Over the last decade, Nigerians
have watched the same painful story play out, from the infamous MMM that wiped
out billions of Naira in 2016, to the recent CBEX collapse in 2025. In each
case, thousands of hopeful investors have seen life savings vanish overnight.
Some lost ₦50,000, others ₦5 million or more, but the emotional damage was the
same.
Despite repeated warnings, Ponzi
schemes continue to evolve, dressing up in new technology and clever marketing.
The latest generation of scammers isn’t just smooth talkers; they are
web-savvy, organised, and operate with military precision.
Modern Ponzi fraud starts with a
sleek website, visually convincing, mobile-friendly, and often promoted through
aggressive social media ads. The homepage beams promise of “financial freedom,”
“risk-free returns,” and “community empowerment.”
Here’s how it typically works:
New subscribers register on the
platform, providing names, contact details, and bank information. The backend
operators, the unseen architects, tag each newcomer to an existing “upline” who
they must pay.
For example, you might start at
Level 1, paying ₦20,000 to the person above you. In a few days, you’re “paid”
₦40,000 from two new recruits tagged under you.
As you “move up” the tree, you’re
encouraged to join higher levels, ₦50,000, ₦100,000, ₦500,000, even ₦1 million.
Higher risk, higher “returns.” Early stages seem to work, convincing
participants to reinvest.
Once the operators sense the
scheme is saturated, they quietly tag every participant, from the smallest to
the largest level, to just one or two accounts. These accounts belong directly
to the fraudsters. Every new payment now funnels straight to them.
When the last wave of huge
payments comes in, the site goes offline. Customer care numbers stop working.
WhatsApp groups disappear. The scammers become unreachable.
Why It Works
The system exploits trust and
greed simultaneously. Early payouts create a false sense of legitimacy, while
social proof, friends, church members, colleagues posting “testimonies”, fuels
the illusion. The website dashboard showing “pending payments” and “earned
income” is pure theatre; behind the scenes, it’s just a database manipulated by
the fraudsters.
In CBEX’s case, some Level 5
participants reportedly paid ₦1 million each in anticipation of earning ₦3
million within two weeks. Instead, they woke up to an error message: “Site
under maintenance.” It never came back.
According to my investigation, a Lagos-based trader lost ₦2.7 million, funds she had saved over six years for a
shop expansion. A retiree in Ibadan sold farmland to invest ₦800,000, only to
see it vanish without a trace.
If you are tempted to “just try”
a Ponzi scheme, remember: There is no investment. Your payout is coming from
someone else’s loss. You are only early until you’re not. The operators decide
when to pull the plug, and you won’t see it coming.
Before you send your hard-earned
₦50,000 or ₦5 million into any “too good to be true” scheme, think twice. Ultimately, the only individuals guaranteed to profit are those running it.
Because when the music stops in a
Ponzi scheme, there are always more people without chairs than those still
sitting.
Seun Joseph writes from Hull City.
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