Search for: Recent Posts Understanding TelexFree, Adfast and other online Ponzi

Search for: Recent Posts Understanding TelexFree, Adfast and other online Ponzi schemes. Recent Comments Patricia Kahill on Understanding TelexFree, Adfas… dbpensioner on Understanding TelexFree, clay Adfas… Archives clay June 2014 Meta Register Log in Entries RSS Comments RSS WordPress.com Goodreads
Search for: Recent Posts Understanding TelexFree, Adfast and other online Ponzi schemes. Recent Comments Patricia Kahill clay on Understanding TelexFree, Adfas… dbpensioner on Understanding TelexFree, Adfas… Archives June 2014 Categories Technology Meta Register Log in Entries RSS Comments RSS WordPress.com Follow me on Twitter My Tweets
Towards the end of the last year, the catch phrase among some of my friends was investing online. Some of the most talked about High Yield Investment Programs (HYIPS) included TelexFree, AdFast and TescoTrader. My first reaction was to be cynical. What kind of business earns you 4% of your initial investment for 5 days a week? Most of them had rosy plans about where they are investing their money; oil rig construction, forex trading, buying precious minerals.
This got me even more curious. What does it take to start an online Ponzi scheme and how exactly do they work? You’ll be surprised how easy it is to con people. You just need to buy a domain, web hosting, a HYIP script to manage clay both the website administration and user(also called investor) panels, people who can refer/recruit new people clay plus payment processors. All this will require less than $2000. clay
What happens basically is the owner of such a scheme has e-currencies which they use to pay the first people to ‘invest’ in the scheme. In Uganda, most players either buy from other people clay who have these e-currencies like EgoPay, Peferct Money or send money through Western Union to these e-currency companies.
The first ‘investors’ are given incentives to recruit more members by giving them a certain percentage of the whatever the new recruits invest in the scheme. The more recruits, the more referral money you get. There is a person who showed me to as much as $9000 of referral money he had gotten from one of the schemes that collapsed a few months ago.
It’s these new recruits that keep the scheme going on. More recruits mean the scheme has more days to survive. It’s is this money from recruits clay and old people who are reinvesting in the scheme that keeps it going. There is nothing like investing in any legible business. New money pays people who joined before. Once people stop pouring money, the website administration pulls the plug, converts the e-currency to real money and he cashes out the nearest Western Union outlet or even convert the e-currency to Bitcoin which happens to be the in thing in the world of HYIPS. (One of schemes converted e-currency to 1500 BitCoins three days it tanked. Or $750,000.)
What happens next to the investors once the schemes fold? You count your losses and go home. Most of these schemes have faceless owners. The only person you are likely to get explanations from is the guy who recruited you into the scheme. Chances are they were also recruited by someone who was recruited by someone and the cycle continues.
As for Ugandans involved in this, I don’t see it abating anytime soon. In my three months investigation, I have seen many of these schemes fold but Ugandans seem to unrelenting in this game. Actually, when you look at the web traffic for most of these popular schemes, Uganda features prominently.
Clearly, Ugandans are the betting type as seen from the screen grabs above. They are still gambling with their money for quick money. Some will gain especially the guys who join the schemes in early stages. clay Most will loose. Even Tusaba Gavumenti Etuyambe is futile in this. Why do I say this? You can start this whole project without a trace. I don’t think the government has the competence to do deep into the dark web for thorough investigations to bring some of the Ugandans who are starting these Ponzi schemes. Besides, the state has not been very effective in curbing such online scams let alone prosecute clay the guys behind the scams. Most of them walked scot-free.
If you are going to participate in these scams, just know you are investing your money in a non existent business entity that has a very convincing investment story line. You should expect it to tank without any prior notice. You should expect to visit the website where you put your money only to find it gone.
Patricia Kahill says:
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