The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has warned members of the public against investing in Ponzi and Pyramid schemes.
This follows the arrest of a Chinese national, Zhao Jiaotong, believed to be the brains behind E-Creator, a Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of Zimbabweans of their hard-earned cash.
On Thursday, 13 July, Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Senior Staff Officer (Press and Public Relations), Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed Zhao’s arrest on fraud allegations.
In a statement issued on Friday, 14 July, FIU said it had noted with concern the proliferation of Ponzi and Pyramid schemes in Zimbabwe. Reads the statement:
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) notes with concern the proliferation of Ponzi and Pyramid schemes in the country.
These schemes come in various forms and guises, designed to mask their fraudulent nature and lure people into parting with their hard-earned money.
The schemes share certain common characteristics which members of the public are advised to look out for.
Under such schemes, people are typically asked to invest a sum of money and are promised unrealistic returns/profits, either without being asked to do anything else (Ponzi schemes) or being required to actively recruit new members/investors (pyramid schemes).
In either case, funds from new investors/recruits are used to pay the earlier investors as well as the originators of the scheme.
Sooner or later, the scheme will run out of new investors/recruits and inevitably collapses, with the majority of the investors unable to recover their funds.
As such schemes are illegal and unregulated, it is usually difficult for victims to get satisfactory recourse to recover their money.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has in the past issued warnings to the public against investing in such schemes.
In light of a recent surge in the activities of such schemes, the FIU wishes to reiterate the warnings.
Members of the public are urged to be wary of such fraudulent schemes and, in particular, to look out for the following red flags:
- Any entity inviting investments when they are not a registered or regulated financial service provider; or
- Promises of super profits/returns that cannot conceivably be earned through known legitimate economic activities; or
- Investment schemes that predominately exist on WhatsApp groups and similar social media platforms but have little or no physical visibility in the form of permanent offices.
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation where the operator pays returns to its investors from their own money or from the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned.
The scheme relies on attracting new investors and using their investments to provide returns to earlier investors.
The scheme is named after Charles Ponzi, an Italian-born swindler who became notorious in the early 20th century for running such a scheme.
Ponzi promised investors high returns on investments in international postal reply coupons, but he was actually using the money from new investors to pay off earlier investors.
In a pyramid scheme, participants make money primarily by recruiting new members who make payments to those above them in the pyramid structure.
The structure of a pyramid scheme resembles a pyramid, where the initial recruiter sits at the top and recruits a level of individuals below them.
Each person recruited is then encouraged to recruit more people, forming subsequent levels beneath them.
As the pyramid grows, each level becomes larger, and participants are promised increasing rewards as they move up the pyramid.
However, pyramid schemes are unsustainable and eventually collapse. The recruitment of new members becomes difficult, and those at the bottom of the pyramid are unable to find enough recruits to recover their initial investment.
Only a small number of people at the top benefit from the scheme, while the majority of participants lose their money.
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