Imagine, you are working for more than 10 hours a day excluding the hours that you had spent in the traffic jam fo at least 2 hours. Then your salary would be below the average minimum wage mandated by the government. Suddenly, a person whom maybe you know personally, a friend or a relative or maybe a complete stranger messaged you about an "opportunity" that will change your life financially. Will you be able to resist it?
This has been the cases to the majority of Filipinos here in our country. People are being sold of the dream that is easy to achieve, the huge amount of earnings that you can get if you join them and the returns of investment that you will receive.
We are all informed about such schemes, but a lot are still becoming a victim of greed and because of that these offers are still in the market.
Story Time and Personal Experience:
Back in 2019, the year prior to pandemic we are offered by a friend to join a program called broilerpreneur.
The program promised, that when we invest on it we just need to wait for 60 days and our money invested will be doubled. Also, if you refer someone to join and invest you will receive a commission.
I already know that it was somehow sketchy, but due to greed I spent 5,000.00 pesos or around $110.00 that time. My friend who invited us, was able to withdraw some of his earnings that time so, somehow my doubts if this program would pay is alleviated. Plus we are not going to spend the money invested that time, we are aiming to withdraw it after 6 months as it will be added to our wedding funds.
Because I also want to earn through commission, I shared the program to some of my friends and I was able to had a talk with one of them and he said that he is ready to make a deposit to the program in the next few days. Before he invest his money, I told him that invest on what you can afford to lose and this program is something that I don't trust 100%. ( Shame on me that time, I am sharing stuff online and then removing myself accountable on the end result). After a few days, my friend messaged me that he changed his mind and will not invest anymore. I told myself that it was a huge loss as the commission that I am hoping for will not be credited to me. But later I am grateful that he was not persuade on the possible earnings that he will get.
Fast forward, after a few weeks maybe 2 or 3 weeks from being into the program. Problems started to pile up, from withdrawals that were not processed, delay response from the support and a raid in their office by the cybercrime division. And then the president / CEO went missing in action.
Before that, I am really positive on the program as they have some documentation / business permits and registration plus an office where you can visit. (I didn't know that it was easy to get one of those until I started my own business as it took me minutes to set up one. A duly compliant and tax paying business per se. )
For some that are not aware how to spot a Ponzi scheme?
According to Investor.gov there are 7 "Red Flags" that you need to watch out for programs and mind you all of those red flags mentioned are in the program that I joined. But due to greed, I still joined yes very naïve and stupid.
- High returns with little or no risk - we are promised with very little risk on the scheme as what they had informed us is if in case that our chicks will die in the program timeframe we are still going to be paid as they will be selling it still in the market.
- Overly consistent returns - I never heard of any negative sales / earnings while this program is being hyped by the members.
- Unregistered investments - though they are registered, after digging further their registration doesn't match on what the nature of the business is. It was an investment program but they don't have any license to do so.
- Unlicensed sellers - there's no one licensed in selling the products.
- Secretive, complex strategies - the president together with it's head just say that the earnings come from sales of the chicken on their farm and the investments given by us are used for the improvement of the farm.
- Issues with paperwork - same as being unregistered they had issues with paper works and banks as there are instances wherein we did not send our payments directly from the company instead we sent it over to a person who then remits it elsewhere.
- Difficulty receiving payments. - they started okay until they implement rules such as you need to hit first the number of invites, invested amount and their preferred method of disbursement. It was a hassle cashing out the money or even the seed money invested as they said that it was in pending status by the "system".
To make the scam realistic they have shared this video on what the farm looks like and I will leave the video here too for reference.
Final thoughts on Ponzi scheme :
Be doubtful, always be in doubt and research thoroughly. Not because your friend or someone you knew was able to cash out you will jump into the wagon completely.
Ponzi scheme will always be there as long as there are people who are willing to be a victim. I am not going to be a part of it anymore after being a victim multiple times 😂 I chose not to be. True that there are programs that can make you rich quick but to what expense?
Thank you for reading my rumblings this far I appreciate it.
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