As
Nigerians who invested in the ponzi scheme, MMM, keep lamenting their
inability to receive money, new indications have emerged on why the
scheme switched to bitcoin.
It has been revealed that for subscribers of the popular Ponzi
scheme in the country, MMM Nigeria, who are keying in to the new trend
of using virtual currency, Bitcoin for pledging help (PH), new warnings
have emerged that the payments will be untraceable once made.
According to Leadership, experts revealed that bitcoin’s emergence
came from the deep web where many fraudulent and unlawful transactions
take place, thereby creating a means of exchange that will be
untraceable to law enforcement agents.
Having resumed operations on January 13, 2017 from a one month
break, MMM had encouraged its subscribers to make use of Bitcoin in
other to increase their interests. However, authorites say the
introduction of Bitcoin for MMM transactions was to ensure that the
money put into the online Ponzi scheme cannot be traced.
Bitcoin has a decentralized mechanism for tracking who has what
coins when, and preventing fraud and counterfeiting. But the
transactions are recorded only as addresses, which aren’t necessarily
tied to anyone’s identity, hence Bitcoin’s use for anonymous and often
illegal applications.
Although, its addresses of transactions can be traced, it becomes
impossible to trace once the Bitcoin is paid to another person. Accordng
to the Managing Director of the Nigeria Inter Bank Settlement System
(NIBSS), Ade Shonubi, MMM is luring its subscribers to using Bitcoin in
other to move funds out of the official financial system.
The Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) had last week issued a warning
to all financial institutions last week telling them to distance
themselves from crypto currencies as it had not licensed any financial
institution to issue, trade or exchange virtual currencies.
Although the CBN, NDIC and other financial industry bodies had
announced at they are looking into the new trend of virtual currencies
and its possible disruptions, the CBN had made the open announcement
against the use of it.
To Shonubi, “the reason they (CBN) came out loud and clear was
when MMM was about to go burst and they were now offering high interest
rates for people who will go digital. Because once you buy crypto
currency, you cannot trace where it is going.
“It was a means to take money out in case CBN wants to start
looking at who is taking the naira. They are offering people more
interest and once people change from naira to crypto currency, you
cannot find those guys. You can’t trace them” he stated.
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