Regulators are belatedly turning up the heat on Crowd1 in South Africa.

The latest regulatory body to announce it is investigating the Ponzi scheme is the National Consumer Commission (NCC).

As per their website, the NCC

is the primary regulator of consumer-business interaction in South Africa.

South African media are reporting the NCC

has confirmed that it received its first complaint against Crowd1.

The NCC will now investigate the business to determine if there are grounds to launch a formal investigation.

Crowd1 has been on the NCC’s radar since at least May 2020. On May 14th the NCC informed MoneyWeb they were not investigating the company.

Rather than act of their own accord, as permitted by law, the NCC has waited for a consumer complaint. South Africa’s FSCA put out its own Crowd1 fraud warning earlier this week.

In the meantime Crowd1 has spread like wildfire across South Africa. Alexa currently ranks the company’s website as the seventeenth most visited website in the country.

Many Crowd1 investors recently became disillusioned with the Ponzi scheme, following quarterly returns of €0.01 EUR paid on €2 EUR investment positions.

Financial losses due to South African authorities’ inaction have yet to be determined.