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Ponzi scheme

Ponzi scheme

11 4.3
A plan that pays early investors with money from later investors instead of real profits
  • noun
  • /ˈpɒn.zi skiːm/
translation icon : esquema Ponzi
  • He thought he could make quick money, but instead he fell victim to a Ponzi scheme that left him broke.
  • Madoff's Ponzi scheme
  • running a Ponzi scheme
  • Ponzi scheme financial scams

What happens when you taper a Ponzi scheme and people start taking their money out?

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Examples

  • Many unsuspecting individuals lost their savings to a fraudulent Ponzi scheme that promised high returns.

  • So, so Ted, you know, Bernie Madoff was the biggest Ponzi scheme in history so far.

  • Remember the guy on the news running a Ponzi scheme... ...about a year ago?

  • A Ponzi scheme is a classic fraud.

  • From Massachusetts: "Global Information Network is a Ponzi scheme of the highest order."

    Blog text (30)
  • A Ponzi scheme can only survive as long as it pays off any investors who request their money back.

  • Social Security is now a Ponzi scheme where current workers pay the benefits of retirees until death.

    Blog text (5)
  • Well, just got off the phone with the SEC, and it seems that this Lockwise charity is definitely a Ponzi scheme.

  • What they did is essentially set up a Ponzi scheme where they had Enron sell its subsidiaries.

  • He was convicted in 1998 for running a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors...

Synonyms

fraud
vsPonzi scheme
577 4.0

Deceiving someone to get money or an unfair advantage

is a specific illegal investment where returns come from new investor funds
scam
vsPonzi scheme
  • NSFW
294 3.0

A dishonest plan to get money by tricking people

is an investment trick that uses new investors money to pay returns
get-rich-quick scheme
vsPonzi scheme
1 4.6

A dishonest plan that promises to make you rich quickly with little work

is an investment pattern that instead pays old participants using new money
fraudulent scheme
vsPonzi scheme
1 6.3

An illegal plan to get money by tricking people

is a specific investment trick that pays earlier investors from new investors money

How Fraudulent

fraud
577 4.0
Ponzi scheme
11 4.3
scam
  • NSFW
294 3.0

Surface Forms

Ponzi scheme singular
Ponzi schemes plural

Morphology

Ponzi + scheme

This is an eponymous term: 'Ponzi' is a proper name with no independent lexical meaning for a learner, and 'scheme' only signals a plan. The specific fraudulent mechanism (paying earlier investors from new investors' funds) is not derivable from the parts, so a B1 learner who knows the words would not reliably infer the full meaning.

Etymology

Ponzi scheme comes from Charles Ponzi, a man in the 1920s who cheated investors by paying earlier people with money from new ones instead of real earnings. That's why Ponzi scheme now means 'an investment trick that uses new people's money to pay earlier investors'.