Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes rife in Thailand..despite being illegal.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is...

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I have been living in Thailand now for nearly a dozen years. While I love the country and the people in it, I've found a few unfortunate themes that appear to be common among the general population..

First, perceived lack of social mobility creates a lazy laissez-faire attitude towards work.

Second, lack of forward thinking gives rise to an environment of selfish, here-today-gone-tomorrow money-grabbing plots, often at the schemers own expense.. (i.e. the practice of double charging to make a few extra bucks on one sale rather than fostering a healthy rapport among customers to insure repeat clientele over time)

And finally, low education levels unfortunately means many Thais are gullible and therefore more susceptible to being conned.

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I love my wife to death, but she's not really business savvy. I am the sole breadwinner in the family, and she is a full-time stay-at-home mom to our three sons. I don't mind this arrangement at all, and in fact, feel very blessed that are fortunate to have one parent at home at all times to be with the kids. However, in her mind, it really irks her to have to totally rely on me to bring in the dough. She wants to 'do her part' as far as finances are concerned.

So, every now and again, she'll catch wind of a get rich business opportunity from her friends or Facebook. It seems like all of her acquaintances are involved in MLM (multi-level-marketing) and selling some product or other to all of their friends. They invariably all are (or at least border on being) pyramid schemes..

Today while I was working, another 'friend' stopped by the house with some dietary supplement product that she was selling.. but really she was trying to get my wife to sign up to sell it too. She explained to my wife and her friend how they could sign up under her, and they could make money for every person who signed up under them, including getting money for those who signed up under those who signed up under them did.. ugh..

My wife seemed to be considering it until I told her it was a pyramid scheme.. she seemed confused and didn't want that to be true.. she said, "you don't have to buy anything, you make money from getting others to sign up to sell the product." And she showed me a sheet of paper with a diagram that her friend had used to explain how it all worked..

[some Korean Pine Dietary supplement product...]

[...that costs 2,650THB (around $86USD)!!]

[The sign up costs and payment plans for signing up new recruits at various subscription levels...]

[...sure looks like a Pyramid to me..]

Thing is, my wife should know better, her father lost a good portion of their family wealth in a Ponzi Scheme.. But I know many other Thais who have had similar experiences.. it's a common practice for a Thai village to have a person who comes around collecting investments from all the villagers who want a return.. they loan that money out to others and promise a return.. then when the villagers ask for their money back.. the middle man takes off..

These kinds of schemes are illegal in many countries, including Thailand, but lack of oversight or regulation in the country provides a largely uncontested playing ground for the swindlers to operate.

Until, the government and law enforcement get more serious about cracking down and helping the every day Thai protect his/her finances.. things aren't going to improve. So it's up to the individual to remain smart, skeptical, vigilant and maybe a bit less lazy when it comes to making money..