Mr. XYZ: “If you INVEST your money with this XXXXX programme, you will receive returns of 5 percent every month.”
Me: “You mean I will get 60 percent returns per annum?”
Mr. XYZ: “Yes, that’s TRUE. Our programme is backed by Mr. So, Mr. Sure and Mrs. Must be True.”
Dear readers, imagine if there’s such an investment which could give a 60 percent return per annum, do we feel that we are so lucky that it was offered to us? Perhaps it’s better for the promoter to offer it to Jack Ma or Bill Gates who could already invest much more money than hundreds of thousands of small time investors like us. All the banks in the world would gladly ‘invest’ in it and then use the proceeds to double your FD rate from current 4 percent to 8 percent. Then, they (the banks) get to keep the remaining 52 percent so that they can give huge bonuses and keep putting even more money into such a lucrative investment. In fact I would think Temasek of Singapore or Khazanah of Malaysia would no longer need to do so much analysis or to worry about single digit returns every year. 🙂 Perhaps even our EPF should invest in these schemes instead?!
Actually, even if the returns are only 18 percent per year, it’s already unbelievable. Try googling to know what’s the fixed deposit rate for some advanced countries of the world today. Yet, we have people continuing to believe that there are returns of over 10 percent or more per month and that they are the lucky ones. Here’s one latest reported one where over RM1 billion was allegedly scammed from 70,000 people. Divided, that’s close to RM15,000 per person. Here’s the report in says.com Some details. The scheme ran from 2013 till August 2016 using a website registered overseas. The suspects had allegedly deceived their victims to join a forex-based investment scheme offering 12 percent monthly returns. Three suspects were arrested together with 13 luxury cars, three superbikes, 10 gold pieces weighing 100 grammes each, luxury watched and handbags together with numerous documents. There were also suspects who had fled to a neighbouring nation and the police is currently trying to arrest them too. Another media report here, from TheSundaily
It’s sad when we hear of such sob stories. Many have lost money and some would tell that they have lost their lifetime savings. Many would say that greed was the reason these people to be cheated in the first place. Perhaps it’s also financial awareness? That understanding that there are reasons why returns can never be exorbitant? If only people knew about the typical profit margin of listed companies? That returns will never be fast? Whatever the business that the investments are supposed to be invested in, it will take time? Plantations for example would take years and will not be able to give returns every month? Even if it’s mining, it will take time to process and deliver it to the end customer and then wait to be paid? Once we are aware what to expect, perhaps the chances to be scammed would be lower. As for the scammers, they will continue to up their games too. Happy avoiding.
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written on 18 Feb 2018
Next suggested article: Plain unlucky or just simply no planning
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