Are you offered to invest money at very high interest rates? Do they promise a guaranteed income and ask to actively involve your friends in the project?
Be careful, this organization may turn out to be a pyramid scheme! The peculiarity of the pyramid scheme is the promise of quick and easy money.
It should be remembered that financial pyramids do not belong to the financial institutions and do not have a regulatory license to accept deposits, open and maintain bank accounts of the individuals, and, accordingly, are not controlled by the financial regulator - the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the Regulation and Development of the Financial Market.
The entry into a financial pyramid, as a rule, occurs on a voluntary basis and without legal support. This means that no one gives any guarantees of return on investment.
Therefore, do not succumb to provocations if you are in a hurry to sign an agreement and deposit the money.
Your actions:
How to recognize a pyramid scheme and avoid becoming a victim of the financial scams?
The fraudsters and organizers of the financial pyramids create more and more sophisticated schemes to take money from the citizens.
There are several types of the financial pyramids, depending on the areas of their activities:
According to this process, the company (group of companies) carries out activities to attract the citizens to the investment projects. The main features of these programs are constant investment of the money for a period from 3 to 120 months (on average from 2-5 years), the guarantee (promise) of the income, as well as the bonuses in the form of travel vouchers and sweepstakes.
The member deposits the money monthly/quarterly for 3-4 years, thus paying the company's obligations to the previous members.
This type of pyramid is aimed at quick collecting of the money from the people in the short period (a large number of people with a minimum contribution). Massive advertising is carried out in the social networks with further invitations to the online chats, groups and channels.
To enter the program, you need to pay (from 500 tenge or more) and attract other participants (the more people, the more the opportunity to earn) with the promise of high profitability (from 100%).
Example 1. When investing 5,000 tenge and inviting the 3 additional participants, the participant receives 15,000 tenge (of which the 5,000 tenge is his invested amount, 10,000 tenge is the investment of the other two participants; the 5,000 tenge is the third participant investment, which is received by the organizers).
Example 2. A participant needs to invest 1,000 tenge and needs to invite other participants. He will receive 500 tenge paid by each invitee.
Example 3. A participant invests from 20,000 to 400,000 tenge for a period of 5 days or more, with the promise of a reward from 30% to 70%.
The main principle of this type of pyramid scheme is to attract the participants. For these purposes, various certificates are used, jewelry, cosmetics, body care products.
Such financial pyramids require you to make a small cash contribution to the savings program, at the end of which they promise big money. For example, a participant invests $ 800 for a period of 6 months, at the end of which he receives a reward of $ 19,200 (2,400%). The amount of remuneration, as a rule, can be influenced by the number of invited participants and the amount of their investments. There are programs providing for payment of the remuneration in the amount of 200% or more, with the main condition that the participant transfers the rights and (or) pawn the property as the collateral.
The clubs offer cruises, tours, training on creating and promoting business, marketing, copywriting, teaching palmistry, astronomy, psychology, numerology, and more. The participant needs to attract other participants and (or) pay the entrance fee within a certain period, depending on the programs (from 1-3 to 5-10 years).
Attracting money to the binary options, investing through special platforms, etc. The process is carried out as follows:
In cases where the client does not have enough funds, then he can receive bonuses for the each invited participant.
Most of those platforms are foreign, and the companies registered in Kazakhstan provide consulting services.
Currently, one of the most popular alternatives to the bank mortgage is joining a consumer cooperative (PC). There are cases of using consumer cooperatives for illegal activities. In particular, such pyramid schemes offer their members preferential terms for paying initial payment for purchase of the real estate/car if other participants were attracted.
The more participants the client invites the better loan conditions the PC offers him.
The fraudsters skillfully manipulate the people's credulity and desire to get rich quickly and easily by misleading the people.
More than 30 countries are banned from pyramid schemes. Including in Austria, Great Britain, France, Canada, Italy, China, United Arab Emirates.
The Republic of Kazakhstan provides for:
By adopting the distinctive features of fraudulent schemes, you can protect yourself from the actions of unscrupulous "pseudo-entrepreneurs" and save your money.