The blind trust in people who are protesting against legal warnings of being swindled by pyramid schemes is a surprise.
Well, not a huge one as in a shock but still a surprise. Disbelief is perhaps a better term.
Too long and complicated to go into details here, so long story short, the scheme empties out your pockets.
The painful truth is you not only lose your hard earned money but is left emotionally scarred by the shame of being scammed and made a fool of.
The proud ones will probably end up lying about making big money from the scheme just to save face.
Others will suffer quietly not wanting to make any loud protests in case they are taken for stupid fools.
The psychology there is simple common sense really. Nobody wants to be embarrassed that way!
So where does it go from there? What other likely recourses are there to take?
Are these victims willing to swallow pride and suffer in silence or call in the legal cavalry for some emotional rescue relief?
Will seeing the criminals behind prison bars. who scammed you out of your pockets, enough to repair the emotional damage with some satisfaction of justice done?
Look at it again but from another angle. Will the bold action of calling in the law on these pyramid scamsters give you some justification of preventing other innocent people from falling victim like you were once?
Go ahead and do it. Go! Go! Go!
Maybe it is also fair for all the Government bodies warning about these pyramid schemes to take up more responsibility other than just to play their warning drums.
Set up a system in place to encourage the victims to come forward and identify the people directly involved.
Track them down to trace the networking all the way to the top where the individual or individuals who started the scheme languish in luxury and your hard earned money.
Apprehend and charge them with serious criminal offences.
In some cases the trail leads out of the country and that will make it difficult but that is understandable.
Hopefully though, the actual investigation would serve as a deterrent for future victims of these schemes of swindle.
Be more careful and fear the added consequences of not just being a financial victim but a criminal offender by being part of the whole illegal scheme.
For those who continue to boast about raking in big money maybe the law enforcers should pay them a visit.
Give them a ‘little’ chat to confirm if they did truly made money out of it.
If they did how? Was it at the expense of some other people who were duped or mislead into false promises that were not delivered and never will.
The protest reactions peeking through since these pyramid warnings went out is shocking in some instances, at how the misinformation is swallowed ‘hook, line and sinker.’
These scam schemes work on the very simple principles of a practice we all know and do so well of ‘dangling the carrot.’
Dangle the pyramid scheme before the eyes of a ‘get rich quick’ junkie and he/she will gladly give you the wallet/purse to hold, while they jump into the dark hole trusting fully in the promise of sacks full of money ready for the taking.
These things happen everywhere, not just Samoa but that should never be taken as consolation.
Stupidity and greed should not be allowed or encouraged. If it will bring harm and misery to innocent people prone to easily become victims of their own doing, then it should monitored carefully for the good of everyone.
Maybe it would help if the ‘faifeau’ divine some holy sense into these ‘quick rich’ souls with a word of counsel from the Good Book.
“ Eat from the sweat of your own hard labour’ is a good verse to start with.
Lord You are credited with saying that. Unless there is divine reason for these pyramid schemes making victims out of us, we need some help here.
Of course today is Your day of rest but no worries.
Tomorrow is another day. We can wait.