After the Bell: Scamming is a big business — be alert and make sure you're safe

Daily Maverick

3 hours ago

The world is awash with people trying to steal your assets. Even big-name investors have been duped. Be careful out there.
I am sure that whatever money you have wasn't easy to get – you and your family worked really hard for it.
But have you ever noticed how so many people are trying to steal it from you? There are some days when it seems that literally everyone is out to take it.
So often, there is a news report of someone who has fleeced people of their money.
The latest was a News 24 report about Mark Kretzschmar, who claimed he could make money for people and who was able to run away with about R30-million.
Moneyweb has done important reporting about the company Kleuterzone and its founder, former singer Anthonie Bougas. He now appears to be in Thailand, but is not paying the money owed to investors.
Like so many of these cases, he makes certain claims that always amount to the same thing: someone else is responsible, not him.
If you have been paying attention to this sort of thing, you will know about Banxso, which was a scam from the start.
There are so many ways our society enables this.
For a start, regulators find it tough to take any action, or to do it early enough to stop people from losing their money.
I have some sympathy for the Financial Sector Conduct Authority here. I mean, no one will complain about losing their money until they've lost it. And by that point, it is usually too late.
This means that in some cases, a group of people are giving money to someone, all at the same time, and it's only when one of them realises it's gone that they lodge a complaint.
There would have to be an investigation of some kind, and only after that can the FSCA say anything.
But I have no time at all for the digital platforms that allow themselves to be used to market these thieves.
For several months, there were videos on YouTube of SABC TV presenters supposedly talking about a new investment product. Elon Musk was another who was deep-faked.
Now, YouTube e arns more than $30-billion in revenue every year. Is it too much to ask that it does some checking to see if it is taking money from a thief? And to have a proper complaints mechanism where a TV presenter who is being deep-faked can make sure her image is removed immediately?
I do wonder how much revenue for YouTube is from simple scams, whether it be a lose-your-money-quick scheme, or that guy who clearly can't sleep at night because he's so worried about my belly fat.
If this has happened to you, you shouldn't think it was because you were stupid.
Recently, big-name investors, including Sanlam Investments and Old Mutual Alternative Investments, lost up to R700-million after being conned by a company called Enable Capital.
The Public Investment Corporation lost another R100-million in the same scam.
The person behind it, Reuben Oliphant, seems to have… you guessed it… disappeared.
And sometimes, someone appears to have almost found a way to scam someone out of their money legally.
Last week, the JSE publicly censured Iqbal Surve's AYO Technology Solutions and issued a suspended fine of R500,000. This was because AYO had withheld information from shareholders about its settlement with the PIC that involved it re-purchasing some of its shares.
But it seems the people, sorry person, behind AYO will get away with it. Much of the money the PIC put into AYO through its investment was taken out in the form of dividends.
Dividends that make no sense compared with what the company has actually produced.
As a result, the money is gone. The PIC will never get it back and someone has clearly benefited.
The real poison of this kind of thing is that it makes the scheme look almost legitimate.
In a society where so few understand how markets, capital and investments work, it's easy to simply think people are rich because they were born rich – or because they stole their money from someone else.
This kind of incident, where someone can literally lie to shareholders (thus possibly depriving them of money) and get away with it, will consolidate that view.
Scamming is now big business.
In Myanmar alone, there are thought to be around 150,000 people being held against their will in what amounts to prison camps, and forced to try to scam people online.
Just think about that number for a moment. It is simply unbelievable how big this industry has become.
To run prison camps for that many people requires capital. They wouldn't do it if they weren't making serious cash out of it.
Can you imagine the nightmare of being a person who has been, you guessed it, scammed into going there, and finding themselves in one of these camps?
I'm not qualified to tell you how to keep your money safe. But please. Please, please, please, make sure that you do. DM