One 'business opportunity' Pied Piper has attracted the attention of the World Bank

Shyam 

The latest report issued by the World Bank observes that, when it comes to conflict, prevention is far more cost-effective than cure http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13032938 . One can only hope that senior officials at the World Bank will also reach the same, obvious conclusion about pernicious 'business opportunity' fraud and adapt their existing policies; for of all the international institutions operating today, the World Bank has probably the largest vested-interest in trying to put an end to this virulent cancer in society, because 'bussiness opportunity' fraud generally attacks the very same people whom the World Bank is supposed to help. Currently, it is very difficult to estimate the true level of damage being caused by this growing-problem around the globe. One thing is certain, victims can be counted in the tens of millions - the overwhelming majority of whom are now from emerging economies.  

The fact that a Pied-Piper of one of these frauds, Andrea Lucas, has recently been caught lying all over the Net. about the exact nature of her own previous connection with the World Bank  (in order to lead countless poor and ignorant people into destitution, dissociation, depression, debt and possibly even death) has brought the attention of certain World Bank officials to this urgent matter. 

It might be a very good, and cost-effective, idea for the World Bank to finance a multi-lingual publication, and/or film, which seeks to explain to ordinary people all over the world exactly what 'business opportunity' fraud is; particularly, how its perpetrators pretend moral and intellectual authority and endeavour to identify with the hopes and fears of their ill-informed victims. It also might be a very good, and cost-effective, idea for the World Bank to issue law enforcement agencies, and governments, all over the world, with a copy of the same material. For decades, the perpetrators of 'business opportunity' fraud have also endeavoured to identify with the hopes and fears of ill-informed regulators and legislators. 

A new generation of attorneys at the US Federal Trade Commission's Dept of Consumer Protection, whose predecessors were bedazzled by the unsubstantiated claims of the bosses of the 'Amway' mob, are now (only after billions of dollars have been stolen from tens of millions of victims around the world) making a half-hearted attempt to put an end to the cancer of 'business opportunity' fraud. They have called it 'Operation Empty Promises'  http://ftc.gov/multimedia/video/cases/empty-promises_hanks.shtm . However, if these regulators were really sincere in their desire to tackle this global criminogenic phenomenon, the first thing they would do, would be to launch a rigorous investigation of the FTC's own shameful role in allowing the perpetrators of the original 'business opportunity' fraud, 'Amway,' to escape criminal prosecution in the USA for 50+ years. 

David Brear (copyright 2011)