You Can't Cheat an Honest Man: How Ponzi Schemes and Pyramid Frauds Work...And Why They're More Common Than Ever [Paperback]

James Walsh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1998

A keen insider's guide to investment rip-offs, scams and conartists.

Product Details

• Paperback: 354 pages
• Publisher: Silver Lake Publishing; 1st edition (1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563431696
• ISBN-13: 978-1563431692
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,141,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting journey into the depths of stupidity, April 7, 2002

By 

D. Buxman "A Seeker of Truth" (Pueblo, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: You Can't Cheat an Honest Man: How Ponzi Schemes and Pyramid Frauds Work...And Why They're More Common Than Ever (Paperback)

If you've ever wondered how pyramid schemes get started and how they unravel, this book makes an interesting read. You will be both amazed and appalled at the mass stupidity involved in getting these schemes off the ground. However, you might feel a little foolish yourself when the author points out that our very own Social Security System is a textbook Ponzi scheme.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ponzi Schemes everywhere..., August 11, 2002

By 

"repeatonceagain" (Dexter, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: You Can't Cheat an Honest Man: How Ponzi Schemes and Pyramid Frauds Work...And Why They're More Common Than Ever (Paperback)

This book explains ponzi scheme after ponzi scheme, in an interesting, informative way. The people who run these schemes (called "perps") use seemingly endless variations but it all comes down to the same thing: robbing peter to pay paul. The perp offers a guaranteed return on investment, usually an outrageous amount, usually in a short period of time. The explanation for why the perp can give this huge return is basically a varation on the same theme: he has an investment vehicle that will return him even bigger profits then what he's giving you but he needs your money to expand his operation.

Just a few problems with this. First of all, the activity that the perp claims to me making these huge profits from are usually just a cover to take people's money. If the perp actually does use the money for some kind of trade or investments, he typically looses in much of his trading or, even if he is good at it, he has too much money flowing in from the "investors" to keep up. The money just comes too fast even if he has good intentions so...

Here comes robbing peter to pay paul, in other words, paying early investors with later investors money. Its always doomed to fail because it is based on continual growth that cannot possibly be maintained. Ponzi scemes can still last for years however, depending on many factors. This book beautifully explains these things in example after example.

This book also talks about multi-level marketing and pyramid schemes in depth. Also, what should you do if you have been taken by a ponzi scheme? This book offers a number of chapters of advice.

One of the most important points this book makes is that the biggest ponzi scheme of them all is run by our own government. This is the politically untouchable program of Social Security!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As relevant today as it was in 1998, April 6, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: You Can't Cheat an Honest Man: How Ponzi Schemes and Pyramid Frauds Work...And Why They're More Common Than Ever (Paperback)

Some books may not be particularly recent publications but deserve renewed attention and ongoing recommendation in light of modern events or contemporary concerns: James Walsh's You Can't Cheat An Honest Man: How Ponzi Schemes And Pyramid Frauds Work...And Why They're More Common Than Ever is one of them, focusing on how pyramid frauds work, why they're common, and how to avoid scams and cons. The scheme name may change but the scheme is the same: it involves case studies in greed and exploitation, outlined in You Can't Cheat An Honest Man so that investors may learn from the woes of the 'taken'. As relevant today as it was in 1998.