龐氏騙局 Ponzi scheme

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to separate investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors rather than from any actual profit earned.

The Ponzi scheme usually offers returns that other investments cannot guarantee in order to entice new investors, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent.

The perpetuation of the returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises and pays requires an ever-increasing flow of money from investors in order to keep the scheme going.

The scheme is named after Charles Ponzi, who became notorious for using the technique after emigrating from Italy to the United States in 1903. Ponzi did not invent the scheme, but his operation took in so much money that it was the first to become known throughout the United States.

His original scheme was in theory based on arbitraging international reply coupons for postage stamps, but soon diverted investors' money to support payments to earlier investors and Ponzi's personal wealth.

“龐氏騙局是一個以人名“龐齊”命名的。1920年查爾斯•龐齊夸下海口，稱他可以在3個月內使投資者交付他管理的資金翻番增值。龐齊手頭其實并沒有投資項目，他是用后期投資者交付的資金支付前期投資者，充作高額投資回報。后來資金鏈中斷、“金字塔騙局”敗露，投資者蒙受巨額損失，如換算成現行幣值，相當于1.6億美元。龐齊的下場如今似乎不再有人記得，而這類投資騙局從此得名“龐氏騙局”。而此次麥道夫“克隆”的騙局規模之大遠超龐齊，因此有人建議將之稱為“麥氏騙局”。