The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Can I get anything back?

I have been made to understand that you are helping people recover their investments. I deposit a total of over P7,000 in Berry and over P1,000 in Redcoin but have not gotten anything to date. After reactivating my account, I am being told to put in another 30 dollars, so I am not sure if I will recover my initial investment at the very least.

I deposited using a wallet. In fact, I sent people money to make deposits on my behalf as I did not have dollars and I was required to change to dollars. Are you doing investigations?

Kindly assist if you can. Thanks.

I wish I had some good news for you but like thousands of other people who fell for Ecoplexus, Berry, Redcoin and all the other scams hurting us this year, there is very little chance you'll get any money back. That's because scammers don't offer refunds. They're criminals and they don't behave nicely like the rest of us. Please do not pay them any more money, whatever they promise you.

There is a possibility that some of the victims of Ecoplexus might get something back because the people who paid to join the scheme paid their money into locally held bank accounts. When those accounts were frozen they still contained a lot of money that the scammers hadn't managed to transfer out of the country. However, it's not yet clear how that money will be returned to the victims. The money in those accounts was paid in by the most recent victims, not those who paid in before the scammers removed the stolen money. So who should get money back, the earlier or later victims? Or should it be distributed between all victims? I don't know, it's complicated and I suspect the courts will need to decide.

The bad news is that in your case it sounds like your money was immediately transferred when you paid to join the scheme. I suspect your money was converted from the dollars into a cryptocurrency wallet online somewhere. While these amounts can perhaps be traced, there's almost no chance of reversing them. Remember that cryptocurrencies are unregulated. There's no Central Bank of Crypto you can approach for support. That's one of the real dangers of these new cryptocurrencies. The word 'crypto' comes from the Greek word for 'hidden'. That's why so many crooks like cryptocurrencies. They can more easily hide their stolen cash.

My only advice is to lodge a complaint about any local promoters of these scams with the Police, Bank of Botswana, NBFIRA and the Competition Authority. Yes, ALL of them.

My TV was stolen. What happens now?

What happens if you are still paying for goods on hire purchase then they get stolen? It was a TV 32 inches for P7k. It's an issue of like 4 months back from now and I didn't have any proof or any suspect so I did not report cause I was just arriving from a trip. I haven't been paying them. Now I think they calling to repossess the TV.

So whats going to happen from there?

What's going to happen is that you'll call the store immediately and explain the situation to them. Do it now.

Most hire purchase policies include some insurance cover that will pay off the debt it the goods are stolen or accidentally destroyed. However, the problem is that very often there are strict time limits for submitting a claim. They'll also want a Police report to prove the item was stolen and they often also demand proof that there was a break-in, not just a suggestion that the goods were stolen while you were away. The insurance company needs proof that the goods really were stolen and that the customer is telling the whole truth about what happened.

Another problem is that the insurance policy is also likely to be invalid because you stopped paying the instalments. That automatically cancels almost all your rights when you buy things on hire purchase.

But the first step is simple. Call the store and talk to them.