Everybody knows the answer to the question, “What is MMM?” A lot of people have once believed this Ponzi scheme and now are still hoping to become rich out of the blue. When did this financial scam appear in Nigeria and started fooling people?
The beginning of MMM
This notorious Ponzi scheme was created in Russia by Sergey Mavrodi, his brother Vyacheslav Mavrodi, and Olga Melnikova. These are the three “M”s that have created the name of the brand. While operating in Russia, they have managed to collect money from thousands of people in return for fake profits. Thousands of people were fooled at a very difficult time and lost everything they have, naively hoping that their money will return to them one day.
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Then, in 1997, the scheme collapsed having caused deaths of about 50 persons who took their own lives due to having lost everything in this scheme. In 2007, Sergey Mavrodi was accused of literally robbing about 10,000 investors. In 2011, he returned with a new scheme, which he advertised as a pyramidal financial structure. Somewhere around 2015 or earlier, he started looking towards Africa.
The history of MMM in Nigeria
Nobody can say exactly when MMM came to Nigeria. Most agree that it happened somewhere in 2015. In 2016, the government already ordered to investigate the activities of the doubtful financial structure but in the same 2016, after some noise around the name, the MMM website became the fifth most visited resource in the country. There was a lot of advertising that showed thousands of Nigerians participating and becoming millionaires with the help of the Ponzi scheme. Close to the end of 2016, a lot of Nigerians really participated, regardless of their age, tribes, or incomes.
In December 2016, the system began to crack. All the operations were frozen while the company promised to pay everything back in galore by the New Year. Nothing happened by the New Year holidays, participants tried to calm each other down by saying that everything was going to be fine soon. Only in a month, on January 13, 2017, the company announced that operations and returns are no longer frozen, which caused a true euphoria among the anxious participants.
End of January 2017 brought news about the initiator of the MMM in Nigeria quickly escaped from the country with his wife. Since February 2017, the nation has heard a lot about self-killing and jailing of the participants of the Ponzi scheme. Some were reported to take their own lives due to the perpetual freezing of the returns and interest rates. However, this doesn’t end the MMM in Nigeria history. As it’s reported now, the company is still operating in Nigeria and some people still keep on bringing their money into the hands of scammers.
The most probable outcome
It’s very sad to admit that the outcome of this manipulation will be the same. MMM Nigeria will collect everything it can from the population and collapse in the end so that nobody can get anything back. .
People are going to believe in this scheme more than in the warning of the Central Bank, calling them not to trust everything they have to such a doubtful structure. The desire to have a million without working hard but by simply putting their money into some scheme is much more powerful than carefulness. This is why Mavrodi has no problems with fooling his clients. Yet, it makes sense to hope for the better in any case. There are still chances that the ponzi scheme creator will be caught and made to give back everything he has stolen.
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Source: Naija.ng