I watched Pyramid Scheme on Prime last weekend. It brought back a lot of memories of what it feels like to be stuck in one when the scheme goes bust.

When I started my career at ~18, I was trying to find ways to fund my trading account. For about two years, I got drawn into a multilevel marketing company that turned out to be a pyramid scheme. I don’t think I was deceived by the person who introduced me, but by the company itself. Partly because I ended up introducing a lot of people to it too. The scene in the series showing the moment the fraud unravelled was surreal to watch. The director has captured the desperation of that moment remarkably well.

I thought this was something that only happened in the early 2000s. I didn’t realise that even today, 2 new pyramid schemes launch every day in India. Over 5.5 crore Indians have lost their savings to more than 5,300 such schemes, estimated losses of Rs 10 lakh crore as of 2015, likely far higher now.

One truth my experience has taught me: there is no quick way to make a lot of money, be it trading or any other business. Anything promising returns higher than a bank FD comes with risk. The higher the claim, the greater the risk.

This dynamic has also played a big part in the recent growth of retail markets, people spreading the word that it’s easy to make money in stocks. It isn’t, and the reckoning tends to come quietly, one account at a time.

And if someone tells you that you can make easy money just by introducing others, run. Almost every single one of those is a fraud.

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