It’s with an extremely heavy heart that I type this.
Why?
Because another 23,259 innocent victims have lost over RM $80 million in a Forex pyramid scam perpetuated by a bogus company known as VenusFX.
This was officially made known to the public after Operation codename “Nuri” launched by the Malaysian police on the 17th of March 2017 successfully took down the syndicate in a series of raids over in KL, Pahang and Selangor.
(You can find the link to full report below)
And the truth is…
Not only do I “feel” for these people who lost their hard-earned money, I’m also greatly infuriated with myself and somewhat disturbed by the fact that this tragic outcome could have been averted to a huge degree if I had only started to educate the public on the modus operandi behind these vicious scams.
Well, better late than never.
Because it’s always a good idea to learn from other people’s mistakes, I’ve done a quick analysis on the entire saga and boiled it down to 3 major reasons as to why these innocent people wound up becoming victims, and how YOU can avoid making the same mistake of falling prey to such evil schemes.
Mistake #1: Failure to conduct due diligence
In my Anti-Scam 101 Checklist, I always stress the need to do your due diligence especially when it comes to background of the company you intend to do business with.
Even though the scam was perpetuated in Malaysia, a simple background check would have revealed the fact that VenusFX was incorporated in New Zealand under a virtual address.
In other words, we’re talking about a company with no actual ‘physical’ headquarters in the country they were incorporated.
Shouldn’t that send your alarm bells ringing?
What’s more, further checks would have revealed Shahidrawadey Shahidan as the listed owner of the company, who owns multiple companies incorporated under offshore shell companies.
Dodgy? You bet.
Mistake #2: Greed
This is a biggie.
I dug up some of the presentation slides used in their business opportunity presentation and look what I found…
You wouldn’t need a genius to figure out that all these highly unrealistic numbers were pulled right outta their ass.
A simple calculation would reveal that these numbers that are being pitched on these slides represent a total pie-in-the-sky and are simply too good to be true.
And if you’ve been following my content for any length of time, you’ll know that I always emphasize the fact that when something seems too good to be true, it usually is.
Don’t EVER let your greed glands get the better of you because when they do…the outcome will usually be disastrous.
Just ask the 23,259 victims.
And finally…
Mistake #3: Believing in FALSE ‘guarantees’
Look.
No one can promise you that you WILL make money in anything that you do.
Not only is it illegal, it’s virtually impossible unless you’re a deity of sorts and you’re able to control the market.
There’s just no such thing as “guaranteed” to win.
Anyone with a fundamental knowledge of investing in Forex, Stocks, Options or other financial instruments know that losses are part and parcel of the investing process.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
When you win more than you lose – you profit.
Conversely when you lose more than you profit – you lose.
It’s not rocket science, you dig?
So when someone promises and goes to the extent of being able to “guarantee” your capital or profits, run like the wind!
Actually, after considering what happened to these victims, I’d advise you to FLEE instead.
Yes…literally FLEE for your life and FLEE with your hard-earned money while you still can, lest those scammers FLEECE you and leave you hanging out to dry.
In conclusion…
I hope this serves as an important lesson for us all, and I swear upon my last breath that my team and I will be using this episode as the raging fuel we need to PURGE the world of such scum and vermin.
Remember…
Always stay wary, and remember to trade safe!
P.S. Please share this important lesson with as many people as possible so that we can raise public awareness and exercise our corporate social responsibility in preventing crimes like these from happening.
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