Express ( Trinidad and Tobago )
13 December 2023 ( Page 3 )
T&T falls victim to get-rich-quick $cheme
By Melissa Maynard
melissa.maynard@trinidadexpress.com
PEOPLE continue to be fooled by get-rich-quick schemes. The latest scheme named GetGXL has scammed people in Trinidad and Tobago in excess of $10 million says technology expert Shivam Teelucksingh.
The GetGXL app functioning under the pretense to help people earn money in a quick turnover collapsed last week leaving many who are already in a financial bind clueless and without the money they invested.
The Express Business spoke with Teelucksingh on the issue, who said the GetGXL app was operating in several countries including Trinidad and Tobago.
The Express Business also understands that a new fake profile has emerged claiming that people can get back what they have lost, however, Teelucksingh warned people against continuing to be fooled from this new development titled 'GetGXL trusted recovery' .
The international scammers go by fake profiles-names and faces and strictly communicate via messages only.
They then outsource local people as assistant managers to help teach and recruit the unassuming individuals to buy into the idea and invest their monies in the hopes in getting a quick return of money, one person who wished not to be named told Express Business.
Other countries scammed too
A number of people would have benefited in the early stages of the scheme stoking courage to invest larger amounts only to lose bigger, that is the experience of an individual who began investing in September and then recruited 19 persons.
Unaware of the scam, people generated several WhatsApp groups to encourage others to sign up on the illegitimate system.
Teelucksingh said countries such as New Zealand, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and others reached out to him because people were also scammed their money.
According to the tech expert, the app operates under the guise as a drop shipping app, similar to authentic apps like Amazon and Shopify.
'They pretend that you, the client or the customer is the worker for them so when you buy in to the franchise you have to put 'products on the shelves' by clicking this and click that (products) and all these weird things and nothing happens in the background. And then you just randomly get USDT which is the cryptocurrency they use,' Teelucksingh explained, adding One USDT is equivalent to one United States dollar (USD).
A Forbes article defines USDT as 'Tether (USDT) which is the largest stablecoin by market capitalisation.' It adds that Crypto traders use stablecoins like Tether to make transfers between different cryptocurrencies or to move their investments into or out of fiat currencies. 'The value of USDT is pegged to the US dollar. In theory, this means Tether should be unaffected by the volatility that can so dramatically impact the values of other cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin (BTC),' according to Forbes.
How it worked
Teelucksingh noted that a lot people who would have bought into the scheme do not have credit cards to purchase crypto. Hence, 'they go to local merchants…that are advertising and purchase from them upload it to their wallet send GET the money and buy into the tiers and when they get paid, they get paid from GET and then reverse it to go back to (local merchants) or any other crypto person to get Trinidad and Tobago dollars (TTD) from it,' Teelucksingh outlined.
Here is how it worked, people get a three-day free trial on the platform and they are paid $9 USDT per day (in terms of Crypto) 'but for you to keep the crypto you have to buy a plan, so it has a buy-in from different levels, level one would be $150 USDT for a US$150 and it goes all the way up the ranks to level five and six." Explaining how the scammers are able to continue, the tech expert said, because they have swindled many people in the past, they are able to pay out people. As a result of people getting paid, many are fooled into believing that the scheme is legitimate when in fact it is not. Teelucksingh emphasised that people ignore glaring red flags simply because they are getting paid quickly particularly in the early stages. He further stated that 'they target persons of middle class or lower class …(with the hope) they could make extra money and get rich,' adding that the scammers also do a lot of giveaways, such as air conditioning units, fans and televisions at their local meetings. When asked why he thinks people keep getting tricked by these schemes, he replied that developing countries are easily targeted because a large number of people face financial struggles; he also observed that older people and young people see the system as an alternative, not properly understanding the consequences.
Commission for recruiting
The GetGXL had local meetings at various places including conference rooms at hotels, which were booked and used to host meetings for members and also as a recruitment drive. One user of the platform said such meetings had more than 400 people in attendance with speakers praising the scheme and giving testaments of their successes from the scheme. Teelucksingh also confirmed that schools and hotels are rented out to host these events.
Teelucksingh said people recruit as much as 100 people and receive a commission for doing so.
The platform has been operating in Trinidad and Tobago for more than six months. He also disclosed where an individual resigned from his or her job and took a loan of $100,000 to invest in multiple levels, saying now that the system crashed that person lost money, is unemployed and unable to repay the loan. He warned people against these systems, pointing out that several red flags including, poorly created website, the app was consistently taken down by google play store, unable to research and get detailed information about the company.
Moreover, Teelucksingh raised another concern 'The issue that I have with this is a lot of people said if people lost money, it is small money, they lose US$50 but that is the thing if up to 10,000 people put a US$50 that will add up," saying it will give the illusion that the platform has some legitimacy and then the scammers will take the platform and go to other countries using the number of people signing up in Trinidad as so-called proof that the system is credible.
The Express Business asked one participant who noted that losing his job and being encouraged by relatives led him to try the programme though he admitted he observed the red flags but the need for the income was much greater and he first invested over $4,000 and got paid within 25 days propelling him to invest more and losing $15,000 at the time of its collapse. He shared that from last week people started to experience issues with the app and the website was eventually pulled down.
Imbert: We are not getting involved in cryptocurrency Meanwhile, when the issue of regulation for cryptocurrency was raised in Parliament, Minister of Finance Colm Imbert, responding to a question from the Opposition, referred to the International Monetary fund (IMF)-published paper in February 2023, where the IMF sounded a series of warnings under the theme that the adoption of: ?" unbacked crypto assets"- such as Bitcoin and-"stablecoins"- will have stark-"implications for macrofinancial stability".
'So you have a situation where the whole world knows that cryptocurrency is dangerous, the whole world knows that cryptocurrency is the preferred currency of criminals, and the whole world knows that crypto assets are backed by nothing. Why on earth would a question come to me, as Minister of Finance, therefore as to whether I may be wishing to develop alternate currency business models? The answer is, we are not doing that. We are not getting involved in cryptocurrency. It is dangerous and as the custodians of the Treasury and the public purse, we are not putting the country's assets at risk,' Imbert said.
Teelucksingh noted there are authentic ways to use cryptocurrency but warned that it should be avoided until proper regulations are in place in Trinidad and Tobago.
PHOTO: Technology expert Shivam Teelucksingh.