By Enyeribe Ejiogu
Barely one week to Christmas, a new Ponzi scheme called PeerProfit has taken off and luring Nigerians through its online portal to invest in money in it. It makes the incredible and audacious promise that investors would get double their money within 48 hours.
On its website, the originators of this new scheme explain what it is about: “This system is similar to the popular MMM or Twinkas but it is much reliable and faster. You can get 100 per cent of your investment within 48 hours. For instance, if you invest N100,000 in one member, two other members will pay you N100,000 each making N200,000. If you invest N5,000 in one member, two other members will pay you N5,000 each making N10,000.”
Like in the case of MMM, the principal operators of the Peer Profit scheme are faceless, but they boldly claim and declare that a participant would greatly benefit from participating in it, especially as the Yuletide kicks off.
The logo of Peerprofit is beautiful, it is a customized pentagon composed of five human images touching each other, signifying the selling point of the organization that they help their members “experience personal financial freedom.” But like all of Satan’s apples that have worms embedded in them, the promise of Peerprofit seems to be another of apple of Satan as the collapse of MMM amply showed and left hundreds of thousands of Nigerians with their fingers burnt while the foreign initiators and their Nigerian collaborators smiled to the banks as they fleeced gullible Nigerian investors of an estimated N18 billion. At the peak of the MMM frenzy, one of the Nigerian guiders held a stupendous and elaborate wedding in Dubai, which was put on Youtube, with the humongous amount of money he got as “help” from the large number of Nigerians who offered the “help” to him with their hard earned money. Many even sold cars and houses to throw into the MMM Ponzi scheme.
In their determined bid to sell the idea of the Ponzi scheme to unwary Nigerians, the initiators of PeerProfit further claim: “We are a global charity organisation that helps its esteemed members to donate to one another and help improve the standard of living of the entire community at large.
“Members are expected to participate by donating to a member and in return get donations from two members. You are expected to pay directly to a member’s account and not to Peerprofit. Peerprofit.org only exists to ensure that members comply with payments without delays.”
The information published on the website of the scheme states its mission thus: “PeerProfit was created with the following mission: “to promote the greatest good, with a particular emphasis on helping man and the environment,” while the organisation’s vision is: “We believe that you have the ability to live the routine you wish without having to work or rely on anyone else for cash.”
“Oyibo (big grammar),” screamed Mrs. Stella Ukegbu, on the phone when contacted by Sunday Sun to comment on the emergence of the scheme.
Asked to say what her general attitude is towards investment schemes that promise mouth-watering benefits, Ukegbu who is a legal practitioner and executive director of Starlight Multi-Concepts Limited, based in Mushin, Lagos, said that she has maintained a principled disdain for get-rich-quick schemes and would never participate in things like MMM or any Ponzi scheme.
“I don’t participate in any network scheme because of the deceit involved. The fundamentals of all network schemes is exploitation of the lesser being. So it is a complete fraud. The reason why a lot of people are doing it is poverty. The larger platform enrollment targets mainly women who can be easily deceived. So, once our economy is improved, MMM and other schemes like it will die a natural death.”
From Imo State, and on the phone, chairman of the Imo State Police Community Relations Committee and Managing Director, Domino Hotels Limited, Owerri, Chima Chukwunyere indicated that he had not heard about the emergence of Peer Profit: “I don’t know about the new Ponzi scheme. Millions of Christians lost their cash to MMM because they worked after the flesh, as the bible says. We are meant to be spiritual people. Any scheme that tells you to sow today and harvest tomorrow is of the world and as such, it is sin. Make no mistake about it.
Also agreeing with the biblical slant of Chukwunyere’s opinion, the General Overseer of the Chambers of Christ Ministries, Agbara, Ogun State, Apostle Patrick Ohio, explained that the love of money is the major reason people get involved in Ponzi schemes, which are generally designed to exploit others.
His words: “First, we need to understand the position of the bible concerning money. The bible says that we cannot serve God and Mammon. So the bible recognizes that there is a god that rules over money. Secondly, the bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil. So such schemes are established intentionally to take advantage of people’s need for money, especially as the bible also says that money answers all things and it is defence. This then drives people into all manner of evil to get it.
“There are right ways to make money. You have to work for it and earn it by righteous means. Therefore you have to labour to earn profit. Anything that is outside this will be magical and diabolic. So many people out of greed and the love for money have dabbled into all these schemes and got their fingers burnt.
On the way forward to prevent a repeat of the horrendous loss recorded by participants in MMM, Ohio advised on the need for prompt action by the government: “The government should take steps to protect the people by making a song and dance of speaking out against it. That is where the Federal Ministry of Information headed by Alhaji Lai Mohammed should move all the government mass media organisations to run continuous jingles on the new scheme to discourage Nigerians from participating in it. The security agencies should be able to mount a very discreet sting operation to unmask the major brains behind the scheme. If the security agencies are serious they can easily unmask these people and obtain solid evidence that can stand up in court.
“Then again, the Muhammadu Buhari administration should now organize its affairs towards providing job opportunities and improve the economy, so that people can pursue legitimate ventures to earn income and therefore turn their backs on these get-rich-quick schemes that lure people into risky undertakings such as MMM and its variants, like the new scheme called Peer Profit. As long as there is poverty, victims of such Ponzi schemes will be inevitable.
“Our government is supposed to be in the position to regulate things and to protect the populace from shady elements that want to take advantage of them. Therefore all relevant agencies of the government that are concerned with matters of this nature must rise to the occasion and nip this thing in the bud before it gains ground.”
Speaking further on what should be the right attitude of Nigerians to the new scheme, Ohio said: “When MMM first started, I used every opportunity I had to speak against it and warn people, but because the devil would always throw baits at people, you found that people received money from the scheme. Naturally, these people spread the word and gave the impression that the scheme was actually delivering on what it promised. This helped to lure more people into it.
“Unfortunately, the government initially did not take responsibility to protect people from the scheme. By the time it became involved, millions of people had become hooked on it. However, the government’s involvement helped to prevent more people from being drawn into the fraudulent scheme. The adverse publicity mounted by the media and the government ultimately quickened the collapse of the scheme. If not for the media which was exposing the scheme for what it was, the amount lost would have been more than the estimated N18 billion reported in the papers.
“People must learn to work for their income. Any income you get without having to do anything proper and honourable, then such money is questionable. Greed is what led most people into the MMM scheme. People should learn to wait for the appointed time for God’s financial blessing. Everybody seems to be in a rat race, to make money. People want to succeed overnight.”