Consider me freaked out.
I came home today and emptied my mailbox. Lo and behold, there was an interesting item within: a large orange envelope, hand-addressed, posted from within Australia. It had been diverted via some Sydney Post Office because the sender had forgotten to include my apartment number, but it had finally reached me.
Opening the letter curiously, I found two printed sheets of paper. At the top of the first was printed:
My name is Dave Rhodes, and in September 1997 I lost my job.
Not only is this the first time I've seen Dave Rhodes in the wild since the late 90's, it's the first time I've ever seen him in print, rather than cross-posted to ten thousand different newsgroups.
The letter had been carefully Australian-ised. Rhodes seems to have moved to Perth, and the obligatory testimonials were from Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane. And apparently, so long as you write a handwritten note containing your name, address and the words "please accept this $10.00 gift", it's all legal and above board!
The potential gain had gone up, too: the 1988-vintage Rhodes claimed to have made $50,000 each go up the pyramid for a total of $400,000, while the modern-era Dave made $70,000 a pop for a total of $1.1 million.
I checked the name at the bottom of the list: one Carolyn Jardine from Maryborough, Victoria. The postmark on the letter was also from Maryborough, so I figured I should probably ring and let her know that she was facing a possible $12,000 fine if someone less lazy than I decided to report this.
She didn't seem particularly surprised.
Update:
Because I seem to be getting lots of random hits on this, and some people don't seem to be able to understand sarcasm, I'll just add:
The Dave Rhodes scam, and all variants of it, are against the law.
If you don't believe me, ask The West Australian Government.
There is no magic wink and nod you can apply to a pyramid scam to make it legal. Whatever you do, whether it's saying you're trading addresses, or including a note saying the money is a gift, or writing the letter in red ink while singing Advance Australia Fair, it's still a pyramid scam, and it's illegal, and if someone decides to prosecute, you'll end up paying a really big fine.
That is so very strange, I received one of these letters last week.
I received two of them last week!
Now I am even more freaked out.
Mine were from a D Morgan in Oakleigh
I live in the UK and received a practically identical letter from "David Rhodes" (seems he uses the full name in England)
He writes the same crap in the British one.
Apparently he went to prison in the USA for mail fraud.
Ah ha. I got a similar letter yesterday. When I was telling a friend about it she says her flatmate gets at least a letter a week about the whole David Rhodes thing. Apparently now some of the letters come with 5c attached. Bizarre.
is this David rhodes letter illegal or not. I recieved it last week and was seriously thinking of giving it a go but now have doubts.As it says in the letter,"please accept this $10 gift" does this make it legal?i'm confused
I also received a letter on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, and was
intiugued and must say tempted to give it a go.
What is the "true" legal standing with this type of mailing.
In case you were wondering...
IT IS ILLEGAL
It's a pyramid scam. There's no magic wink and nod you can apply to a pyramid scam to make it legal. It doesn't matter if you say you're trading addresses, or if you include a note saying the money is a gift, or if you send the letter written in red ink whilst singing Advance Australia Fair.
IT IS AGAINST THE LAW
Every state has some kind of fair trading law that explicitly prohibits this kind of activity. In Melbourne, where I received my mail from, the maximum penalty for participating is $12,000.
Legal or not i think it's a wonderful way of redistributing wealth outside of the watchful eye of the Government and outside of the tax department's reaches. There seems clearly no reason the Govt would crack down on this scheme which could be of wonderful benefit to loads of people if carried out correctly or treated like a bit of fun which could turn into alot of fun. The Govt is clearly upset at not having its finger in this pie. I think long live the tax free govt free redistribution of wealth!
To the above commenter: People as stupid as you deserve to have their wealth redistributed.
We just received ours! The ridiculous thing is that each of the potential defendants in the scheme give their name and address to the authorities on the letter. Our sender even had his name and address stamped on the back of the envelope. The best thing to do is to go to the Western Australian Government Consumer Scam site and forward the names and addresses on the letter.
I was feeling left out, but got my letter tonight. Wonder if this scam was started by Australia Post? They seem to be the ones the stand to make the most money out of it.
The link you provided to the WA Scam net is just perfect. Thankyou.
Not for nothing, but you're a little off by claiming that responding to this is illegal. It's incredibly stupid and naive, but that's not a crime (unfortunately).. In fact, the whole reason pyramid schemes are illegal is to protect the people who might respond to this.. you haven't committed ANY crime unless you've first taken the bait and THEN solicited people underneath you. Thus the sender is always violating the law, but the receiver never is.
I just got one of these letters and my unemployed boyfriend has been trying to convince me to have a go. I am so glad that I thought to look it up before I sent any money. Thanks guys!
I just got one of these letters and my unemployed boyfriend has been trying to convince me to have a go. I am so glad that I thought to look it up before I sent any money. Thanks guys!
I just got one of these letters and my unemployed boyfriend has been trying to convince me to have a go. I am so glad that I thought to look it up before I sent any money. Thanks guys!
Thank you for this helpful site!
May I point out to the individual celebrating the possibility of making money without paying tax that we live in a community, and in our community tax pays for all sorts of things including our schools and hospitals.
If you want to gain something at little cost, buy a ticket in a raffle and support some local cause. Your chances of ending up ahead are better than with a pyramid scheme, and if you lose you're still ahead because your money is contributing to something worthwhile.
Cheers,
Rachel
Hi... received this in Adelaide, South Australia this morning. Interesting to see it's roots in the US from the 1980's or somewhere around then... he was a college student that went to jail for that letter apparently.
I'm interested in how the so called 'testimonials' managed to receive figures like $21,739, $745 and $71,953... when everyone surely must receive multiples of $10. Obviously it's all fiction, but what a simple error that has been overlooked by generations of scammers...
My friend and I got TWO letters in the same week apparently started by one Mr David Rhodes. Ours had 5c coins attached to the front as a gesture of goodwill.
We rang some of the people on the 5 person list. Really - I think they mostly just thought that they could make some cash and this would be a good way to do it. I don't really think that any of them could see harm in it. Not good - but it doesn't (neccessarily) make anyone who participates unknowingly a bad person.
I think anyway.
Hmmm - at least I made 10c on it!
I received my first letter from David Rhodes in Perth (ha ha) in early July and live in Sydney. It was a hand written addressed envelope to my street address. The second letter also to my street address had my full first and second name typed. The funny thing is that the only mail to my street address is phone bills from Telstra. All mail I actually want is sent to my p.o box address to those I give out. So where's the conspiracy and who are the scammers? TELSTRA .... Hmmm...
Nick
I got the letter today (am all the way down in Hobart!) and I'm so glad I thought to look it up before sending any money. At least I'm 5 cents richer!
Well i totally agree with 'don't witch hunt me'Sept 17th...I've never recieved any of these 'chain letters', but i do believe it's {surposedly} illegal cos the government aren't getting their share out of it.. If they got their hands in it then i'm sure it would be made legal!! And from what i've read consumer affairs and the post office have confiscated hundreds of thousands of these letters,so who has the money now that was actually sent??? Is that not called stealing??Is it therefore legal for them to keep the money?? And is it not against the law to open other peoples mail!!!Plus how do they know whats 'chain letters' or whats normal mail,i'll bet if thats the case theres been a whole lot more than those opened.. And is it not also an invasion of peoples privacy?? So therefore who should be prosecuting who and getting fines??? If there were materials in the letters that were illegal then i could understand it..Theres a whole lot of questions here one could ask...Or is it perhaps just scare tactics???Hmmmm....
I'm closing comments on this thread because it's basically been hijacked by one guy babbling about how this chain letter is somehow part of a great battle against The Man, and then whining when I decide to delete it.
Dude, it's my site. I pay for the server, I pay for the bandwidth, I choose what goes up here. If you want to pollute the Internet with your incoherent bullshit, get your own website.
In summary, here's the facts:
Nobody's ever made any money off this kind of scam. They just don't work. 99% of recipients bin the letter, and the remaining 1% send on copies without bothering to mail any money back to the guy at the top of the list. The chance of you even getting your $10 back is negligible.
On the other hand, sending on the letter could see you facing fines higher than $10,000.
Do the maths.