THE LESSONS FROM 2021

Despite the challenges we’ve all faced in the last couple of years, some things haven’t changed at all.

Unlike the rest of us, scammers haven’t socially distancing themselves from other people. In fact, they’ve become even more energetic and determined to steal our money. They’ve seen how many of us are struggling financially against rising prices, job losses and medical bills and they’ve exploited that. They have made the most of our desperation and suffering.

In the last week, I’ve heard from several people who’ve been invited to join so-called investment schemes by others here in Botswana. They’ve promised massive profits from relatively small “investments”. One claimed that people could invest “P1,000 to get P10,000 … within 7days of trading”. The same person also promised we could invest “P10,000 to get P250,000” in the same period.

All of the people making these ridiculous profits claimed that they were registered with NBFIRA, the Non-bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority. All of them were lying but I suspect some people find that convincing and reassuring.

We’ve also seen a range of similar schemes that claim to raise money in some magnificent project using a crowdfunding approach. There’s nothing inherently wrong with crowd-funding, it’s an exciting, new way for some businesses to raise money but it’s also a very easy way for crooks to get a lot of money from a lot of victims. The problem isn’t crowdfunding itself but the fact that it isn’t explicitly regulated. Luckily, the Bank of Botswana has recently taken a stand against some suspicious schemes that have used this approach. But there’s still a long way to go.

It’s the same situation with many of the other areas that scammers exploit. They take an area that itself is legitimate (but often highly risky) and then exploit our ignorance about how it works and invite us to share their amazing earnings. This is certainly the case with Forex trading and anything connected with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. While some people have made some money from these schemes, the vast majority of people who speculate in these areas either make nothing or lose money, often a lot of it. However, the vast majority of people actually fall victim to schemes that claim to deal with forex and cryptocurrencies but are actually just scams.

Remember this very simple rule. Anyone who invites you to join their moneymaking scheme wants to make money FROM you, not WITH you.

Please have a safe and peaceful Christmas and a peaceful, prosperous and healthy New Year!