"Gifting clubs", aimed primarily at inveigling money out of middle-class women, emerged in Utah, New Mexico and Texas early last year and spread quickly across the United States. They emerged in Britain at the start of the year and spread to Ireland by summer.
The Utah "Women Empowering Women" club, which appears to be one of the first, came under investigation by the Division of Consumer Protection. The pyramid club's founder, Susan McCarty, was fined last December under the Utah Sales Practice Act. Ms McCarty runs a modelling agency.
It is not clear if the scheme originated with her. Other people have been prosecuted across the southern states and in New York.
The name "Women Empowering Women" is taken from a feminist term used in the 1980s for women's self-help groups, particularly in the west coast of the US. Those groups genuinely sought to help women return to work and earn money legitimately.
The term "women to women" was reactivated in a speech three years ago by the then US secretary of state, Ms Madeleine Albright, in a keynote speech on the need for assistance for women living in oppressive conditions in countries like Afghanistan and the former Soviet states.
The term has been borrowed as the new "hook" in the latest version of the pyramid scheme and it appears to have been highly successful. Other quasi-feminist terms used include: "The Gifting Club", "Women Gifting Women", "Circle of Friends", "Women to Women", "Heart to Heart", "The Diners' Club", and "The Investment Chart".
Whatever the name, the controversial scheme involves the traditional pyramid system of telling victims that if they hand over money to join (in this case about £3,000) they will receive up to £24,000 simply by recruiting two more investors.
In fact, as a Department of Trade and Industry spokeswoman in London said earlier this year, it would take a further 64 recruits to put up money for the initial eight victims or "investors" to receive £24,000; and 512 for those 64 to be paid; and 4,096 for those 512 victims to be paid.
The huge number at the bottom of the scheme needed to pay any dividend to those at the top is the reason for the description of the scheme as "pyramid".
The scheme originated in the 19th century and has had myriad variants. In recent times a huge pyramid scheme caused economic havoc in Albania after the collapse of the communist regime there. The latest variant to emerge in Britain concerned non-existent cheap holidays.
A major part of the appeal of the "Women to Women" version is the implied or directly stated sales pitch that at its core it is helping needy women somewhere.
However, the more commonly touted line in the spread of the scheme in Britain earlier this year was that it was a way that women could help each other to become richer. It seemed to spread more quickly in wealthier parts of the south of England. Some newspapers estimated that 500,000 women fell foul of the scheme in Britain.
Europe lags behind the US in laws dealing with pyramid schemes - probably because this type of controversial scheme is far more prevalent there.
In parts of the US state police were able to break up "Women to Women" parties, seize the money being "invested" and bring prosecutions. In many US states it is illegal to participate in pyramid systems in any way.
The authorities in New Mexico have brought minor (fourth degree) felony charges against participants that provide for fines of up to $10,000 or 18 months' imprisonment.