South African authorities confirm Crowd1 operating illegally
After doing nothing for almost a year while the Crowd1 Ponzi scheme spread like wildfire, South African authorities have clarified the company operates illegally.
Well, sort of.
Rather than take any initiative, the FSCA clarified Crowd1 was operating illegally in response to a public Twitter enquiry.
As above, it was only after being reached out to that the FSCA clarified Crowd1
is not an authorised FSP, nor a representative of an authorised FSP and there is no record of an application to become an authorised FSP with the FSCA.
They are not authorised to render any financial services as contemplated in the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act.
This is the equivalent of a securities fraud warning, although I have no idea why the FSCA is providing it on Twitter instead of their own website.
In light of Crowd1 operating illegally in South Africa, the FSCA advises;
Members of the public are warned to not conduct any financial services business with any individual or entity associated with Crowd 1.
Whether they follow up with local enforcement authorities remains to be seen. Not holding my breath though.
In the early stages of Crowd1 recruitment was concentrated in South Africa. At the time of publication Alexa ranks Crowd1 as the seventeenth most visited website in the country.
South Africa still makes up a large percentage of Crowd1 investors, however recruitment has picked up elsewhere in the world.
Update June 24th 2020 – The FSCA has now published an official statement confirming Crowd1 is a fraudulent business opportunity.
The regulatory model in SA is based on the UK. It operates much the same too. The thinking goes that if you are stupid enough to fall for a OneCoin, Crowd1, MTI, it is your own stupid fault. It doesn’t mean the regulators aren’t watching. There are pockets of excellence in the Financial Intelligence Centre, the Hawks, The National Prosecuting Authority and SA Reserve Bank. The FCSA is however largely incompetent. When the competent people act, it is swift and brutal. Think of what happened to the guys behind Fidentia, Miracle2000, etc. Brett Kebble paid hitmen to kill HIMSELF! Like in the UK, the South Africans will collect the evidence and extradite if the US wants the person
This article is on the front page of ‘Rapport’ website and the sunday newspaper.
I don’t read Afrikaans but it appears to be blasting it as a scam aka “piramide skema”.
prnt.sc/t3o8qj
netwerk24.com/Nuus/Algemeen/bok-helde-val-vir-piramideskema-20200620
moneyweb.co.za/news/south-africa/consumer-commission-not-looking-into-crowd1/
1. That article was published on May 20th.
2. The NCC != FSCA.
I don’t have much confidence in South African authorities but let’s at least get the facts right.
@ Brian
I do read Afrikaans but unfortunately Die Rapport is behind a paywall that even a free look at gives your data to the kind of idiots you spend the rest of your life avoiding.
It seems that Crowd1 scammed some prominent Springbok rugby players. You don’t do that of course. Springbok Rugby is sacrosanct. It’s like scamming Mandela
You’ll get a tyre put round your neck and set on fire?
Hey, you didn’t specify which Mandela.
Yeah, South Africans don’t do half measures!
Paywall passed. I can’t copy the text. It seems senior Boks are having their images used to promote the scam.
Idiots famous for being famous have actually lent what passes as their “credibility” to the scam.
Someone in Bredasdorp swears it isn’t a scam because he says so and made 46 K which he put back in. Then he recruited his family.
The local tabloid financial guru warns against it. 14% of everything collected is reported as coming from SA.
The other massive South African thing apart from falling for scams is family murders. Somehow I can see where this is going
It doesn’t look like anyone has been lending any credibility, Crowd1 is simply trying to steal it.
If you google the names of the three players mentioned with ‘crowd1’ added, you’ll find several examples of an identical ad being posted on Facebook by Crowd1 affiliates, claiming they’ve joined, with just the names and the picture changing.
The pictures are generic ones, there is nothing to suggest that these guys have any connection to Crowd1, or knew their names were being used in this way. (Not that that rules out some of them could have fallen for the scam, of course.)
Maybe they’ve been inspired by a scam that’s currently active in Europe, a (probably Russian) get-rich-quick Ponzi scheme involving Bitcoin payments.
They use a template in wich local celebrities, often sportspeople, supposedly have endorsed the scam, with appropriate ones for each country slotted in (the format involves not just picking a celebrity, but also a well-known TV show or magazine, in an interview with which the endorsement happened).
Those ads are spread via a host of shady “affiliate marketing” outfits, the people behind them have done a very good job of hiding (unlike Crowd1).
hi all.
first, i am not trying to convince or push any one here to join.
second, who is calling crowd1 a scam? lol only people have nothing to do with crowd1 and those that do not know how the company works.
crowd1 is legal and compliant to all laws here. no one is going to shut our offices down in Sandton.
we are not a financial company or an financial institution. The FSCA as well as Rapport are going to have their A-holes ripped a new one! LOL!
no ponzi or scam here.
the rapport journalist is sucking everything he says out of his thumb.
(Ozedit: derails removed)
Nobody not even 1 person ever in the history of crowd1 got scammed.
Crowd1 has a 100% record of safety and legit honesty.
Anyone who says otherwise is not involved and misinformed.
1) you are not buying shares
2) you are not making an investment
3) there is no losing your money idiots because when you buy an educational e-learning material package – your money is gone because you paid for that digital product.
and everyone one of us received that videos.
if you pay and there is no videos – yes then you have been scammed for the very first time in your life!
buying a digital product whether it be an app or video is exactly the same as buying a milk in a store.
there is no difference,
as long as you receive your products.
STOP BEING SO IGNORANT AND DO SOME REAL RESEARCH.
no one is shutting crowd1 down. 100% legal.
and please don’t even try and use spam sites or talk about bank of Namibia – they ban all business using bitcoin you idiots.
it has never ever been a scam. LOL!
(Ozedit: recruitment spam removed)
Anyone with half a brain. Crowd1’s business model is that of a Ponzi scheme.
Ponzi schemes are illegal the world over. This includes South Africa.
Securities offering = financial company with respect to South African law. Elsewhere in the world Crowd1 is classified as an unregistered securities offering.
Trying to pass of blatant lies as facts doesn’t change the fact Crowd1 is a Ponzi scheme.
Bundling “education packages” to Ponzi investment doesn’t change the fraudulent nature of the business model.
What’s not the same as “buying milk in a store” is investing in Ponzi schemes such as Crowd1. Strawman fail.
Crowd1 wasn’t banned in Namibia for using bitcoin. It was banned because its an unregistered securities offering (illegal). Same reason the FSCA pointed out Crowd1 is illegal in South Africa.
All Ponzi schemes are scams from launch. Sorry for your loss.
maybe i am old and ignorant. i was retrenched on 1/3/2020. 61, white, no post matric qualifications and then lockdown.
i was introduced to crowd1 by a very professional representative. after one week of studying the product i started working on the 16th of March. some days as long as 16 hours. if anyone want to contact me (recruitment spam removed)
all i can say is that Crowd1 helped me not to loose eveything. if there is ONE single person that has lost ONE single cent with Crowd1 he is a liar!
thank you Crowd1 and may you survive this onslaught of the misinformed. (Ozedit: derail removed)
Recruiting people into a Ponzi scheme isn’t work.
The math behind Ponzi schemes guarantees the majority of Crowd1 affiliates will lose money. Scam recruiters such as yourself steal it from them.
No, you’re just a Ponzi scammer who can’t see past his own wallet. Same as the rest of them.
Can i just say, this Oz guy on this site is one of my new favourite people on the Internet, no sarcasm! Well done dude
Thanks for the support!
Same @ben!
Hi guys.
I’m from Thailand . Crownd1 is not regester i Thailand and many victim in Thailand fall into this scam company.
If you not find people to invested you will earn nothing. Crownd1 is on the list of DSI in Thailand right now. Do not fall into this scam.
Oz, you are very smart. You’ve done your homework very well.
Keep up your job well done and help the nation to open up their eyes.
Thanks for the support!