More and more scams

The Eurextrade scam continues to make people suffer, ever after it’s collapsed and gone away.

We heard recently about one of the “investors” in Eurextrade who had gone as far as selling two houses and a car to raise the money to invest in the scheme. When he began to see stories that the scam had finally fallen apart he collapsed and ended up in hospital and as far as I know he’s still there. Another victim.

I don’t know him but apparently he’s an older gentleman and the houses were his retirement fund. He’s a sensible guy who knew that investing in property is a safe bet but a fool for giving his hard-earned investment to a scheme that promised “up to 2.9% per day”. Presumably he’s now a poor and unwell senior citizen, not someone enjoying the comfortable retirement he deserved.

The unfortunate truth is that scammers like the crooks running Eurextrade and their local representatives who so willingly recruited other victims don’t offer refunds. The money is gone, never to be seen again. Luckily the names of the local reps are still online if you know where to look to find out who can’t be trusted.

Unfortunately scams are like the flu, new variations are constantly appearing. As we become immune to one another mutation emerges. One of the latest calls itself “Oil of Asia”. On their web site they make some remarkable claims about the money you can earn, promising “3% Fixed Daily Profit for 75 business days”. They describe themselves as "one of the leading investment companies globally with financial activity conducted in oil market, Oil of Asia Ltd is a truly recognized for its excellence in customer service and tons of satisfied customers in more."

Can you tell that English isn’t their first language?

So how do they claim to make money? This is what they say:

"We collect investments from numerous customers from around the world, unite them in one investment fund while leaving some funds for reserve fund, and then purchase futures and securities sold by oil companies worldwide."

So no real clues there, just the usual meaningless waffle you get from all Ponzi schemes.

The thing I find most curious is that Oil of Asia give a long list of “representatives” you can contact for more information. Guess what? Several of them are people who also used to “represent” Eurextrade. Why would someone do that? Don’t they know they’re fronting for crooks or are they just fixated on the commission they might “earn” by recruiting other people? Maybe some of them are just thugs? I contacted one of them and he confirmed that he knew that both Eurextrade and Oil of Asia were both Ponzi scheme. When I told him that I’d put his comments on our blog and Facebook group he responded with:

“you know I can take you to court for this, I can easily trace you, I think you know this can turn into a nightmare for you, don take me for granted”.

Like I said. A thug.

You might also recall another scam that suckered a lot of people but which hasn’t entirely collapsed yet, “Three Link Connection”? This is how one victim described the scheme:

“When we are recruited we are told the company is involved in selling electrical appliances sourced from China. The information is that [they] do not have enough money to buy stock direct from the manufacturer in China. Therefore when we are recruited we are told the money we invest will be used to purchase the stock that will be later sold in Africa.”

But that’s just a pack of lies. Three Link Connection is a scam, a fraud, a deception. They take your money, pretend they’re going to invest it in cheap Chinese products and then come up with endless excuses about why you’re not getting your money back.

A few days ago one of the victims emailed us saying:

“I am one of the people who have invested in this company. I lost a lot of money and am still struggling to get up after that blow. The people who were at the 'top' who all along had no answers for us have suddenly called a meeting. If you can, please attend so you can meet the people who misled Batswana and maybe hear what empty promises they will be giving us this time around or another scheme to get more money from us. I am hoping you will come even if you 'told us so'.”

So we went along. Unfortunately it didn’t go well. When we first introduced ourselves the organisers were a little taken aback. After a quick huddle they asked us to leave as they said “this is a private meeting”. Within minutes the meeting was adjourned. We could see the organisers telling their victims that something had happened and that the meeting was off.

As they were all leaving one of the organisers, "John", came over to me and said he wanted to talk some more at our office about Three Link Connection. He flatly denied that it was a scam and agreed with Daisy Mogale, the person at the top who I spoke to a couple of months ago. She told me then that “They’re all liars! All of them in Botswana are liars!” when I mentioned the number of complaints we'd had. John even claimed he was with Daisy when I called her.

So we'll see if John gets in touch. We'll see if he wants to put his side of the story. We'll see if any of the "investors" ever get their money back.

I doubt it. Like I said earlier, scammers don’t offer refunds or apologies. They just steal people’s money and ruin their lives.

Last minute update. Rumours are spreading that Oil of Asia has already had its accounts blocked. Watch this space.