HARRISBURG -- The Erotic Investment Club's Web site isn't selling porn, but the opportunity to make money from it.

Applying the little-used investment strategy of targeting only strip clubs and online porn vendors, which churn huge gross receipts each year, the club promises big returns from what it calls a "stable and high-profit," if kind of slimy, industry.

So feel free to wire Erotic Investments an electronic transfer of $50, $100 or more -- already, nearly $9,000 has been invested by 72 people nationally, according to the site's house statistics.

Problem is, according to the Pennsylvania Securities Commission, the Web site isn't allowed to sell securities to Pennsylvanians. And when the company attempted to sell a security program to a potential Pennsylvania buyer, that's when Douglas Block, an attorney with the securities commission, took notice, starting an investigation that would develop unpredictably along the way.

The securities were illegal here because the month-old company hasn't registered its security offerings with the state, Block said. And although there are several loopholes -- if the company already has registered its offerings with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, for example -- "they didn't comply with any of them," Block said.

But there's more to the case than a simple registration oversight. The company, said Joe Malone, director of the commission's Internet fraud unit, is essentially a "high-yield investment program," which promises a huge daily return on investments.

The Erotic Investment Club claims to offer a minimum return of 5.25 percent daily, and a maximum of 7.25 percent daily.

"That's a Ponzi scheme," Malone explained.

"You get an investor, and you pay that investor with the next investor's money." The schemes have been around the years, finding suckers worldwide, swindling people who thought they were investing in condominium construction, or a little-known type of "high-margin trading," or, in this case, strip clubs.

Amazed and emboldened by initial returns, the financier invests more money, and perhaps persuades friends to pitch in, too. But eventually, once the money stops coming in, the person behind the Ponzi scheme makes off with the cash. The scheme is named after Carlos "Charles" Ponzi, an Italian immigrant who pilfered millions from the Boston police department.

As with most other investment scams, this one is exacerbated by the Internet, where people can solicit and send money instantly, without giving a second's thought to the old adage -- "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is," Malone said.

This month, the securities commission issued a cease-and-desist order to the registered owner of the Erotic Investment Club site, who is a Pennsylvania resident.

But when that person was served, Malone said, he said he'd never heard of the site, producing a third layer of deception -- not only was the Erotic Investment Club most likely a high-yield scam, and selling its securities illegally, but the person behind it had stolen someone else's identity.

As of yesterday, the site was still running.