[2019-07-15] Angry Investors Burn down Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme Operator’s Home

[bbc.reporter]

The lesson is never to create a bitcoin ponzi scheme in South Africa to take advantage of thousands of poor Africans who will not think twice of burning your home hehehe.



Per sources close to the incident, gullible investors who pumped their hard earned money into a Bitcoin Ponzi scheme organized by a Ladysmith resident named Sphelele Sgumza Mbatha, have taken the law into their own hands by setting Mbatha’s property ablaze.

Read in full https://btcmanager.com/angry-investors-burn-bitcoin-ponzi-scheme-operators-home/?q=/angry-investors-burn-bitcoin-ponzi-scheme-operators-home/&q=/angry-investors-burn-bitcoin-ponzi-scheme-operators-home/

[malevolent]

h promised participants a 100 percent return on their investment after 15 days

Sounds legit.

He also made it clear to the frustrated investors that they were required to upload their personal details to the new site to get paid.

Classic.

The crafty Ponzi operator finally let the cat out of the bag on July 9, 2019, by telling local radio station, Nqubeko FM, that the new Bitcoin Wallet website had suffered a security breach and hackers had succeeded in stealing all investors’ funds.

No surprises here.

I'm quite surprised, though, threats are common if people fall victim to a scam, but it's is usually angry keyboard warriors venting who'll at most report fraud to authorities. I wonder if the house was nice and could perhaps been sold to provide some restitution to the victims.

[bbc.reporter]

@malevolent. It might be a regular African house made of wood and grass that has no security. How else would the victims have entered and looted the house and burn it?

[Kakmakr]

The South African culture of burning things down, if they are unsatisfied with something is deeply entrenched into black people in South Africa. They recently burnt down a school, because they were not satisfied with the service delivery of their local government.

So if you are dumb enough to burn down something of great value to your community, then you are also dumb enough that you would believe someone that he or she would give you a guaranteed 100% return on your investment in 15 days.

Bitcoin did not scam those people, a scammer <criminal> scammed those people and he was lucky that they did not find him or they would have burned him too. 

[Slow death]

he is very lucky, here in Africa when someone commits robbery crimes, often the community burns that person (lynch that person). Africans have no mercy on someone who steals money from them. Africans do not believe in the institutions of justice. This thief was lucky not to have been burned.

But there is a great reason why Africans do not believe in justice, and the motive is the great corruption that exists in the institutions of justice. If someone has the money to pay the lawyer, he will have the chance to leave the jail and even if the law allows him to be free, the injured African does not accept that the thief is released to answer in freedom.

[BitHodler]

@malevolent. It might be a regular African house made of wood and grass that has no security. How else would the victims have entered and looted the house and burn it?

You can easily enter even a well secured house if you want. People (especially in Africa) being so angry because someone took their hard earned money are capable of doing anything.

The dude is really lucky it's only his house that's burned down-- there have been cases of extreme violence where people didn't shy away from butchering those who they have a problem with. Things can get pretty nasty over there.

I don't think it's enough of a worry for those looking to set up similar scams in an attempt to escape the poverty there. They have nothing to lose apart from their life, but it seems that they value an escape attempt over their life.

[joelsamuya]

Here in my country, even educated people are becoming victims of ponzi schemes thinking that it is the best way to gain riches or to combat poverty when in fact they are just robbing people. I guess this type of story can go on forever as long as people are greedy and ready to "invest" money for the sweet promised high returns. I always hate to see a ponzi or pyramiding program that is using the Bitcoin because when the program collapses the news will always include the work bitcoin on it.

[Lucius]

They can burn all town now, it will not make any improvement in fact that they are deceived ( at least most of them). Person who is behind this ponzi schemes is disappeared with money with the previous claim that he was hacked.

I think the problem here is in the authorities who allowed to something like this is run for long time, but corruption and bribes are definitely included in this story. When I read how man who operate this was living - police escort, flashy sports cars, big parties it is quite clear where most of the money has ended. One burned house is nothing, I bet he is buy new one worth at least 10 times more.

Mbatha, who not surprisingly has a love of finer things and has somewhat become a local celebrity, drives around in flashy sports cars. He even has a police escort. Rumours abound that he carries huge sums of money in cash.Ladysmith residents post videos of Mbatha’s flashy cars on social media, and call him “uNkulunkulu waseMnambithi” [The Lord of Ladysmith]. He is growing a reputation for throwing parties, where alcohol flows freely just like the cash he dishes out.

[lucho1592]

All fraudulent schemes that have worked previously in Europe and America are working in Africa, even if it took a long time, unfortunately it is so

[carlfebz2]

Serves him right!All scammers should really experienced that thing even though its not on the legal path but they do really deserve such consequences.Taking money from people isn't always been good and for those who tend to scam then you should think twice.Hehe

[bbc.reporter]

Just matter of time before the schemer burned alive

But half of the problem lies within investor who are uneducated and didn't use common sense. If you're educated, you know it's either scam or ponzi scheme while & if you use common sense, you know it's too good to be true & normally people won't help others get rich quickly.


From news source, i found photo of the burned house (in case anyone curious) :



At least it's not made with wood & grass

Now that I see the house burned, I am uncertain if he deserves this hehe. Yes, he deserves to be imprisoned for more than 10 years, however, losing your home? What if he has a family?

[stompix]

From news source, i found photo of the burned house (in case anyone curious) :

At least it's not made with wood & grass

Lols, google labels the image as "ponzi scheme".  

They can burn all town now, it will not make any improvement in fact that they are deceived ( at least most of them). Person who is behind this ponzi schemes is disappeared with money with the previous claim that he was hacked.

Wow...from the same link you provided:

Long queues form outside Bitcoin Wallet daily. The attraction is Bitcoin Wallet’s investment scheme that promises 100 percent returns on monetary deposits, from R100, in exactly 15 working days.
Owing to the popularity of the scheme, it no longer takes in amounts less than R5,000.

Owned and operated by a local man in his 30s who was a paramedic until recently, Sphelele “Sgumza” Mbatha, the investment scheme is reportedly taking more than R2 million in cash deposits on a daily basis.

First I thought this couldn't have been that successful for the scammer since in just 15 he days he would have to come with double the money just to pay the first wave and gain some publicity for being "legit" but man, a lot of possible investors down there.
For a 60k city with a median income of 500$ that's quite a lot.

I just hope they won't turn their pitchforks against anything bitcoin related from now on, I've seen cases like that in other countries where legit services were chased away just because somebody cheated the village before.

[K21000]

Nothing to see here. Just gullible people falling for scams run by slightly less gullible people. 

[Lucius]

Now that I see the house burned, I am uncertain if he deserves this hehe. Yes, he deserves to be imprisoned for more than 10 years, however, losing your home? What if he has a family?

Burned house is nothing for him, you forget (or you did not read) how much money he put in his pocket? He is drive away in his luxury car full with cash, and now he probably enjoys it while planning a new fraud.

There is no jail for people like him, police is on his side, and I bet he has some judges on his payroll. Even if convicted, he will get some funny little punishment, it is much better for system to let him go away.

[1Referee]

There is no jail for people like him, police is on his side, and I bet he has some judges on his payroll. Even if convicted, he will get some funny little punishment, it is much better for system to let him go away.

It really sucks that the police and potentially even the judges are so underpaid that these criminals can easily triple/quadruple their salary just for an easy ride out.

I'm certain he will lay low for a while and then set up another scam because it clearly is rewarding enough to repeat. With people continuously being stupid enough to invest in this garbage it's easy money, money these scammers would never be able to make in a legal manner even if their entire families worked for 100 years straight.

[buwaytress]

How did I miss this? I know it's nothing to laugh at...though I couldn't help but laugh inside at the guy's comeuppance.

If anyone's criticising that the guy probably won't get the full measure of justice he deserves, I'd point out that white collar crime generally pays in most cases I've seen. Shuck away some investors, stash the millions. Sit in jail and get your degree, do some reading, get healthy, all on taxpayer money, get out, enjoy the riches (and the fame/infamy).

[bbc.reporter]

@buwaytress. However, what if he is only a common street scammer who did the scam to save some money and feed his family?

Now that I see the house burned, I am uncertain if he deserves this hehe. Yes, he deserves to be imprisoned for more than 10 years, however, losing your home? What if he has a family?

Burned house is nothing for him, you forget (or you did not read) how much money he put in his pocket? He is drive away in his luxury car full with cash, and now he probably enjoys it while planning a new fraud.

There is no jail for people like him, police is on his side, and I bet he has some judges on his payroll. Even if convicted, he will get some funny little punishment, it is much better for system to let him go away.

He is not on that level, I reckon. Look at his poor house hehehe!

[Lucius]

@buwaytress. However, what if he is only a common street scammer who did the scam to save some money and feed his family?

He is not on that level, I reckon. Look at his poor house hehehe!

If you read article you posted, then you can see that Sphelele Sgumza Mbatha who is behind this ponzi scheme take million of $ from people, and by doing that we can not call him "common street scammer".

Regarding his poor house, this is where he live before, and if you have few million $ you can buy new house or live in hotels for long time. Fact that someome is burn your old house is something pretty irrelevant in the whole story.

He can live in his car maybe, obviously he was not saved money on that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-mXCuJCcNg