I've been very disturbed by the increase in so-called "profit share" sites appearing all over the traffic exchanges and also here at APSense.

Basically, these sites sell shares (which sometimes come with a nominal ad-pack or other "product" that it's claimed makes the site legal), and with each new share that's sold around 90-95% of the money is shared equally between existing share holders.  These sites can be very tempting because they promise a quick return with little or no effort.

The trouble is, while the early share holders make money, this is nothing more than a money-circulation scheme. The reason they make money is because people who join the scheme later lose all the money they put in and never get anything in return.  Ultimately, the scheme dies a natural death, if it isn't shut down first by the authorities and its owners (and possibly people who have promoted it) prosecuted for involvement in a ponzi scheme.

Yes, these programs are illegal in most countries.

Here's how the US government describes ponzi schemes:

"A Ponzi scheme is closely related to a pyramid because it revolves around continuous recruiting, but in a Ponzi scheme the promoter generally has no product to sell and pays no commission to investors who recruit new "members." Instead, the promoter collects payments from a stream of people, promising them all the same high rate of return on a short-term investment. In the typical Ponzi scheme, there is no real investment opportunity, and the promoter just uses the money from new recruits to pay obligations owed to longer-standing members of the program ... both pyramid and Ponzi schemes are illegal because they inevitably must fall apart. No program can recruit new members forever. Every pyramid or Ponzi scheme collapses because it cannot expand beyond the size of the earth's population. When the scheme collapses, most investors find themselves at the bottom, unable to recoup their losses."

To read the full FTC statement regarding pyramids and ponzi schemes, visit this website: http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/other/dvimf16.shtm

I don't claim to be totally innocent of involvement in ponzi schemes.  Some years ago, I was caught in the collapse of 12DailyPro and the paid-to-surf industry.  I witnessed the suffering of family and friends who I had introduced to the scheme, so I have personal experience of how these sites wreck lives.

Sadly, the same defensiveness and anger that became common in those days is starting to appear now.  Today, I received an abusive email from a member of my traffic exchange because I had suspended his profit share site.  Every day I see people attacked on networking sites and traffic exchanges for pointing out the truth about these ponzis.

If your ponzi paid you today, congratulations.  But try to think about the people who it won't be paying tomorrow.