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An epidemic of get-rich-quick schemes is spreading across the country, sped along by Internet technology. Many of these schemes, called "gifting clubs," are cloaked in religious language, claim to have a charitable purpose, and frequently target churchgoers.

Local police, county prosecutors, and state attorneys general have been working feverishly to stamp out the clubs. But as soon as one collapses, others seem to spring up. Nearly all of them are pyramid schemes, illegal investment scams that inevitably collapse when the supply of new members to pay previous ones runs out.

The giving schemes operate under a wide range of names. The World of Giving, a typical pyramid that surfaced several months ago in northeastern Pennsylvania, has four levels: Sowers, Gardeners, Reapers, and Harvesters.

Sowers (newcomers) join a unit of the pyramid, called a board, by paying $2,000 each to a Harvester at the top of the board. Sowers then recruit new members, moving up as they do so, until as Harvesters they hope to collect $16,000 from new Sowers.

The mathematics of recruitment are daunting. After five rounds, it would take tens of thousands of new Sowers to keep a single pyramid going. A Harvester who got in—and out—early enough might reap in excess of $100,000. Most pyramid schemes operate a few weeks or months before failing. The leaders may move on long before prosecutors learn of the scheme.

While some programs are conducted in homes or by e-mail, others draw large crowds at public meetings, where the atmosphere can resemble a revival.

Early this year, so many people showed up in Tacoma, Washington, for meetings of the Jubilee New Paradigm that organizers rented space in the city's Freighthouse Square for their meetings. Organizer Joe Gardiniere told Christianity Today that as many as 24,000 people were involved at the program's peak.

Part of the appeal of many new pyramids is their religious and charitable flavor. In Tacoma, a percentage of the payments was allotted to familiar charities. "Our program gave $158,000 to charities in five months," Gardiniere says.

Literature from the World of Giving says its program is "truly the epitome of unselfish love for humanity," liberally quoting verses from Romans, 2 Corinthians, and Luke.

Gardiniere says his programs were not pyramid schemes but "gifting clubs," through which people can help each other.

But law-enforcement authorities across the country disagree. Michael Butler, a Pennsylvania assistant attorney general, says World of Giving and other gifting clubs are pyramid schemes and thus are illegal.

Christine Gregoire, attorney general for Washington state, campaigned against the Tacoma New Paradigm program, which caused new participants to flee.

Several similar gifting clubs in New Jersey, which claimed to be raising funds for charities, were shut down last December by court order.

"They can call it a 'gifting club,' but a rose is a rose and a pyramid is a pyramid, and this is a pyramid," said Michael Herr, director of the state Division of Consumer Affairs.

Also in December, police raided a Jubilee Celebration gathering at a Houston, Texas, hotel and seized $700,000 in cash from participants, charging 44 of them with "pyramid promotion," a state felony.

Prosecutor Gus Turbeville told ct that during the hotel meeting, one of the organizers said the gifting-club idea had come from God.

Pastor Don Casey of Kennewick, Washington, started out as a believer in gifting clubs. Casey's own ministry, Servants of the Cross, was a shoestring operation. Last fall, when he was invited to join a committee organizing a Jubilee Celebration gifting club, he thought it could help his work.

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November 13 2000, Vol. 44, No. 13