Only recently, and too late for many, several Romanian newspapers have carried a number of reports on the expected collapse of the scheme.

The head of the Romanian Information Service, Virgil Magureanu, whose agency is a new version of the old Romanian secret police, the Securitate, acknowledged in an interview that his agency had given the Government a midyear assessment that the scheme was of such proportions that it needed to be brought under control. The report, which was leaked to a Romanian newspaper, said the scheme could only have perpetuated itself with infusions of money aside from the payments of depositors. The report speculated that the scheme was backed by "Italian funds of illicit provenance."

It also said that nearly 1.2 million people had deposited funds in the money-spinning game and that about 877,000 had received 800 percent returns in 90 days. It estimated that in late May there were almost 300,000 people waiting to be paid. Now most bankers and economists think all those figures are very low.

In a country where rumors are a way of life and facts scarce, theories for the scheme's longevity abound. Some opposition figures speculate that the Government has printed money to keep the scheme afloat, but with inflation now at 300 percent could no longer afford to do so.

This week in Cluj, the unfortunate, like Marie, a 55-year-old flower seller who refused to give her last name, wondered what had happened.

"My son put all his wedding money -- 900,000 lei -- in the game in September and he won't get it back," she said, as she huddled against the cold hawking scrawny carnations. "Where will he live?"

She said that the money, equal to about $900, was "for an apartment and apartments have increased three times since June because of Caritas." The sudden gold rush of money that swamped Cluj pushed the purchase price of a one-room apartment to the equivalent of $18,000, instead of $6,000 six months ago and $5,000 in the capital of Bucharest, she said. And that is in addition to the price surge caused by hyperinflation.