West

For months, Inside Out has been investigating the Give and Take syndicate - a shadowy women-only scheme that offers the potential of a massive return on your money.

We know it started in the Bristol area more than a year ago and since then it has spread across the West.

Key to a Fortune

We’ve spoken to several women who have attended evenings held by the syndicate, which also uses the name Key to a Fortune.

Mel Watson was taken by a friend to one of the syndicate’s jackpot evenings.

She said: "We drove up to this lovely big house with lots of expensive cars in the car park, went inside and there were about 50 to 80 people. Everyone was mingling around.

"People who had previously invested came round to talk to me, to hype it all up and got me really excited about how much money I could easily make.

Mel Watson decided not to invest.

"They were on their third time of investing so they were on £60,000, £70,000."

But she decided not to invest.

"When you see the houses, the lovely cars and the money that they have, you think you can have the lifestyle like that.

"It’s not until you calm down from the excitement that you realise that it’s actually part of the hard sell," she said.

"I felt that further along the line there would definitely have been people who would have lost thousands of pounds and it seemed immoral to me and I didn’t want to be part of it."

Collapsing pyramids?

So how does it all work?

To join the syndicate, you need to bring in £3,000 and promise to recruit at least two more investors.

When enough people have been recruited you're in line for a possible £23,000 payout if you can answer four trivia questions correctly.

If you get one wrong you drop back a position and have to wait until more people are recruited.

Edmund Cannon - risk of losing everything.

The problem is while those who invest early on may get a pay-out, the pyramid expands so quickly there’s soon no-one left to recruit and the scheme collapses.

Dr Edmund Cannon, Reader of economics at Bristol University, said:

"We never know exactly when it becomes impossible to recruit new members to the scheme.

"But at some point it will become impossible and at that point anyone paying in is going to lose everything."

Pyramid chains

Any pyramid chain-gifting scheme is against the law.

They have been banned by The Gambling Act 2005 and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

Peter Selley - game of chance or skill.

Just signing up a new member could land you with a fine or even up to 51 weeks behind bars.

We’ve managed to track down members of the 12-strong committee that runs the Give and Take syndicate to Headley Park in south Bristol.

When they set up the scheme they took a barrister’s advice on how they could run it legally.

The declined to give us an interview and instead told us to speak to their solicitor, Patrick Selley.

Game of skill

Mr Selley said: "If the allocation of monies within the scheme depends upon a game of chance or skill, such as a quiz, then it will not offend Section 43 of the Gambling Act and the reason for that is that there will be no certainty of anybody winning.

"It will depend upon the outcome of the quiz.

"If there’s no expectation of an automatic payout it is not a chain-gifting scheme.

"We don’t accept that later down the road people are going to lose out because there are essential differences between this scheme and other typical pyramid schemes."