All you hear is “MMM pays” and trust Nigerians to latch on to anything that will give them free money especially in these hard times. Just yesterday, reports surfaced that the federal government of Nigeria is taking moves to shut down MMM operations in Nigeria.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has warned Nigerians against patronizing the MMM scheme but all these warnings have fallen on deaf ears.
Before you decide to join the ‘MMM gang’ and invest your money in the scheme, here are things you need to know:
1. How it started and morphed into a Ponzi scheme
MMM global was a Russian company that perpetrated one of the world’s largest Ponzi schemes of all time, in the 1990s. A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing scam which promises investors a large profit at little to no risk. The scheme generates returns for older investors by acquiring new investors. In 1994, MMM morphed into a successful Ponzi scheme.
2. 50 investors committed suicide in 1994 after it crashed
3. The CEO is a convicted fraudster
4. The current MMM Bitcoin version emerged in around 2011
5. It began operations in South Africa in 2015
6. MMM platform in Zimbabwe crashed
7. It has been banned in China
8. Launched in 2016 in Nigeria
9. There comes a time when it will crash
Many Nigerians will continue to defend the scheme and accuse the government of a hidden agenda to stop their means of income. However, people should be wise while investing in business ventures that are too good to be true.
MMM gang would always say “MMM pays”, “MMM-Making More Money”. It is paying at the moment but for how long?