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HomeNewsAfricaMMM GLOBAL: 7 Vital Things You MUST Know About The Ponzi Scheme

MMM GLOBAL: 7 Vital Things You MUST Know About The Ponzi Scheme

It is no longer news that thousands of participants were left devastated following an alleged crash of popular Ponzi scheme, MMM Global in Zimbabwe recently.

There are certain things people may not have heard about the pyramid scheme run by a convicted Russian fraudster and politician, Sergey Mavrodi.

Below are about certain things you may need to know about the ponzi scheme according to Independent UK:

1.The ‘quick cash-making scheme’ has become so popular across different countries in Africa, with branches promising returns on investment of 30 per cent a month in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and some east African states.

2. Investors lost about $100million as the original MMM which stands for Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox collapsed in the late 1990s.

3. MMM Global boasts to be a scheme whereby new members “assist” older members by paying a fee to join. Older members are allowed to withdraw money after a certain period of time, and receive bonuses for encouraging others to sign up.”

4. Mavrodi himself is reported to have gone into hiding after a separate entity designed to reward investors with the cryptocurrency bitcoin – dubbed the “Republic of Bitcoin” –folded in April this year.

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And since then, a criminal investigation has been launched into MMM Global’s branch in South Africa, after a probe by the National Consumer Commission “found something” to suggest the scheme was acting illegally.
5. Despite warning from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, thousands of residents resorted to MMM Global as an investment that was avowedly independent of government control, amidst serious economic recession.
RBZ warned members of the public that existing investors were “paid money not from genuine market investment of their funds, but from contributions made by new investors, until a point when the scheme can no longer attract new investors”.

Sure enough, users reported being unable to withdraw any funds earlier this month.

One said: “When we started putting our funds in the scheme one could get assistance within seven days but things later changed to 14 days and when we were shut out the waiting period was 21 days.

“What it simply means is that the number of people in need of help has outnumbered the number of people joining. Right now we have nowhere to get our money which we invested.”

6. A number of South African banks have now started shutting down accounts they believe could be linked to MMM, while in Zimbabwe the trusted mobile money transfer company EcoCash has distanced itself from the scheme, saying it is “not liable for any losses arising from the use of EcoCash to engage in illegal activities such as Ponzi schemes”.
7. Despite all warnings, the ponzi scheme continues to thrive in Nigeria even though the Central Bank of Nigeria has been forced to step in, warning consumers not to deposit money in any institution that is not insured by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).
The apex bank’s communications director, Isaac Okoroafor, described MMM Global as “a new Ponzi scheme … that is spreading like wildfire”.
He said: “These people always come with very interesting propositions. These are fraudsters who are just out there to collect people’s money and run away as soon as they hit their target.”

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