This photo was used in Gollong WhatsApp chat groups to promote the scheme.
- Gollong Investments, a Ponzi scheme GroundUp exposed in November, has collapsed.
- But a new scheme, New Energy International, has emerged and it appears to be very similar.
- According to a report by Surfshark, South Africa ranks sixth in the world for cybercrime density.
In November last year, the Limpopo Mirror and GroundUp exposed the shenanigans of Gollong Investments. It was a Ponzi scheme. It promised lucrative returns to “investors” and claimed to be backed by big business and the government. Investors were told that they were buying products, such as solar equipment, which would then be rented out to consumers and businesses.
Gollong has now collapsed but not before the scammers squeezed whatever money they could out of gullible participants. Even before disappearing in mid-December, the operators of the scheme, who appear to be from outside South Africa, had already launched a new investment scheme which is still actively promoted.
The entry-level investment in Gollong was R230, which had to be invested for 40 days. Investors were to get back R8 a day and at the end of the period were to be paid out R320, the equivalent of an annual yield of 357%.
For investors who had an appetite for risk, the promised returns were even more attractive. A R140,000 investment in the top-of-the-range G-VIP8 products would pay out R588,000 in 60 days.
The Gollong Investment scheme made use of…
