By Dipo Olowookere

If there is one scheme that is spreading in Africa like wildfire, then it is no other than the MMM Global Ponzi scheme that emanated from Russia in the 1990s.

Those who have wholeheartedly embraced this programme are from African countries facing economic downturns.

Zimbabwe and Nigeria have been the two main countries in Africa where the scheme is gaining more grounds.

Not too long ago, reports from Zimbabwe indicated that the MMM scheme had crashed, causing thousands of investors grieving over loss of their money.

The Nigerian government, through the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have warned citizens not to invest in the programme, but these warning have largely been ignored.

It was the same story in Zimbabwe, where the country’s apex bank, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, warned its citizens not the put their money in the scheme.

According to The Independent UK, the MMM Ponzi scheme was established by former Russian politician, Sergey Mavrodi, who went on the run when the original MMM, standing for Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox, “collapsed in the late 1990s, losing investors an estimated $100m.”

It reports that, “On its website, MMM Global unashamedly advertises itself as 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.

“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.”

It was also reported that a criminal investigation has been launched into MMM Global branch in South Africa, after a probe by the National Consumer Commission “found something” to suggest the scheme was acting illegally.

It was gathered that Zimbabweans started to notice changes when investors reported being unable to withdraw any funds earlier this month.

One of them told The Herald newspaper that, “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.”

However, some members of MMM Global across Africa have continued to defend its legitimacy, publishing screenshots showing withdrawals as proof the scheme pays out.

An anonymous member told business website Fin24 that, “MMM honestly tells people how it really works and do not promise people any return on the investments.

“As a donation programme, how is it possible to lose your donation? In MMM people ask each other to help them. It depends on the members themselves to maintain the continuation of the process of the provision of help to each other.”

http://www.businesspost.ng/2016/09/28/investors-lost-100m-mmm-ponzi-scheme/

Oh wow is now 100 millions dollars no longer 1 billion dollars. Nice. Don't worry you will receive a big alert for this. Bravo

Lol...u follow all mmm threads back to back
Nice one mavro man... they shud just face dr business and leave mmm for us.
#sponsored #antiMMM #agents

If MMM is a fraud please give us the one that is not a fraud.
what i believe is that if the sincerity among participants continues MMM can never fall.
even if i will one day lose, i can lose more than what i have gained from MMM. however, with God on my side i cant lose and MMM Nigeria wont fall.

grossintel:
Are u guys never tired? All the media news about MMM we have already read them we know the risk we are taking and we are okay with it. Ave made alot of money from mmm even if it shuts down I will still be smiling to the bank. Keep doing your job op while I wait for my alerts today.

dont mind dem, it will not even shut down or crash, if we all follow the rule....MMM has com to stay

tolexy007:


dont mind dem, it will not even shut down or crash, if we all follow the rule....MMM has com to stay

As in eh, now I know the media is a lying hub. You just see twisted headlines to attract traffic and broke bloggers just copy and paste.

tolexy007:


dont mind dem, it will not even shut down or crash, if we all follow the rule....MMM has com to stay

Its Just a system of Robbing Peter to pay Paul if Paul bring in or do a service for Peter. Just wait till there is no one else to do service for or refer. the last people always pay the price. one day you will come back and say i said it. no matter the money you have made good you have robbed some one (indirectly) to get paid by MMM . A pastor introduce it amd make a lot of money all from members of the church who registered through him. by the time all the church are in and all the people you know at work at home are in MMM tell me who else will you do service for. simple Logic is Go ask peter to register the once he too do a service with his money to another by using our product i will pay you 40% from the money peter deposited and i take 60% for myself ad my product.

Naturally a rich and comfortable would not care a Bleep what somebody else does with his or her money because he is busy making deals and cashing out. It is only those who have been frustrated due to the economic quagmire that will carry other people's headache on their heads. Looking for what to say and not to say. if you want to know them check their comments whenever it is announced that Emoney bought a new car you would see them spewing hatred. But ask them to take the risks Emoney took, you would see them running away like church rats. They would continue to be poor in spirit, mind, body and pockets till Jesus comes again

Ogboraph:


Its Just a system of Robbing Peter to pay Paul if Paul bring in or do a service for Peter. Just wait till there is no one else to do service for or refer. the last people always pay the price. one day you will come back and say i said it. no matter the money you have made good you have robbed some one (indirectly) to get paid by MMM . A pastor introduce it amd make a lot of money all from members of the church who registered through him. by the time all the church are in and all the people you know at work at home are in MMM tell me who else will you do service for. simple Logic is Go ask peter to register the once he too do a service with his money to another by using our product i will pay you 40% from the money peter deposited and i take 60% for myself ad my product.

so are you the peter?