Director General Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Mounir Gwarzo (left), Director General Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN); Dr. Mansur Liman, and Executive Commissioner Legal and Enforcement, SEC, Sa’adatu Bello

Weeks after the Nigerian Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned the general public against falling prey to an online investment scheme tagged, “MMM Federal Republic of Nigeria,” many people remain immovable in their quest for its breadth-taking gains.

In a survey by The Guardian, most of the respondents, who were mostly students of tertiary institutions, described the scheme as a less-risky venture, which if successful, leaves participants smiling.

The MMM, according to information on its website, is a trending financial scheme which promises to create a community of people providing financial help to one another on the principle of gratuitousness, reciprocity and benevolence. Registered members help each other by providing a certain sum of money (as ordered by the operators of the scheme) and such paid amount is expected to yield a 30 per cent increase at the end of the month.


At any month end, members could withdraw their invested amount as well as the added interest through a similar means of being paid by another participant. By operation, the scheme, which platform is Nigeria., has no central system or account.
However, SEC, in a recent statement on its website, disclosed that the system was a ponzi scheme, alleging that the facilitators were online fraudsters who promise high rates of return with little risk to investors.

It added: “The platform has embarked on aggressive online media campaign to lure the investing public to participate in what it called ‘mutual aid and financial network’ with a monthly investment return of 30 per cent.

“The operation of this investment scheme has no tangible business model, hence it is a ponzi scheme where returns are paid from other people’s invested sum. Its operation is not registered by the commission.”

It advised the public to shun the scheme.

But The Guardian survey revealed that virtually all participants in the scheme have benefited from it, thus making it very difficult for them to quit despite the red alert of SEC.

One of the participants, Ata Efe, who was apparently marketing the scheme, told The Guardian that she reaped N73,000 (30 per cent interest and extra membership bonus) having invested N50,000 in her trial month. She said many of her friends had been participating in it, adding that one of them recently acquired a N1.2 million plot of land through the scheme.

Maryjane Okojie, another resident in Asaba, acknowledged the warning of SEC but dispelled any possibility of quitting the scheme, which has given her a cumulative gain of N200,000.

She said: “I suspect that this may turn out to be a scam someday, but with the current economic situation, I cannot stop investing until the system crashes.”

The gains of the scheme may not be the only reason for participants not heeding the fraud alert of SEC, as some religious leaders are allegedly canvassing support for it.

One of the respondents in the survey, a fresh Mass Communication graduate of Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-uku, disclosed that a clergyman in one of the orthodox churches in the town (names withheld), advises youths in the church to make savings and invest them in the MMM scheme.

http://m.guardian.ng/news/nigerians-ignore-secs-warning-on-online-financial-investment-scheme/

MMM is still paying...one can't just fold hands and be waiting for govt to do something about the economy.
Man's needs to survive oh.

greedy peeps and ponzi schemes.....

its just a matter of time, all the people hailing MMM now will cry to us for help and verily verily i saw unto you, by then, it will be too late to cry,scream or even commit suicide

Scam?
When I just PH another 100k?
Abegi,is Nigeria not a scam?

clintino700:
MMM is still paying...one can't just fold hands and be waiting for govt to do something about the economy.
Man's needs to survive oh.

Hmmmmm

Really?

Opistorincos:
its just a matter of time, all the people hailing MMM now will cry to us for help and verily verily i saw unto you, by then, it will be too late to cry,scream or even commit suicide

Tell them

I will be the last to engage myself in this.

Instead let me work harder in what am doing on my blog.

Lalasticlala what about you?

You are not buying, you are not selling but you are borrowing people you don't know money so they will borrow you back. Okay o.

Let's see who will win Mmm or the doubting Thomases, but let no poor soul expect any assistance from me because if you are not ready for risk don't expect any reward. Go and ask dangote

Government and SEC deprived you of diving into the wealth from bitcoin, is that fair?
Banks will be like, your money is safe with us, and my question is, is our money really safe? They use our money (because without u and I, nothing like bank) to give loans to companies and make huge interest, if they are giving me 5% monthly, i won’t be shouting instead they charge me for using my money for business. Billing you unnecessary charges and the worse part of it is that you can’t talk, even if you do, who will hear you? Bank will send you a credit alert or interest alert of #0.50k and charge #4 for the sms. And you said that one is not a legalized scam (you are wicked).
Politicians will be like vote for us, when you vote for us, we will do this do that. Your vote counts. Liars, the worst scams ever seen are the politicians, deceivers. The less privilege are the ones languishing in poverty but you are there living in luxuries, you denied us from going to the best schools because of the high fees but your children are in the best school outside the country. And you think you are not a scam? You are deceiving yourself.
School will be like read your book and make sure you pass very well so that you can get a good job, where is the job? 6Years in primary, 6yrs secondary school that is if you didn’t repeat any class then 4 yrs in tertiary institution as the case may be plus another 1yr of youth service and after all these years no job to be found and you said that is not a scam?
You subscribe to DSTV, after you might have paid your NEPA bill of which you only get light in the middle of the night around 1am -5am, tell me who want to use the light? And DSTV management could not even pause the operation for you since you are not using the service, that is non of their business and at the end of the month, NEPA will still come with an estimated bill of which you can’t shout, if you do, they will cut your wire and assume you did nothing to it for a month, you still pay for that month despite you didn’t use light and when you want to reconnect, you will pay reconnection fee. is that not a scam?
If I should continue disclosing all their scams, facebook won’t be enough to accommodate it.
We have been in this slavery long enough, we can’t take it any more. It is obvious they do not want the average man to live the better life that we suppose to.
MMM has come to stay and not SEC nor Government can stop it
They said MMM is a scam, yes we know
is a ponzi scheme, yes we are aware of that
is a fraud, yeeeessss we know about that also
Ah, the founder is a thief, yes we read about that, we even read that he was jailed, and so what?
MMM is too risky (Abeg shut up that dirty mouth)
I’ve been taking risk since i was born, living in Nigeria (where there is no security, if its not boko haram today, it will be fulani herdsmen or some stupid avengers and their kinsmen kidnappers etc) is the greatest risk one can take and if i have been living in it for more than 40yrs with the risk attached, i tell you the truth, i can overcome any risk.
We are risk takers
We are scammers
We are ponzians
We are Mavrodian
We are MMM

intbizoil:
Let's see who will win Mmm or the doubting Thomases, but let no poor soul expect any assistance from me because if you are not ready for risk don't expect any reward. Go and ask dangote

what is not a risk?

I am a beneficiary of this scheme. Many participants under me have also been testifying

The question is ---what do they do with the money within one month for it to gain 30%?

with that writeup.

On air

They should keep their warnings to themselves.
Banks rob their customers everyday and SEC/CBN have said nothing about it.
Go and ask how much interest you'd enjoy for 6 months on an investment of 1,000,000.00 you'd be shocked. Even the so called T-bills is nothing to write home about. Federal Government bonds that seems to be an option had been hijacked by the same SEC/CBN officials.
We have some cooperatives sef that give you between 5-10% of your capital every month without any charge. I mean every month!!!!!

The CBN's case is even worse, one thing that pains me about their own aside their shaddy recruitments and "fat bonuses" is them going as far as selling mint (new notes) to blackmarketters who sell them on the streets. That's why you hardly see new notes in banks again but you find it on the streets.

There is a clear warning and disclaimer on MMM's site, T and C's of the scheme is clearly stated and the whole modus operandi is there on their site.
Noone is forced to venture into it.

Babzilla, what is this MMM thing they are talking about?

Lies

Dangote can't even boast of a 30% profit in a month


Well, lemme sit back and watch how MMM goes

My brother is not listening to me too. helping hands international is far better and safe.

MMM is a ponzi scheme truly, it will fold yes. But before it does we need to grab the opportunity

Time will tell!

Between MMM and APC's Change, which is the bigger scam? Methinks APC and Change. Next time ask which type of change cos clearly this isn't what we bargained for

kaen1317:
Between MMM and APC's Change, which is the bigger scam? Methinks APC and Change. Next time ask which type of change cos clearly this isn't what we bargained for

Bolle And ground nut I dey order dey observe

I also did a review on Nigeria MMM too, hoping that Nigerians will becareful and make wise decisions

I HAVE BEEN DOING MMM FOR 6 YEARS NOW EVEN BEFORE NIGERIANS STARTED IT.
Its a scam, but before they scam you, some lucky ones gain from it.
Its the easiest way to make cash. Just be smart.
Mmm always scam u in the long run

Better to invest in MMM than playing Bet9ja. especially Virtual