Little is known of how the E-creator story was resolved at the courts, but this is the biggest ponzi scheme in Zimbabwe this year. Crafted in Nigeria at the end of the year 2022 and introduced in Zimbabwe in February 2023 running for a good 6 months before busting. In Nigeria it was known as Amita and in Zimbabwe launched as E-Creator. More than US$2m was lost in the process despite warnings that the ponzi scheme had short legs.
Meanwhile on the forum we also witnessed one of the most sophisticated scams from a member called Charmz but popularly known as Mai Tawana. She advertised widely across social media including ZBIN. Her modus operandi was as follows;
- Invite unsuspecting members of the public to partner in a fish deal.
- He business model involved buying fish from Kariba and selling to Holiday Inn Hotel.
- The first deal would go perfectly well—cash invested coming back with 100% profits.
- Victims excited by high profits bait, would reinvest in the dubious fish project.
- Victims asked to keep paper trail of fish procurement receipts—and Holiday Inn invoices. In summary running a Profit and Loss Statement showing huge paper profits.
Attempts to verify the existence of the Holiday Inn Buyer were not successful as she said he preferred remaining anonymous. And no one really verified whether there was any purchase of Kariba Fish. Therefore Mai Tawana involved in procurement …and also selling fish to Holiday Inn. Investors keeping profit statements and records.
Easy for students of finance to sniff out anomalies, but then ignorance is a multi- billion dollar business. By the time Mai Tawana was outted as a scammer—a total of $3000 had been lost by forum members. Outside the forum—Mai Tawana had fleeced investors of US$25,000.
Recovery attempts by victims did not yield much as she went underground.
Doing business in 2024 especially partnering with anyone? Think carefully and engage professionals before putting paper to pen and parting with your hard earned monies. Not all that glitters is gold. We expect more sophisticated scams to visit Zimbabwe in 2024 with most of them imported from high crime regions.
