THOUSANDS of women across the country, including many in York, are being asked to join, or have joined a pyramid-selling investment scheme which is doomed to fail.

The latest scheme, Women Empowering Women, appears to be a simple way of making money by building up a network of other women who will pay you the sum of £3,000 each.

However, City of York Trading Standards warn that like all get rich schemes,which seem to be too good to be true, it has proved to be too good to be true and is being investigated by the Department of Trade and Industry.

The scheme requires new recruits to hand over £3,000 to secure a place at the bottom of a pyramid. Then the recruits aim to get other women to join the scheme. As they do they move up the pyramid with a promise of receiving £24,000 on reaching the top.

In fact, only a few at the start of such schemes will make this money.

For the more people who join up, many more are needed.

For every woman who pays £3,000 hoping to recoup £24,000 in a few days' time the arithmetic simply does not add up. For each original investor making £21,000 profit, another 64 women will have to have gambled £3,000. Those 64 need more than 500 people to join and those will need more than 4,000 women to join and so on before any money is recouped.

It is obvious that the number of women willing to invest will eventually dry up leaving many women losing their money. In effect all people are doing is taking money from each other.

This particular scheme, aimed at women, surfaced in the UK last summer on the Isle of Wight. It has already collapsed there due to the lack of new investors. There are only 125,000 people on the island, and many women who invested have lost their money with others left in debt.

Pyramid investment schemes are banned in the USA, but are not at present in the UK. There are controls on pyramid selling where goods are sold, but the pyramid investment scheme is not caught by the legislation.

York Trading Standards advise all consumers to think very carefully before investing any money in any pyramid investment scheme and not to get swept away by the prospect of making large amounts of money.

- If you need help with this or any other consumer matter, please contact York Trading Standards, at 9 St Leonard's Place, or telephone 01904 551562. The fax number is 01904 551590 and the email address is trading.standards@york.gov.uk