Worried about my sister and get rich quick schemes

[VegasCP]

Sorry I have not been in MN too much so maybe this is the wrong topic.

My sister seems to be addicted to online schemes where you 'invest' money and get ridiculous rates of interest, 2% a day, 100% after a month, that kind of thing. She finds them on facebook and other websites, where people talk about being millionaires and so on, however my sister has never been so lucky obviously. Obviously these things fold before she can pull out the 'fantastic' earnings. She has lost thousands over the years, money she can not afford to lose. But we are kind (or stupid) enough to help her and her daughter out when things get tight.

I assume these are all illegal Ponzi Schemes? My question is, can she actually get into trouble if she is a participant rather a starter

I hope that post makes sense, I am a bit stressed about it all!

You need to stop helping her, she can do this because you'll help her. It's costing you as much as her.

I don't believe she would get into any trouble as she is one of the victims. That is how any legal investigation would see it and the fact that she has lost the money would be compelling evidence of that!

Can't help with how to stop her, but at least you can stop worrying about her being jailed. Good luck with it all.

Participants can certainly get into trouble, while they may be the victims of those who recruited them into the scheme, they then recruit others, who are their victims. It's unlikely as anyone looking will be able to see shes a dupe and not a criminal mastermind, but have you tried telling her that she is spreading this to others and causing them to lose money too?

Stop bailing her out everytime and she might stop throwing her money away.

Sorry for the random update 6 weeks later - but I wanted to say thank you to those who posted.

Since I posted we have not bailed my sister out at all. My sister has cut back (hopefully completely) on doing these things. I understand why she did it, even if I did not agree with it.

What I have done is sit down with her and help her applying for other jobs. She feels she is in a rut and is fed up of being 'poor' as she puts it. She has an interview next week, so fingers crossed!

Once again, thank you for those who answered my OP it was appreciated

I hope she gets the job, even if she doesn't interview experience is good.