck to get an income.
Anyway, so it goes. Most (if not all) the recruiters have taken out all their input moneys and more, so have nothing or very little to lose. They also don't want to lose the binary bonusses which they are getting from their downline, so they will keep on singing MTI's praises.
So all the Ponzi owners have to do is, keep the small fry happy, put a hook in them and they know the small fry will catch a big fish here and there.
The big losers will be the 'big fish'. By the time they get suspicious - its already to late.