This scam was nearly identical to E-creator but Zimbabweans still fell for it, smh

These are desperate times and you know how how the saying goes. We just cannot keep up with the desperate measures people are taking. We need to have the Metamax conversation, unfortunately.

There are multiple organisations across the world that go by the name Metamax but it is easy to sniff out the dubious one. This is not to say the other ones are legit, we didn’t have the time to investigate them all.

Here are just a few:

This supposedly London-based Metamax claims to help retailers build out online stores. They say they also help doctors build digital hospitals. For the rest, they claim to build integrated delivery systems and digital offices.

This supposedly Australian-based MetaMax claims to offer services in mobile app development, software solutions, data analytics, cloud computing, IoT, and automation.

This supposedly Pakistan-based MetaMax claims to offer “Financial Consultancy, Portfolio Management, Trading & Market Research along with Risk Management to trade in International Financial Market through Pakistan Mercantile Exchange.”

Then there is this one. This is the Ponzi scheme we are going to be talking about. The scheme apparently collapsed (is collapsing?) but swindled people from multiple countries, including our fellow countrymen here in Zimbabwe.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before

MetaMax needed some ruse, some excuse for where they made their profits. So, they claimed to offer media manipulation services. That means MetaMax members would watch YouTube videos and click like or go to social media and do the same.

You know, exactly like what E-creator claimed to be about. So the member had to believe that some companies or individuals had contracted MetaMax to help get their YouTube or social media posts artificially perform well.

To help make that happen, MetaMax had recruited a large army from all over the world to favourably rate said videos and posts. The companies paid MetaMax and then MetaMax paid its members.

That is exactly what E-creator claimed it did. It was nonsense then and it was nonsense in MetaMax’s case too. Even if that was genuinely being done, it couldn’t possibly make enough money to pay members the too-good-to-be-true amounts it did.

The crazy returns

MetaMax was a global operation and so it naturally required users to use cryptocurrency to invest. They used a stablecoin called USDT. The stablecoin seeks to be at par with the USD, so think of 1USDT as US$1.

MetaMax had no products or services but only offered affiliate membership. That membership was free but full participation in the income opportunity required a minimum 90 USDT investment.

Here’s what MetaMax promised as a compensation plan:

• 1 Star – invest 90 USDT and receive 3 USDT a day for 90 days (user had to rate 5 videos/posts a day)
• 2 Star – invest 300 USDT and receive 10 USDT a day for 90 days (10 grading tasks)
• 3 Star – invest 600 USDT and receive 20 USDT a day for 90 days (16 grading tasks)
• and so on…

They also offered fixed-day investment plans:

• invest 1000 USDT for 7 days and receive 0.8% a day
• invest 1000 USDT for 14 days and receive 1% a day
• invest 1000 USDT for 28 days and receive 1.2% a day
• and so on…

As you would expect, there were also rewards for recruiting new members. You got 10% of the ‘investment’ made by your immediate recruitee. There was also the usual multilevel compensation where you also got something from the recruitments made by your recruitments.

However, as all Ponzi schemes go, the real income were the ‘investments’ made by new recruits and not clicking like on YouTube videos.

Really, Zimbos?

Now, we can be charitable to people from other countries who may not have known better. However, Zimbos, did you really fall for E-creator 2.0? Less than a year after that whole craziness?

Some reports say Zimbabweans ‘invested’ US$146,396 into MetaMax and somewhere in this teapo of ours, tears are rolling down faces.

There are reports that some guy in Cyprus has been arrested in connection to the MetaMax scam. I do not believe the guy was the mastermind, he was merely an evangelist who was used to spread the false gospel.

The guy claims he joined in August 2023, invested less than €80 and made profits of €130,000. However, these supposed profits were stuck in his MetaMax account and he could not withdraw them.

As a good evangelist, the guy recruited many to the scheme and he was even invited to the inauguration of MetaMax in Asia. He says that’s when he realised his life was in danger. Some of the people he had helped recruit were failing to take money out and they were mad.

The guy claims he was in contact with a lady who claimed to be from Canada and also claimed MetaMax was registered there.

MetaMax Brazil

MetaMax has since abandoned both websites they used (metamax.top and metamax.vip) but we were able to ascertain that they indeed claimed to be registered in Canada.

However, the address they listed belonged to Davinci Virtual Office. As the name suggests, Davinci allows businesses to maintain a professional presence without the need for a physical office space. That means MetaMax was not physically stationed at the location they provided. For all anyone knew, they could have been located anywhere else in the world.

In fact, there is reason to believe they were based in Brazil as their Facebook page showed that the primary location for people who managed it was Brazil.

The cherry on top was the MetaMax CEO, Olivia Jenkins. First, Olivia was supposed to be a man, which is possible but I imagine they were going for Olivier. Anyway, the dead giveaway was that the image they used was an AI generated avatar.

You can visit Synthesia and see this AI avatar on display here.

So, yeah, the business claimed to be from Canada when it was likely from Brazil and even their CEO didn’t exists. Instead, they just got a male AI avatar and gave it a female name and called it a day.

MetaMax collapsing

We talked about both MetaMax websites being abandoned and at least one person being arrested in Cyprus.

Some nations started issuing warnings to the public against MetaMax. The Phillipine Securities and Exchange Commission came told its citizens that MetaMax was not registered and could not solicit investments from the public. They said,

…the scheme employed by METAMAX ASIAN INC./METAMAX has the characteristics of a “Ponzi Scheme” where monies from new investors are used in paying “fake profits” to prior investors and is designed mainly to favor its top recruiters and prior risk takers and is detrimental to subsequent members in case of scarcity of new investors.

…

In view thereof, the public is hereby advised NOT TO INVEST or to STOP INVESTING in the investment scheme being offered by METAMAX ASIAN INC./METAMAX, and its representatives.

Of course, all this has left many MetaMax ‘investors’ worried and they have sought assurances from the company. Leaked messages supposedly show that MetaMax officials are urging members to be calm but not providing reassurance or concrete solutions.

We know how it goes. This is the end of the chapter and those that got in early are cackling whilst the rest are financially ruined. All because they fell for the unbelievably good returns offered by MetaMax.

I know that there is a good number of people that know that these schemes are scams but believe they can get in early and make a killing before the things collapse.

I could argue against it on moral grounds, but that’s not going to move you. All I can do is caution you that you may not be as early as you think you are.

Also read:

• The inner workings of E-Creator. What was going on behind the scenes?
• E-creator exposed some people who were involved as it died. Who are they and what do they have to say?
• Job scams are on the rise, you’re not as invincible as you think, protect yourself