Date of Award

5-2018

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Moore School of Business

Director of Thesis

Greg Putnam

First Reader

Clark Hampton

Second Reader

Clark Hampton

Abstract

Ponzi schemes have continued to grow since the 1920s when Charles Ponzi conducted the first successful Ponzi scheme. Since then, technology has advanced which can help fraudulent investors obtain money easier, but legislation has also improved in order to try to find these investors and stop them before they take large amounts of money from innocent individuals. Since Ponzi schemes have been around for almost 100 years now, there is a lot of research available to explain to investors what Ponzi schemes are and how to spot one before you invest in it. However, even though all of this research has been conducted, more and more people continue falling prey to these schemes. The purpose of this research is to investigate motives of Ponzi schemes, as well as how people become involved in them. Further, we conducted a survey of college students in order to understand how much knowledge people actually have about Ponzi schemes as they prepare to enter the point in their lives where they may begin to start investing their earnings. Financial literacy was the main topic of our survey, and we then used those results to draw conclusions as to precautions that people should take prior to distributing their hard earned money to an investment opportunity.

First Page

1

Last Page

41

Rights

© 2018, John Michael Williams, Sara Strauch, and Drew Duncan

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