A computer using a Missouri telephone number (314 558-9518) called Whistleblower's phone on Tuesday, promising big money. I pressed 1 to ask for a callback.

A few hours later, Art Abramson called from San Francisco. His offer: "cash gifting," a 9-year-old business in the "network marketing" field. I can always find a use for envelopes of cash. Tell me more, I said.

His enthusiasm turned to evasion, once he learned whom the computer had called.

"I'm trying to make money, I'm trying to work, and I'm not interested in helping a reporter right now," he said. He hung up a few seconds later, and hung up twice more when I called him back.

So I did my own research.

"Cash gifting" schemes are touted as private clubs in which members help each other with supposedly tax-sheltered "gifts" of money. You give some cash to join, and then you make money by recruiting others to do the same thing you did. The Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission have another name for cash gifting programs: pyramid schemes, in which most people lose their money, and which happen to be illegal.

Sorry, Art, I'll keep my day job.

Do you know anyone involved in cash gifting groups?