Hardly a day goes by without Nigerians lamenting after being duped by some sort of “get-rich-quick” investment scheme. These days, the social media is replete with new schemes claiming to be able to repay double an investor’s money within just a few hours! They back up their claim with testimonies of previous investors who display bank alert text messages as purported “proof” that they were paid double their investment as advertised.
Paradoxically, the introduction of new schemes has become as regular as the collapse of existing ones! Schemes offering stupendous returns on short-term investment are not new. They date back to the 1920’s when Charles Ponzi promised a previously unheard of return of 50 per cent return on investment in 45 days. He never invested their money in anything, but simply used whatever was collected from new investors to pay interest to old investors. When his scheme eventually collapsed investors had lost the equivalent of $250 million in today’s money.
“Ponzi Schemes” are named after him. They are a means of defrauding people by promising to pay unsustainable phenomenal interest on deposits. The promoters do not engage in any legitimate business, it’s referred to as “swindle networking” or a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. As long as Ponzi schemes can recruit new investors at a healthy rate, they will keep going. Their single common denominator is that they use well known political, religious, or entertainment…
