The Washington Post, August 14, 2020: Structural racism helps schemers attract Blacks to fake ‘sou-sou’ scams
Except the large payout is simply money collected from recruits. There’s no wealth-building — only the shifting of money to people who got into the scheme earlier. Eventually, the enterprise collapses when not enough folks can be persuaded to join, which stops the flow of money.
The scheme might be called a “blessing loom” or “sou-sou.” But the name doesn’t matter — it’s an illegal pyramid scheme that’s stealing credibility from legitimate sou-sous in which members aspire to help one another save for a specific purpose and nobody receives more money than they put in. This informal savings model is often utilized in communities where people can’t easily get loans to fund a business or don’t have access to traditional banks.
