I can explain it in easier terms. In a Ponzi scheme, everyone pays to the main investor. In a Pyramid, you pay (and sometimes only know) to the person above you.

One thing to be clear about for both Ponzi and Pyramid schemes: there is NO PRODUCT exchanging hands. It's all "investments". There are many legitimate companies that are set up with multiple levels, including traditional bricks-and-mortar companies. The key thing that makes something a "scheme" is the lack of a product or service. It's one thing to get a salary or commission based on your position with the company. It's another to be promised a cut of someone else's "investment", where the people on the bottom have no source for money at all.

In a pyramid scheme, no one loses money per se. People pay money to get in on the "business opportunity" and a cut of that money is given to each level above that person. Obviously, each level must recruit more and more people in order to make any money. The important thing is, in a pyramid scheme, no one thinks the money is going to be invested and they expect to recruit people in order to make any money.

In a Ponzi scheme, the leader of the scheme takes money from a first level, theoretically to invest, but because there was no investment or it fell through or whatever, he then recruits more people to pay off the original investors. This continues for several levels until it all falls apart. The key difference is that the head of the Ponzi scheme does all of the recruiting and no one thinks they have to recruit people to make money.

It sounds like the pages are just pointing to a difference in how the victims are handled.


From wikipedia:
Pyramid schemes are not to be confused with Ponzi schemes, named after Charles Ponzi, which also rely on greed and gullibility but are quite different. In a Ponzi scheme, all new money is paid to "Mr. Ponzi" for investment in his incredibly profitable business and he distributes a portion of it to other members as "interest" or "investment income" whereas in a pyramid, money is paid to the next level upward in the pyramid.



And.....
* A multilevel pyramid scheme is a form of fraud similar in some ways to a Ponzi scheme...
However, several characteristics distinguish these schemes from Ponzi schemes:
o In a Ponzi scheme, the schemer acts as a "hub" for the victims, interacting with all of them directly. In a multilevel scheme, those who recruit additional participants benefit directly (in fact, failure to recruit typically means no investment return).
o A Ponzi scheme claims to rely on some esoteric investment approach, insider connections, etc., and often attracts well-to-do investors; multilevel schemes explicitly claim that new money will be the source of payout for the initial investments.
o A multilevel scheme is bound to collapse a lot faster, due to the necessity of exponential increases in participants to sustain it. By contrast, Ponzi schemes can survive simply by persuading most existing participants to "reinvest" their money, with a relatively small number of new participants.