You will find a number of people on this website and on others who will tell you how to make a fortune using PayPal. The details will vary a little bit, but the basics are like this: you get a list of 5 emails. You send some amount of money to the person in the #1 position, and then you remove that person from the list. You move everybody up one, then put yourself at the bottom. Then you start forwarding this to people. After five "levels" of people have forwarded it to their friends, your name is at the top of the list, and thousands of strangers will be sending you money. I'm not saying that it is impossible to make money this way, but you should know three things: (1) this is probably illegal, (2) the only person who is guaranteed to get rich is PayPal, (3) don't count on it.
This is a pyramid scheme. In many places, including all of the United States, taking part in this scheme is ILLEGAL. The Federal Government calls these "unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce" and they are illegal under Title 15, U.S. Code, Section 45. If you use PayPal and the Internet to do it, you have probably committed the crimes of wire fraud and money laundering. See Title 18, U.S. Code, Sections 1343 and 1956. In addition, many states also outlaw pyramid schemes. In California, they are "unlicensed lotteries." The Office of Fair Trading in the U.K. says it quite simply: "Pyramid schemes are illegal."
Assume that you live in a country where this is not illegal, and you are not using a financial account like PayPal in a country where it is illegal. Should you do it? The basic answer is no. The reason that almost every country has made these schemes illegal is that, unless you get in at the top of the pyramid, when it collapses (not 'if', 'when') you will be out. Who wins? Some of the people at the top of the pyramid will make a lot of money (maybe your money) before it collapses. The only guaranteed winner is PayPal. Why? Because once you set up that "free" business account at PayPal, they take a cut of every transaction that comes into your account. When PayPal discovers that you are using your account for a pyramid scheme, they will freeze it and not give you any of "your" money. When you signed up for PayPal, you agreed not to use it for any illegal purpose, and you agreed that you would not use the service for "unfair competition." See the paragraph above. Why will most users not win? Your name has to stay in the list through 5 levels of emails. Along the way, many of the people who receive this will know that it is a scam. They will not forward it. Many people will erase your name from its spot and put some friend's name there.
Think of it this way: why are you using this elaborate pyramid. Why not just send an email to 2000 people asking them to all give you $20 and telling them to do the same thing? P.T. Barnum said "There's a sucker born every minute." Are you the sucker or are you hoping that somebody else will be your sucker and send you $20 for doing nothing?
