Big winners in new craze

Press, 14 July 1980, Page 4

Big winners in new craze

PA Auckland Pyramid parties — the get-rich-quick craze sweeping Auckland — have made a few people very rich, very quickly. They were the lucky ones who leapt into the game with their $5OO when it was introduced to Auckland by two wheeler-dealer Australians barely four weeks ago. The pair, who first saw the game in the United States and set it up in Australia, came to New Zealand wheii the police put the'

pressure on across the Tasman.

They found a ready market for the game in Auckland. They started the first chart and within a fortnight had left New Zealand with a “huge amount” of money, according to sources. The first Aucklanders to enter the games cleaned up. One party source, who has himself gained more than $30,000, says he knows of four men who are $lOO,OOO tax free richer thanks to pyramid parties.

They were the ones at the top of the pyramid. Next step down, the. people who got into the party scene about tw'o w'eeks ago are still talking big money. Police raids might have cut the game off in its prime, but they have still had time to scoop the pool in two, three or four pyramids. With their winnings they are paying off mortgages, putting in spa pools and calling on travel agents. Below them come the one-! time winners. They are two a penny in game circles, and 1

'everyone at the parties is convinced that turning their $5OO into $BOOO in doublequick time is the least they will be able to do. One man with his own business has' picked up more than $30,000 in the last two weeks. His Pakuranga house is now mortgage free and he has paid cash for other luxuries. He is adamant the game is not a. rip-off. “If anyone can prove I have been ripped off I will pay back every .cent of the money I have been given,” he .said. > “