I called this post the $10 Cash Machine because it was the only thing online I found that remotely resembled what I remember, with some slight differences. Back when I was a kid, my mother would occasionally get these letters mailed to her from friends and family. In the letter it would start with some hype about earning money through the mail and how you can easily do the same.

The next part explained how it worked. There would be five names and addresses on the bottom of the letter. You would mail $10 to each name listed, then you would place your name in the top spot and move everyone else down a spot, dropping the last person from the list. Make copies of this new form and mail/distribute like a mad man.

The $10 Cash Machine form I found online says something about emailing a monitor for proof that you paid the people on your list, then you’d receive a marketing kit with your own flyer. That stuff wasn’t on anything I ever saw because what I saw was back before the days of the internet when nobody had email. I’m sure this so called marketing kit is simply the same form with your name inserted like I just told you, and some tips for distribution and more hype.

The idea behind this is the assumption that a bunch of people you send this to will fill your mailbox with $10 each, and also do the same by dropping your name to #2, put their name in the #1 slot, and send the flyer out to a ton more people. At each level you should make more money as there’s a lot more flyers out there with your name on it. Let’s try one for example using a fictitious 1% response rate.

You put your name and address at Level 1 and send 500 direct mail flyers out and 5 people (1%) respond by sending you $10 each.

You receive $50

Those 5 people mail out 500 direct mail flyers each for a total of 2500 flyers with your name at Level 2, and 25 people send you $10.

You receive $250

Then 25 people mail out 500 direct mail flyers each for a total of 12500 flyers with your name at Level 3, and 125 people send you $10.

You receive $1250

125 people mail out 500 direct mail flyers each for a total of 62500 flyers with your name at Level 4, and 625 people send you $10.

You receive $6250

625 people mail out 500 direct mail flyers each for a total of 312500 flyers with your name at Level 5, and 3125 people send you $10.

You receive $31250

At this point your name is dropped off the list, but not before making nearly $40000 minus your expenses of paying the initial five people, copies, envelopes, postage, etc.

What teenager wouldn’t be interested in sending letters in exchange for massive amounts of free cash? No time to figure out the math and unsustainable matrix. Time to mail letters and make money.

I didn’t just try the program. I altered it like a greedy pig. I believe I shrunk the cost to 25 cents, but doubled the levels to 10, and the payout projection was insane. You wanna know if it worked?