The Philippines' Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), together with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), reiterated its warning to Filipinos against investing in so-called High-Yield Investment Programs or HYIPs.
The official statement from AMLC, also circulated by the SEC and BSP, goes:
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Anti-Money Laundering Council
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Complex
Manila, Philippines
WARNING
The public is hereby warned against internet-based Ponzi-like investment or pyramid schemes offering high-yield investment programs (HYIPs) to the public.
Investors are lured into these programs because of the promise of huge returns of up to 4.8% daily interest. The program managers of these HYIPs encourage their members to recruit downline investors and earn additional 10% referral fee from each downline investment. These programs normally exist for a period of time and appear to be religiously paying their investors. Thereafter, they will quickly disappear, leaving the investors, particularly those in the downlines, empty handed. The programs’ websites become inaccessible. The losing investors cannot run after the program managers who are either unknown or whose names and addresses, if mentioned in their websites, are usually fictitious.
DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THESE INTERNET-BASED PONZI-LIKE INVESTMENT SCHEMES
Please report immediately any offer of investment made by persons or entities using the aforementioned modus operandi to:
The Anti-Money Laundering Council Secretariat
5/F EDPC Building, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Complex, corner A. Mabini and P. Ocampo Sts., Malate, Manila
Tel. Nos. 523-4421or 536-7358, Fax No. 524-6085
http://www.amlc.gov.ph
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May we just correct the following statement:
Investors are lured into these programs because of the promise of huge returns of up to 4.8% daily interest.
The AMLC should have known by now that it's not just up to 4.8% interest per day but, actually, the sky is the limit when it comes to HYIP returns.
Have they not heard of the program Very High Interest HYIPs which, true to its name, offered very high yields, reaching as much as 950% per day? Yes, 950% per day! Without surprise, the program barely lasted a week.
Autosurf programs that became popular in the past also offered amazing returns. PhoenixSurf.com paid investors 20% yield on their investment after only eight (8) days. Another site, 12DailyPro.com, offered 12% interest daily for 12 days.
Both are now lumped with other closed investment programs in PMT's Scams/Closed Programs Discussion Board.
Some useful reading related to HYIP investing:
