[2018-05-26] South African Police Investigate $80 Million Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme

[Terraformer]

The South African Police said today it has launched an investigation into an alleged fraud that has claimed more than one billion Rand ($80 million) in bitcoin from 30,000 investors.

Funds manager of BTC Global, Steven Twain, disappeared on February 18 leaving admin staff and clients at a loss for funds.

Ponzi Scheme Head Vanishes

A statement on the BTC Global website said:

“The admin team cannot locate him. If anyone has ANY information on how we can get in contact with him please get in touch and let us know. Until Steven Twain resurfaces or is found there is nothing the admin team can do.”

The statement included a request for threats towards the leaders and admins to stop, suggesting legal proceedings as an alternative. It said that all of the admin staff had funded him independently and that they were missing a week’s worth of pay. It does also acknowledge that the staff had only two ways of contacting him.

In an email statement, the police said:

“Members of the public are believed to have been targeted as part of the scam and encouraged by BTC Global agents to invest with promises of 2 percent interest per day, 14 percent per week and ultimately 50 percent per month.”

A ponzi, or pyramid, scheme is a business model that requires a constantly expanding supply of new members. They are illegal in many countries because while they can result in big profits for the founding members, the high numbers of new members lose out when the scheme collapses.

Continue reading >> https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/05/25/south-african-police-investigate-80-million-bitcoin-ponzi-scheme/

[Kakmakr]

The people invested in this was not scammed. If someone promise you 2% interest a day, you should have already realized that it was a Ponzi scheme or something illegal. They continued investing, because they were greedy.

Some friends of mine in South Africa Skyped me about this and asked me if this was Bitcoin. I investigated this and then warned them in advance that they should warn people that it was not Bitcoin. I explained to them that it was a Ponzi scheme and that they must report this to the authorities.

They contacted me again and said that these people know that it was a Ponzi scheme and that they are going to risk it. So I washed my hands and warned my friends not to get involved with this.  

SHITE like this, gives Bitcoin a bad reputation.  

[Slow death]

The South African Police said today it has launched an investigation into an alleged fraud that has claimed more than one billion Rand ($80 million) in bitcoin from 30,000 investors.

WOW this is a very large number of people and by value means that there were people who invested in this scheme a good amount of money

“Members of the public are believed to have been targeted as part of the scam and encouraged by BTC Global agents to invest with promises of 2 percent interest per day, 14 percent per week and ultimately 50 percent per month.”

how can anyone believe in these kinds of returns? I know there are a lot of people who invest in hyip sites and look at the hyip sites as a game, but here we are talking about 30,000 people, how the heck have so many people been deluded with this project? because I have not seen so much advertising on the internet, so how can they have reached 30,000 people?

[PirateHunterr]

A similar thing happened in India where Guy named Amit Bhardwaj did Bitcoin mining scam. It was pretty huge and is now in Jail.

Article: https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/04/06/indian-police-arrest-leaders-major-bitcoin-mining-scam/

[gabbie2010]

I wonder why some people fall for this deception in the name of ponzi schemes obviously it shows how greedy some South African are, in recent time MMM defrauded many people in some African countries which was well publicized, a whooping $80 million Worth of bitcoin gone into the drains another way of tarnishing  the rising image of bitcoin, the police should investigate and man hunt and bring to book those individuals involved in the scam which will serve as a deterrent to others.

[stomachgrowls]

2 percent interest per day, 14 percent per week and ultimately 50 percent per month.

With just having that kind of line or offer theres no doubt this is just a ponzi scheme and nothing on this world where investment do make such big returns on a short period of time.If you are a sensible investor and wise enough you wont easily fall for this trap and i cant imagine that 30,000 investors do believe on this thing. Sad thing for them and would really be a good lesson learned.

[veleten]

reminds me of the Nigerian ponzi run by Mavrodi
but this one is a copy of  the nigerian one,when they managed to steal around 50$ in total,but using bitcoins to be more vague
but from people whose income is vastly lower than in South Africa,also much more people were affected:
https://qz.com/1247664/mmm-ponzi-shut-in-nigeria-after-mavrodis-death/

[1Referee]

SHITE like this, gives Bitcoin a bad reputation.

Not really. The only people believing it is related to Bitcoin are noobs themselves, and they don't ever contribute to this market. In other words, we haven't lost anything in that regard. Those with more brain capacity being able to actually think, will know it has nothing to do with Bitcoin, but just the greedy nature of people. I don't even find these cases interesting anymore. It's always the same; people use these options to become rich. It's like the poor man's way to become rich, but they only become poorer.

Again, people with brain capacity know that free money doesn't exist, and thus these investment options are a scam by default. Low IQ people will take these risks, even if they know it's actually a scam. They don't have any skills or market understanding they can utilize to achieve their goals. These people have got what they deserved.

[richardsNY]

I don't understand why people don't just report these schemes to the authorities. If enough people do that, the SEC equivalent of the countries people report to will definitely start an investigation. People not doing anything allow these schemes to keep their operations running in all freedom. I seriously hope that in these cases the regulations will actually be very harsh. It's far too easy to set these schemes up and generate millions of dollars in income because of how noobs don't know what they are doing, and mentally retarded clowns think they can exit with profits before the scheme busts. It's once again a sign that people don't learn anything from past events....

[hatshepsut93]

SHITE like this, gives Bitcoin a bad reputation.  

Bitcoin haven't revolutionized the scamming and other activities, there are way more scams and ponzi schemes featuring bank payments than those that are focused around Bitcoin. People who are aware of them understand that it's not a problem exclusive to Bitcoin, so Bitcoin's reputation does not suffer here. Those who are pointing out scams to criticize Bitcoin are usually already prejudiced against it, so it doesn't matter much.

[vit05]

How could people still be innocent enough to believe that a value created from the wind can last for a long time? This type of business is never something legitimate. And whoever participates always knows about the possibilities of losing everything. It is pity that the resources of a whole population are used to investigate something that was wrong from the beginning and that only affected the people who look for opportunities that are illegal or unreal.

[Johnzky]

The people invested in this was not scammed. If someone promise you 2% interest a day, you should have already realized that it was a Ponzi scheme or something illegal. They continued investing, because they were greedy.

Some friends of mine in South Africa Skyped me about this and asked me if this was Bitcoin. I investigated this and then warned them in advance that they should warn people that it was not Bitcoin. I explained to them that it was a Ponzi scheme and that they must report this to the authorities.

They contacted me again and said that these people know that it was a Ponzi scheme and that they are going to risk it. So I washed my hands and warned my friends not to get involved with this.  

SHITE like this, gives Bitcoin a bad reputation.  

Youre right on this one,this incident quite the same as what happened to the Philippines month ago,the scammer earned almost same amount ,promising investor to earn some percent daily.

And youre right again that this people who invested and claims to be a victim are just a Greedy people that assumed they will earn that big trusting scammers,and now theybecome the victim of their own greediness

[Snake9999]

Banks will never admit that they have participated in the ponzi scheme, and that in the eyes of most people, the bank will always be the safest. They are very confident in the bank. Now banks are strongly opposed to Bitcoin, and they therefore think that Bitcoin is ponzi scheme.

[ruthbabe]

The South African Police said today it has launched an investigation into an alleged fraud that has claimed more than one billion Rand ($80 million) in bitcoin from 30,000 investors.

WOW this is a very large number of people and by value means that there were people who invested in this scheme a good amount of money

“Members of the public are believed to have been targeted as part of the scam and encouraged by BTC Global agents to invest with promises of 2 percent interest per day, 14 percent per week and ultimately 50 percent per month.”

how can anyone believe in these kinds of returns? I know there are a lot of people who invest in hyip sites and look at the hyip sites as a game, but here we are talking about 30,000 people, how the heck have so many people been deluded with this project? because I have not seen so much advertising on the internet, so how can they have reached 30,000 people?

I don't believe they didn't know it was Ponzi or a pyramiding type of "Get Rich Quick Scheme". At 2% interest per day, it's a huge return on investment and so, they should ask themselves where would this company invest their money to be able to pay them that 2%/day interest rate? That's not possible, but because of greed even though they know the risk involved they continue investing because they want to earn money “the easy way”. 

[Fatunad]

The South African Police said today it has launched an investigation into an alleged fraud that has claimed more than one billion Rand ($80 million) in bitcoin from 30,000 investors.

WOW this is a very large number of people and by value means that there were people who invested in this scheme a good amount of money

“Members of the public are believed to have been targeted as part of the scam and encouraged by BTC Global agents to invest with promises of 2 percent interest per day, 14 percent per week and ultimately 50 percent per month.”

how can anyone believe in these kinds of returns? I know there are a lot of people who invest in hyip sites and look at the hyip sites as a game, but here we are talking about 30,000 people, how the heck have so many people been deluded with this project? because I have not seen so much advertising on the internet, so how can they have reached 30,000 people?

I don't believe they didn't know it was Ponzi or a pyramiding type of "Get Rich Quick Scheme". At 2% interest per day, it's a huge return on investment and so, they should ask themselves where would this company invest their money to be able to pay them that 2%/day interest rate? That's not possible, but because of greed even though they know the risk involved they continue investing because they want to earn money “the easy way”. 

Its always been part of human nature on being greedy and who doesnt like to earn big profits in a short period of time and without any work?I do believe that people who joined most of them aware on the risk but still they decide to go on just for the sake of trying out or embracing the risk behind.So sad for those people who join up late and lucky for those who join up on early days of that scam company.

[Betwrong]

~

“Members of the public are believed to have been targeted as part of the scam and encouraged by BTC Global agents to invest with promises of 2 percent interest per day, 14 percent per week and ultimately 50 percent per month.”

how can anyone believe in these kinds of returns? I know there are a lot of people who invest in hyip sites and look at the hyip sites as a game, but here we are talking about 30,000 people, how the heck have so many people been deluded with this project? because I have not seen so much advertising on the internet, so how can they have reached 30,000 people?

Unfortunately many people still believe in such things. Just recently I was reading an article about an ICO and there was a comment to the article: "I transferred 0.5 BTC to [name of the website] and I received 1.5 BTC 7 days later". And there were 3 comments from different "people" confirming that it works. That's how they do the business now, they don't even need to advertise.  Greed blinds people, makes them lose common sense and they fall for it. I thought after MMM it will be pointless to create such schemes, but apparently I was wrong.

[Jating]

~

“Members of the public are believed to have been targeted as part of the scam and encouraged by BTC Global agents to invest with promises of 2 percent interest per day, 14 percent per week and ultimately 50 percent per month.”

how can anyone believe in these kinds of returns? I know there are a lot of people who invest in hyip sites and look at the hyip sites as a game, but here we are talking about 30,000 people, how the heck have so many people been deluded with this project? because I have not seen so much advertising on the internet, so how can they have reached 30,000 people?

Unfortunately many people still believe in such things. Just recently I was reading an article about an ICO and there was a comment to the article: "I transferred 0.5 BTC to [name of the website] and I received 1.5 BTC 7 days later". And there were 3 comments from different "people" confirming that it works. That's how they do the business now, they don't even need to advertise.  Greed blinds people, makes them lose common sense and they fall for it. I thought after MMM it will be pointless to create such schemes, but apparently I was wrong.

Yes, there are a lot of gullible individuals who's mind see's potential dollar amount, however, they became blinded, their decisions are clouded and eventually succumb to one of this HYIP, Ponzi and its too late before they know that they have been scammed.

And its all over now, a lot of crooks are taking advantage of this situation, but the problem is that people still fall for it. And as much as we call them out at the beginning, they won't listen and then bitch out later that its bitcoin fault. Just sad, but there's no one to blame but themselves for falling for this trap.

[orions.belt19]

SHITE like this, gives Bitcoin a bad reputation.  

Bitcoin haven't revolutionized the scamming and other activities, there are way more scams and ponzi schemes featuring bank payments than those that are focused around Bitcoin. People who are aware of them understand that it's not a problem exclusive to Bitcoin, so Bitcoin's reputation does not suffer here. Those who are pointing out scams to criticize Bitcoin are usually already prejudiced against it, so it doesn't matter much.

Actually, many of these scams make people think that bitcoin/crypto = ponzi scam or hyip schemes. Even when there many other form of these scams found in different areas or with the use of fiat, and is hardly any different with the ones used with crypto, most people get the wrong idea. These kind of news get associated to crypto negatively and it does give a bad reputation.

[entrepmind23]

In an email statement, the police said:

“Members of the public are believed to have been targeted as part of the scam and encouraged by BTC Global agents to invest with promises of 2 percent interest per day, 14 percent per week and ultimately 50 percent per month.”

Oh well, there would always be people who would be a victim of this because people just cannot let it pass that their friends and acquaintances are investing in this kind of scheme and they are not. With a rate like that, it is obvious that there is something wrong with it but then a rate like that would entice more people to join because where in the world could they see something like this. The bank only gives less that a percent annually while they can have a return of investment in two months if they invest in this. We know that it is too good to be true and I assume many of them suspected too but they still push through so I hope that they learn their lesson from this. People who are doing this only tarnished bitcoin's reputation.

[Kakmakr]

SHITE like this, gives Bitcoin a bad reputation.

Not really. The only people believing it is related to Bitcoin are noobs themselves, and they don't ever contribute to this market. In other words, we haven't lost anything in that regard. Those with more brain capacity being able to actually think, will know it has nothing to do with Bitcoin, but just the greedy nature of people. I don't even find these cases interesting anymore. It's always the same; people use these options to become rich. It's like the poor man's way to become rich, but they only become poorer.

Again, people with brain capacity know that free money doesn't exist, and thus these investment options are a scam by default. Low IQ people will take these risks, even if they know it's actually a scam. They don't have any skills or market understanding they can utilize to achieve their goals. These people have got what they deserved.

I want to disagree with you on this. As I said before, these people were warned in advance that this was a Ponzi scheme and they still invested. Now my friends are telling me that these same people are blaming Bitcoin for their losses and telling other people to stay away from Bitcoin.

One of the people who was invested in this was a medical doctor, so I doubt if greed makes any distinction based on IQ.

The thing that we lose in the end is credibility and a decline in adoption, fuelled by people who lost money in scams. Bitcoin is the unfortunate "collateral damage" in this scenario.