pyramid scheme

See also: pyramid-scheme

English

Noun

pyramid scheme (plural pyramid schemes)

a diagram depicting how a pyramid scheme fails as the number of participants required increases exponentially. In this example, each participants are required to recruit 6 more participants.

1. An illicit money-making investment scheme whereby early investors are paid primarily or wholly by later investors. Eventually all such schemes fail to the detriment of recent (later) investors.

Coordinate terms

• Ponzi scheme

Translations

illicit money-making scheme

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 層壓式推銷 / 层压式推销 (zh) (céngyāshì tuīxiāo), 非法傳銷 / 非法传销 (fēifǎ chuánxiāo)

• Dutch: piramidestelsel n, piramidesysteem n, piramidespel (nl) n
• Finnish: pyramidihuijaus (fi)
• French: vente pyramidale (fr) f, pyramide de Ponzi (fr) f
• Georgian: პირამიდის სქემა (ṗiramidis skema), ფინანსური პირამიდის სქემა (pinansuri ṗiramidis skema), ფინანსური პირამიდა (pinansuri ṗiramida)
• German: Schneeballsystem (de) n, Pyramidensystem n
• Hungarian: piramisjáték (hu)
• Icelandic: pýramídasvindl n
• Italian: marketing piramidale, sistema piramidale
• Japanese: 無限連鎖講 (むげんれんさこう, mugenrensakō), ネズミ講 (nezumikō)
• Norwegian: pyramidespill n
• Persian: طرح هرمی (tarh-e herami)
• Polish: piramida finansowa f
• Portuguese: esquema de pirâmide m
• Romanian: schemă piramidală f
• Russian: финансовая пирами́да (ru) (finansovaja piramída)
• Spanish: esquema piramidal f, estafa de pirámide f, fraude de pirámide empresarial m
• Swedish: pyramidspel n
• Turkish: piramit sistemi, piramit şeması, saadet zinciri (tr)