I first heard about this “game” through one of my close friends. The next day, my friend said an influencer was posting about it and making thousands of dollars. She asked me if we should join in… $200 for $1600?? I told her, I’m in.

After each sending $200 via Venmo to a random person we were now officially in one of these money circles. Long story short, my friend cashed out at $1,600 and I am currently -$200. How did that happen? I’ll tell ya, but first you have to understand the basics of how these circles work.

What is a blessing loom/ money circle?

Participants recruit other participants to join and receive a form of investment.

Are blessing looms a pyramid scheme?

Pyramid schemes are when one person recruits two people, those two people recruit more people while the person at the top collects a portion of every recruit's investment. At its core, it could be identified as a pyramid scheme but the difference is that this is not an ongoing collection by the same person/ people. Some consider it more of a “group project”— if people slack on recruiting more people, you have to pick up the slack and recruit harder if you want to get paid.

How do blessing looms work?

You’re basically just taking money from your friends or your friend’s friends and sometimes, complete strangers.

It really only works if each person is recruiting at least 2 people. If everyone recruits 2 people, everyone eventually moves closer to the middle spot where you get paid out by the new participants. But it’s quite hard to convince people to join in.

A blessing loom looks like this:

Everyone on the outside are new participants. They have each paid a $200 entry fee to the person in the middle (Olivia). Olivia is now cashed out at $1,600 because everyone’s buy-in was $200. (8 x $200= $1,600)

Now that Olivia has been paid out, the group splits into two different/ new groups. Heather has one group, Matt has another. Heather’s group consists of the top half (her half) and Matt has the bottom half (his half).

Example of Heather’s group:

Everyone in this group now has to find 8 more participants and each of these 8 people will pay Heather. The same goes for Matt’s group.

Once these 8 new people pay Heather, Heather is cashed out. Now Dylan starts his group with Hunter, Jason and the 4 new participants in their outside half. John too starts his new group with Val, Haley and the 4 new participants in their outside half, and so on.

Here is how my friend was able to cash out $1,600 almost immediately…

My friend and I were randomly placed on separate ends which means that when the circle split, we were in two different groups. Her group had multiple influencers who were recruiting lots of people through their instagram so people who joined quickly were cashed out quickly. My group on the other hand… hasn’t recruited enough people and I’m not sure if I will be “paid out” to be quite honest. BUT, I was willing to take that risk from the beginning.

What people don’t tell you about blessing looms:

The circle(s) have to be filled 3 times before you are cashed out. Once when you are a new participant and two more times as you move closer/ into the middle spot. That’s a total of 23 people that have to join before you are paid out... that’s A LOT of people.

The danger of blessing looms:

• People can start one of these by placing themselves in the middle spot, recruit people and cash themselves out almost immediately.

• They can even use fake names to trick people into thinking others are playing when in reality, it’s only them in the very middle collecting from the outermost rim (the new participants).

Hopefully this answered your questions to make your own decision on joining one of these! If you are interested in joining one, I highly suggest you join one where you know AT LEAST two or more of the people participating. Also, you should only play if you are willing to lose. The caveat is having enough people to keep everyone moving closer to the middle spot.

Feel free to DM me about your experience!

Stephanie Daily