A couple of weeks ago we published an article that outlined the identifying features of pyramid and ponzi schemes. Their spread has unfortunately continued and it is very concerning.
Many of you may have seen a number of get-rich-quick schemes being forwarded on WhatsApp or being advertised on social media. Some of them are even hosting whole presentations to attract prospects. They include names like Elamant, Pay 200 to Delroy, “Crowd Funding”, and Crowd1.
These organizations and individuals that are saying that they can make you money while you sleep simply by joining (be it free or paying a fee) aren’t being honest. Any individual or organization that is enlisting you to enlist others should rouse your suspicion. There is no way that the thousands of members joining on referrals are going to make the money they have advertised. It is most certainly going to benefit the very few at the top. Even if the operation is small, there are still concerns because those behind it could easily make off with your hard-earned money.
They may also dress up their sell in a number of different ways. Take Elamant for example, they say that the big tech companies are selling off your data without you benefitting. They want their members to collect reciepts in order to sell of to prospective “investors” so they can have a lay of the land?
This is very confusing, as investors have many pathways and considerations they make before they enter a market or country, and I doubt that they would need old receipts to do so…
These receipts are most likely discarded, and they just keep harvesting the money from people who keep getting hooked into this. If they can waive your joining fee because you were able to get 3 other people to join, then that should say everything about what they are trying to do.
If that isn’t enough the CEO of Elamant, Ryan Evans was also the Director of Operations and Vice President of a now defunct Ponzi Scheme called Saivian. He was added to an SEC (The United States’s Securities and Exchange Commission) lawsuit when Saivian was sued in 2019.
“On October 3, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an amended complaint adding Ryan M. Evans, a California resident, as a defendant to its litigated action involving a multimillion dollar Ponzi and pyramid scheme called Saivian. The SEC’s amended complaint alleges that Evans played a significant role in promoting the scheme while serving as Saivian’s Director of Operations and Vice President of Marketing.”
Securities and Exchange Commision
Saivian’s business practices are similar to Elamant’s. Elamant is just a redesign of an old idea, and that’s how these companies usually operate. When the game is found out they repackage it for another market.
What is being done?
Besides word of mouth, some countries have moved to ban these kinds of schemes. The most recent being Namibian. The Bank of Namibia on the 22nd of July posted a statement after they held investigations on the business practices of Elamant. They concluded that Elamant contravened section 55A of the Banking Institution’s Act of 1998 of Namibia.
“The outcome of the investigation revealed that the business activities of Elamant contravenes section 55(A), due to the following reasons:
a. The company promotes a referral system which encourages existing members to continuously recruit new members in order to earn a promised monthly income.
b. The main source of income for Elamant is derived from the payment of joining fees by new members and the monthly subscription fees paid by existing members, with the promise of earning money upon the recruitment of new members.
c. As soon as the recruitment of new members stops, the members at the bottom of the structure will not be rewarded. The business model is thus not sustainable and will likely result in the public losing money.Therefore, because of the above stated reasons, the Bank of Namibia hereby advises the public not to join/become members of Elamant business activities. Similarly, promoters of Elamant are hereby directed to stop their operations and promotion of this pyramid scheme immediately. Failure to do so, the Bank will take further appropriate action as stipulated in the Act.”
The Bank of Namibia
This isn’t the first time the Bank of Namibia has made such a move. In May, they conducted similar investigations on “R200 WhatsApp STOKVEL” (probably repackaged as Pay 200 to Delroy in Zimbabwe) and in February Crowd1, and they came to the same conclusions in both cases.
In conclusion
There are no easy ways to make money, especially in the times we are living in. Everyone is feeling the pinch especially with public health measures that are disrupting business. These enterprises are only thriving because people are facing financial difficulties, and need alternatives in order to make ends meet.
Please don’t let them make off with your hard-earned money.
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18 comments
You may have left out MONEY IN CREW
Research is a key component of quality journalism, this report is devoid of informative news, its just assumptions without clear facts, if anything this is just an opinion of an individual who thinks he/she is wise to discover the foolishness in one line of business. But your assumptions are wrong
This Elamant phenomenon has been around for a while and is just a copy of something else, If they are getting banned and litigated in other countries then there is clearly something off with it.
this comment is for you ill informed writter surely slowly is loosing its relevance
this was for u from anon
Research is a key component of quality journalism, this report is devoid of informative news, its just assumptions without clear facts, if anything this is just an opinion of an individual who thinks he/she is wise to discover the foolishness in one line of business. But your assumptions are wrong
If he wrong, then tell us what’s right.
Iwe unazvo iwe. Ziguma
Haazive first try something b4 u tsoropodza. Kumwe kuhunana so ka
We all know what ‘beware’ means so just be alert of what’s going on around us,its up to you to decide to go on with these pyramid schemes or not. Im rather glad with this article coz i wondered why one had to pay a joining fee of 100$us and pay another 100 when you want to join someone else. The math is just earning money from people,simple.if you are good at strippin off peoples’ monies then take the path and see where that gets you.
I agree with you pal
Only people who establish these schemes benefit
The rest they don’t
Ini ndirikuti kunewe the brilliant journakist . Why do yu not complain about all these soccer bet businesses that are dotted in every town and cities . People clearly lose lots of money. How many soccer betting people are rich today .
Gambling is something else entirely, beyond there being sufficient warning and odds on whatever one is going to bet on. There a chance you are going to win, and a chance to lose. With these schemes they sell it like you have no chance of losing. People walk in thinking that they are going to win no matter what. That I think is the problem as well as these schemes “rewarding” people for getting more people involved.
Every business is a risk either yu make it or lose let tgose who want to take part do it if you feel otherwise then take zvaunoona zvinoita otherwise ive benefited big tym from especially Elamant.and am not on top.
I would love to hear how you benefited from.Elamant big time, the only way you could benefit was to get people to pay you for passes. Evans has moved the goal posts everytime! Even the latest release proves its nothing more than a pyramid scheme. I have been involved for almost a year hoping to get some of the so called ” data is big business” which should then have put big money in his pocket, but he hasn’t rewarded anyone for these data slips submitted. A few people in the higher ranks were rewarded in bitcoin. Now you have to pay up monthly to hopefully get something out in Jan. At that stage he has either vanished or moved the carrot a little further, to get the suckers to pay a little more, these suckers will continue to see him as their saviour. Elamant will collapse, either by him vanishing or by the authorities closing him down, and sadly the poorer people will lose their hard earned cash.
Worry about yourself—–Rega tiirakashe Mari ye crowd1 isu time zvivindi
Hatidye maSilly opinions, everything is risky, everything is pyramid…
Muviri mwene wawo.rega vanoda kuriska variske imi makangoti vavava.ukaona wadya pakuru rega zvichiri kunaka.usiye
Well i joined Elamant in March and kutaura kuno i have pocketed almost $7000 usd money in crew has earned me close to $2.6k ,saka imi kana muchiti azvishande morevei? Makambani mangani akavhara muno munyika? So any collapse of these ahishamise ,munhu jus do the maths , isu we took the risk and in october my baby BMW 1 SERIES is coming home so i dont care… Research yakakosha… Zimbabwe yakuda kuchenjera…
being a ponzi scheme doesnt mean people dont benefit. they do to an extent like you of course. but as the scheme grows it finally collapses. those who would hv benefited would be the like sof u who joined quiet early.