Google the older "envelope-stuffing scams" or "work-at-home envelope-stuffing schemes." It was essentially a chain-letter / pyramid scheme disguised as home employment in the backs of magazines, supermarket tabloids, comic books, classifieds, and alternative newspapers WAAAAAY before the Internet. The classic version went something like you could make money at home, earn $500 a week stuffing envelopes, always stating "No experience necessary!" and tell you all you gotta do is send $1.00 and a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) for complete details!

You'd dutifully send your dollar and SASE, expecting instructions from Acme Envelope Stuffing Industries. What came back was basically, "HERE'S HOW. Place an ad saying' MAKE MONEY AT HOME! Earn $500 a week stuffing envelopes! Send $1.00 and a SASE for details!'" and so on. When people send you a dollar, put these instructions in their SASE. And the loop keeps repeating.

So congratulations: you had just purchased the privilege of becoming the next layer of the scam. There were several names floating around for these, including "envelope stuffing," "home mailing programs," "mail order plans," "money-making opportunities," and sometimes simply "SASE schemes." Law-enforcement and consumer-protection literature generally lumped them into work-at-home schemes or work-at-home scams. And they were everywhere before the Internet. The $1 was brilliant in a sleazy sort of way. It was too little money for almost anyone to pursue after discovering they'd been had. You weren't going to call a lawyer because some bastard in Baltimore stole your dollar. But if 5,000 people mailed the bastard a dollar...