South African authorities have recovered R475,000 from Chinese “click a button” app Ponzi scammers (~$25,640 USD).

Ant Ranch was a app Ponzi that saw investors “click a button” to buy farm animals.

The animals generated imaginary “yield” daily, which was then sold to imaginary buyers for a withdrawable daily ROI.

Yes the premise is incredibly stupid but so it is with every “click a button” app Ponzi. They’re not targeting the world’s brightest.

Ant Ranch, run by organized criminals from China, targeted South Africa and took off in 2023.

Launched in or around May 2023, Ant Ranch collapsed a few months later in early October.

Ernest Mabuza from Times Live reports that an East London resident filed a complaint, leading to authorities tracing bank accounts in November 2023.

All the accounts opened by Chinese scammers had already been drained and closed, but one account opened by an unidentified Lesotho national still had funds in it.

States Mabuza in his January 29th, 2025 report;

All these accounts, which were opened by Chinese nationals, were emptied and closed, except for one account, which had R475,000 in it.

As one complainant had made one of his many deposits into this account, the FIC froze it on a temporary basis.

The AFU then obtained a preservation order on November 7 2023 against that account and froze it. The account was opened by a Lesotho national whose whereabouts is unknown.

On January 21 the AFU was able to obtain a forfeiture order to the state against the preserved funds.

The forfeited funds will be distributed to sixty-five Ant Ranch victims who deposited funds into the account. It’s unclear what percentage of recovery the seized funds makes up.

Total Ant Ranch investor numbers and how much was collectively lost also remain unknown.

Organized crime interests from China operate scam factories behind “click a button” Ponzis from south-east Asian countries.

In September 2024, the US Department of Treasury sanctioned Cambodian politician Ly Yong Phat over ties to Chinese human trafficking scam factories.

Through various companies he owns, Phat is alleged to shelter Chinese scammers operating out of Cambodia.

Myanmar claims to have deported over 50,000 Chinese scam factory scammers since October 2023.

For its part, China continues to do nothing to proactively combat its citizens running scam factories abroad.