Since first hearing of WEW in June 2001, I have seen three types of women emerge amongst my friends:

1. Good, but naïve women who join with the best of intentions. They want to make some money to help those in need – be it relatives, friends, charities or themselves. In all innocence, they spread the word to friends because they feel they “would not be a friend to you” if they kept this incredible money-making idea to themselves. It would not surprise me if someone, somewhere in Britain, will have borrowed money from a charity account, hoping to make some money for the charity. Certainly women have taken out loans, which they may now have difficulty in repaying.

2. Street-wise women who realize that they will make money if they get into the pyramid early enough. They spread the idea far and wide, well-aware that to make money themselves, others will have to lose.

3. The women who do not join the scam. They are either instinctively wary of a get-rich-quick scheme, or they do not like the odds, or they realize the immorality of the scam and see the harm it will do to their friends and friends of friends. On the whole, they keep well out of it, but say nothing publicly against WEW.

An example of group 1 (we will call her Abigail!) has made money, but the friends she introduced have all lost their money. She is now riddled with guilt. Although she now understands that the “scheme” is actually a “scam” and that folk get hurt, she is suffering from so much guilt that with pressure from the losers she is actually considering proliferating the scam to a fresh town in order to help her friends recoup their losses. Morally she knows this is wrong, but her immediate friendships are in jeopardy. Some folk are talking behind her back. Angry telephone calls are being exchanged and there are a lot of tears as heated conversations take place. Her husband advised her not to get into it, so there is even stress generated in their loving relationship. She is damned by her conscience if she continues, but will she have the moral fiber to tell her friends that the buck should stop here? However she made money, so how can she not support them in continuing? If her winnings were enough to cover their losses, she would pay them back, but of course they were not. She was one in a group of six who paid £500 each towards one heart (total £3000). She may slither downwards into group 2.

My group 2 example, Brenda (not her real name!) was so well off that her husband told her to join with his blessing. They knew it was a gamble, but they were able to take the loss of £3000, so they judged it to be worth the risk. He had recently lost money on the stock market, so why not give this a go? She very honestly told me that WEW was based on “greed and trust”. Your greed and my trust, I thought to myself! She looked forward to purchasing a new BMW for herself. I immediately recognized it as a pyramid scam, even though she insisted in was a “circle” of investment. I was told that local successful companies were involved, including the one for which my husband worked, and it was implied that if they had given it their blessing, it must be a sound business idea. I kept quiet and decided to surf the internet for information. Very quickly I had gathered masses of information on the scam’s progression from the Isle of Wight through London, the Midlands and north into Scotland. The affluent cities with large populations were infected first.

My husband advised me not to speak to Brenda about my discoveries, but out of friendship, I thought I simply had to phone her the next day to try and persuade her not to go ahead. Thinking I was going to join her group, she excitedly rushed headlong into telling me how she would invite me to the next meeting, send me some information etc. I managed to get a word in edgeways and warned her of the harm she would do to others if she went ahead with her “investment”. She became monosyllabic, her manner frosty. She did not want to hear what I had to say. I suddenly realized to my horror, that my husband was right. This woman knew exactly what she was getting into – and didn’t care.

I put myself in group 3. I’ll call myself Charlotte. I warned close friends to beware of WEW and left it at that. I thought it would run out of steam very quickly and that there would be much reporting from the losers to warn people off. Although mathematically there must be eight losers for every one winner, there was almost complete silence. There was one article in a paper from a loser, but I heard three stories about local winners! I believe it is because the folk involved all know one another. No one wants to say:

• I am an idiot and lost. I was greedy and believed my friend.
• I won, but the friends I involved have lost
• I lost, but I have carried on introducing folk that I do not know personally, so I can recoup my losses

So, all you hear are the loud voices of the winners. Good news spreads like wildfire. I am using a pseudonym to protect Abigail and Brenda, but there has also been ill-feeling and violence towards those that speak out against WEW. People that are involved financially, simply do not want you telling others not to “buy a heart”. I felt bad that I had not warned Abigail when I first became aware of WWW in the area. She said very candidly that she would not have listened to me anyway. I still hope Abigail will make the morally right decision. I have not spoken to Brenda since.

Charlotte 18.11.01