Quote from: oakenshield on September 02, 2014, 02:33:51 PM

Wikipedia:

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation where the operator, an individual or organization, pays returns to its investors from new capital paid to the operators by new investors, rather than from profit earned by the operator. Operators of Ponzi schemes usually entice new investors by offering higher returns than other investments, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent.

[color=tealPonzi schemes occasionally begin as legitimate businesses, until the business fails to achieve the returns expected. The business becomes a Ponzi scheme if it then continues under fraudulent terms.[/color] Whatever the initial situation, the perpetuation of the high returns requires an ever-increasing flow of money from new investors to sustain the scheme.

[...]

When a Ponzi scheme is not stopped by the authorities, it sooner or later falls apart for one of the following reasons:

The promoter vanishes, taking all the remaining investment money (which excludes payouts to investors already made).
Since the scheme requires a continual stream of investments to fund higher returns, once investment slows down, the scheme collapses as the promoter starts having problems paying the promised returns (the higher the returns, the greater the risk of the Ponzi scheme collapsing). Such liquidity crises often trigger panics, as more people start asking for their money, similar to a bank run.
External market forces, such as a sharp decline in the economy (for example, the Madoff investment scandal during the market downturn of 2008), cause many investors to withdraw part or all of their funds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme

This poster is a joke.... Pool is having problems but it's far from being a Ponzi scheme !