Oz writes
That's what they are trying. They have borrowed to buy beads to make
necklaces. The whole thing sounds like a classical pyramid sell and if
it is they will have big debts, a pile of unsaleable necklaces, and
borrowings to boot.

====I notice I also got permission for this bit====

The Local Scam

How’s this for a business proposal for you: You give the company a $200
deposit. You get a jar of beads which you string onto fishing wire –
and in 20 days they pick up the 100, 20 cm strings you’ve made and they
give you your deposit back plus $94.

The majority of people here are out of work and desperate for money.
This sounds like a good deal or if a dodgy one at least worth the risk.
And they even take out large loans to do it. The wife of our family got
involved, her niece has taken out a $1200 debt to do it. We were
completely unaware of it until one day they started stringing beads and
we started poking our noses in. Immediately we started doing the
calculations: nearly $1 a string – that is crazy – in Australia you
could buy a string for less than 20 cents. And why on earth would you
have to give such a huge deposit for a jar of beads that are worth
almost nothing?

Then we started asking questions. And the more we heard the answers the
more unsettled we became. They have no idea who is running this
business or where this company works and have no document or contract or
anything. Some anonymous courier comes to deliver and pick up money and
beads from their house. The turn around period between deposit and
payment used to be 6 days but is now 40 days because there are so many
women involved.

Why do they give their money to a complete stranger? Because they’ve
seen people they trust: their neighbour or aunt make a packet and the
word has spread, - like wild fire. And more and more women have got
involved. And people rather than pulling out of the scheme, reinvest
their money, and the turnaround period gets longer and longer and the
scammer is only paying out a small proportion of what they get in.
Eventually, when the scammer realises he is about to get caught he does
a runner with the deposits: millions of dollars worth– hey if you make
that kind of money you can afford protection and you can afford to
emigrate.

The sad thing is not just that it is completely denigrating of women –
they sit there for hours stringing tiny beads onto fishing line and just
about go crazy, and then they will just loose their money- but that it
has consequences for whole families and communities. People here only
take loans from within their family or maybe from neighbours. What
happens when the money goes missing and people can’t pay their family
members back? What happens when people start to blame their friends and
neighbours who told them how wonderful the scheme was? This scheme is
not just thievery but a community destroyer creating anger and
destroying trust.


--
Oz
This post is worth absolutely nothing and is probably fallacious.
Note: soon (maybe already) only posts via despammed.com will be accepted.