The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

How legitimate is royalty7, Or is it a scam?

Royalty7 is yet another “High Yield Investment Plan” offering staggering returns on small investments. As we always say, if something seems too good to be true, it IS too good to be true.

They claim on their web site that:

“We are averaging between 56% to 67% net profit monthly which is around 1.86% to 2.23% interest per day, generated across all our ventures, online and offline.”

No genuine investment scheme can actually achieve this sort of return. If it was possible don’t you think that banks would be doing this? But anyway, how do they claim to earn such enormous profits? They refuse to say which is even MORE suspicious. This is what they say:

“Specific details of our assets location, shares we own, our trading procedure, and business references are classified due to the private nature of our agreements with all parties involved.”

That should be enough of a clue. Like all the other HYIPs I’ve seen recently this sounds just like a Ponzi scheme. Your initial “investment” will be used just to pay small returns to earlier victims, sorry I meant to say “investors”. If you’re lucky, some other poor shmuck will invest after you and you might get a bit of his or her money.

Here’s another warning. All of the HYIP Ponzi schemes I’ve seen recently seem to have an enormous following on the internet. Various web site shave been set up that claim to have positive testimonials from satisfied and excited customers. Guess who set them up? Yes, very often it’s the same people who set up the scam, the same people who post all the messages saying how wonderful the plan is.

So steer clear of any scheme or plan that offers you extraordinary financial returns. You’ll be a victim, not an investor.

Dear Consumer’s Voice #2

In June 2010 I bought a Samsung TV and DSTV at a furniture shop on higher purchase plan. Beginning of 2011 I hit a financial snag but this was communicated to the Shop who were not even polite to me. I kept paying half the amount I was suppose to pay but struggling. I tried to reason with them that, my intention was to pay them and if we could come up with agreement that I settle the debt, they refused and even told me they are taking their stuff.

I was surprised that on 28th May I received an sms from a company telling me I owe the Shop. I am a bit shocked because they took their things and would not talk with me so how is it that I have to pay for things I don't have in my possession. I would have thought the reason they reposed the items was to sell them and recover the money so am surprise that they take stuff from me and tell me to pay it again it does not make sense, I believe its fraud.

Please assist me.

No, this isn’t fraud. Unfortunately this is how store credit works.

When you signed the credit agreement in 2010 you agreed to pay them a fixed amount each month for a couple of years and that’s the money they want. I understand that they took your TV and decoder away from you and they probably did resell it but only for a tiny fraction of the money you owed them. I doubt that the money they got from the sale had much impact on your debt. After all, the TV was now second-hand.

However I am surprised that the store wasn’t prepared to discuss a more suitable repayment plan with you. That would have been the decent thing to do. We’ll get in touch with the store and see if they can sort something out for you.

Meanwhile it’s incredibly important that you get in touch with the debt collector. Talk to them and see if they can’t agree a repayment plan with you that you can afford.