By Justin Fenton
Enquirer staff writer

A pyramid scheme known as "gifting" has spread from the Carolina coast to Greater Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Better Business Bureau warned Thursday.

BBB officials said they received two inquiries Wednesday into a group called Elite Activities, including a call from a Bond Hill woman who said she attended an information session in the home of a Corryville man.

"The idea behind the club is that you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, we'll all get together and exchange gifts," said Mike Hickerson, a charity analyst with the BBB in Cincinnati. "The problem is, very quickly they disintegrate or the person who started disappears, or they are asked to give the money to a higher level."

The inquiries were received "literally back to back," which he said indicates the group is "really hitting Cincinnati hard right now."

A spokeswoman for the Ohio Attorney General's Office said Thursday it had not received any complaints, but would look into information the BBB had received.

In March, the North Carolina District Attorney's Office listed Elite Activities and its higher-level program, Jacob's Ladder, as two of six illegal pyramid schemes in that area, warning that participation would result in prosecution. The Coastal Carolina BBB in South Carolina also issued an alert in March.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, gifting clubs require new members to give cash "gifts" from $100 to $6,000 to the highest-ranking club members. They are promised that if they get additional members to join, they, too, will rise to that level and receive money - far more than they paid to join the club - from newer members.

Investigators say new members who can't keep the investors coming lose everything they paid.

Elite Activities started through word of mouth but launched a Web site in 2001 that now claims to have at least 58,000 members nationally. Its Web site requires a password, which the Enquirer was able to access through an Internet message board that posted it as a way to entice new members.

The site - which uses biblical imagery and quotes Scripture - has a disclaimer that instructs public officials or other visitors to leave if their "motivation for visiting this site is any other than charity."

It states that it is not a pyramid scheme, even citing state and federal laws and linking to an FTC page warning about gifting.

"If you are interested in making a profit, you do not qualify for participation in Elite Activity's activities. Please leave," it reads.

Once inside the site, members are told of how much they can "get." The message board post promises $97,000 in the first six months and $46,000 every six months for life.

An attempt to contact Elite Activities through e-mail was returned as undeliverable, and a phone number listed for the main Web site in Durham, N.C., was disconnected.

A man in Camarillo, Calif., who runs one of the sites said he was merely a Web administrator and wasn't involved with the group.

E-mail jfenton@enquirer.com