Anything that seems too good to be true...

I hate to hear about people losing their funds and/or being taken advantage of BUT it is so true that many people are looking for a short cut to "wealth" and that the old saying that a fool and his money are soon parted is as true now as it ever was.

This scam only works in the Bahamas. Bad education and greed - perfect place to run a scam like this.

That's not true, CNBC's American Greed had a show about persons in the US and elsewhere being scammed out of millions from a Jamaican lottery scam. The Nigerians have their racket going. The Soviet Block people use technology to rip people off. There are greedy dishonest people all over the world praying on desperate people

What I would say is, in such a small community, how do these shysters operate with such impunity....has the securities commission checked them people "trading gold" yet?

The name is "Golden Chess" but the logo is a "Golden Chest".
https://www.facebook.com/Golden-Chess-E…
You should know something fishy when they can't even get the name right!

Comrades! You're not expecting to looks at somebody you just handed over ya Ausue money to and think "THIEF?"

Show how many morons we have in this town we call Nassau. People fell for these ponzi schemes and defended them like absolute jackasses.

There is not get rich quick scheme (unless you are running the scam).

These scams take place everywhere. Sounds like either an outright quick cash scam or the makings of a Pyramid scheme where initial investors get paid out by the next set of investors..
Mind you whist not coming under the heading of scams I have to question why a local beer Kalik Platinum had just gone up by $4 a case from $50 a case to $54 a case a rise of just over 12%. Funny how items rise by such large amounts. As for buying Bahamian, WHY when even local produced items often cost more expensive than imported items ?

Comrades! Legitimate Asue Draws have been the economic engine for the poor and near poor for many years. Id bet that 3 out every 5 adult Bahamalanders have been members of an Ause Draw at sometime in their lives?
Doesn't Royal Bank Canada (RBC) offer a Asue Savings Account (ASA)?
I seem recall you started off Initial deposit of $100.00 required to open your account with No monthly service charge with free statements for easy record keeping. While the ASA requires a minimum term of 12 months - you are also allowed Early withdrawals which will incur a small penalty fee.
We need our local Banks to cater to teaching the poor and near poor about savings and maybe reduce the open amount of a ASA to $50 initial deposit and $10 Per week deposits.

Bahamas' version of ICO's

Funny how they don't warn you about the scam the Government of the Bahamas is running? You know the one: you pay VAT and they give you a service.

“*it’s like they just took our money and shut down*"

There's no "like" in it

"*I trusted they would not steal people’s hard-earned money because people are getting killed in Nassau for less.*"

Oh boy...

But they don't learn!
I went to a Thursday night meeting in February for some sort of gold scheme out of Switzerland. I could not believe the gullibility of the people in the audience. They swallowed the story hook, line and sinker!! "This one is different" they said. "Our own people wouldn't scam us" they said. " So and so from town made so much money" they said. "This one is different" they said.

So how are you doing now folks. They are always asking you to put $200 or $300 more in to buy something and you'd get another $5000 - $6000 back. Such nonsense.

People will never learn. Right there in the meeting I googled this organization and up came SCAM in the biggest, boldest lettering and no one believes me!

Don't expect the government to help you through this or God for that matter. Prayers won't help. What will help is using your brain. If it sounds to good to be true then it's a scam. Report to the he police and run away from the scams!

I just left the meeting shaking my head and muttering to myself "stupid", "stupid", "stupid"!

The gold thing is ridiculous, they **promise** you a 10% return, a guaranteed return for trading a commodity. how is that even possible? Someone who's a part of the scheme told me it's legit because after a certain period they give you a small bar of gold...uuuuuuhhhh...if you "give" me 500 dollars in fees I wouldn't mind using 150 of that to get you a small piece of gold either. And if I have 100 people giving me those fees I'd buy 100 bars of gold, I've just made 35,000 off you guys in 3months. And you pay me to come to meetings, you can't make this up....well I guess someone did

They build the system on people "trusting" people not to cheat them, because "you know me". As a friend explained to me, you believe "you can trust me" but can you trust me to look after your interest more than I'm looking after the interest of my other friend who trusts me too? and that's what's happening here, competing interests and levels of trust.

These churches preaching this prosperity gospel are the main culprits, telling people Gods going to bless them if they say one word. Even God puts criteria on blessings. Stop being deceived by these false prophets in long robes. The media needs to focus a broad spotlight on the scams run in these churches every week with their collection plates. God een pleased. Don't mind Jane who they buy a house or car for, that's the hook, they'll have you for years believing " you could be next", all while they take hundreds from you month after month, over and above 10%. No different to the webshops.

Comrades! The "Prosperity Gospel" flowing from Sunday morning pulpits is a whole new topic worthy much deeper discussion.
Don't be misinterpreting Jesus’ words in John 12:8: “You will 'always' have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” ....... Jesus was directing his words at Judas - who would soon go on to betray Him - because he was too money hungry for himself.
But Jesus wasn’t saying we should lay the blame on those seeking a way out poverty through schemes - even if they sounded too good be true. The unfortunate victims of such schemes -
did not do this to themselves, they had lots inspiration from those at the top 'food chain' that created them.
Comrades, just because people take advantage of the poor and near poor - it shouldn't mean its the way the operators should be allowed to operate so publicly openly by our government officials.

Our new FNM government needs to put pressure on the police to shut down these illegal scams and at the same time fully repeal all of the gaming web shop legislation that was enacted by the corrupt Christie-led PLP government which has been fueling all of these types of fraudulent pyramid schemes. The corrupt racketeering numbers' bosses must be put out of business so as not to continue incentivizing these other crooked schemes that are popping up everywhere. A National Lottery should be established to satisfy the gambling desires of our society. Profits from the National Lottery could then be exclusively used to help fund our public education system. This is the road that Minnis, KP and Jeffrey Lloyd should all be on, and the sooner the better.

I wonder why you all are so quick to jump all over the struggling Bahamian entreprenoors that are creating and operating these "asue" buiensses? All businesses have "growing pains" and its just plain wrong to blame the buisness operator for failure when hey let's face it, the customres do have a choice and can take there business elsewhere

In closing let me say that dont be so quick to judge and maybe we should all let these businesses operate for a bit to see if they're really ok

these schemes are known to be fraudulent all over the world.

i could care less whether the 'entreprenoors' are struggling.

so are the fools who gave them their money out of desperation.

the commentators on this sections do not issue business licenses they write here for entertainment.

the police should crack down on them.

The police are as likely to crack down on the ponzi scheme as they did the numbers houses before they became a legal rip off scheme for the masses.

My understanding is that the ponzi scheme has a business license. Under our "rule of law" there doesn't seem like there is anything wrong with promising someone to triple their investment in one week. No one is protecting the uninitiated. In the Bahamas its "all for me baby" and God help us all.

Are the runners of these ponzi schemes arrested and charged with fraud? Bernie Madoff is in prison until Jesus comes for doing the same thing on a grander scale. Why is this such a lawless country? No repercussions for wrong doing? Sure the people who fell for it were fools but those who organized it are criminals and should be jailed.