Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ponzi Scheme

In 1980 a buddy of mine got involved in a get-rich-quick scheme named Challenge to America. Jerry was an RN making good pay. Somehow, he found out about a group called Challenge to America. This was founded by a man named Glen Turner. To get in you paid $5,000 cash. Then you attended a one week seminar in the meeting room of the Holiday Inn in Macon, Georgia. There, various salesmen got up and lectured you about self confidence. They said you needed to think rich and you would soon be rich. That was it, there was no product there was just a one week self confidence course.

Having "graduated" from the one week course, you had the right to sell the course. When you made the sale, you got a 33 percent commission. $1650 right in your pocket. Jerry tried to sell me the course, I told him it was an illegal Ponzi Scheme, I told him I wasn't interested, and he ought to be ashamed of himself. He didn't care. He sold ten courses, so that in a month, he pocketed $16,500. He quit his RN job, and Challenge Inc. transferred him to Louisiana where he would head up Challenge operations in New Orleans.

***********************************

"Glenn Wesley Turner (1934–2020)[1] was a salesman best known for his Orlando, Florida based multi-level marketing cosmetic company Koscot Interplanetary, Inc.


Koscot Interplanetary Inc. was founded on August 27, 1967. Koscot and Dare to be Great grew rapidly and Turner became famous. At one point 60,000 people in 40 states and Canada worked for his businesses.

The premise of Koscot was that participants could sell mink oil-based cosmetics door-to-door or at parties. However, the focus of the company was more about selling distributorships than cosmetics. A distributorship was sold for $5,000.

"In 1979, his fortune gone, Turner attempted a comeback with another motivational company called Challenge, Inc., which led to more legal difficulties. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in 1987, after being convicted along with Edward Rector, on charges of conspiracy, fraud and operating a pyramid scheme."

Did he sing in a quartet and sell annuities too?