South Africa 2016: LIKE play like play I warned them about investing in HYIP and rather do a physical business like trading, imports and exports..... but stubbornly they refused and laughed at me.... I kept quiet watched them put in the hard earned money... fastforward a few weeks later they had been duped.... "problems with the repayment system" meaning the fraudsters' exit strategy. No substitute for hardwork keep your money.... do legit biz deals. Avoid unnecessary suffering..

They the six Nigerians were introduced into the scheme by a friend who had also profited (but also lost out in the end), and they in turn brought in friends looking for easy money (MMM claim to offer) .... one of them got a pay out and that gingered more people to "invest" and by the time it collapsed the number of victims were more than those who benefited or profited from the scheme. The koko of the yarnyarn it that the victims outstrips the beneficiaries..... be wise, the initiators of the scheme have their own exit strategies ..... Nigeria is tough without getting scammed as it is already.... don't let yourself be scammed. #peaceout....

Thank you. I decided to make this thread as a result of posts I have been seeing about MMM please be wise, don't be lured by easy money. Read the book "the richest man in babylon"


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMM_(Ponzi_scheme_company)
МММ was a Russian company that perpetrated one of the world's largest Ponzi schemes of all time, in the 1990s.[1][2] By different estimates from 5 to 40 million people lost up to $10 billion. The exact figures are not known even to the founders.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 See also
3 References
4 External links
History[edit]
MMM was established in 1989 by Sergei Mavrodi,[2] his brother Vyacheslav Mavrodi, and Olga Melnikova. The name of the company was taken from the first letters of the three founders' surnames.

Initially, the company imported computers and office equipment. In January 1992, tax police accused MMM of tax evasion, leading to the collapse of MMM-bank, and causing the company to have difficulty obtaining financing to support its operations. Faced with difficulties in funding its foreign trade, the company switched to the financial sector. It offered American stocks to Russian investors, but met with little success. Later, MMM-Invest was created for the purpose of collecting vouchers during privatisation. This effort was similarly unsuccessful.[citation needed]

MMM created its successful Ponzi scheme in 1994. The company started attracting money from private investors, promising annual returns of up to one thousand percent. It is unclear whether a Ponzi scheme was Mavrodi's initial intention, inasmuch as such extravagant returns might have been possible during the Russian hyperinflation in such commerce as import-export.[citation needed]

MMM grew rapidly. In February 1994, the company reported dividends of 1,000%, and started an aggressive TV ad campaign. Since the shares were not quoted on any stock exchange and the company itself determined the share price, it maintained a steady price growth of thousands of percent annually, leading the public to believe its shares were a safe and profitable investment.[citation needed]

An important factor in the scheme's success was word of mouth, but most of the company's success came from its extremely aggressive ad campaign, which appealed to the general public by using "ordinary" characters that viewers could identify with. The most famous of them, a "folk hero" of early 1994, was Lyonya Golubkov. Another notable marketing effort was a giveaway of free Metro trips to all Moscow citizens on a particular day. MMM also was one of the first well-known companies in Russia with a logotype and slogans ("Flying from shadow to the light" and others).[citation needed]

At its peak the company was taking in more than 100 billion rubles (about 50 million USD) each day from the sale of its shares to the public. Thus, the cashflow turnover at the MMM central office in Moscow was so high that it could not be estimated. The management started to count money in roomfuls (1 roomful of money, 2 roomfuls of money, etc.).[citation needed]

Regular publication in the media of the rising MMM share price led President Boris Yeltsin to issue a decree in June 1994 prohibiting financial institutions from publicising their expected income.[citation needed]

The success of MMM in attracting investors led to the creation of other similar companies, including Tibet, Chara, Khoper-Invest, Selenga, Telemarket, and Germes. All of these companies were characterised by aggressive television advertising and extremely high promised rates of return. One company promised annual returns of 30,000%.[citation needed]

On July 22, 1994, the police closed the offices of MMM for tax evasion. For a few days the company attempted to continue the scheme, but soon ceased operations. At that point, Invest-Consulting, one of the company's subsidiaries, owed more than 50 billion rubles in taxes (USD 26 million), and MMM itself owed between 100 billion and 3 trillion rubles to the investors (from USD 50 million to USD 1.5 billion). In the aftermath at least 50 investors, having lost all of their money, committed suicide.[citation needed]

Several organisations of "deceived investors" made efforts to recover their lost investments, but Sergei Mavrodi manipulated their indignation and directed it at the government. In August 1994 Mavrodi was arrested for tax evasion. However, he was soon elected to the Russian State Duma, with the support of the "deceived investors". He argued that the government, not MMM, was responsible for people losing their money, and promised to initiate a pay-back program. The amount ultimately paid back was minuscule compared to the amount owed.[citation needed]

In October 1995, the Duma cancelled Mavrodi's right to immunity as a deputy. In 1996, he tried to run for Russia's presidency, but most of the signatures he received were rejected. MMM declared bankruptcy on September 22, 1997.[citation needed]

While it was believed that Sergei Mavrodi left Russia and moved to the United States, it is possible that he stayed in Moscow, using his money to change apartments regularly and employ a group of former special agents. With the help of a distant relative he started Stock Generation Ltd., another pyramid scheme based around trading non-existent companies' stocks in a form of the "stock exchange game" on the company's site, stockgeneration.com. Despite a bold-letter warning on the main page that the site was not a real stock exchange, between 20,000 and 275,000 people, according to various estimates, fell for the promised 200% returns and lost their money. According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, losses of victims were at least USD 5.5 million.[citation needed]

Mavrodi was found and arrested in 2003. While in custody, Mavrodi was given until January 31, 2006 to read the documents in his fraud case against him (The criminal case consisted of 650 volumes, each 250-270 pages long).[citation needed] At the end of April 2007, Mavrodi was convicted of fraud, and given a sentence of four and a half years. Since he had already spent over four years in custody, he was released less than a month later, on May 22, 2007.[citation needed] He later went on to creating yet another pyramid scheme called MMM-2011.

The MMM scandal led to increased regulation of the Russian stock market, but the legacy of the fraud led many to become extremely suspicious of any joint stock companies.

In 2015 MMM began operating in South Africa with the same business model as MMM-2011, claiming a "30% per month" return through a "social financial network".[3] The group was identified as a possible pyramid scheme by the National Consumer Commission and accounts of clients were later frozen by Capitec Bank.[4] In response to mounting criticism and official investigations by state authorities in 2016 supporters of the South African MMM scheme staged a protest march in Johannesburg.[5]

In 2016, MMM launched a website targeting the Nigerian audience.[6]

SOUTH AFRICA: PONZI-SCHEME HAS FINALLY COLLAPSED!
Cape Town – Russian convict Sergey Mavrodi has allegedly gone into hiding after announcing that his Bitcoin-based MMM Global scheme had failed and was shutting down this weekend.

MMM South Africa – its local branch - is one of nine companies being investigated for being an alleged Ponzi scheme by the South African Police Service’s Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit, after the National Consumer Commission’s initial probe in 2015.

The South African “community” has been growing in numbers over the years, as South Africans seek ways to escape debt and poverty. It has even been described as a stokvel by some, and has become an emotive topic for those who buy into it.



Officially, the SA platform said its members are encouraged to donate money to others by rewarding them with the bitcoin-linked virtual currency - Mavros - in return, and can apparently get 30% return on their rand investment by doing so. A Ponzi scheme occurs when a return is 20% higher than the repo rate, which in SA is 7%.

“We regret to inform you that we have to close down the Republic of Bitcoin. It was an experiment, and, unfortunately, it failed,” the last Facebook entry on MMM Global states. “We turned out not to be able to pay 100% per month.”



The alleged scheme is based on the bitcoin currency, which is a digital asset and a payment system. The South African version of MMM, which offers 30% returns, is still operational and said the crash will not affect is members.

MMM describes the system as a “technical basic program, which helps millions of participants worldwide to find those who need help, and those who are ready to provide help for free”. To create a personal account people must donate a sum of money which would allegedly be paid to an existing user who had made a donation request.

For the given money participants are granted with a number of “Mavros ” – MMM digital currency – equivalent to the sum which was donated. It is claimed that twice a week the system pays interest on users’ Mavros accounts – up to 30 percent per month. Users can request an ever-increasing sum of money equivalent to the number of Mavros they have. In his weekly online address to South Africa Mavrodi positively assessed the current developments of MMM in the country. “Everything is wonderful in South Africa. The dynamics of the development are high. The participants and managers are active… Everybody is paid,” he said. MMM claims that South Africa is just one of many countries in which the pyramid scheme operates.

The website reports about MMM activities in Russia, Ukraine, India, Indonesia and other countries. It also had a presentation in Maseru, Lesotho, on August 1. The MMM South Africa page in Facebook has more than 22,000 likes showing that the scheme is popular. Sergey Mavrodi is known for creating the biggest finance pyramid in Russia which collapsed in 1994 leaving thousands (according to some unofficial estimates – millions) of people without their money. According to further estimates, MMM clients lost over $100,000 million.

After the collapse of MMM, which was a classic Ponzi scheme, Mavrodi disappeared. He was found and arrested in Moscow in 2003. In 2007 he was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison but was released having spent all the time between his arrest and judicial verdict in prison. After his release Mavrodi created a number of financial pyramids such as MMM-2011 and MMM-2012. Both of them collapsed shortly afterwards

http://searchsa.co.za/useful-info/MMM-PONZI-SOUTH-AFRICA-PYRAMID-SCHEME-COLLAPSES

lalasticlala please help save Nigerians from this PONZI scheme!

Convicted Russian fraudster launches financial scheme in SA Sergei Mavrodi is at it again with MMM.
Hanna Ziady | 17 August 2015 00:01

Sergei Mavrodi, a convicted Russian criminal who served jail time for fraud, appears to be successfully running the same pyramid scheme that swindled thousands of Russians out of their hard-earned rubles here in South Africa.

According to The Moscow Times, Mavrodi was found guilty in 2007 of defrauding 10 000 investors out of 110 million rubles, worth some $4.3 million at the time.

Mavrodi, described by TIME Magazine as “Russia’s Bernie Madoff”, developed MMM as, “a crude financial pyramid scheme”, in the 1990s.

Having cheated millions of Russians of their savings, writes TIME, he served a four-year sentence for fraud and then in 2011 reappeared plugging MMM-2011.

MMM-2011’s business model appears very similar to MMM South Africa, a “social financial network” promising 30%-per-month returns. It claims it is not a high-yield investment programme (HYIP), but simply “a community of ordinary people, selflessly helping each other, a kind of the Global Fund of mutual aid”.

“This is the first sprout of something new in the modern soulless and ruthless world of greed and hard cash. The goal here is not the money. The goal is to destroy the world’s unjust financial system. Financial Apocalypse!” the company declares on its local website.

MMM claims to do nothing more than connect its participants, who then transfer money to each other directly “without intermediaries”. Once creating a Personal Office (PO), participants are given “Mavro” – the internal currency of the system – equal to whatever amount they have invested (a minimum of R100), which then grows at a rate of 30% per month, according to MMM.

This translates to 360% per annum. The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) describes as a “multiplication scheme” (i.e. a Ponzi scheme) anything that promises an investor an effective annual interest rate 20% above the repo rate, which is currently at 6%.

Participants must transfer money to another MMM member’s bank account before they are paid their Mavro. No explanation is given as to how these investments earn such high rates of interest. “There is no central account in MMM, to collect all the money of participants (and from where they could be stolen easily). All the money transfers are made directly between participants,” MMM claims.

Members can also earn registration bonuses, referral bonuses, manager’s bonuses and bonuses for appearing in video testimonials.

Established in 2011, MMM claims to have a presence in 107 countries and more than 138 million participants around the world. Its website lists only nine countries, including Kazakhstan, India, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

This journalist received an unsolicited SMS from MMM last week, advertising its 30%-a-month returns. It appeared to come from a number in Cambodia.

Sergei speaks to South Africa via YouTube

MMM South Africa’s Facebook page has more than 22 000 likes and is used to disseminate weekly news from Mavrodi: YouTube videos of him discussing the business model in Russia with English subtitles.

In his most recent YouTube video, released last week, Mavrodi remarks, “Everything is wonderful in South Africa. The dynamics of the development are high. The participants and managers are active… However, I remind that it doesn’t mean we should relax and do nothing. We have to work hard, apply all efforts, develop the system, and everything will be even better… Nevertheless, I repeat that generally everything is wonderful, and you see it. Everybody is paid. So the dynamic of the development are growing constantly (sic).”

Mavrodi appears to sign off all his YouTube clips with the message, “I believe that the financial apocalypse is inevitable. Together We Change the World.”

Based on these videos and an extensive ideological explanation on its website, MMM appears to be a reaction to the established financial system and its exclusion of the majority of workers to the unjust benefit of a select minority.

In 2011, Russia Today reported that MMM-2011 was a “classic Ponzi scheme” that was set to collapse, “leaving thousands of families penniless”.

“The South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) does not comment on or provide any details pertaining to past, current or potential investigations we may be involved in as part of our mandate,” said Hlengani Mathebula, head of group strategy and communications at the Sarb.

Moneyweb could not reach representatives of MMM in South Africa via email or cellphone.
http://www.moneyweb.co.za/in-depth/investigations/convicted-russian-fraudster-launches-financial-scheme-in-sa/

I don't know if nairaland management are in support of this MMM scam cos I often wonder why they allow threads supporting this obvious scam to thrive. Lalasticlala and the mods should be quick to expose this fraudulent organization and quite save many unwary investors from obvious suicide.

Capitec bank closes 2000 MMM bank accounts
By Sowetan Live | May 30, 2016 | COMMENTS [ 70 ]
Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie told Fin24 in an interview on Friday that the accounts were closed to protect the bank’s clients.

“We actually closed over 2 000 accounts that (were) involved in the scheme. Some of the clients became extremely violent and we had to bring in security guards.” Fourie said.

He also said that after the bank was made aware of the scheme the MMM accounts were monitored and then frozen in early 2015.

The MMM Ponzi scheme has been in the headlines a lot recently

Founder Sergey Mavrodi announced that MMM Global scheme was shutting down because it was not able to pay out the benefits.

“We regret to inform you that we have to close down the Republic of Bitcoin. It was an experiment, and, unfortunately, it failed,” said MMM Global on Facebook. “We turned out not to able to pay 100% per month.”

The scheme’s local branch, MMM South Africa, is one of the companies that are being investigated by the SA Police Service Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit establish whether they contravened the Consumer Protection Act.

The annual report of the South African Reserve Bank's (SARB) bank supervision department recently released a document showing that the total number of organisations under review for operating as illegal deposit-takers - also known as pyramid schemes - rose to 41 in 2015 compared to 25 in 2013.

The regulator has closed down 71 schemes since 2011.

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/business/business-stories/2016/05/30/capitec-bank-closes-2000-mmm-bank-accounts

It’s impossible to give 30% return on investment consistently, which is the magic of the pyramid scheme; they play on the greed for easy money. The crash of MMM is soon, and this is a known known, it is only a matter of time. For those that received their pay outs, congratulations. And for those that are still waiting, a payout remains an unknown unknown. Liberty to choose is a principle of democratic societies, those that invest in MMM must do so with the liberty to accept the consequence of either a payout or a crash of the pyramid scheme. And please don’t blame President Zuma! Buhari!

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2016/04/18/reader-letter---the-crash-of-mmm-is-soon-it-is-only-a-matter-of-time

UPDATE
Top Guider and first initiator of the popular ponzi scheme, mavrodi mondial moneybox, MMM, Mr. Chuddy Ugorji has reportedly fled the country

with his wife, Amaka to the Philippines. Indications suggest that Mr. Chuddy fled because perhaps he knows MMM might not be able to pay its

participants again. This is coming days after over 2 million participants of the scheme are still not able to get the money they invested in the

scheme even after it claimed to have resumed full time. Recall that the ponzi scheme had blocked the access to requesting for financial

assistance, Getting Help (GH) during the yuletide seasons. After a month’s blockade of the access, known as Mavros, the ponzi scheme

announced it had unfrozen the Mavros for its participants to begin withdrawals. However, up till the filling of this report, many are yet to get

their money back, which totals to millions. However, Chuddy’s relocation came barely 24 hours after he released a new set of conditions for the

payment of some three million Nigerian investors wherein those with little investments are to be paid first before those who invested heavily. He

had given the participant, called Mavrodians, the impression that the Ponzi scheme has started paying the outstanding mavro (money) but it

has turned out to be not entirely true
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/01/breaking-mmm-nigeria-top-guilder-chuddy-wife-flee-nigeria-philippines/

Everything you need to know about the MMM Bitcoin scam
by Duncan Riley | Feb 29, 2016

Everything you need to know about the MMM Bitcoin scam
If you haven’t heard of the MMM Bitcoin scam yet consider yourself lucky, but this Ponzi scheme continues to do the rounds, both in the developing world and first world, to the point where SiliconANGLE’s previous coverage continues to gain traffic as more and more “members” attempt to sign up new users.
So what is the MMM Bitcoin scam, which often goes by the name of MMM Global and regional variations such as MMM China? (Now MMM Nigeria)

Here’s everything you need to know about the MMM Bitcoin scam.

What is MMM Global

The original MMM was set up by Sergey Mavrodi in 1989 and morphed into a Ponzi scheme in around 1994, primarily based out of Russia.
That original version of MMM resulted in Mavrodi, a former Russian parliamentarian, being jailed for fraud for running it.
The current MMM Bitcoin version emerged in around 2011 following Mavrodi’s release from prison, and follows the same Ponzi structure as the original.
What is a Ponzi scheme

A Ponzi scheme is an illegal investment scheme where the person or organization running it pays returns to existing investors from capital paid into it by new investors, rather than profit actually earned by the company itself.

Typically companies running such schemes offer higher than usual profits. Variations include the High Yield Investment Program (HYIP) which MMM Global falls under, in that it offers particularly high (even for Ponzi scheme) returns, or as the name suggests, a high yield.

What is MMM offering


MMM Global/China likes to cloak what it’s offering by saying that it’s not a HYIP scheme, but a “mutual-aid program” where members pay each other … which is really just a fancy way of saying they’re a Ponzi scheme without actually saying so outright.

The MMM scam’s mutual-aid program promises a 30 percent monthly return to investors who invest as little as $10, payable only by Bitcoin.

A side program call “MMM Extra” offers a full-blown HYIP rate of a staggering 100 percent per month, or a cumulative 409,600 percent per year; if that doesn’t ring alarm bells you probably deserve at this point to lose your money to them.
MMM MLM & Affiliate programs

MMM Global/China isn’t simply just your based level Ponzi scheme, at least in its current incarnation, in that it offers both an affiliate scheme and multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme on top of the base offering.

MMM Global
An affiliate scheme is one where you obtain a “referral” bonus (usually a percentage or set amount) for doing certain things, and is a completely legitimate way to make money, at least when it’s not referring people to something that is illegal to begin with, and was popularized online by Amazon.com, Inc.

With MMM, those who sign up are able to obtain affiliate payments for referrals or for posting positive testimonials online, with users receiving 10 percent from what the company refers to as “all donations of the participants you invited.”

A multi-level marketing scheme is a system where a sales force is given a commission not only for sales they generate directly, but a cut of the salespeople they have recruited make as well; while an MLM in and of itself is not illegal (Amway is the most famous MLM of them all) many MLM’s end up being illegal as they rely more on the revenues passed along via the “downline” (the path from original recruiter down multiple levels as people they have signed up sign up others, and so forth, often as far as 10 levels deep) than they do the original product they were allegedly trying to sell.

The MMM MLM involves power users becoming managers who create their own multi-level multi-level structure that offer tiered bonuses from all contributions of the members of their structures, which in this case is their downline.

Is MMM Global/China legal?

MMM claims among other things that it’s not a high-yield investment program (HYIP), and that it is legal, because it is a mutual benefit fund that sees people “help each other for free, and absolutely consciously … transfer money directly to each other, from one bank account to another, without any conditions, guarantees and promises.” This is complete and utter rubbish.

Ultimately the test of any of these sorts of things is whether the company involved is actually offering a product, or simply relying on payments from new investors to fund the returns of existing investors, and that’s exactly what MMM Global does.

A Ponzi scheme is most definitely illegal in all Western jurisdictions, and in countries like China is classified as an unlicensed investment organization, which also makes it illegal.

If I invest in MMM, will I get into trouble?

The obvious answer is not to invest in a scam like MMM Global to begin with, but lets just say you do, or already have.
There’s no clear answer here as it depends on the country you live in; ultimately authorities are primarily going to be interested in those running the scheme versus those sucked into it as investors (potentially victims).

However, there is usually a distinct line between those who join, and those who actively recruit.
If you are recruiting people to MMM Global/China or any of its similar country based variants, you are promoting an illegal activity and you may well be liable to prosecution.

A not to dissimilar Bitcoin-based Ponzi scheme ran through Hong Kong and Taiwan last year and in both countries those promoting it, that is not the founders but those who signed up then tried to sign up others, were arrested over their involvement.
There would be no difference in mainland China, or indeed any western country, should you be involved at this level.

I’ve invested in MMM but can’t get my money out, what do I do?

If you’ve already invested not knowing what you were getting yourself into, the bad news is that it’s highly unlikely you’ll ever get your money back. However that doesn’t mean that you can’t do anything.

Report the scam to local authorities, that may mean local or State police, or even Federal Organizations ranging from the FBI, through to securities bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the U.S., and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) in Australia. (Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission)

You may have lost your money by investing in MMM Global, but that doesn’t mean you can’t help stop others getting caught up in the scam and assist in putting the people running it behind bars, where they deserve to belong
http://siliconangle.com/blog/2016/02/29/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-mmm-bitcoin-scam/

The offers are just too pretty insane to believe. Getting money might involve taking risks bit not this one. Football betting still better than this Money Making Mistakes.

Op, you for just write book. You want to pass a message to the public and yet making it much bogus for a lay man to comprehend.

Summarize it and shoot straight using how your neighbour was scammed than this encyclopedia up here.

I've read everything U posted before entering mmm. It crashed then because of tax issues by d russian govt coz Mavrodi was maintaining it then like a bank where d money comes before going to d particiants and is also possible that it crashed and he went away with d money. But now tell me, wat has Mavrodi got to gain by crashing dis new version of mmm? Money doesn't pass tru him, U send directly to sumone's account and dey send directly to Urz, so even if its crashing, Mavrodi has nofin to gain

No time to read all these epistles but we get it

NgcoboP:
South Africa 2016: LIKE play like play I warned them about investing in HYIP and rather do a physical business like trading, imports and exports..... but stubbornly they refused and laughed at me.... I kept quiet watched them put in the hard earned money... fastforward a few weeks later they had been duped.... "problems with the repayment system" meaning the fraudsters' exit strategy. No substitute for hardwork keep your money.... do legit biz deals. Avoid unnecessary suffering..

Thank you. I decided to make this thread as a result of posts I have been seeing about MMM please be wise, don't be lured by easy money. Read the book "the richest man in babylon"


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMM_(Ponzi_scheme_company)
МММ was a Russian company that perpetrated one of the world's largest Ponzi schemes of all time, in the 1990s.[1][2] By different estimates from 5 to 40 million people lost up to $10 billion. The exact figures are not known even to the founders.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 See also
3 References
4 External links
History[edit]
MMM was established in 1989 by Sergei Mavrodi,[2] his brother Vyacheslav Mavrodi, and Olga Melnikova. The name of the company was taken from the first letters of the three founders' surnames.

Initially, the company imported computers and office equipment. In January 1992, tax police accused MMM of tax evasion, leading to the collapse of MMM-bank, and causing the company to have difficulty obtaining financing to support its operations. Faced with difficulties in funding its foreign trade, the company switched to the financial sector. It offered American stocks to Russian investors, but met with little success. Later, MMM-Invest was created for the purpose of collecting vouchers during privatisation. This effort was similarly unsuccessful.[citation needed]

MMM created its successful Ponzi scheme in 1994. The company started attracting money from private investors, promising annual returns of up to one thousand percent. It is unclear whether a Ponzi scheme was Mavrodi's initial intention, inasmuch as such extravagant returns might have been possible during the Russian hyperinflation in such commerce as import-export.[citation needed]

MMM grew rapidly. In February 1994, the company reported dividends of 1,000%, and started an aggressive TV ad campaign. Since the shares were not quoted on any stock exchange and the company itself determined the share price, it maintained a steady price growth of thousands of percent annually, leading the public to believe its shares were a safe and profitable investment.[citation needed]

An important factor in the scheme's success was word of mouth, but most of the company's success came from its extremely aggressive ad campaign, which appealed to the general public by using "ordinary" characters that viewers could identify with. The most famous of them, a "folk hero" of early 1994, was Lyonya Golubkov. Another notable marketing effort was a giveaway of free Metro trips to all Moscow citizens on a particular day. MMM also was one of the first well-known companies in Russia with a logotype and slogans ("Flying from shadow to the light" and others).[citation needed]

At its peak the company was taking in more than 100 billion rubles (about 50 million USD) each day from the sale of its shares to the public. Thus, the cashflow turnover at the MMM central office in Moscow was so high that it could not be estimated. The management started to count money in roomfuls (1 roomful of money, 2 roomfuls of money, etc.).[citation needed]

Regular publication in the media of the rising MMM share price led President Boris Yeltsin to issue a decree in June 1994 prohibiting financial institutions from publicising their expected income.[citation needed]

The success of MMM in attracting investors led to the creation of other similar companies, including Tibet, Chara, Khoper-Invest, Selenga, Telemarket, and Germes. All of these companies were characterised by aggressive television advertising and extremely high promised rates of return. One company promised annual returns of 30,000%.[citation needed]

On July 22, 1994, the police closed the offices of MMM for tax evasion. For a few days the company attempted to continue the scheme, but soon ceased operations. At that point, Invest-Consulting, one of the company's subsidiaries, owed more than 50 billion rubles in taxes (USD 26 million), and MMM itself owed between 100 billion and 3 trillion rubles to the investors (from USD 50 million to USD 1.5 billion). In the aftermath at least 50 investors, having lost all of their money, committed suicide.[citation needed]

Several organisations of "deceived investors" made efforts to recover their lost investments, but Sergei Mavrodi manipulated their indignation and directed it at the government. In August 1994 Mavrodi was arrested for tax evasion. However, he was soon elected to the Russian State Duma, with the support of the "deceived investors". He argued that the government, not MMM, was responsible for people losing their money, and promised to initiate a pay-back program. The amount ultimately paid back was minuscule compared to the amount owed.[citation needed]

In October 1995, the Duma cancelled Mavrodi's right to immunity as a deputy. In 1996, he tried to run for Russia's presidency, but most of the signatures he received were rejected. MMM declared bankruptcy on September 22, 1997.[citation needed]

While it was believed that Sergei Mavrodi left Russia and moved to the United States, it is possible that he stayed in Moscow, using his money to change apartments regularly and employ a group of former special agents. With the help of a distant relative he started Stock Generation Ltd., another pyramid scheme based around trading non-existent companies' stocks in a form of the "stock exchange game" on the company's site, stockgeneration.com. Despite a bold-letter warning on the main page that the site was not a real stock exchange, between 20,000 and 275,000 people, according to various estimates, fell for the promised 200% returns and lost their money. According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, losses of victims were at least USD 5.5 million.[citation needed]

Mavrodi was found and arrested in 2003. While in custody, Mavrodi was given until January 31, 2006 to read the documents in his fraud case against him (The criminal case consisted of 650 volumes, each 250-270 pages long).[citation needed] At the end of April 2007, Mavrodi was convicted of fraud, and given a sentence of four and a half years. Since he had already spent over four years in custody, he was released less than a month later, on May 22, 2007.[citation needed] He later went on to creating yet another pyramid scheme called MMM-2011.

The MMM scandal led to increased regulation of the Russian stock market, but the legacy of the fraud led many to become extremely suspicious of any joint stock companies.

In 2015 MMM began operating in South Africa with the same business model as MMM-2011, claiming a "30% per month" return through a "social financial network".[3] The group was identified as a possible pyramid scheme by the National Consumer Commission and accounts of clients were later frozen by Capitec Bank.[4] In response to mounting criticism and official investigations by state authorities in 2016 supporters of the South African MMM scheme staged a protest march in Johannesburg.[5]

In 2016, MMM launched a website targeting the Nigerian audience.[6]

OP, you have not really said how the six Nigerians were scammed. All you have done is give history

NgcoboP:
South Africa 2016: LIKE play like play I warned them about investing in HYIP and rather do a physical business like trading, imports and exports..... but stubbornly they refused and laughed at me.... I kept quiet watched them put in the hard earned money... fastforward a few weeks later they had been duped.... "problems with the repayment system" meaning the fraudsters' exit strategy. No substitute for hardwork keep your money.... do legit biz deals. Avoid unnecessary suffering..

Thank you. I decided to make this thread as a result of posts I have been seeing about MMM please be wise, don't be lured by easy money. Read the book "the richest man in babylon"


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMM_(Ponzi_scheme_company)
МММ was a Russian company that perpetrated one of the world's largest Ponzi schemes of all time, in the 1990s.[1][2] By different estimates from 5 to 40 million people lost up to $10 billion. The exact figures are not known even to the founders.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 See also
3 References
4 External links
History[edit]
MMM was established in 1989 by Sergei Mavrodi,[2] his brother Vyacheslav Mavrodi, and Olga Melnikova. The name of the company was taken from the first letters of the three founders' surnames.

Initially, the company imported computers and office equipment. In January 1992, tax police accused MMM of tax evasion, leading to the collapse of MMM-bank, and causing the company to have difficulty obtaining financing to support its operations. Faced with difficulties in funding its foreign trade, the company switched to the financial sector. It offered American stocks to Russian investors, but met with little success. Later, MMM-Invest was created for the purpose of collecting vouchers during privatisation. This effort was similarly unsuccessful.[citation needed]

MMM created its successful Ponzi scheme in 1994. The company started attracting money from private investors, promising annual returns of up to one thousand percent. It is unclear whether a Ponzi scheme was Mavrodi's initial intention, inasmuch as such extravagant returns might have been possible during the Russian hyperinflation in such commerce as import-export.[citation needed]

MMM grew rapidly. In February 1994, the company reported dividends of 1,000%, and started an aggressive TV ad campaign. Since the shares were not quoted on any stock exchange and the company itself determined the share price, it maintained a steady price growth of thousands of percent annually, leading the public to believe its shares were a safe and profitable investment.[citation needed]

An important factor in the scheme's success was word of mouth, but most of the company's success came from its extremely aggressive ad campaign, which appealed to the general public by using "ordinary" characters that viewers could identify with. The most famous of them, a "folk hero" of early 1994, was Lyonya Golubkov. Another notable marketing effort was a giveaway of free Metro trips to all Moscow citizens on a particular day. MMM also was one of the first well-known companies in Russia with a logotype and slogans ("Flying from shadow to the light" and others).[citation needed]

At its peak the company was taking in more than 100 billion rubles (about 50 million USD) each day from the sale of its shares to the public. Thus, the cashflow turnover at the MMM central office in Moscow was so high that it could not be estimated. The management started to count money in roomfuls (1 roomful of money, 2 roomfuls of money, etc.).[citation needed]

Regular publication in the media of the rising MMM share price led President Boris Yeltsin to issue a decree in June 1994 prohibiting financial institutions from publicising their expected income.[citation needed]

The success of MMM in attracting investors led to the creation of other similar companies, including Tibet, Chara, Khoper-Invest, Selenga, Telemarket, and Germes. All of these companies were characterised by aggressive television advertising and extremely high promised rates of return. One company promised annual returns of 30,000%.[citation needed]

On July 22, 1994, the police closed the offices of MMM for tax evasion. For a few days the company attempted to continue the scheme, but soon ceased operations. At that point, Invest-Consulting, one of the company's subsidiaries, owed more than 50 billion rubles in taxes (USD 26 million), and MMM itself owed between 100 billion and 3 trillion rubles to the investors (from USD 50 million to USD 1.5 billion). In the aftermath at least 50 investors, having lost all of their money, committed suicide.[citation needed]

Several organisations of "deceived investors" made efforts to recover their lost investments, but Sergei Mavrodi manipulated their indignation and directed it at the government. In August 1994 Mavrodi was arrested for tax evasion. However, he was soon elected to the Russian State Duma, with the support of the "deceived investors". He argued that the government, not MMM, was responsible for people losing their money, and promised to initiate a pay-back program. The amount ultimately paid back was minuscule compared to the amount owed.[citation needed]

In October 1995, the Duma cancelled Mavrodi's right to immunity as a deputy. In 1996, he tried to run for Russia's presidency, but most of the signatures he received were rejected. MMM declared bankruptcy on September 22, 1997.[citation needed]

While it was believed that Sergei Mavrodi left Russia and moved to the United States, it is possible that he stayed in Moscow, using his money to change apartments regularly and employ a group of former special agents. With the help of a distant relative he started Stock Generation Ltd., another pyramid scheme based around trading non-existent companies' stocks in a form of the "stock exchange game" on the company's site, stockgeneration.com. Despite a bold-letter warning on the main page that the site was not a real stock exchange, between 20,000 and 275,000 people, according to various estimates, fell for the promised 200% returns and lost their money. According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, losses of victims were at least USD 5.5 million.[citation needed]

Mavrodi was found and arrested in 2003. While in custody, Mavrodi was given until January 31, 2006 to read the documents in his fraud case against him (The criminal case consisted of 650 volumes, each 250-270 pages long).[citation needed] At the end of April 2007, Mavrodi was convicted of fraud, and given a sentence of four and a half years. Since he had already spent over four years in custody, he was released less than a month later, on May 22, 2007.[citation needed] He later went on to creating yet another pyramid scheme called MMM-2011.

The MMM scandal led to increased regulation of the Russian stock market, but the legacy of the fraud led many to become extremely suspicious of any joint stock companies.

In 2015 MMM began operating in South Africa with the same business model as MMM-2011, claiming a "30% per month" return through a "social financial network".[3] The group was identified as a possible pyramid scheme by the National Consumer Commission and accounts of clients were later frozen by Capitec Bank.[4] In response to mounting criticism and official investigations by state authorities in 2016 supporters of the South African MMM scheme staged a protest march in Johannesburg.[5]

In 2016, MMM launched a website targeting the Nigerian audience.[6]

omoh na halfway i stop to dey read am o...i con ask myself, wetin i dey read?

rottennaija:



OP, you have not really said how the six Nigerians were scammed. All you have done is give history

That's because he is a liar. People who have no single idea about the program go online to do copy and paste. No whistle blower will be taken seriously until the program actually fails. People just hate the success of others for no reason and feel everyother person should be struggling like them. There are so many disclaimers on the website advising members to use spare money. I'll rather put my money in it than use it for betting.

which one is your own @op ,you are just jealous people are making money.Trying to cut down their source.

What has the history of MMM as contained in Wikipedia got to do with how six of your neighbors were scammed by MMM?

OP is just making noise, where is the evidence the current MMM scammed your neighbors?

menxer
yrret
wahabian

eameh30:
I've read everything U posted before entering mmm. It crashed then because of tax issues by d russian govt coz Mavrodi was maintaining it then like a bank where d money comes before going to d particiants and is also possible that it crashed and he went away with d money. But now tell me, wat has Mavrodi got to gain by crashing dis new version of mmm? Money doesn't pass tru him, U send directly to sumone's account and dey send directly to Urz, so even if its crashing, Mavrodi has nofin to gain

am sorry but you are a learner....

kiddoiLL
Jethrolite

lofty900:
No time to read all these epistles but we get it

I hope you did....

abeloureal:
The offers are just too pretty insane to believe. Getting money might involve taking risks bit not this one. Football betting still better than this Money Making Mistakes.

But people are just plain greedy and gullible...

Dominique please kill this MMM ponzi scheme ....it is a fraud.... living witness...kewt I see you... Mr. T...

op is just being dogmatic without factual facts. anyway tnx for your bottomless epistle. We are stil awaiting details of how 6 nigerians were scammed

eameh30:
I've read everything U posted before entering mmm. It crashed then because of tax issues by d russian govt coz Mavrodi was maintaining it then like a bank where d money comes before going to d particiants and is also possible that it crashed and he went away with d money. But now tell me, wat has Mavrodi got to gain by crashing dis new version of mmm? Money doesn't pass tru him, U send directly to sumone's account and dey send directly to Urz, so even if its crashing, Mavrodi has nofin to gain

Are you mad?

let me ask that first question. Something as obvious as this and you are still talking rubbish.

Maybe I need to start a scamming biz to scam gullible Nigerians like you. Wtf!

well if you did not see that in the first two paragraphs of the epistles,, you will never get it.

By the way, which institution can consistently pay 30% interest? Doing what? Robbing Peter to pay Paul?

One would have thought that going to school would have taught you guys that no "free" lunch exists anywhere in the world No Mahala!

Advans:
op is just being dogmatic without factual facts. anyway tnx for your bottomless epistle. We are stil awaiting details of how 6 nigerians were scammed

if not for karma, the army of gullible people here is promising for any basic level con-artist....very tempting and ripe to pluck downright gullible mass .... but karma is a dam.

x240:


Are you mad?

let me ask that first question. Something as obvious as this and you are still talking rubbish.

Maybe I need to start a scamming biz to scam gullible Nigerians like you. Wtf!

NgcoboP:
if not for karma, the army of gullible people here is promising for any basic level con-artist....very tempting and ripe to pluck downright gullible mass .... but karma is a dam.

It could be done to teach them a lesson and hand over the proceeds to the CBN.... They are ripe for plucking... Downright yummy

Go and ask your guider how his leadership bonuses are paid. They just credit his acc with mavro's even though didn't provide help or get it from his downlines( whether the first downline(5℅) second downline(2.5%) etc). Better yet if you know any consultant ask then how their $450 is paid monthly it's still by crediting their accounts without providing Nada. I happen to know ola and Vivian and I am a participant and have been a participant since MAY but PLEASE LET PEOPLE KNOW THAT 3M IS RISKY and be allowed to take the risk on their own instead of telling people it's all good

NgcoboP:
if not for karma, the army of gullible people here is promising for any basic level con-artist....very tempting and ripe to pluck downright gullible mass .... but karma is a dam.

To God who made me. I am tired of the millions of silly people we have in this country.

That's why i don't even bother again when i see scam threads because they are so silly you feel like planking them. HYIPs, MLMs and whatever are just scams which would blow up soon. Their strategy is always simple. Keep it running for some few months to years and pay peanuts. After generating enough, pull the plug and make away with billions of Naira. Just rinse and repeat

Another just called a brother of mine who is cash officer that money was withdrawn from his account. Can you imagine him sending his atm numbers, ccv2 and even safe token to scammers over the phone even when the SMS clearly states do not disclose to anyone this info. This is someone who frequents bank halls and atms and daily the messages displayed there is never to disclose any information even to bank officials


I just weep for this nation.

the nationals have been mentally abused and somehow resigned to mental laziness as Nigeria does not reward intelligence it seems, the other group are just plain gullible....greedy and unreasonable

LWKMD.... @ cvv2 and safe token... lols...what a shame!

x240:


To God who made me. I am tired of the millions of silly people we have in this country.

That's why i don't even bother again when i see scam threads because they are so silly you feel like planking them. HYIPs, MLMs and whatever are just scams which would blow up soon. Their strategy is always simple. Keep it running for some few months to years and pay peanuts. After generating enough, pull the plug and make away with billions of Naira. Just rinse and repeat

Another just called a brother of mine who is cash officer that money was withdrawn from his account. Can you imagine him sending his atm numbers, ccv2 and even safe token to scammers over the phone even when the SMS clearly states do not disclose to anyone this info. This is someone who frequents bank halls and atms and daily the messages displayed there is never to disclose any information even to bank officials


I just weep for this nation.

hmmm sounds exciting

smellingmenses:

It could be done to teach them a lesson and hand over the proceeds to the CBN.... They are ripe for plucking... Downright yummy

life is all about risk my brother am not yet a member of mmm but it also work like hyip program,we all know even all this program pay now it we surely turn into a scam one day but before the story you can make you money.

Ppl working hard to pull down mmm Nigeria, op ur neighbor in South Africa was scammed lol nobody has been scammed in mmm Nigeria so far d earliest d scheme will stop paying is December 2016 so stop making noise, life is a risk.

Ur title is misleading n u shld be banned for this BC ur neighbor was nt in mmm Nigeria.

sell your father's house to "invest", I'll buy no problem..... your name n post are like words and opposites...

ogawisdom:
Ppl working hard to pull down mmm Nigeria, op ur neighbor in South Africa was scammed lol nobody has been scammed in mmm Nigeria so far d earliest d scheme will stop paying is December 2016 so stop making noise, life is a risk.

Ur title is misleading n shld be banned for this BC ur neighbor was nt in mmm Nigeria.

and at the end of the story there will be more victims than beneficiaries right?

Timo2net:
life is all about risk my brother am not yet a member of mmm but it also work like hyip program,we all know even all this program pay now it we surely turn into a scam one day but before the story you can make you money.