Zeek Rewards has been shut down by the Securities and Exchange Commission on charges that it is "a massive Ponzi and pyramid scheme."

I have received calls about Zeek Rewards as a way to make money since the moment the company started up about two years ago. The promise was that you could earn 1.5% per day on your money!

Stop and give yourself a reality check: CDs and savings are paying 1% per year if you’re lucky. The stock market can earn you 10% per year if you're very lucky. How in the world could Zeek Rewards pay you 1.5% per day then?!

Zeek Rewards was a multi-level marketing scheme centered around online penny auctions with a lucrative affiliate advertising system.

Unfortunately, as I talked to people about Zeek Rewards, they didn’t want to hear what I had to say. That's been a recurring theme with callers. Now the feds are guessing that the number of "investors" (read: victims) may go past 1 million people!

I know it's tempting to believe in stuff like Zeek Rewards at a time when money is short. It's comforting to think somebody could have the magic pill to make you fabulously wealthy. And it's true that some people who got involved made money, but it's ill gotten gains.

Put simply, Zeek Rewards was an illegal game of chance.

Remember, money does not magically appear in your life unless you’re the Federal Reserve and you own the printing press. The rest of us have to earn it by working or investing in real things. Not on a wing and a prayer.