Emgoldex, Goldxtreme, NBO, SWA, Etc, and the Real Scammers Behind Them
Please take time to read this 1,200-word article. Understand every sentence and every detail because this could help you protect your hard-earned money and life savings from scammers.
Online investment scams in the Philippines are becoming rampant, as social media becomes more popular. According to Investopedia estimate, almost 75% of the usual victims are OFWs and local working-class people.
Background
In early 2000, High Yield Investment Programs, Cyclers, Doublers, Matrices, and even Bubble Games were dominating the online investment world. With E-gold, E-bullion, Evocash, and Intgold as the main payment systems, these programs thrived until the fall of E-gold on 2009. HIYPs were promoted not through social media but on HYIP rating, monitoring, and review sites.
I was first introduced to a HYIP program in November 2001 when an acquaintance from Talkgold.com forum invited me to join the “Foreign Fund”. The website was professionally handcrafted and the main business was allegedly forex trading. I invested $50 (P2,700 that time) and received a 2% daily compounded revenue. I eventually made $105 before the said program disappeared months later.
Because I was very active in talkgold.com forum (biggest HYIP forum), I was offered a forum moderator position which I gladly accepted and held until 2008. I managed to pull-out $105 of my revenue from FF, but I lost the remaining $60 investment when the program closed.
During my time as a forum moderator, I encountered hundreds of HYIP programs, dozens of HYIP admins, and even HYIP script developers. I even partnered with a Romanian programmer to create our own HYIP script which we sold to HYIP admins for $150 per license. Veteran investors like me who considered HYIP as gambling knows 100% that a HYIP program, regardless of its dummy products (gold, forex, bonds) will fall anytime soon.
HYIPs today are not as popular as HYIPs a decade ago, because more and more people discovered that this is gambling rather than an investment and those people who are smart in analyzing the game always wins. HYIP programs were not known to many Filipino netizens way back then before social media was brought into spotlight.
After years of selling HYIP websites and scripts, I decided to change the course of my career, especially after I discovered Internet Marketing through warriorforum.com. Since 2008, I am doing Internet Marketing full time with Clickbank.com and also developing my own digital products.
This HYIP thing has long been forgotten for me…. until recently when these scam programs stared to infiltrate Filipino netizens…..so I cannot remain silent.
How Pyramid Schemes Become Successful in Philippines
Selling dreams is the easiest thing to do for people who make their living by swindling people. Vacations, big houses, expensive cars, tons of money, and financial freedom are always the main motivation factors for the poor victims.
The people who are to blame and should be arrested are not just the program owners, but the promoters as well. For the record, there are many Filipinos who are actually making their living by fooling fellow countrymen.
A scam program that has just started up cannot gain considerable amount of success if not for these people – People who are extremely good in recruiting and convincing innocent victims to fall as their prey.
I followed a program called NBO Global from its birth until its death last year, and I discovered something very interesting. A particular person who promoted the said program aggressively on Facebook and Youtube also promotes other programs (including Emgoldex). Most of the programs he promoted before (including NBO) are already gone.
The amount of money he made through those programs which came from his victims through his flowery and sweet words remains a mystery – and he continues to do it with the current programs that are destined to fall. It seems that this person is actually making a living and feeding his family with other people’s money.
A person like this man is the main reason why Internet scams are thriving here in Philippines.
Let’s take a look at how this person is making a living out of promoting scam programs. A quick analysis in the videos uploaded by this person suggests that he is actually an expert.
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1. Justbeenpaid or JSS Trpler was a referral based ponzi scheme program promoted by this person in this video. Justbeenpaid is already gone, and its site was redirected to another ponzi site a year later.
2. Planpromatrix is another matrix site that victimizes people who invest P500 for garbage products. The mentioned person is also promoting Planpromatrix in this video.
3. NBO Global – this person is one of the hardcore promoters of NBO Global, and is believed to have held high position in NBO’s Visayas operations. This video was posted during the earlier times of NBO Global, but because it’s still live, many people still believe in this scam program.
Watch his presentation below, and then watch the second video from ABS-CBN News
What ABS-CBN says about the above presentation…
4. He also promoted a separate online HYIP scam program, which already disappeared years ago. His video is still online, earning tons of YouTube views and some revenues.
5. Finally, after almost a year after NBO Global amassed P 800M, this person has changed his course and target another set of victims, and this time through the very controversial emgoldex.
I want to make myself clear; I don’t have any personal issue with this person and I don’t hate him. However, his activity actually one of the major reasons why online scamming in our country is still rampant.
Among the five programs he promoted above, Emgoldex is the only one running until now. Can you imagine how many people lost their money in those other four scam programs, especially the NBO Global he promoted?
There are other people like him who are doing the same thing. Programs like SWA, Goldxtreme, Emgoldex, and other scam programs will not succeed if not because of people like this “accessory of crime”.
One may argue that this person is just doing his job to make a living. Yes, it’s true, but how about looking for another decent job instead of fooling innocent people?
If his intention is not to scam people, he should have removed his NBO Global video immediately right after the company stopped paying almost a year ago.
To all readers (Filipinos or not) who took time to read this long article, do not fall into people like him. Remember that in the last 20 years, there were already thousands of people who lost their hard-earned money. But sad to say, no one can step forward and tell the public that he made millions through a pyramid scheme. Billions of pesoe have been lost already, so don’t include your name in the list of those losers.
Emgoldex, Goldxtreme, or whatever you call it is not new to us. These programs are destined to fail anytime soon, and this person knows it. This is why he earned a lot of money with NBO while the members are still crying.
Watch the second video again above to remind yourself how dangerous it is to trust your hard-earned money to bogus programs that sells hard-to-imagine wealth and promises.
The real scammers are not the programs themselves. The real scammers who are benefiting a lot are the people who flex their muscles to recruit innocent victims. Scam programs will not exist without its front-line scammers (the recruiters).
Please share this article to your friends and facebook walls and groups so that many people will be warned.
– This contributor, Lilian Jane Lopez is an Advisor at Sitepoint.com, and a senior member and marketing adviser at Warriorforum.com. She is also a former HYIP moderator at Talkgold.com (a major HYIP forum). She is a full time Internet Marketer and Web Developer with more than 15 years of experience in online marketing.
