The economic situation in our country has made it easy for scammers to take advantage of the most vulnerable members of the community, the women and young people who wants to have a very good but an easy shot at life by promising them quick cash just by investing in online businesses that sounds too good to be true.
There are many scams like people promising to give you electronic products that were sent from London and a whole lot of lies.
They are common in our community but the biggest was the Silicon Valley scam, in which majority of people, including cattle keepers, people who lived far away from the world of the internet, invested huge amount of money with hopes of making a lot more in profit.
Many of these people borrowed this money and some sold lands and valuable properties to invest in this ponzi business and this sadly show how desperate our people are in trying to break out of poverty.
These people were told, that if they invested $1,000, they would be getting $100 every single day. What a beautiful lie. To be honest, there is no business on earth that gives you that kind of return, not even the biggest companies like Apple, Tesla and Elon Musk, the richest tech billionaire, with over $400 billions in net worth, makes money that easily.
But people believed it and you can’t blame them. They wanted to escape poverty. They were tired of struggling. They were trying to catch up in a race that seems to leave the poor further and further behind. But what they didn’t know was that this so-called “investment” was nothing but a trap.
It was a pyramid scheme, a system that feeds on new investors’ money to pay the old ones, until it collapses under its own lies and when it collapsed, it didn’t just take money.
It took people’s peace. It drove some into depression. The saddest part is that these schemes don’t just rob you of your money. They rob you of your trust in life.
After being scammed, many people start to believe that everything is fake. That nothing is safe. That every opportunity is a trick and so they stop trying altogether.
The damage was not just financial; it was, emotional, and mental. There is something sad about how the real-world works. Some are born into money, while others are born into extreme poverty. Some build empires, even from zero, while others can’t even build a chicken house and because of this economic inequality, the have-nots are always looking for a shortcut, a way to break the chain.
But shortcuts often lead to dead ends and the more we chase quick money, the deeper we fall into traps that leave us with nothing.
There is no such thing as easy money. Life is hard, and it may always be hard. Not everyone will be rich. Not everyone will be a millionaire and that is okay. The meaning of life is not to be rich. It is to be honest. It is to raise your children with the little you have.
It is to feed your family without stealing. It is to wake up each day and know that what you have, you earned. That is success. That is real life.
So let us stop chasing fantasies. Let us protect our mothers, our sisters, our brothers, and our friends from these wolves in suits. Let us warn each other. Let us ask questions.
Let us refuse to put our hard-earned money in the hands of these scammers with hopes of making more in returns because if the real work worked that way, we would all be rich.
And most of all let us learn to be content, even when life is slow. Sometimes God works in silence. Sometimes blessings come not in millions, but in moments, moments of tinny steady walks through this long and tiresome journey of life.
If someone tells you that you can become rich by doing almost nothing, run. That is not an opportunity. That is a scam. If someone tells you that they have electronics coming from Europe, but they need money first, don’t believe them.
If someone uses big words like investment and daily profit, and yet they can’t even explain how the business works, do yourself and walk away. Protect yourself. Protect your family. Because once you fall into these traps, the way back is long and lonely.
Be happy with what you have and maybe work work hard. One day, maybe you will make it. But even if you don’t become rich, you will have something better, peace of mind and in this world, that is the most beautiful thing to have. So beware of the pyramid. It does not lift you. It buries you. Be careful, my friends. Thanks