The recent stories of around 15,000 Filipinos who have fallen victims of pyramid scam is both disappointing and also alarming.
The tactic used was simple. Aman Futures Group made claims of trading commodity futures and promised high returns for those willing to shell out money. The victims ranged from motorcycle drivers to vendors, businessmen to teachers. People from all walks of life were seemingly enticed by the prospect of earning easy money without doing anything. All they had to do is withdraw their funds and trust the testimonials of a family, friend or neighbor who were reaping wonderful profits in their investments. When you could see that they have managed to renovate their old huts with two-storey concrete houses why not right? The proof of wealth is glaringly visible in front their eyes.
Perhaps the most alarming thing is even if some people knew this was in all possibilities a scam, they still chose to gamble their money to take a hitch on the ride. Most of them planned to take their investments out once they've earned enough. But people are naturally greedy by nature having enough money is always never enough. Unfortunately for those people, they were also on the ride when everything fell apart.
I can only hope people take it as a warning. With all the networking schemes sprouting everywhere which hides itself into offering beauty and enhancement products, I am all too certain that one or two of them is downright scam.
Learn what you are getting into, specially when it involves taking out money. We can't stress enough the importance of doing your own research and not just solely relying on someone else's words. While it is disheartening specially for our fellow citizens to lose all their wealth for something so meaningless, they were blinded by greed and lured by earning easy profits. Let their stories serve as a lesson for us to moderate our greed. As a general rule, if what they're offering is too good to be true, it probably is. Learn to politely decline and shrug it off, then turn the other way and never look back.
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