GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — To escape unemployment and poverty, which have reached record levels in the Gaza Strip, many young men and women have resorted to pyramid schemes in an effort to make money. However, they have become victims of fraud and theft from several bogus online companies.

The Ministry of Economy in the Gaza Strip issued a decision Jan. 25, banning the sale, purchase, trade, marketing or advertising of any product or service through pyramid marketing via any electronic or nonelectronic method. The ministry warned that whoever violates the decision risks legal accountability.

The ministry’s decision came a few days after reports of a Gazan woman who committed a fraudulent operation against a large number of citizens in the Gaza Strip. She then fled to Turkey after having collected nearly $2 million from the victims and deluded them that she ran a pyramid marketing company.

Network marketing or pyramid schemes are considered a bogus commercial activity on the internet that not only affects the victim, but also his surrounding circle. The victim buys goods in large amounts from the so-called business owner, with the aim of investing in the trade and making profits that are usually not real.