<prompt> Human: So I was talking to my work friend just now and he was telling me about a legal pyramid scheme He say that essentially you start with 5k, then you find two other people to put in 5k so on and so forth. Once you get 8 people bellow you you move up a bubble and you get a pay off as high as 40k. He says it is different then the scams because you dont pay the money until you move up and the. You give to the top guy. You also have constant communication with all of the others through some sort of messaging service. I have no intention in putting into this. It seems like exactly what I have been told to avoid growing up. I am scared that my friends are going to get screwed. The catch is my bosss wife has proof that she has made 80k out of this. Has anyone heard of things such as this?Thanks. Edit: a wordAssistant: These types of things are scams and illegal. The problems with these types of schemes is that they are zero sum. For one person to make 10 someone else had to lose exactly 10. Your bosses wife may have made 80,000 doing this, its possible, but for her to make that much 16 other people had to lose 5,000 each. There is no other way for the math to work out. Yes you should avoid it, and tell your friends to avoid it too.Human: Good way to put it in perspective! Thank you. Assistant: Actually Im kind of worried about the boss and his wife. They may be trying to take advantage of you.Human: I certainly hope not. No one has been pushy about it thankfully.  <response>: You should report them. They are fucking peoples lives and retirements up right now. When this all comes crashing down and it will will they pay back every penny? I hope so. Hope they get time for it too. 