Sometimes from the right-wing liars we hear Social Security decried as a "Ponzi scheme". The problem with Social Security is that Congress has borrowed against it for generations to keep their war profiteer and oil cartel bankrollers happy, and now the cronies don't want to give up their corporate welfare. Obviously something has to give.
What a Ponzi scheme is, and SSI is not, is when a con-artist promises return on investment but doesn't actually invest what's entrusted to them... they use the take from newer "investors" to pay out a jigger to the older ones, and the conman pockets the rest. Eventually the field of possible investors is exhausted, the scheme collapses when it can't keep paying out - and if Carlo Ponzi (or Bernie Madoff) is smart, he's long gone. SSI is not that, because its ability to pay out is not premised on unlimited expansion. The money is banked and backed; if there's a threat, it's that Congress has borrowed against that bankroll to throw corporate welfare dollars at war profiteer and oil cartel cronies.
With little difference, this is how 123LyingLiarfaces operated - lie to the end-user about the availability of "free money for college"; lie to the wholesaler (who pays a hefty affiliate set-up fee) about salability and success rates; lie to the inside salespeople about commissions. Lie to everyone, pocket as much as you can, settle out of court if anyone blows a whistle.
I feel a whole lot better about my current employer than I ever did about 123LyingLiarfaces. There is an actual service , but the inconvenient truth is we are not candid much less transparent with subcontractors about how long it will take to get paid, and the owners have not been candid with their proxies/employees about the unlikelihood of attracting investors to catch-up payments to subcontractors.