Friday 8 November 2013

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

I’m about to join another scheme in Botswana. The company is operating in Mogoditshane. Before we join the scheme they say we should pop out P400 to be paid P8,000. Can you please investigate about that company? Can you please contact them and ask them about their scheme because I don’t trust them?


Let me get this straight. You admit that don’t trust this scheme but you are still “about to join” it? Did you forget to take your medication today?

If what you say is correct then clearly this is a scam of some sort.

I contacted the guy running the scheme and he was rather vague. He explained that “We sell trends. We make our money by market related devices and Instruments. Basically that means people buy into them(Trends).” He also said that this scheme can help to “fund your dreams with just one click.”

Of course this is all nonsense. There is no investment, no “opportunity”, no scheme of any kind that can give you 2,000% profit, as this scheme claims to do. If it WAS possible to make money this way don’t you think the banks, real investment companies and pension funds would be doing so? If it was possible do you really think I’d be here typing this right now? I’d be on my yacht moored by my private island in the Caribbean with a cool drink counting my money.

I’ll be contacting both NBFIRA about this guy and also the Bank of Botswana because I’m fairly certain he’s operating what BOB would call an “illegal deposit-taking scheme”. He should stop if he wants to avoid trouble.

This is a scam and I urge you NOT to waste your money on it.

A loan warning

We heard from several people who asked us about an advertisement they saw on Facebook that said:
“*PERSONAL LOANS*
* short term AND long term
* up to 60 months to pay!
* borrow P5,000 up to P300,000
* affordable @ 15%
* quick (4 days to approve)”
It then gave a cell phone number to call for more information. The concern that people raised was that an individual, not a company, was offering these loans and was this appropriate? Was it genuine?

Various Facebook users asked the advertiser who was actually offering the loans and he mentioned that he was selling loans from Letshego and BG Finance so I got in touch with both organisations.

Letshego were very quick off the mark. They called the guy and "mystery shopped" him, arranging a meeting with him pretending to be a potential customer. In fact he didn’t turn up but sent a colleague instead. It turns out that he's in training with one of Letshego’s agents and is therefore NOT entitled to sell their products like this. Furthermore the agent's contract with Letshego says that any adverts "have to be approved by both [the agent] and Letshego before publishing". Letshego made it very clear to their agent that this guy’s Facebook post should immediately be removed and it does appear to have gone.

Well done to Letshego for taking this seriously and for forcing him to remove his post and for making sure that only the right people sell their products. However this is a valuable lesson for everyone. You are entitled to be skeptical about people who aren’t entirely open about who and what they are, particularly when money is concerned. You’re entitled to ask questions. You’re entitled, perhaps even obliged, to be skeptical.

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