Alleged BTC Ponzi Scheme Mastermind Disappears With $6,000,000 of Investors’ Fun

[Nathrixxx]

In a bid to educate and eradicate the effect of scam and fraudulency, several Awareness campaign has been raised on social media to tackle this menace especially on crypto beginners, yet we still have some recent scams of Ponzi schemes creeping under Cryptocurrency with the same ideology but on different motive tagged "scam and run"  this fraudulent elements was in Ghana and have carted away all the investors funds on a promise for high returns.

An alleged Bitcoin pyramid scheme has collapsed while the mastermind behind it has disappeared with over $6 million of investors’ funds.

According to Zimbabwe’s The Sunday Mail, Martin Mhlanga – creator of the alleged pyramid scheme CryptoShares – has vanished, and his South African registered mobile number is unavailable.

CryptoShares also has no known physical address as Mhlanga lured investors through WhatsApp groups promising unrealistic returns.

According to local publisher NewsDay, one of the victims said that they had to pay a $30 sign-up fee with a chance to earn $300 if they successfully refer a new investor. One woman said that Mhlanga told them that those who invested at least $1,000 would receive a payout of $2,000 after a month.

To gain investors’ trust, Mhlanga also set up false claims from fake investors on the company’s social media accounts.

Around late August, Mhlanga reportedly began to lag behind on payments, until he and his WhatsApp group administrators disappeared. One woman who spoke to the Sunday Mail reportedly sent Mhlanga a total of $95,000 with the hopes of doubling the money.

“I am a Zimbabwean who is based in South Africa, I was supposed to get my first payout of the amount I invested in July, then I will be getting that same amount every month, but now Mhlanga is nowhere to be found…

Initially, I believed him because I saw a lot of testimonies in his WhatsApp groups not knowing that those who were testifying for getting thousands of payouts were his workers meant to deceive us.”

At time of writing, Mhlanga and the other alleged accomplices are still unaccounted for.
https://dailyhodl.com/2021/09/05/alleged-btc-ponzi-scheme-mastermind-disappears-with-6000000-of-investors-funds/amp/

[Charles-Tim]

In a bid to educate and eradicate the effect of scam and fraudulency, several Awareness campaign has been raised on social media to tackle this menace especially on crypto beginners, yet we still have some recent scams of Ponzi schemes creeping under Cryptocurrency...

Some ponzi and pyramidal schemes are fiat based but crypto HYIP are also on the rise while late investors are the most numerous and all scammed. Some people are just greedy, while some are regarded as fools expecting high yield return with which are too good to be true.

According to local publisher NewsDay, one of the victims said that they had to pay a $30 sign-up fee with a chance to earn $300 if they successfully refer a new investor. One woman said that Mhlanga told them that those who invested at least $1,000 would receive a payout of $2,000 after a month.

When signup supposed to be free if the investment is real and legit, $30 to sign up is an obvious sign to know that it is a scam, promising the customers to refer people and earn $300 for each person referred, this is definitely a scam that only greedy people that does not think twice will fall into.

Around late August, Mhlanga reportedly began to lag behind on payments, until he and his WhatsApp group administrators disappeared. One woman who spoke to the Sunday Mail reportedly sent Mhlanga a total of $95,000 with the hopes of doubling the money.

To double the money within just a month, yet an obvious scam offfer inorder to scam.

[SFR10]

CryptoShares

I believe this is the website in question: CryptoShares.digital ^[archived]
Note: Refer to @stompix's post instead.

• It took me less than a minute to know that it was nothing but a platform that's meant to scam its users ^{[I didn't even get to the part that it showed those ridiculous high returns]}:
  
  

  • Several years of active and productive trade showed the effectiveness of our trading strategy, as evidenced by the economic indicators of activity of our company

    Domain name: cryptoshares.digital
    Registrar URL: http://www.namecheap.com
    Creation Date: 2021-04-15T12:24:48.39Z

When signup supposed to be free if the investment is real and legit,

Having no signup fee isn't a good indication that such platforms aren't a scam ^{[most of the HYIP/Ponzi schemes that I've seen, didn't require anything upon signing up]}.
In regards to the creator ^[Mhlanga] having a South African number on WhatsApp, I did post something last week that also applies to this case ^{[unfortunately]}:
^{- It'll be really hard to track him down!}

• It takes less than a dollar to register a WhatsApp account with a number from Nigeria or another country ^{[for the most part]} and in regards to his accent, with some practice, most of us could "easily" imitate their accent!
  ^{- FYI: I'm not Nigerian and I'm trying to only lay out some of the possibilities.}
  

[zanezane]

I don't get how people fall for this trap, it's obviously a Ponzi scheme, how come they don't see that? I just hope that more people get educated about this because apparently it's not enough since there's still people that's getting scammed by this people. And we also need the government to step up their game in terms of making the lives of their denizens better because poverty breeds desperation and that's what a con man wants because desperate people are easy target.

[fortunecrypto]

I don't get how people fall for this trap, it's obviously a Ponzi scheme, how come they don't see that? I just hope that more people get educated about this because apparently it's not enough since there's still people that's getting scammed by this people. And we also need the government to step up their game in terms of making the lives of their denizens better because poverty breeds desperation and that's what a con man wants because desperate people are easy target.

They are blinded by their greediness and to make easy money, many Ponzi schemes are good at making their project looks real and legit, they are even endorsed by popular personalities and, promoters or those in the higher hierarchy are even posting their earnings and payment proof to lure newcomers in the world of investing, the government will not take action if there are no complainants but complainants only come when these scammers already run away.

[Charles-Tim]

When signup supposed to be free if the investment is real and legit,

Having no signup fee isn't a good indication that such platforms aren't a scam ^{[most of the HYIP/Ponzi schemes that I've seen, didn't require anything upon signing up]}.

You are definitely right, but what I meant was that any site with fee for signing up is a sign to know such sites are fake and operated by scammers. There are many other ponzi scheme or any other high yield investment program or generally scam sites which are normally truly fake that require no fee for signing up, they are even the most common type, but there are still ways experienced people can know they are fake and scam as a result of demanding for money in one way or the other which will look too good to be real.

[stompix]

I believe this is the website in question: CryptoShares.digital ^[archived]

I wonder..
That website (which is obviously another scam) still says it's located in NY, and they offer different programs.
There is another one,  CryptoShares(dot)cc and this one has testimonials from Zimbabwe.

Plus there is this guy, shady as f*, also named Martin Mhlanga martinmhlangaxnb(dot)com

Anyhow, seems like most scams have been happening on Whatsapp and Telegram, I still wonder how people fall for their traps, why would a stranger offer you free money when they could simple use this method for themselves and their relatives? Damn, it's so obvious!

[Kittygalore]

I don't get how people fall for this trap, it's obviously a Ponzi scheme, how come they don't see that?

Probably because Ponzi schemes have adapted and evolved overtime because they know that if they stick to the normal operation of their scheme, they will eventually get caught in the act but you're right, there's an obvious tell when it's a Ponzi, it's just too sad that people fall for it.

[aioc]

I don't get how people fall for this trap, it's obviously a Ponzi scheme, how come they don't see that? I just hope that more people get educated about this because apparently it's not enough since there's still people that's getting scammed by this people. And we also need the government to step up their game in terms of making the lives of their denizens better because poverty breeds desperation and that's what a con man wants because desperate people are easy target.

One of the things that keep investing here are those early investors who got their investment back with profit, they are early investors and Ponzi companies are using these people to lure other people so for 10 people that cashout with the promised profit, 100 more people are going to invest because people love easy money, they want to make money while sleeping, but unfortunately in a wrong way.

[Taskford]

I don't get how people fall for this trap, it's obviously a Ponzi scheme, how come they don't see that? I just hope that more people get educated about this because apparently it's not enough since there's still people that's getting scammed by this people. And we also need the government to step up their game in terms of making the lives of their denizens better because poverty breeds desperation and that's what a con man wants because desperate people are easy target.

One of the things that keep investing here are those early investors who got their investment back with profit, they are early investors and Ponzi companies are using these people to lure other people so for 10 people that cashout with the promised profit, 100 more people are going to invest because people love easy money, they want to make money while sleeping, but unfortunately in a wrong way.

Because of referral commission many early investors try to convince other people just earn decent amount of money out of their investment thats why we can see so many investors keep go on this kind of risly invesment its because there are greedy people put them on fire like this. And this ponzi type mlm scheme is well known scam so hopefully if newbie will see the same model and offering them almost impossible return then they should avoid it since we already know where this kind program end up and its better to avoid early.

[Mpamaegbu]

this fraudulent elements was in Ghana and have carted away all the investors funds on a promise for high returns.

That is the part that gets a lot of people – greed. Once investors are promised a great ROI, they don't want to cross-check how feasible that can be. For me, I get skeptical of any investment that promises more than 2% as ROI. Investments aren't that easy to pluck off money that quickly from them.

Having no signup fee isn't a good indication that such platforms aren't a scam ^{[most of the HYIP/Ponzi schemes that I've seen, didn't require anything upon signing up]}.

I think it goes both ways depending on the modus operandi of the operator(s). Some platforms would want to make the unsuspecting public believe they're genuine by removing every encumbrances but also set up another angle from which they can scam them. While some would set certain sign-up fees to legitimise their operations, so to say. When Binance opened shops in 2017, it allowed for no-commission trading which was almost alien to traders then given that exchanges that were operational at that time took commissions from traders. Like you said that it took you less than a minute to discover that the platform was a sham and that could either be as a result of instinct or because you researched it. Sadly enough, most people don't like researching a site before throwing their money into it. They rather hastily invest first before making any research in a manner that typifies putting the cart before the horse.