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The schemes are now issuing membership cards to people who pay a US$20 joining fee.
Investigations revealed that most of them are now urging people to pay US$40 to get US$250 after six weeks.
Contributors who pay US$80 are promised US$500 in six weeks.
These contributors are also assured to get US$1 000 for US$160 joining fees.
“But first one has to register with us to become a member,” said one of the officials at the premises.
Several people, including civil servants with some in uniform, have been visiting the offices to register while others were collecting their membership cards.
The cards have the club names, members’ names and other details.
The Herald understands that members would also sign other forms to recruit more members.
Legal experts recently warned people to desist from dealing with unregistered investment schemes that operate as money pyramids because they would have little recourse as the schemes eventually collapse.
This comes as another such money pyramid scheme, Capital Base, collapsed in Mutare in February, leaving thousands of people counting their losses.
The directors of Capital Base, who were due to appear in court, are pushing for their case to be heard outside Manicaland, fearing they would not receive a fair trial since some of the court officials lost their savings.
Civil servants, vendors, commuter omnibus operators and some indigenous companies were also caught in the crossfire as the illegal scheme collapsed.
Legal expert Mr Terence Hussein said those who want to invest should do so with schemes that comply with the Collective Investments Scheme Act of 1997.
The law was passed after illegal schemes or money clubs that operated as money pyramids collapsed in the 1990s, leaving prospective beneficiaries thronging police stations to report the fraud.
Illegal money pyramids promise huge and easy profits to “investors”, though they eventually collapse after the owners have benefited.
They have, however, resurfaced in Harare.
Most people who join to register are cosmopolitan and range from civil servants to office workers, foreign currency dealers and vendors.
The schemes were using Econet’s Ecocash facility as a medium for prospective members to deposit US$5 into each account of five existing members listed on a card and have to pay another US$5 administration fee to the scheme operators.
Econet has since distanced itself from the money pyramid schemes and has sent an SMS to its customers — warning them of the illegal activities.
Those registered for the scheme would have to recruit more members for them to start benefiting.
The pyramid operators say one would be removed from the list after realising US$15 000 and this could be done within a short time.
The money pyramids craze once hit Zimbabwe in the 1990s and resulted in people thronging police stations with inquiries on how they could recover their money after such schemes collapsed.
In 1996, hundreds of prospective “money makers” swindled out of millions of dollars by dozens of bogus savings clubs, besieged Harare Central Police Station demanding refunds from officials who had taken refuge there, in the sixth such incident to occur countrywide.
In 1997 scores of pupils at a high school in Seke, Chitungwiza, were allegedly swindled of hundreds of dollars by some teachers who were running money clubs that eventually collapsed.
The pupils were asked to pay money to the teachers with promises that they would “harvest’’ three times their initial “investment’’ in a month.
Police in Beitbridge fought running battles with a riotous crowd of about 400 people in 1996 which had raided the office of a money club to demand their investment back.
The director of the scheme had sought refuge in the offices.
Regardless of their claims to possess genuine services or products to sell, the money pyramid fraudsters simply use money coming in from new recruits to repay a few investors.
According to legal experts, a pyramid scheme is a fraudulent investing plan that has unfortunately cost many their hard-earned savings.
Pyramid marketers are known to recruit new victims almost from any place — at work, at churches and even by means of social groups or clubs.
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