Business as usual at Barrel2u
New members signing up despite Bank Negara’s red flag on company
GEORGE TOWN: Penang is Mama Captain International’s main base with some 7,000 out of the 17,812 merchants accepting Barrel2U reward points nationwide.
Operations are claimed to be flourishing despite the company being red-flagged by Bank Negara in its latest alert list.
At one of its offices at a condominium in Jelutong, an outlet manager, who only wanted to be known as Tan, claimed to have 400,000 members in and outside Malaysia.
“The list is growing. We have at least 70 members signing up each month,” he said yesterday.
Tan denied that Mama Captain is a money game scheme, adding that it did not accept cash transactions and investors only redeem points at affiliated outlets.
“In Kuala Lumpur, we have about 4,000 outlets. Penang is the ideal place for this business as owners are willing to be our partners,” he said.
Tan said among the participating outlets in Penang are three-star hotels, many restaurants and a few electronics dealers.
A check at the Elit Avenue mall in Bayan Baru, showed that at least 25 food outlets accept the Barrel2U payment system.
“At least five members would come here daily using Barrel2U to eat,” said a Western food restaurant manager.
Asked if he knew that Mama Captain was on the Bank Negara alert list, he said he had not received any instruction from his boss not to accept Barrel2U.
A Korean restaurant staff said there are about seven customers a day using Barrel2U to patronise the outlet.
“We are aware of JJPTR and MBI facing problems but so far, Barrel2U looks okay,” added the staff.
Mama Captain, allegedly a cryptocurrency cum pyramid scheme, is similar to the share market where a “split-method” is used.
Out of the investment amount, 50% will go into a cash wallet, 20% into a share wallet for buyback of the company’s shares, 20% into the company’s Barrel2U reward points and 10% for administration fees.
When contacted, Penang Commercial Crime Investigation Department chief Asst Comm Abdul Ghani Ahmad said it had yet to receive any report lodged against the company.