@kabeeryousef –
The Royal Oman Police has warned residents and citizens not to fall prey to financial frauds. People should be wary of enrolling in businesses like multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes that offer promise high returns in short term. Under MLMs, members pay a joining fee which is passed on to those above them.
Members sell products in return for a commission and keep on recruiting new members to keep the share of their commission flowing.
Whereas, ponzi schemes use funds from new investors. The existing investors pay interest to other investors from these funds and keep on adding members to it. Personal saving scheme, investment programmes and direct selling are some of such schemes.
“Many online businesses that ask the potential victim to transfer money or to conduct Multi Level Marketing (MLM) are not genuine and one needs to take precautions while dealing with them,” said a source at the ROP.
Many those who invested hundreds or thousands of rials, mostly from the South Asian countries, were said to have been duped after joining these schemes.
“I was approached by a male nurse promising partnership in a number of shops which his company was planning to open this year and I invested RO 3,800,” said Mohammed Ashraf, a man who collects and sells scrap paper.
He was told that the income would double if he add two more investors for the equivalent amount or less and was given lectures and online classes on how to conduct business.
“Although they told me to market these products and add more investors, I was shocked to see that I was supposed to tell lies to lure people. But it was too late and I had already invested my 7 years of savings,” Ashraf, who was left without work during the pandemic.
Similar traps are also prevalent online. “Not all online deals or MLM may prove to be genuine and one needs to check the authenticity, goodwill and creditworthiness of the firms with which they are dealing,” Tariq al Barwani, IT specialist, told the Observer.
OLX, one of the leading online platform for buying and selling, warns its customers not to be lured or let the perpetrators take them for a ride.
“While millions of people who would usually be out socialising or shopping in the evening and on weekends are stay at home, streaming and online shopping are becoming more and more popular. Unfortunately, little did we know that cybercriminals too follow the trends, setting traps for any popular activities online,”says Al Barwani.
