Expert gives advice on recognizing financial pyramids

A traditional financial pyramid scheme, also known as a Ponzi scheme, implies that the money of new participants is used to pay those who entered the system earlier, and primarily to the organizers. This was stated to Izvestia on January 15 by Sergei Solovovykh, head of the department for work with wealthy clients of IC Fontvielle.

"It happens that the organizers also invest the attracted funds, which helps such a fraudulent organization to last a little longer, the average life of a financial pyramid - one and a half to two years," - explained Solovovykh.

According to him, the principle of the financial pyramid does not change over the years, but the modern Ponzi scheme has specific features dictated by time. It adapts to its potential victims.

Even those who are quite savvy in financial matters fall victim to such fraudulent schemes. Relying on the fact that the life of the pyramid is on average one and a half or two years and that it initially shows good results, citizens believe that they will have time to become part of the lucky investors who will be able to benefit from it, but as a result they become participants of the financial pyramid, which does not prevent the loss of their savings along with those who fall into the tricks of fraudsters because of ignorance.

Passive income attracts many people, which can be seen in the popularity of clicker games, which become a tool for fraudsters. As a result, online products that work on the principle of a Ponzi scheme appear. They imply that players transfer real money to their game accounts with the hope of increasing them. However, payouts in such systems follow the traditional model - from new users to old users - and such "projects" usually exist even less than offline pyramid schemes.

"The main advice for those who do not want to become a victim of financial pyramid organizers is to minimize the role of emotions in financial matters. Scammers most often promise easy and fast money -- this is a reason to think twice. The next step is to check out the company or person offering services to increase your money. The Bank of Russia keeps records of all licensed professional market participants, the data is available on the official website," the expert concluded.

Last year, on October 25, the head of the center of brokerage operations of MTS Bank Yulia Gorokhova told "Izvestia" about the peculiarities of investments. According to her, investing money depends on goals, terms, risk appetite, current market situation and other factors. The optimal attitude to money is to form a portfolio that is rebalanced depending on the market situation and a person's needs.