American Notes SCAMS

) Occultists have long proclaimed the mystical energies of Egypt's Great Pyramid. Now thousands are touting a pyramid again. This time, the draw is money. In Los Angeles and elsewhere, a new form of the long familiar pyramid game, called "Airplane," is luring investors with profits of up to $12,000 on a $1,500 ante -- if they can get on board soon enough. Participants buy into an eight-person "plane," then work their way up to "pilot," and bail out with cash. One Los Angeles player claims her profits flew to almost $50,000.

The downer is that a pyramid payoff requires an ever larger supply of new investors, until eventually the scheme crashes. To protect the unwary, pyramid games have been made illegal in most states. Even so, the craze has spread on college campuses: at the University of Maryland, automated teller machines ran short of cash this month after one high-flying weekend.