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Show Watch Illegal Chain Letters, You May Get Taken for Some Money the list and $50 to the person whose name is on the top. In this particular par-ticular type of enterprise enter-prise it is usually the case that those starting the letter could make some money; those near the end, when the letter has run its course, could lose what they have invested. This office's of-fice's attention has been called to the fact that some of those in dividuals who have invested in-vested have lost between bet-ween $100 and $200. It would appear that perhaps this particular pyramid scheme has now been in operation for some little time and that those individuals are perhaps going to be those losing at the end of the program. Therefore, this department depar-tment is alerting anyone who is ap proached with this type of scheme to contact the Division of Consumer Con-sumer Affairs located at 330 East Fourth South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111, telephone . 533-6441. If those who have already become involved in-volved have information infor-mation concerning the scheme it would be advisable ad-visable also to contact this department. Attention is again being called to the chain letter which of course is an illegal pyramid scheme. There is a new version of the chain letter now circulating cir-culating in the Utah County area and the Wasatch Front area called the "Circle of Gold". This type of an ellegal pyramid scheme is in violation of the Utah Criminal Code as well as the Unfair Practices Prac-tices Act and Consumer Sales Practices Act of the state of Utah. The Utah Criminal Code describes a pyramid scheme as a, "scheme whereby an-thing an-thing of monetary value is distributed among persons who have paid compensation compen-sation for the chance to receive compensation for introducing another person into participation par-ticipation in the scheme, or when any person introduced into participation in the scheme introduces another person into participation." Any person organizing or participating par-ticipating in the letter could be charged with a Class A Misdemeanor, possibly resulting in a $1,000 fine andor one year in jail. This particular program is circulated by hand and not by mail, although money is transferred by mail. This would still constitute con-stitute a violation of the Criminal Code, the Consumer Sales Practices Prac-tices Act and the Unfair Un-fair Practices Act. It has been brought to the attention of this office that some individuals in-dividuals have been paying $100 to join the chain with the promise of receiving $100,000 in about 12 days providing the "Circle of Gold" is not broken. At the top of the letter being circulated the words "Trust, Intention, Inten-tion, Integrity, Faith, Mutual Support, Prosperity and Blessings". The idea according to the letter is to pay $50 to the person per-son to get your name on |
