A scheme designed to give each person involved a return of $10,240 on a ten dollar investment hit at least 164 students in the University some time yesterday.

Known as the "Build Your Wealth Campaign," it is similar to the pyramid-letter fad which overtook the University student body four years ago. The present craze also works on the chain letter technique.

The system works as follows:

1) A list containing ten names and addresses is sold to a student for five dollars. The customer then sends, in the seller's presence, an additional five dollars to the first person on the list.

2) The same purchaser then makes two copies of the list, eliminating the first name on the list and adding his own at the bottom. He attempts to sell each of his copies, then waits for thousands of dollars to be mailed to him.

Boston police said yesterday that the plan violated federal lottery statutes, leaving the students liable to federal prosecution.

Apparently inaugurated in Colorado, this newest chain letter fad spread to Yale. It came to Harvard when a Yale sophomore, anxious to make a quick sale, sold it through the mails to an undergraduate here.

At Yale, almost the entire student body became involved. The affair there was short-lived, however, as the police and school authorities moved in and broke up the plan in one day.