pyramid scheme

English - English

Definition of pyramid scheme in English English dictionary: An illicit money-making investment scheme whereby early investors are paid primarily or wholly by later investors. Eventually all such schemes fail to the detriment of recent (later) investors; a fraudulent scheme in which people are recruited to make payments to the person who recruited them while expecting to receive payments from the persons they recruit; when the number of new recruits fails to sustain the hierarchical payment structure thescheme collapses with most of the participants losing the money they put in; A fraudulent money-making scheme in which people are recruited to make payments to others above them in a hierarchy while expecting to receive payments from people recruited below them. Eventually the number of new recruits fails to sustain the payment structure, and the scheme collapses with most people losing the money they paid in. a dishonest and often illegal way of selling investments, in which money from people who invest later is used to pay people in the system who have already invested
pyramid schemes: plural form of pyramid scheme
pyramid-scheme: Attributive form of pyramid scheme
pyramid-scheme tactics.
A pyramid scheme: pyramid