There is a new networking "opporutnity" that has been making rounds in Nigeria known as simply as MMM. Some Nigerians who have had their fair share of ponzi schemes believe that that MMM is the grand master of all ponzi schemes while others think its a gold mine.

We at iDONSABI decided to go snooping around and collecting views on the MMM Network offer.

Here is what we discovered:

MMM as Seen on Wikipedia: (Note: we have taken the time to bold areas that look a lot like the Nigerian MMM network offer)

MMM was established in 1989 by Sergei Mavrodi 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 evation 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.

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.

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.

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.

At its peak the company was taking in 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.)

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.

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%.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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). 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. He later went on to creating yet another pyramid scheme called MMM-2011.

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". The group was identified as a possible pyramid scheme by the National Consumer Commission and accounts of clients were later frozen by Capitec Bank. 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. See the rest here

MMM Network Offer As Shared on Social Media in Nigeria

MMM South Africa


Here is what one Nigerian had to say about MMM Networking...

MMM Network

by RONALD NZIMORA

In 2001, I was a starry eyed University student, who was desirous of making it big in life and becoming rich.

I was looking for businesses opportunities that would make me a lot of money. I tried different things.

In 2003, November to be precise, I stumbled on internet marketing, through Success Digest magazine.

Over the next few years I would try almost everything published in the paper – affiliate marketing, information marketing, Google Adsense, you name it.

In 2006, one particular money-making scheme came up which attracted hordes of fans. That scheme was/is known as HYIP.
What’s a HYIP? It’s called a High Yield Investment Programme.

Basically how it works is this:

You put in some money, and then every day or week, or month, depending on the particular HYIP website you registered with, you would earn a percentage, maybe 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 50% and even 100% again depending on the HYIP site.

It looked so easy. Just put in money and wait for sometime and bam! You get a percentage.

It looked too good to be true but nothing tried, nothing gained, right? So I gathered my school feeding money and bought eGold (remember them?) worth $50 and “invested”.

The following week, my money had “grown” to $100. My HYIP company paid 100% of your money every week. My oh my! I was totally sold!

Now to make more money, I needed to reinvest my money which was now $100 which I promptly did. The following week, I had $200.

Gaddem!

So I went round school preaching this stuff. I even preached it far more than the guy who introduced it to me. I got others to “invest” and with each investment they did, I was scheduled to be paid a 10% “commission bonus” for the referral.

I went looking for more money to borrow to invest because my thinking was, if I had gotten $200 with just $50 in two weeks, imagine how much I would get if I invested $500!

The guy who introduced me to it went to his Mum, borrowed her retirement gratuity and invested another =N=500,000, roughly about $5,000 then!

That week he had earned $13,000 including commissions!

Shit!

I could see my riches coming. My dream cars, my beach house. I prayed to God morning and evening thanking him for remembering me.

It was like a blessing for everyone, and naturally people poured into this scheme.

One day, I got a call from Nonso, the guy who invited me. He sounded desperate, his voice shaky as he asked me if I had checked my HYIP account. I said no.
“What’s the problem, I asked?”

“I can’t see the money in my account anymore”, he said. “My money is gone.”

When he said that, I felt my heart sink, my stomach turned and I suddenly felt sick. If I remember correctly, I think I pissed a little hot urine on myself.

“Where are you?” I asked. He was at a cybercafe town, so I jumped into a bus and went to meet him.

As I was logging into my own account, my mouth was dry but my account opened!

“Ah! Thank God” I said.

Anyways, Nonso had requested for the HYIP company to send him $7,000 out of his $13,000 which was perfectly okay to do. You were allowed to request a payout anytime you want, between Monday – Friday.

However, after he had placed the request, he logged in a few days later, and his balance was no longer there. It had been wiped out. In fact the page that showed your account was no longer opening.

“It must be something wrong with your account I said. Have you emailed them?” He had emailed, but got no reply. Called the numbers on the website, but they were not going through.

So I placed a payout request of $100, and suddenly, my own account balance was wiped out.

Sweat started forming on my brows. I refresh the page again and again, still the same thing. The account balance page was no longer opening.

We went back to school hoping that things would change. It didn’t. It took me several days to come to terms with the fact that my $200 abi $50 was gone forever.
Someone in Iran, Russia, Ukraine, only God knows where had taken my money and it was gone.

Nonso’s mother’s gratuity was gone. All the monies by those I introduced? Gone! I and Nonso became almost like outcasts in the school. Nobody wanted to deal with us anymore as far as business was concerned. We were blamed for the con.

Why am I telling you this story?

Because lately, I have been receiving offers from people to promote a ponzi scheme called MMM.

They tell me it’s a business. That it works. That people have been paid money, blah blah blah.

I want to use this piece to write an article and wash my hands off this matter once and for all.

MMM is a ponzi scheme. Simple and short. I have been in business long enough to smell a scam from a thousands miles away, and this one is a big scam.

It’s the return of the HYIP days of 2006.

Ponzi scams reinvent themselves every few years, change their name, wear “new clothes” and come out as the newest best thing since sliced bread.

In 2008, they returned as wonder banks – Nospetco, Gradual Investments, etc. In 2010 it was Clickviral. In 2012 – 2013, it was “Oil and Gas Investment” companies. Today it’s MMM.

MMM is a scam. It is not a real business.

A real business has A PRODUCT to SELL, a product that adds value to the person buying it. There’s an EXCHANGE of value between both sides – the buyer and the seller.

MMM doesn’t have that. Rather it “pays” you a “commission” to refer people. Where does it get the money to pay these commissions? For how long can this be sustained?

What product does MMM sell? Why does an “investor” take his money and “gift” it to some stranger, and then wait for someone else to choose him and also “gift” him too?

If you don’t get someone to choose you, then you wait and your money “grows”? Grows? How so? With fertilizer? Where will MMM get the money to pay you this percentage from? Will they steal it?

The most alarming thing about this stuff is this mysterious program is based in Russia. Russia? Are you kidding me? Anyone who knows anything knows that Russia is a country full of murderous mobsters who run illegal gambling operations, money laundering and prostitution rings.

They have since forever created similar programs to mop money up, transfers their illegal funds and pay off people to kill their rivals.

Are you unknowingly helping support a Russia mafia boss and putting innocent people in danger while perpetrating money laundering, illegal gambling and prostitution?

I will not be surprised if the EFCC swoops on the people who run these and guess who they will come after? Yes you the big gun who is pushing this everywhere.

And no, you cannot blame Buhari for your misfortune when it happens.

Frankly, it amazes me that people who should be knowledgeable are pimping this MMM stuff.

It’s a scam. And it will collapse like all ponzis do. It’s just a matter of time. If you really care about your audience and want their good, not just money that will enter your pocket by doing a seminar, then you will NEVER promote that shit.

It speaks volumes about the mentality of the general masses that they always gravitate towards a business “opportunity” that requires, “no work” and no “effort”.

NEWSFLASH: The only way to make money is to actually provide something of value to another person in exchange for cash, not to give someone money and then wait for another person to give you.

What nonsense is that?

This is my last say about this MMM and similar cash gifting programs. I do not want any part of it. I do not wish to receive any further enquiry about it from anybody.

And please, next time before you come into my inbox with some frivolous questions about a program, do me and you a favour, fire up Google and do some research about it FIRST.

Yet another nairalander's view on MMM Network

Finally, here's what we at iDONSABI had to say about the MMM Networking Offer

MMM

From a mile away, the MMM network offer reeks of ponzi and 419 combined. Why? Well they say all you have to do to pay into participants account and vice-versa and voila! You're rich! Just like that...no sales of products or services...so where is the gain coming from?

Its like robbing Peter to pay Paul as someone rightly stated. Has anyone ever bothered to ask the following questions "who is the Oga at the top?", "Is this so called network registered with the Federal Government?", "What will happen to your money or reputation when one day (soon) the Government wakes up and puts an end to the scheme...like every other ponzi scheme?"

Your money is yours to do with, whatever you wish and yeah I know you or someone else just cashed 200,000 Naira from MMM last week. However, if you sit down to ask yourself some honest questions, you would know that at the end of the day someone, somewhere would pay for this short cut to riches...could be a an old man who put in all his pension, a family who put in their savings with hopes of raising more money to take care of a terminally ill child or even yourself...

SEE THE REST @https://idonsabi.com/2016/08/26/is-mmm-networking-real-or-fake/