Well needless to say, Get-Rich-Quick or Skim Cepat Kaya is one of a major pain and its becoming more rampant everyday especially during a time of economy uncertainty. The biggest scheme ever detected scams would be the infamous Bernie Madoff Scheme operated under Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in 1960. Reported total nett fraud is in the region of between $10 & $17 billion USD. Victims includes high-profile business owners, highly-educated professionals, energetic enterpreneur and cash-rich retirees/investors.
My question is, how come these people can be conned off their money? Are they intellectually challenged or just too much money to throw? Are they insensitive to numbers or plain naive out of greed? In my honest opinion, it could be atleast one of the stated reason depending on the category of the victim. To tell you the truth, I have also been a victim of one such scheme few years ago and I lost some money. I was not mad but angry. Angry of myself for being greedy. Angry of myself for being egoistic as I entered the scheme fully aware it was a scam from day 1. I would not touch on the details now but maybe later if there are request.
So all in all, i would like to sum up some important factors on How to detect a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme.
- Deposit Taking / Dividend Giving
Whenever there are deposit taking & dividend giving activities, under Malaysian Law the company has to be licensed by Bank Negara Malaysia. - Approved Prospectus or Proposal by a governing body
- Dividends are too good to be true.
Exactly, it is too good to be true. So chances are, it is fake. Use the prevailling bank interest as a guideline, any legitimate investment logically should earn you handsome dividends compared to banks with risk but should not exceed excessivly. The reason is very simple, bank takes your deposit, turn it around and giving you a 2-3% p.a interest. If the proposed investment scheme can give you much much higher returns, then banks will just shift the entire focus on the scheme instead of the traditional banking method. - Transparent operation
It is advisable to check out all claims before you jump into any conclusion. If they claim they use your money for some business operations or whatever, check it out yourself. Ask for original documents instead of copies. Go to the site. If they say you are an investor, then act as one. Get your hands dirty. Check with the relevant authorities when deemed necessary. If they are trying to hide something, then yes, they are trying to hide something.
To be fair, not all scheme will fall under this category. Some are genuine failed business ventures, legitimate business losses, and so on and so forth. Some people even categorized multi-level or network marketing as scams which i honestly think it is totally not fair as many MLM or NM companies do real business and they create real success. Some who fails will silently retreat to lick wounds but some would never stop blaming everything but themselves. I think this is an interesting topic for later.
Atlast, it is your call. If your senses fails you, ask your partner for opinion. Sometimes, you may not be the right person to decide because you may have been clouded by their marketing strategies.
Do not blame anyone for your mis-fortune. It is your call. But I strongly believe with this word “Still Waters Run Deep“.
