Many Nigerians were thrown into panic in the morning of Tuesday, December 13, 2016, as the popular pyramid scheme, Mavrodi Mundial Moneybox, MMM Nigeria, shared a confusing message on its website stating that it has frozen all confirmed Mavros, otherwise known as money due for withdrawal for one month.
SPECIAL INFORMATION:
Kindly note that for now you can change your phone number without the help of support. Follow steps below. #MMMPays pic.twitter.com/HBIKx2V9af
— MMM Nigeria Support (@MMMNigeriaHelp) December 11, 2016
The operators of the scheme said in a message sent to all subscribers that the measure was put in place because “in the New Year season the system is experiencing heavy workload.”
This means, all the accounts of members who are due to be paid after having ‘provided help’ (PH) to another person since the last month have been frozen and hence, have no access to request for payment, known as ‘Get Help’ (GH) until after one month.
All members woke up with the shock message displayed on the screen as soon as they logged into their accounts. Giving reasons for freezing the Mavros, the scheme said it is experiencing heavy workload and want to deal with the attacks coming from the country’s mass media.
It also said it wants to prevent hitches in the coming new year hence, the freezing of the access to requesting for payments even when such person is due for payment. mmm freezing notice mmm freezing notice The message read thus.
One-Month Freezing of Confirmed Mavros
Dear members!
As usual, in the New Year season the System is experiencing heavy workload.
Moreover, it has to deal with the constant frenzy provoked by the authorities in the mass media.
The things are still going well; the participants feel calm; everyone gets paid – as you can see, there haven’t been any payment delays or other problems yet – but!.. it is better to avoid taking risk.:-)) (Moreover, there are almost three weeks left to the New Year.)
Hence, on the basis of the above mentioned, from now on all confirmed Mavro will be frozen for a month.
The reason for this measure is evident. We need to prevent any problems during the New Year season, and then, when everything calms down, this measure will be cancelled. (Which we will definitely do.)
We hope for your understanding, Administration
Panic quarters and Lamentations
In a Whatsapp group, MMM Nexus Solution, members of the ponzi scheme, many who are guilders, have launched their displeasure over the new development.
Many have lamented that they don’t know how to communicate the development to their downliners – those they persuaded to stake their money in the ponzi scheme.
They also argued that this decision of the scheme’s management will trigger the downfall of the scheme. They said most people will hence, be skeptical in staking their money while a good number of them said such decision is selfish and would have been better if it was conveyed to members before now.
One of the members with the name, Rosy, said, “This rule is obnoxious, unscrupulous, provocative, insensitive….they did not advise them well, evil prophecy coming to pass.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have, at several times, warned Nigerians against participating in the scheme while the house of representatives also ordered an investigation into the operation of the scheme, in October.
A Familiar Pattern
According to Wikipedia, МММ was a Russian company that perpetrated one of the world’s largest Ponzi schemes of all time, in the 1990s. By different estimates from 5 to 40 million people lost up to $10 billion. The exact figures are not known even to the founders.
MMM took its name from its founder, Mavrodi. He founded MMM in 1989 and the scheme was declared bankrupt three years later leading to the disappearance of Mavrodi until his arrest in 2003.
He was convicted in 2007 in his home country of defrauding 10,000 investors out of 110 million rubles, the equivalent of $4.3 million. MMM is not his first ‘wonder bank’ creation.
MMM collapsed in Zimbabwe in September 2016 leaving thousands of people, among them civil servants and vendors, with thousands of dollars trapped in the ponzi scheme.
https://twitter.com/MMMNigeriaHelp
Additional reports from News Guru
