The Securities and Exchange Commission has warned the public against investing in “online paluwagan.”
The SEC, in an advisory posted on its website, said it received information that individuals or group of persons were enticing the public to invest in what is obviously a “Ponzi Scheme” in the guise of “online paluwagan” through social media accounts, pages, or groups.
The scheme, according to the information received by SEC, involves a scheduled collection of money from each member by one or few administrators with an expectation to distribute the funds with interests to all members on their respective payout schedules.
The persons recruiting or soliciting investments were promising huge returns to their members within one to 90 days with interests ranging from 10 percent to 757 percent.
The SEC said the transactions between the administrators and members were made through remittances, wire transfer and cash deposits.
“Unfortunately, many of their respective members incurred huge loss of money and the administrators were reportedly unable to refund investments,” the SEC said.