There's a type of financial scam, or fraud, where a con artist will offer investments that promise very high returns with little or no risk to their victims. The returns are said to originate from a business or a secret idea run by the con artist. In reality, the business does not exist or the idea does not work. The con artist pays the high returns promised to their earlier investors by using the money obtained from later investors. Instead of engaging in a legitimate business activity, the con artist attempts to attract new investors to make the payments that were promised to earlier investors. The operator of the scheme also diverts their clients' funds for their personal use.

With little or no legitimate earnings, these schemes require a constant flow of new money to survive. When it becomes hard to recruit new investors, or when large numbers of existing investors cash out, these schemes collapse. As a result, most investors end up losing all or much of the money they invested. In some cases, the operator of the scheme may simply disappear with the money.

This type of scam, by the way, is nothing new; it's been described as early as 1844, but it's generally named for one person.

A Ponzi scheme. Maybe you've heard of it.

This is Charles Ponzi. Born in Italy, the roebuck emigrated to America and started his financial shenanigans, later claiming to have bilked his victims of over a million dollars (a very tidy sum back in the 1920s). To be able to sell people on these ideas, you have to have confidence in yourself and the message you're sending, and Ponzi had it in spades.

You can tell by his pose, and that smile, that both proclaim that he has the world by the tail and with his help you can be successful as well.

Charles Ponzi is © Swindlers, Flim-Flam Men, Con Men, and Scammers Everywhere

Art done by  toonfx at Megaplex 2022, from a suggestion by  eocostello, and is part of my Historical Furries series.