Thank you Sharon, Jude and Allinvain - your info is most helpful and I will follow up with more reading. If the rate is dropping from 12.5 to 6.5 - that is a red flag to me, taken together with the other things mentioned.
It's a shame that age - the older a program gets - the riskier it gets too. One would think longevity = experience = success, but the reverse seems to be true in the hyip world.
In the sane, normal world, longevity is a plus. Go figure.
The "loan" angle is obviously legal protection. There is no law against individuals making
private loans to a person or a company and getting paid back with interest.
Thanks again for your input.
HeyJude