No, Koos Bekker isn’t running a Telegram ‘investment’ group

Telegram investment scams are a dime a dozen. They all have the same modus operandi, centred on pretending to actually be or be affiliated with a reputable household name.

Financial services groups including Sanlam have been impersonated and JSE-listed counters Remgro and Naspers have both been targets of this impersonation (the former has a dedicated alert page on its website with screenshots of a scam).

Quite why the operator of a scheme purporting to be Naspers Limited invited a Moneyweb writer to their group is a mystery …

Then again, these scamsters seem to not be the smartest. Aside from DIRECTOR KOOS BEKKER (sic), the group Owner, there are other former/current ‘directors’ of the legitimate investment holding company, including Mr Bob Van Dijk (‘Leadership’, last seen recently), Mr Fabricio Bloisi (‘admin’, last seen within a week) and “Mrs phuthi mahanyele-dabengwa” (sic), described as an “Expert Trader”.

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Proving popular, for now …

The group has just shy of 11 000 members, with a few dozen online at any given point. There are no clues as to how members are recruited, but it has grown substantially in recent months.

Less than a year ago, it barely had 1 000 members.

Telegram groups can have up to 200 000 members, so there remains lots of runway for this scamster!

There is nothing sophisticated about this scam. Members are encouraged via a bizarre stream of motivational posts, near-robotic replies from ‘legitimate’ investors, stickers, animated GIFs and what could only be generously described as ‘testimonials’ to message Koos Bekker himself via WhatsApp.

As part of the scam you are ‘invited’ to purchase one of the packages on offer from Bekker.

Sometimes these are on ‘promotion’. You’re given the opportunity to turn R5 000 into R50 000, R10 000 into R100 000 or even R20 000 into R220 000 – that added carrot seems to suggest this is the sweet spot for the scammers. The “VIP” packages (R100 000 into R1 million, etc) look lazy.

‘Investors’ then send the equivalent amount of their ‘investment’ to the purported Mr Bekker via Bitcoin. He then “confirms” your deposit and “your time starts counting”.

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‘Profit return’

When you are due for your payment, which the purported Bekker himself confirms, ‘he’ will then request your details for your “profit return”.

“You earn, I earn.”

One important “note” buried in the fine print of ‘his’ seemingly never-ending messages is that “only 10% [is] required from your payout which will be paid when receiving, that’s our commission”.

Every so often, there are screenshots of ostensibly real ‘deposits’ (one was allegedly around R33 000) shared on the group by eager ‘investors’.

Investors are hand-held through this process by ‘Bekker’ himself, during which ‘he’ asks the ‘investor’ to “hold on a little bit let me run a check on the system for confirmation”.

ALSO READ: AI and apps used to scam online share traders, says Anglo American

‘Free’ Naspers information …

In a message to the group earlier this month, ‘Bekker’ promises that you can expect “FREE information”, a “Breakdown of how Naspers works”, “Naspers promotions”, “How to start trading” and the “Performance of Naspers”.

None of this has been forthcoming.

But then, Bekker ‘himself’ tells you everything is legit:

Now is the best time to invest as profits are high and investors are happy.

We can guarantee maximum profit this week and next

Invest now and thank yourself later.

This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.