Or by her participating that she is knowingly involving herself in a scam. Which, yeah, it’s just books - but it’s pretty obviously a pyramid.
No shame if you don’t see how it’s a scam, the cozy blanket and glass of wine are meant to throw you, and they chose 36 because it’s a confusing enough number where you don’t think too much about how it grows.
She gives one book to her upline. She then sends out post to 36 more people to give her 36 books. Each one of them then needs to find 36 people each, which is now 1296 people in that level if they each want 36 books. Thus the exponential pyramid. Of course there is zero way each of them will find that many people, let alone the levels below that. It’s a scam that benefits those higher up, and the ones lower will likely not receive anything.
Of course she sees nothing wrong with that. She said “Sometimes I get books, sometimes I don’t, that’s just part of the game”. Which… it’s not a game when it’s real money being passed around.
On top of that, whenever we see a pyramid scheme we should be stamping it out - hard. Folks, please spot the signs and point them out. Don’t be afraid to comment on posts calling them out as scams.
Edit: To be clear the idea of a growing book exchange isn’t a bad one, as explained in the comments though the way to make it not a scam is to make it 1:1. You either send a book and receive a book, or if they like the 36 number, you change it to “I’ll send a book to whoever sends me a book!”. Then it’s a true book exchange.
If they wanted me to read about their scam, they shouldn’t describe it over a stressful image of red wine and an open flame resting on a 1x6 on a beige couch.
Why do people even buy furniture like that? Do they think it’s going to be immune from stains?
Do you mean upholstered furniture? What’s the norm for furniture where you live?
No. Beige or white furniture.
Upholstery covers with different colors and fabrics exist. Washable covers exist. My great grandma has a turn of the century sitting room set with colorful covers for each piece that matches the seasons. My own couch is a cream color with washable covers. Scotch guard also exists. Stain removers even exist and they do work (especially carpet cleaners).
I’m just waiting for the cat to jump up on it and screw up everything.
I scrolled back up and was immediately overwhelmed with anxiety
I think the only issue is this person not realising if you have 36 people buying 1 book and sending it, 36 people are not getting 36 books. They’re all getting one. Though, it could be a ring where you read then send, so you eventually cycle through to all 36. Issue there is reading speed varies so one person will end up a bottleneck but I mean yeah.
Either way, at this point just make a book club or go get friendly with your local librarian (I mean talk with them you perverts) and they can usually suggest books you would like but may not have chosen for yourself.
Edit: I understand it’s probably supposed to be a pyramid scheme but nowhere is it said in the picture you’re supposed to get other people to send you books and etc, just hey I’ll give you an address to send a book and you’re get a book(or 36).
It’s a mild scam. More like chain letters used to be than Amway or something with a structure putting a bunch of wealth in the hands of one person. But, you’re right. It’s stupid, even if mostly harmless.
This is what I was thinking at first. This just looks like classic chain letter.
But on rereading, it appears that the person at the top is controlling who’s sending books to who, and might even be dictating where you buy the book from, which is definitely a scam.
My guess on how this works. Upon DMing the person in control, you’re instructed to buy a book from a specific website (that they control) and have the book shipped directly from there to the “stranger.”. However, “stranger” doesn’t actually exist, no books are ever sent, and the person running this whole scam is just pocketing the money rubes spend on “books”.
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As someone else said, it may be to see who’s likely to fall for more sinister scams, or a phishing scam to get people’s addresses etc
There is an large electronic store near me. At the cash register they have “mystery boxes” where you can buy random shit that you don’t know what you get, ranging from 10 to idk, 500 dollars. I always imagine every time someone buys irl lootcrates, they end up on some sort of list, because these people would buy anything.
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You might have to literally draw it out. Just use 2 books instead of 36.
Of course there is zero way each of them will find that many people, let alone the levels below that. It’s a scam that benefits those higher up, and the ones lower will likely not receive anything.
And part of the scam is to tell people that there’s still time to be one of the early higher ups scamming other people!
This can be a marketing/scam strategy, you send a new book, and they send their marketed(marketing) or old (scam) book to your supposed secret friend, then re-sell your new book.
I get that everyone is looking for a scam angle here but have we ever stopped to consider just regular old human stupidity? This sounds like something one of my co workers would come up with.
Imagine having to read 36 books that people stupid enough to participate in this would have chosen for you. Congrats! Here’s 18 copies of The Secret and 18 copies of the bible.
The Fault in Our Stars
The Fault in Our Pyramid Scheme
Yeah my immediate thought was what to do with duplicates
As with most things, I’m betting on the people who made it knew it exactly, and a lot of other stupid people jumped at the idea.
How the hell is this a pyramid scheme? Do you people have brain damage? Or is just that the average lemming is in middle school? Buy book, send book, receive book. No money or promises of wealth involved. It says “a maximum of” meaning that you may get more than one, I guess, if someone wanted to buy more copies than was asked of them. Shitty math doesn’t equal a pyramid scheme in the same way lying doesn’t equal “gaslighting.”
Pyramid scheme, not profit scheme.
Pyramid because the shape is a pyramid.
The first person, the one who sent out the original picture, received X books and sent none.
The next layer sent one book, and possibly received up to 36.
But those 36 each need 36 new people. It’s impossible. You’d hit the population of the earth in just a few rounds.
You send book to one person. You ask many people to send you a book so you get many books. Each of those people, to get the same deal, have to then find many people each themselves to not lose anything. The reason it’s a pyramid is because the last people to ask will receive nothing, they will be the bottom of the pyramid.
It’s not “shitty math”, it’s just math. There is no guarantee that by you sending a book you will also receive a book. The wording is misleading, it is not “Maximum 36”, it’s “Maybe you get one back, but probably not”.
That’s the scam part - you encourage someone to join in on the premises that you are going to get things if they buy in, and if they do it they can too! Except more than likely they won’t be able to, and all they did was give you a free book.
I kinda like this idea; on a one-to-one basis where the maths works out that is.
The idea of an anonymous book exchange is fun - but the way to do it fairly and not as a scam would be to say “whoever sends me a book I’ll send one back!”. That would remove the pyramid from the equation, everyone would be guaranteed a book back for everyone they sent.
At that point I’d say it would be easier to start a book club, and instead of following some dooha’s list from up-on-high, the members just share their favorites.
I ended up buying someone 36 books myself, to compensate them for me refusing to participate in this chain letter/pyramid scheme.
I think that’s more of a ponzi scheme that a pyramid scheme
How so?
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Isn’t https://www.paperbackswap.com/ still a thing?
There was a bookstore in my town growing up that allowed romance novel readers to do a book swap. I’m not sure why since it didn’t make them any money.
To get people in the door or talking about the store. Free advertising from a group of readers who are more likely to buy the next and the next and the next in a series of books. Even if you’re making one sale instead of two, it’s still a sale. And you’re more likely to make more than one sale if they buy more than one book (which is likely).
Possibly, but it wasn’t a big town and it wasn’t a big bookstore. I don’t know if that would have worked as a profit-maker long-term, but they were around for at least a couple of decades if not longer, so what do I know?
It’s a scam that benefits those higher up, and the ones lower will likely not receive anything.
Who is higher up? Who benefits from you buying 1 book to send to a random person and how? Maybe I don’t even buy a new one; I just send out an old one I already had. Or is there more to it than the image shows and you’re supposed to be buying a book from a specific supplier?
This seems more like a “pay it forward” gift exchange than a scam.
Pay it forward would be fine if it was 1-1, you gift a book to one person and you get one in return. The scam is that you get people in thinking if they gift one they’ll get more than one back. Of course they probably won’t, it’ll quickly collapse.
Pay it forward things aren’t 1-1 either. You’re not guaranteed to even get anything back yourself most of the time. It’s just to feel good about yourself. Like paying for the people behind you at a drive-thru.
But I can see how this gives the impression that you will.
but pay it forward can work in theory
this can’t even work in theory because books entering the system 1 at a time and leaving the system 36 at a time requires 35 books to be conjured out of thin air
I think the idea here is that 37 people send 1 book each and you could be the recipient of the other 36 you didn’t send since you’re all on the same list and everyone is choosing a recipient at random to send their book to.
how could you know the total participant count is 37 ahead of time if you’re currently looking for sign ups
also, a book exchange of 37 people doesn’t strike me as particularly “huge”
I think that’s where it becomes a scheme instead of a generosity thing. The expectation that you could win out, that you will get more than you put in. Paying it forward you go in not expecting anything, but that’s not the way this is structured.
This is a bizarre scheme, i would not want to receive 1296 books, let alone however many the top gets.
I have this great angle for stocking my new bookstore…
You don’t. You just get the “up to 36”. It’s not a pyramid scheme where the goods all flow to the top.
