I want to warn you about a recent pyramid scheme doing the rounds globally called ‘Loom” or “Dream-weaving”. Quite a few of my friends locally have bought into it, or are promoting it, and it only takes a 3 minute internet search to find the facts regarding this scam. Actually it is a crime in some countries. Personally I feel it is a physical crime because it takes people’s money while not telling them of the risk. And it is a moral crime because it lures people in, obliging them to spend their time and money with no guarantee of returns.
This Loom is a classic pyramid scheme, which any intelligent person can tell is a scam. In just 3 mins I was able to find all the info needed to label this as a scam and a pyramid scheme, and yet many are just being lured. Some may be making money – at the top, the early investors – but the system or architecture of the concept will and does have victims.
Therefore I am standing up to protect the victims that arise from this design of scam. Here is a quote from https://www.investopedia.com/insights/what-is-a-pyramid-scheme/
Quote“A pyramid scheme is a sketchy and unsustainable business model, where a few top-level members recruit newer members, who pay upfront costs up the chain, to those who enrolled them. As newer members in turn recruit underlings of their own, a portion of the subsequent fees they receive is also kicked up the chain. Often called "pyramid scams" these operations are illegal in some countries.”
And why do people get suckered in so easily? Because of the hard sales pitch from those who have already bought in and desperately need to get new people in below them for it to work. Here is more from the same website:
Quote“According to the hard-sell pitches made at recruitment events, those bold enough to take the pyramid plunge will theoretically receive substantial cash from the recruits below them. But in practice, the prospective member pools tend to dry up over time. And by the time a pyramid scheme invariably shuts down, the top-level operatives walk away with loads of cash, while the majority of lower-level members leave empty-handed.”
My friends who bought in did not take the 3 mins to fact check this thing because they are naive about economics. The Loom scam is coated in new-age, pseudo-spiritual jargon, and totally baffles them. Especially because they are hearing it from a close friend or acquaintance, not from an anonymous ad online. It is insidious in it’s ability to lure people in.
Charismatic sales people who call themselves spiritually minded, are luring their friends in all around my town at present, and of course they tried to lure me in, but I am a guy with a logical brain and an understanding of math and economics. I can see it immediately. As soon as you are required to lure in two more people below you, that means pyramid.
And there is zero product, except for lot’s of social networking, inspirational chats and calls to “share” and “gift” as if it is an uplifting thing that you’re doing. And some newbies get some joy out of the social networking from those above them on the Loom. Thus couched in this type of psychological speech, the naive are bewildered.
The sad thing about the ego, is that it struggles to admit it was fooled. Therefore it usually doubles down when confronted with logic and reason regarding any mistakes made. We might have doubts in our investment, but then we rather go out and comfort ourselves by luring another two people in so that we are all in this together. Or the person near the top, the most charismatic sales person, will point out that they are making so much profit, and have jumped back into the Loom, and that may be true. The ones at the top do make the profit. But it is the new ones at the bottom that will inevitably lose when the they run out of people to recruit.
In other words, there is and will always be victims. It is not a victimless crime. It is a crime that causes loss to those at the bottom of the scheme. Here is another link that officially labels this “Blessing Loom” scheme by name as a criminal offense, punishable by jail time:
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/why-you-should-stay-away-from
Quote“Whatever it’s called, it’s a pyramid scheme," said Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood adding that the reason scams like these keep circulating on social media is because the people who paid money to buy into them are “desperately recruiting others in hopes they can get their money back.”
When you have been duped into buying in, the only way to make up for the money invested, is to actively try to recruit your stipulated quota of the next two people to buy in. Rather than call yourself a fool for being duped, the ego will now become implicated in this crime and lure other people in. It is morally reprehensible. But people don’t know morals or math it seems.
Quote“Monetary loss isn't the only potential pitfall of investing in a pyramid scheme like the Blessing Loom. In some states, participation in an online gifting scheme could lead to jail time.” From the same link above.
I was able to politely decline my friends’ enthusiastic offers for a while, but after some weeks of hearing them enthusiastically try to sell it repeatedly, when I knew it was immoral, eventually I had to say something and speak my mind as well as from the heart. In other words, I have an informed, intelligent logical and reference-based argument against the Loom as a pyramid scheme. Secondly, I have a heartfelt repulsion to seeing innocent victims being lured into this criminal and immoral trick.
I now have friends who cannot find other victims to lure in and have lost money. The pyramid is already collapsing. And they may end up getting out with their money, but somebody is always left holding the bag at the end, and that is precisely the logical point. You may reap some profit but the very design of the system demands an unlimited amount of people continually buying in. And as we know the planet has a finite amount of people.
Even if you keep buying back in to fill the gaps, someone will be unable to find some new members at the end of the system. There is no way that there are two new people for every one that buys in, so the math will collapse on itself and those at the bottom will lose.
I am repulsed by scams and cheating of innocent people, which is why I don’t like politics or organised religion. Or snake oil sales people.
This link https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2020/05/game-chain-letter-scam by a government website, calls out the “Infinity Loom” or “Blessing Circle” by name:
Quote“Also known as the “Mandala Game,” “Blessing Circle,” “Infinity Loom,” “Giving Circle,” and by other names, the scam is a chain letter-type of pyramid scheme.”
Quote“You see a post or get a direct message on Instagram, Facebook, or other social media. It invites you to join the Circle or Loom by sending $100 through PayPal or another digital payment service to the person whose name is at the center of an octagon-shaped playing board. Your payment gets you one of eight spots on the outer ring of the board and a chance to move towards the center by recruiting other people to join. As more people join, your board changes and the number of playing boards expands. Eventually, you’re supposed to land at the center of a playing board and collect $100 from each of eight new recruits on the outer ring. That’s when you leave the game or start all over again with another $100 payment.”
Here in South Africa they are labeling the layers of the board after elements. So you have the fire, earth, air and water. It sounds so helpful and innocent because they encourage you do do self-help work or processing on yourself while in each element, as if it is a psychological self-help tool. And it is being promoted as a women’s circle. So women love it and jump in. And they don’t DYOR – do your own research.
When you decide to buy into a scheme like this, the cognitive dissonance threshold was passed. Then when you are already in and have to justify it to yourself, you then positively preach it to others. This is the “suspension of disbelief” phase. You may hear from people saying it is a pyramid scheme, but you are already in and stuck, so you double down and push to recruit more innocents below you, rather than admit you were fooled and have just lost money.
I understand that we are all adults and that sometimes we have to make mistakes to learn the lessons ourselves. However, a wise person learns form the mistakes of others, or from the advice of others who made mistakes. They do not have to make the same mistakes. A total fool, or criminal, is someone who knows or hears it is a crime, or loses once, but then still goes on doing it again. Such a fool is labeled in the wise texts of the ancient east, as being the biggest fool of them all.
It took me 3 minutes to do a website search and come up with information on this scam:
https://www.scam-detector.com/article/blessing-loom/
Quote“Have you heard of the Blessing Loom movement? Well, maybe the word ‘movement’ is a bit too much in this context. The Blessing Loom is a pyramid scheme that’s been going around for a while, but it flourished over the last few weeks because people are more concerned about their financial stability during the pandemic. Let’s take a closer look at how the scam works, how you can avoid it, and how to report it. Feel free to expose the name of the scammer in the Comments section if you’ve been approached with the Blessing Loom offer.”
Now I am not going to rat on my friends to the police for promoting this pyramid scheme. They were innocent and naive, and probably will opt out when they hear the fact that the “Loom” is officially labeled by the government as a crime. I have made financial mistakes in the past. I taught myself finance and economics 101 by online research and by trying "options trading", "day trading" and all of that. And I leaned a lot, lost a bit and gained a bit. And now I have refined my investing strategy nicely and am in profit long term, about to go into massive profit. So I am slightly experienced as a retail trader and investor. Most of the “Loom” are women who know less about money, investing, logic or math. That is my personal experience. I have seen it with my own eyes among my friends.
To conclude, I am warning people about the current scam going around this year, and I may even attract some flack, or pushback, or even animosity. But I have a thick skin and a rugged ego, I don’t need to be liked and don’t need people to make me feel good. But I will feel even better by calling out any fakes or scams I see, particularly to protect any future victims of pyramid schemes.
So my new title as “scheme-buster” may be a heavy mantle to wear, but I can’t shut up indefinitely while this criminal and hurtful behavior is going on among my friends in my little town. Therefore, I will speak up for truth and justice by calling out and exposing the pyramid scheme called “Loom” for what it is.
This is not my opinion alone, I have other male friends who agree and I have heard that other males in my town, also immediately see the suspicious logic in this pyramid scheme. That’s what a logic-based brain will do. Women also have a logical hemisphere, they just use it less. Like I have a nurturing hemisphere, but it is less developed. However, it is being used to protect my friends from the current “Loom” scam, and it is based on all the links from all over the world listed above.
When lawyers are warning us and governments declare this very “Loom” itself as a crime, then we need to question more, do our own research and become balanced in our brain – using both compassion as well as logic in our lives. That is the real take-away here. It requires a balanced use of the brain and body to make real progress in life.
Logic without insightful consciousness is mental speculation and consciousness without logic is sentimentalism.
(image from quoted website)