the GMI scam
 

I almost fell for it today and I am worried it might start catching on in Lebanon, so I decided to make this thread about so you would be warned (the title will probably also appear in the google search results :p )

what happened is that a friend of mine came to me saying that he and his friend are in a business together and he wants to tell me about it and maybe get me in on it, so I went along. long story short, you pay 70$ and you get a membership in this company,(called GMI, gold mine international) if you recruit 2 other people(meaning get them to pay 70$ and sign up) you get 30$, and from there on, for every 2 people they recruit you get 10$, and the tree descends downwards and you make money for people joining(and it is a binary tree so it descends fast and the idea is that you would make a lot of money)
for those who do not know what a binary tree is, it looks like this

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikibook...inary_tree.png

this is a full binary tree, meaning it goes down 2 by 2 until it ends

now, why is this a scam? yes you can make a lot of money from it, if you are at the top of it, but, the catch is that the number of potential people you may recruit is finite, meaning eventually, there will be no more people who will want to join, the tree will reach the inevitable end(no matter how long it takes, even if after a million people join, inevitably it will end) the ending of the tree is the biggest part of the tree, and those are the people who paid to get in and have no way of getting their money back, the level just behind that level are the people who paid to get in, and only managed to recruit 2 people(getting half their money back) w bikouno sawwado wejjon with the people they got in, and the level before that are the people who just barely managed to get their money back, and everyone that listened to them and got in lost their money. these last 3 levels of the tree are the majority of the tree(70% or so) the majority lost, the minority above gained a lot, but the gained money is coming from the loss and exploitation of the bottom. if anyone at your uni or something tells you about it, don't get in on it, and if you do, just know that you will either be robbed or the alternative is that you will cause other people to lose their money

also because of the binary nature of it, it will probably spread fast

I'm a member at this tree and i have 2 down-liner. ya3neh i have now 40$ (30$ + 10$ because i entered in ramadan) and maybe more because maybe my down-liners brought people.
but i don't advise anyone to enter this chain not even to go to the first meeting because they will tell you that after 2 years you will become a millionaire, IT IS A LIE.
don't say 77$ is nothing i can try. because you will lose:
- 77$ to have a CHEAP Watch
- time, to go every week with you r friends to the meetings+as a member of GMI you will have 2 meetings every week to tell you how you can lie to your friends and bring them to the first meeting.
-more money by calling friends and going with them to meetings ra7 tokbar fetouret l mobile wel benzin.

so guys just don't try it because you are paying just 77$. because your losing more money and time.

I never said you cannot be making money, I did say the top of the chain will make a lot of money(and by top I mean all the levels of the top except the last 4 levels), bas where is the money coming from? the money is coming from the bottom of the tree that is filled with people who will be losing their money, and the last 3 to 4 levels of the tree are the majority of people

lol i attended their first meeting once and i was convinced about it lol but i didn't join cause i made this small research about it, and i guess they are targeting Afghanistan and Pakistan, go check it on alexa lol

But i used their strategy "free marketing" on other people lool

Seriously wtf? ?

so in simple they are a company that targets ignorant/stupid people ?

5 months ago,some people tried to convice my gf about this , but i told her what mr_j just talked about now.such companies shouldn't be existing in lebanon and should be banned.

no man not necessary, i have a friend who's an active client in GMI since 1.5 year. he get about 800$ every month.
but it is not as they keep telling you, "make money the easy way without working hard!".
to get just 800$ after 2 years, you should work hard from the beginning w tsawed wejjak with all your friends and family

I got a donut and a free game out of all this :p

the guy was probably repeating to you what he was told, and what he was convinced by

the person that was talking to me(the person my friend got me to meet) was a very charismatic and intelligent guy, he is very persuasive and clearly he had been doing it for a long time, and I actually think he knows what he is doing, which is even more scary

these companies are listed as illegal companies in the USA,

the amount of money everytime decrease by 20% on the top which is an illegal act

Well i have 10 accounts in it for $600 few years ago, made $300 the first month and i have around 25 person on a single side, i just didn't have time to continue.
An ex colleague made around $6000 in GMI.

You can be the root and really make some good money, it's just that you need to dedicate yourself to it.
Actually it's illegal in several countries and legal in others, it's registered in Lebanon for example, it's not a pyramid since it's based on products, in a meaning you can request your $60 watch if you didn't want to continue as far as i remember.

For some reason i don't regret joining it, it works way better on smaller accounts for sure. Trying to get people to pay $600 isn't an easy task.

I wasn't worried about losing my money, but it is unethical, for every 600$ your colleague made, someone had lost it, what is worse that there is a risk that one of the losers will be one of your friends or family member that you got trapped into it

Dude In business some ppl loose money the others doesnt!

Do you think wall street is more ethical!
or do you think that ppl working in china are getting enough money!

this is life, this is business, when u do business you have to be unethical on a certain level, but the issue here, that this system is a total bankrupt for people in the bottom of the chain, its stealing them without knowing it this is why it is not acceptable!

this business is unethical because it doesn ot produce anything, it is doomed to have an ending and the profits from it is purely out of other people's losses. a sony industry in china is producing and selling goods, it is making money from outside to bring in for the investors, it is taking advantage of the small wages in china yes, but if they were to close down, the chinese would not be better off, the worker making 1$ a month will not be making anything at all, there is a difference, the world would be better off if GMA closes because a few people on top of the chain stole from several hundreds if not thousands on the bottom.

if you invest in a company, a real company, you would study and know the risks, you are promised profits as are everyone, and the company probably can and will satisfy everyone(who invests) this one lies to you promising you money, when it really wants to rob you, unless you rob several other people.

this company is pure chain robbing, someone took my money, and the only way for me to get it back is to scam 2 other people and take their money

There's always something unethical in everything.
Making good money by itself is unethical because other people will be making less.
Some people see doctors charging people as an unethical act since it should be a human act.
Other people think cars are harmful and driving them in unethical because it harms the planet.

It's all about degrees and from which angle you see it.
Why do you ignore the responsibility of people getting involved?
Is investing your money in something you know nothing about is irrational or unethical?
This is business, in order for you to make money, others have to lose it, this is how things work.

It's a permanent race, you can't be a business owner and totally take every "ethical" thing into consideration, you will collapse before knowing it.

I'm not only talking about GMI, it's just that "unethical" is overused and rarely applied correctly especially when the following becomes trendy >> "if we can't do it, we can still criticize it".

Ethics are very essential as long they're not overused.

Why do you care so much about people? I believe that these kinds of trades are taxes for ignorant people

If you were one of the starting members of such companies you have bigger chance of getting money than newcomers, you have to study your chances in everything.