SOCIAL MEDIA GROUP IN PYRAMID SCHEME MESS

MBABANE – Some members of a social media pyramid scheme believe they have been conned of the monies they invested seven months ago.

The informal investors said they joined with monies ranging between E500 and E700, which they paid in August 2018 when the scheme known as Rebound Investment was introduced to them.

The members claimed that they made payments using mobile money transactions, which most still had copies of.
“I personally paid E500 and as promised, I got my first payment in less than a week, something which led me to re-invest part of the money,” said a male victim who is a civil servant.

He said he received two more payments which followed within a space of two weeks.
This member said he started getting worried when he did not get his payment on the fourth week.

“Since we were in the same WhatsApp group with almost 200 other members of the scheme, I realised that they were also sending messages expressing concern that their payments too were also delayed,” he said.

He said within a space of a week the social media group became a platform of endless questions and harsh words as all members demanded their pay.
“Each time we asked about the position of the investment from the administrators we were told that there were certain challenges that would be sorted out soon,” he said.

A female member said she would often communicate with one of the scheme and WhatsApp group administrators privately with a hope that she would at least pay her secretly without the rest of the members knowing, but it did not happen.

Investing

When asked what the scheme was all about, the members said they were informed that after investing the money they would earn half of it in about three to five days, something which did happen.

They said they would get the money back together with the one they invested, which means after paying E500 one would get a total E450 after three to five days.

“All we were told was that the money would be invested somewhere,” said one member.
They said the excuse that was given when they started demanding the money was that about E8 000 was invested with one woman identified as Winile.
“We were even shown messages that were exchanged between one administrator, Mbali and the said Winile.”

The members said they were expecting to get monies ranging between E3 000 and E4 700, considering the number of weeks that have passed since they made the last investment in August.

Administrator Mbali Ntshangase, who said she was a teacher in one of the schools around Mankayane, confirmed that she was an administrator in the scheme and the WhatsApp group, an administrator of the pyramid scheme and to be a recipient of money that was invested by the group members.

“I am not running away from the people. Like I said in the messages I sent them, I am still trying to recover E8 000 that I gave to Winile, with the intention to trade it.”

Ntshangase said Winile was a known trader and she had promised to bring more than the E8 000, a promise she allegedly did not fulfill.
She said she tried to make a follow up on the money only to find that Winile was reportedly away in Australia.
“She made an excuse that it was the time of the Incwala ceremony and she could not process the money.
“When she started ignoring my calls and not responding to my messages I reported the matter at the Mankayane Swazi National Court where they summoned her to appear on February 15, 2019, something that did not happen.”
Funds
She stated that Rebound Investment ran out of funds in less than a month after it was formed.
“We had stated clearly to the members that there was no way the system could make money on its own without trading it somewhere, hence the move to give some of it to Winile,” she said.
She said there was never intention to con people of their money, but things just did not go according to plan because funds were depleted sooner than they had anticipated due to delayed trading.
When asked how credible their traders were, Ntshangase said they had not known much about Winile, except that she was a known trader.
Deputy Police Information and Communications Officer Inspector Nosipho Mnguni said they had quite a number of such cases which they were dealing with.
She said even though they kept warning people against this, some people still continued to do it.

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