I've been listening, watching and reading a lot about HYIPs (High Yield Investment Programmes) in the last year or so. Two years ago, the only HYIP in existence was NOSPETCO with monthly interest payments of N40,000 on a N450,000 investment giving an annual yield of 107% . Then all of a sudden, all sorts of HYIPs from Ibadan and other obscure areas of Lagos sprung up claiming to be able to pay up to...10,000% in 10 weeks (Penny Wise Royal Heritage promised N250,000 within 10 weeks of "investing" N2,500. There are so many others which I'm sure you all know:
Hazonwao Ventures Limited
Brickfield Associates Limited
Treasureline Interlink Limited
Wealthzone Limited
Sefteg Nigeria Company
Wealth Solutions Limited
Nospetco Joint Venture Management Services
Flagship Specialties and Investment LTD
Nomex Micro Finance
Beraca Oil
Greenminds Investments
UpHenry
Wealth Spinners
Generis Financial Solutions
We also know about Uncle Charles Ponzi.
I did a quick calculation using Penny Wise and Wealth Solutions as an illustration. The results show that Wealth Solutions will return 24,300% of whatever you put in while Penny Wise will return 1 trillion % if you continue to roll over for a year. Did I hear you say 419? Magic? Juju? Incredible?
Yet everyone keeps putting their money into these investments that claim to invest in Oil and Gas, global stocks, and anything else that seems so far removed and mysterious that most Nigerians will not ask questions. Some people are aware that this is a scam and that the last investors are the ones that will lose their money.
One of my colleagues said that history has shown that risk adverse investors are always the last ones to invest and will always lose money once the bubble has burst. He told me that he had "wisely" invested and quickly pulled out as soon as he made his money back. In other words, some suckers are going to lose and I'm going to gain.
There lies the moral dilemma. Should I invest in a programme that could be illegal or unethical knowing fully well that it's going to crash some day. Should I just say "some poor mugus have lost their money! At least I made mine back before cashing out. This is the same IBO (I before others) mentality that has left Nigeria in this state. You might be the sharo guy today but you can be sure that your turn as "mugu" will soon come. It's just a matter of time. If everyone was a smart guy there will no mugus. You might even be the mugu right now.
For more information see Should I Invest In HYIPs- by Tayo Odukoya, High return investments in Nigeria by Deolu Akinyemi and NOSPETCO! by Dipo Tepede. Deolu seems to think we should invest in HYIPs since he runs one, Tayo thinks we should do what I mentioned above which is to go in quickly so you can be a smart guy and not a mugu (if you go in late) and Dipo is completely against them.
As for me, I will become wealthy through clearly legitimate means. Do you think anyone on the Forbes list of the world's richest people got there by investing in HYIPs? Use your head!
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8 comments:
It's quite a pity that people will fall 4 such. Really sad.
btw...your bambinos are beaurriful. R u sure they're yours? LOL
You're very right, there's not one rich person in the world today who got to where he is by investing in HYIPs. That's why I usually advice people, if you have to invest in HYIPs, never put back your profits into the same HYIPs, however transfer them to more stable investments. Most of the HYIPs are messing up now, and people are in jeorpady.
BTW, thanks for quoting me.
@Vera, can you please explain the meaning of bambinos?
Vera: thanks for your comment. People will always fall for such schemes. The same way people still fall for 419 in this day and age. With all the information available on www.scamorama.com and other such websites, people still give away "token" amounts of money to make supposedly make millions. Only God will helps us oh!
Thanks for the complement. I think they are cute too.
Tayo: I quite agree with you. The only problem is that you never know if you are one of the first investors in which case you may get your money back or you are one of the last investors in which case you will not get your money back. It's risky and I don't have anything against anybody that invests in HYIPs at his own risk but I personally have a funny feeling about them.
PS Bambino's is Italian for babies or children. In my dictionary it meals oodles of fun, awws and cuteness!
Its true. Most of these HYIPs have really given a false definition to investment. We really need to shine our eyes. But I guess there is a difference with what Brickfield Road Associates does.
As a matter of clarification on speaking with one of their staffs, I discovered that they don't promise any level of return that is not practical. They invest on stocks on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and in the proceed of what the stocks they buys and sell with the help of their research team is what accrues to clients on monthly basis.
To buttress this fact, someone that is part of this affirms that their interest is based on the stocks. For instance when there wasn't trading for over 2 weeks during the elections, they declared a low return and subsequently bounced back to their normal fluctuating between 10 and 30 percent. For me I believe they are still sincere. My contact there can be reached on 07028191791 for clarity.
Adeleke: One thing I think will be helpful will be for these HYIPs to be registered. Most financial institutions are registered by the CBN and/or the SEC. Acceptance of deposits from the public surely requires some sort of guarantee just like the NDIC does for banks. These HYIPs are largely unregulated which leaves room for scammers and crooks to set up their own HYIPs with the sole aim of defrauding Nigerians.
Registration of banks gives people the confidence to walk into a bank, deposit billions of Naira and go to sleep. Doing the same for HYIPs will give people more confidence.
We are all looking for investment vehicles for a secure and better future. That HYIP is not used by the Forbes Rich does not mean it is not a viable vehicle. in fact being a businessman will give you the greatest return higher that any HYIP can deliver. But we just all can't be that. So some people can still give others thier money to work on their behalf.
The caution is to always verify very hard where you put your money to be sure you can make your returns.
One may also check avenues like www.dsfxclub.com/?ref=119 similar to ClubFreedom, GetAwayClub and others.
@ anonymous
My problem with HYIPs is that while the returns are high, the stress of knowing which one to invest in is just not worth it.
I'm sure you heard about the woman that commited suicide in Ibadan after losing money to one of these HYIPs.
The furore has died down a bit. From what I can see HYIPs have been replaced by network marketing schemes (again!). These things happen in cycles. By next year, some new fad will have taken over.
It used to be Aloe Vera products, now it's vacations. What's next? Cats and dogs?!
Someone, I think Richy sent me a message about HYIPs. His message is shown below along with my comments:
You are not quite right you know. These firms were run under using Efcc , the police , army men and worst of all, the press.
Kshorty1: Have you heard of the EFCC running Doctors, Network Marketing, Traders, Lawyers, Mechanics, Engineers, Microfinance banks under? This is because most of these professions have some sort of regulation. The gentleman that sent this message seems to forget that. If these organisations didn't have a case against specific HYIPs then they wouldn't have gone after them.
Vested interest groups, a.k.a/ bankers committee were behind the dirty job!
Do you think the Bankers Committee, in charge of setting standards amongst the Nation's top Banks have nothing better to do?!
But i ask,notwithstanding, you pride yourself at being a patriot-what is patriotic about endangering the investments of nigerians.
Kshorty1: Investments? In what? What were these HYIPs investing in? Drugs? Guns? Forex? Stocks? Oil and Gas? How did I endanger the investments of Nigerians? If I write an article about Zenith, UBA, Union Bank and First Bank being bad and fraudulent all that will happen if my article has any merit is that the arm of the CBN responsible for policing them will swing into action. If they are found culpable then the appropriate action will be carried out. I still stand my ground that HYIPs were outside regulation and that's what made them dangerous. Depositors' funds with banks are protected by the NDIC while stocks are regulated to some extent by the SEC. If anything happened to your funds with an HYIP you basically have nowhere to go!
The press and the authorities made the HYIPs look bad and fraudulent, they themselves did not become so.
The rich are always threatened when the poor finds a way of escape from under their chains!
Kshorty1: Those who fail to learn from history are bound to repeat it. Perhaps if you had read a bit about Charles Ponzi, you wouldn't be defending HYIPs. HYIPs have taken people's money in several countries over and over again. As long as there are gullible people like you, they'll continue to flourish.
The HYIPs are liberators and crusaders- financially.
Poverty is the bane of this nation, the why corruption is so rife even in high places- because the highly placed themselves are looking to escape poverty.
Kshorty1: For your information, my wife and I lost money to an HYIP long before this furore started. We were almost made despondent by the company. So I know all about liberation and crusaders! You will never escape poverty this way. You will only escape poverty when you add value to and make the economy more productive.
And you glory in 'killing' the hope of naija people.
You don't know how hard it is to raise capital, or to get a job if you have none.
You people don't know what you have done !
Time will tell.
Kshorty1: Please tell me what we have done? imfb MicroFinance Bank, Haggai Community Bank, Berachah Oil and Gas are still in existence till today. What we have done is to separate the wheat from the Chaff. WealthZone is still in existence and so are countless others. We all know it is hard to raise capital and to get a job. I tell you something, money will always follow great ideas. How did Otunba Gaddafi start DMT toilets or Saheeto his small chops business or Seni Reis his DrinksPlus business?
I will say it again if you missed it in the original post and indeed in this rejoinder. The problem with these HYIPs was and is basically lack of regulation. Perhaps if they were smart enough to form an association and make a presentation to the authorities as a legal entity instead of rogue tactics such as maligning the authorities a lot of them would still be in existence today.
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