On paper the Bitcoin Currency is a legitimate currency which is taking the world by storm. A lot of investors have made big monies by investing in this currency. Little is known by the general public of how it operates, how to make money, how you can make losses-who makes losses when you make profits etc. The gap in information has created room for fraudsters who are cashing in on the lack of information by duping unsuspecting members of the public.
The modus operandi for fraudsters is easy and involves the following processes:
1.Fraudster opens a Whatsapp Groups,
2.Targets individuals interested in making quick returns
- A few people invest funds with him and offers them high interest returns in the first month
- Those who got high returns recruit more
- Those newly recruited invest funds and the recruiters reinvest funds plus interest
- One of two members start complaining about investment overdue
- The Admin reassures the group that all is inorder
- More members join the chorus of complaining about funds over due
- Bombshell dropped on the group as the Admin fails to satisfactorily answer when funds invested will be deposited into members accounts.
- With temperatures boiling on the group, the admin performs a disappearing act. He removes every member, blocks everyone and deletes the group!
The above modus operandi was in full action last week in the beautiful city of Masvingo where members lost close to $60,000. The method used is detailed below:
Bitcoin Watsapp Group is formed promising members who invest to get an interest of 50% -now surely this is heaven on earth! The first month the few members who had invested money all got interest. So far so good with everyone getting their monies back-excited members not only reinvest funds but go on to recruit their close relatives. Zvikanzi kwaita ngoda uku hama dzinodiwa, huyai huyai tiite mari nekukurumidza.
With total amount invested reaching $60,000 what happens next was to teach Masvingo residence a tough lesson about Bitcoin funds! Everyone in the group was supposed to get their money last week but nothing came. When members started getting vocal and asking for their money, the admin followed point number 7 above. With members not satisfied with answers from the group admin, the admin invoked section 9 above and all hell broke loose.
With everyone in the group realising that they had been conned…they rushed to a mobile money agent to check the authenticity of the person they had been wiring funds to. They also though tat they could possibly have fund transfers reversed.
At the mobile money agent more trouble awaited them-the fraudster had transferred funds to more than 5 accounts….ichibuda umu…yoenda umu..yozoenda uko….a case of someone sophisticated involved in money laundering!
Tracing the movement of the funds was to become a wind chasing event as the fraudster had covered his back in endless funds transfers.
Legitimate programmes tainted by con artists
The essence of this article is not to taint Bitcoin, we have seen it working in other countries. Even in Zim, a lot have benefited from it. What is worrisome is that fraudsters are using the scheme to defraud unsuspecting members of the public.
The same method was used in online forex trading. Members are encouraged to come for training and those who fail to master how online forex trading works are then invited to invest funds with the admin and the whole episodes always ending with tears from group members! This is why ZBIN is always encouraging Online Forex Traders to learn to trade on their own and not give funds to anyone.
Lessons learnt
The trend of online fraud is not going to end any time soon especially with the economy and cash crunch worsening by the day. Last year the MMM collapse resulted in an estimated $6m loss for Zimbabweans. Online Forex Trading was soon to follow with more than a million lost. We get some comfort in the sense that one of the fraudsters who had duped Hararians of $225,000 was arrested. Binary trading also followed and one of the fraudster admins who had vanished with $9,000 was arrested.
In January we cautioned members and told you to grasp Bitcoin with caution as it had started making waves in Nigeria with members of the public falling prey to Bitcoin Investment fraudsters.
In point form we advise all stakeholders to take note of the following:
1.If it is too good to be true, then avoid it-use your gut instinct
- If you are in an online forex group and the admins answers to the name Blessing or Evangelist, then sickly demand your money back and hit the exit button of the group
- Most of the platforms are being perpetrated using mobile money platforms. The $6m lost last year was through them, the recent $60,000 was again through them. Are mobile money transfer platform equipped enough to monitor and deter fraudulent activities? How about all money transfer agencies investing a small portion of their profits in public awareness? Surely these companies are making millions of profit-how about $50,000 each company investing in anti fraud awareness programs encouraging members of the public to be wary of online fraudsters? It is $60,000 for Masvingo but how about the whole nation? It could well run into multi millions of dollars!
- The Fraudster from Masvingo transferred money from one account, then the next, the trend continued. How is this possible? If a bank can programme their system such that one cannot overdraw available funds, how about putting mechanisms that suspend funds transfer when you start moving them from fund to fund within minutes?
There are definitely more points to add above and our hope is that our followers will scrutinise all online opportunities. Some are very good on paper but there will always be con artists looking at loopholes so that they can dupe the public of their hard earned monies.
Below we feature some of the responses from our ZBIN platform
Yemurai Nhongo-Thepe They sent this money to an individual? Vakaita due diligence here vanhu ava?
Numerous Mashv Manduku Chabata Bitcoin rates were very attractive
Rachel Chitongo Haaa zvakaoma, hakuna quick money forex trading is university chaiyo aaaa
Watson Musenda Next time they will play Lotto… Where in the world will you get 50% interest…. How will the investor invest your hard earned money to acquire that profit margin? Even old mutual with a huge investment portfolios will not afford even 10% p. a…let alone 50% per month. Kkkkkkkkkkkk
Mdala Wa Rue Zvakawoma….ko panenge paine vawana mari zve first month lol
Watson Musenda Yes, so that they will tell others boss… I haven’t seen a guy who made money with these “get rich overnight investors” except lotto,Surprisingly they all end up crying, blaming the investor. Why putting money to an entity that is not registered with the Reserve Bank… Why investing through eco cash to a guy whose physical address you don’t know? Why investing to a company who have a one roomed tiny office with an old computer? Lots of red 
Kwame Mwemba Thanks for this article.2 years ago l lost thousands in MMM using bit coin that was in SA.Then from nowhere l saw alot of posts on groups from Zimbabwe.l tried to warn people about it and most sent me bad messages and l was even removed from most groups.People must realize there is no such thing as making 50% to 100% within days of investment without working.Hope they catch the guy and post his face on all groups and FB so that he is caught.l hate people who just get peoples money like that .
Israel Zombo Gusalo Why invest in things u have least knowledge of ? That is ignorance and suicidal -first read, study check and scrutinise.
Runyararo Primrose Chandiwana-Munjoma shame ndakamboitambwa it happens Upenyu kupindana kwemazuva
Mary Mathew my sister was duped neimwe inonzi Helping hands international but l had warned her before
