Charles Ponzi: The Man Who Gave the Scam Its Name

In 1920, crowds lined up in Boston to hand their savings to Charles Ponzi, who promised 50% profit in 45 days. By July, money was pouring in at close to a million dollars a day. Within weeks it collapsed, six banks failed, and his name became the word we still use for this kind of fraud. This is the true story of the original Ponzi scheme, the newspaper math that exposed it, what happened to Ponzi, and the 5 SEC red flags that still spot a Ponzi scheme today. Chapters: 0:00 Cold open 0:59 Two dollars and fifty cents 2:34 The coupon 3:50 The machine 5:15 The newspaper that did the math 6:49 The collapse 7:30 He did it again 8:42 How to spot a Ponzi scheme today Check before you invest: Investor.gov (U.S. SEC) · FINRA BrokerCheck · your state securities regulator Report fraud: ReportFraud.ftc.gov · SEC.gov/tcr Sources: Wikipedia "Charles Ponzi" and "The Boston Post"; Pulitzer Prize records; SEC Investor.gov investor alert on Ponzi schemes. Images: all public domain via Wikimedia Commons (Library of Congress, Boston Public Library / Digital Commonwealth, NYPL): Ponzi portraits and mug shot, 1920 Boston street scenes, a 1920s "Don't Be Ponzied" bank ad, an international reply coupon (later example). Stock photos: public-domain (CC0 / Public Domain Mark) images via Openverse. Other graphics are original illustrations. #ponzischeme #fraud #history