By: Sue Kramer
The Women’s Gifting Circle is an illegal pyramid scheme according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.
In the scheme, women are recruited by friends or relatives who already are members of a gifting circle. The lure is the promise of wealth, personal empowerment and the financial freedom to achieve dreamed of goals in life.
While this scheme is under investigation in Pennsylvania, it continues to spread and has surfaced in Lambertville. The Beacon spoke with one woman who was recently invited to join one of the "gifting circles" currently under investigation. She shared her experience and the communications she received in the recruitment process for the benefit of Beacon readers.
The Lambertville women, who asked to remain anonymous, was approached March 9 of this year by a friend who said in an e-mail, "Your name keeps popping into my head. Have you ever heard of Women’s Gifting Circles? I’m in one, and I was wondering if you (a) have heard of them; (b) have an opinion on them one way or the other; and (c) would you be interested in learning more about them?
"Participation in one is a bit of a walk on the wild side, a whole different approach to money and the predominant economic paradigm. But besides seeing some miraculous empowerment of women locally, I’ve also become connected to a tremendous network of women throughout North America. I thought you might be interested."
The Women’s Gifting Circle sounded interesting, maybe even a fun way to meet new people and get out of the house now and then. So, the Lambertville woman said, "Sure, tell me more."
She recalled, "This really sounded like a great group where women encouraged each other to reach for their goals and supported each other."
That’s when the recruitment letter was sent via e-mail March 10.
But it was $5,000 to join. The Lambertville woman let her potential sponsor know the idea of forking over that kind of money was out of the question, even if there was a $40,000 gift to be gotten somewhere down the line.
"All I could think of was that I didn’t have that kind of money," she said. "Even if I did, I wouldn’t join. My husband and I talked about the whole concept and about how it sounded like a pyramid scheme. I also couldn’t believe that my friend was dumb enough to join because she’s a professional woman, and she’s always on top of things. So I told her that I didn’t have the money. Period."
The response was swift and received March 11, again via e-mail.
"Believe me when I tell you that your reaction is EXACTLY what almost everyone says when they’re first introduced to the concept.
It went on to say "amazing things" could happen with money "quite literally dropped" into the hands of women who joined.
But the Lambertville woman again said, "No," again citing financial reasons.
"After giving the whole idea of forking over $5,000 to a stranger some more thought," she said, "I thought, what a stupid thing for anybody to do. Then I found myself thinking about what I could do if I had $5,000. I could get new furniture, take a vacation or any number of things if I had that much money to spare.
"So I told my friend that if I had $5,000, which I didn’t, I would spend it on some more necessary items, not to join a Women’s Gifting Circle. But my friend still wouldn’t accept ‘no’ for an answer."
Again the response came back, saying, "I am usually rarely this persistent, but you really do have the ‘consciousness’ that fits right in with the circles I’ve told you about."
It then offered a "half position" for $2,500, enabling the Lambertville woman to receive $20,000 when in the "receiving position" of the "Universe."
The woman refused to pay.
"Somehow, the concept of handing any amount of money over to a stranger, and the ‘Universe’ providing me with what I needed in return just didn’t agree with me, and it sounded even more stupid than ever," the Lambertville woman said. "I think you’d have to be really dumb to join one of those clubs and not see the pyramid scheme behind it."
