The Federal Government’s owned Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) on Friday, said it had mapped out strategies to deal with issues of internet abuses by various forms of Ponzi schemes such as the Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox, MMM, Ultimate Cycler, Givers Forum and a lot others.
But Mr Sunday Folayan, the President of NIRA, who made this known in a statement in Lagos, said that the association had established a Law Enforcement Desk to handle complaints on Domain Name abuse.
He said that NIRA had also developed an Internal Procedural Process to manage and deal with such complaints received. He said that NIRA would work in conjunction with relevant law enforcement agencies to stem the tide.
”If you discover any form of Internet abuse with .ng websites please send an email to abuse@nira.org.ng. We will deal with it. ”Together we can make the internet safe for us and our children,’’ he said.
According to him, most Nigerians are being defrauded by various forms of Ponzi schemes while the fraudsters are operating under various names and platforms.
He explained that a ponzi scheme was a fraudulent investment operation where payment to its initial investors was from the payments made by new investors and not from profit earned through legitimate sources. Folayan said that in recent times, Nigerians had varied experiences to narrate on the matter of ponzi schemes. According to him, while a few testify to the benefits derived from the scheme, majority are lamenting because they are have been left high and dry. He said that many had fallen victims as the schemes had impoverished more people than they claimed to have helped.
He, however, said that the scammers were feeding on the greed of the people and the poor economic situation to lure more victims. He added that this was in spite of warning by the Federal Government that Nigerians should not invest or get involved in such fraudulent schemes. Folayan said that recently, innocent people’s contact details such as phone numbers and emails, were being used as administrative contacts for these schemes. According to him, the victims of the identity theft only get to know when defrauded victims start calling and demanding for payments. He said that several people had received threatening phone calls regarding their fate, if they do not pay up. Folayan said that NIRA had taken concrete steps to further assist law enforcement agencies to deal with the menace.
MMM again to freeze Mavros, introduce new rules
Recall that the ponzi scheme, MMM again announced it would freeze some Mavros of its participants and introduce new measures to ‘serve them better’ after doing so before.
In a latest release to its participants on February 22, members of the ponzi scheme saw in their various Pos(Personal Offices) a message stating the plan to launch the new rules which will “stop the growth of confirmed Mavros acquired before the 1st of January 2017 and freeze the bonuses received before the 1st of January 2017 so that limited withdrawal of Mavro-2016 will include only contributions, not bonuses.”
PO means personal office. It is the site’s environment displayed for every member to participate in its activities. Mavros are virtual money-equivalent access to cashing returns on funds invested in the scheme.
The message read thus:
“You constantly reproach us stating we don’t listen to your opinions however we really do. We try to carry out the most reasonable and efficient suggestions immediately. Particularly, in accordance with your suggestions, we will soon take the following measures: We will stop the growth of confirmed Mavros acquired before the 1st of January 2017. We will freeze the bonuses received before the 1st of January 2017 (so that limited withdrawal of Mavro-2016 will include only contributions, not bonuses). We will introduce a new rule according to which the withdrawal amount cannot exceed triple amount of the provided help (so, GH cannot exceed PH more than in 3 times).”
Recall that in November 2016, the ponzi scheme first froze the Mavros of its participants, raising anxiety and controversy on whether it would ever pay back to Nigerians the millions of money they invested in it. However, after a month’s later, it announced it had unfrozen the Mavros but ever since its return, the participants are yet to get either their invested capital back nor the promised returns on them.
Promoters of the scheme were equally not resting on their oases in constantly convincing their down-liners whom they introduced into the scheme that it would come back to status quo ante.
But, almost two months since its return, the members kept receiving information about planned changes in the scheme.
While others have had suggestions of forgoing the money they invested before 2017, others have been told to keep investing in order to have access to withdrawals. The latest announcement has equally raised more fears and sparked off debate among the participants.
