How to Use pyramid scheme in a Sentence

pyramid scheme

noun
  • Many people lost the bulk of their savings in pyramid schemes.
    — Han Zhang, The New Yorker, 26 Dec. 2023
  • Short on money, Gill plots against the pyramid scheme that fleeced her.
    — Hal Boedeker, OrlandoSentinel.com, 3 July 2018
  • The dream becomes a pyramid scheme in which cynics rule and true believers lose out.
    — Chris Vognar, Los Angeles Times, 15 Apr. 2021
  • Surely these women wouldn’t buy into the pyramid scheme.
    — Literary Hub, 9 Apr. 2026
  • Instead, his travels took him in search of other victims of pyramid schemes.
    — The Economist, 3 Feb. 2018
  • Our society is a pyramid scheme, with the young supporting the old.
    — Emma Green, The New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2024
  • There’s a whole pyramid scheme of sorts, and there’s all these other parts of the book that didn’t fit into this story.
    — Kate Erbland, IndieWire, 9 Sep. 2024
  • Even without a buy-in price, that’s quite literally a pyramid scheme.
    — Nadra Nittle, Vox, 8 Nov. 2018
  • Five other charges related to the pyramid scheme have been dismissed.
    — Eriq Gardner, Billboard, 31 Oct. 2017
  • Plantiffs in the latest lawsuit allege that the company is set up as a pyramid scheme.
    — Leah Prinzivalli, SELF, 19 Oct. 2017
  • Yet, a creator program that users have to pay to use hasn’t been done before and has some users comparing it to a pyramid scheme.
    — Kylie Robison, Fortune, 3 Feb. 2023
  • Like a pyramid scheme, however, this works only with a constant supply of new money.
    — The Economist, 3 Oct. 2019
  • Chinese authorities have accused the group of being a pyramid scheme and a cult.
    — Didi Kirsten Tatlow, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Oct. 2025
  • In that agreement, the FTC stopped short of calling the business a pyramid scheme.
    — Kate Gibson, CBS News, 2 Oct. 2019
  • This has created a pyramid scheme of poor behavior that is only now starting to crumble.
    — Ryan Faughnder, Los Angeles Times, 11 May 2021
  • Many questions remain about others who may have been involved in what more than one person calls a molestation pyramid scheme.
    — Bill Goodykoontz, azcentral, 21 May 2020
  • The suits claim the company is a pyramid scheme that urges sellers to go into debt to purchase inventory.
    — Ivana Hrynkiw, AL.com, 26 Oct. 2017
  • Tens of millions of people are ensnared in these pyramid schemes that use cult-like techniques to brainwash their targets and bilk them out of their money.
    — The Economist, 3 Feb. 2018
  • Or a pyramid scheme is like some entity that is intending to scam people by showing false returns that are based on new money coming in.
    — Recode Staff, Recode, 14 Mar. 2018
  • The result was a pyramid scheme, which Scheper-Hughes says is common to kidney markets around the world.
    — Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, Discover Magazine, 12 Aug. 2010
  • Georgieva said some cryptocurrencies are more akin to a pyramid scheme for the digital age because they aren't backed by real assets.
    — Paul R. La Monica, CNN, 23 May 2022
  • China famously banned ICOs, lumping them in with pyramid schemes.
    — David Meyer, Fortune, 23 Oct. 2017
  • Parenting was the ultimate pyramid scheme.
    — Literary Hub, 9 Apr. 2026
  • Many banks are on the brink of insolvency, in part because of pyramid schemes that swindled millions of poor Iranians.
    — The Economist, 21 Apr. 2018
  • Consumers were then recruited to join a pyramid scheme that sold credit repair services to others, costing them millions.
    — Michelle Del Rey, USA Today, 25 Mar. 2026
  • McKenzie believes that most of the crypto industry operates like a pyramid scheme.
    — Sheelah Kolhatkar, The New Yorker, 24 July 2023
  • Bernie Madoff, whose pyramid scheme ensnared tens of billions of dollars, was sentenced to 125 years in prison.
    — Byleo Schwartz, Fortune Crypto, 3 Oct. 2023
  • Like a rock star spiraling into burnout, he was consumed by the pyramid scheme of fame, parceling himself out, faster and faster, to everyone who wanted a piece.
    — Helen Lewis, The Atlantic, 2 Mar. 2021
  • Some cryptocurrency pump-and-dump and pyramid schemes have resulted in Bernie Madoff-like levels of fraud.
    — Rachel Aviv, The New Yorker, 10 Apr. 2018
  • Combined with the arrest of a team owner for his role in a pyramid scheme, the unexpected costs immediately crushed the team’s future.
    — David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, 2 Aug. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pyramid scheme.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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