SEC, BSP, media call FrancSwiss a Ponzi, warn against online HYIPs
The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the media have jointly called FrancSwiss – arguably the most popular High-Yield Investment Program (HYIP) in the Philippines today — a Ponzi scheme and warned people against investing in similar online investment scams.
A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that promises to pay an abnormally high return on one's invested capital. Money used to pay investors do not come from businesses or investments but, rather, from money put in by new investors. Ponzi programs usually reach a saturation point where new monies are not anymore enough to pay older investments. When that happens, payouts stop and newer investors do not receive any payment anymore.
Click "Read More" to view the recent warning issued by the SEC, BSP, and major Philippine media companies against investing in FrancSwiss and other similar online Ponzi programs.
The SEC warning which was published in major dailies goes:
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has received reports that the following entities are allegedly in internet-based ponzi investment schemes: FRANCSWISS, SWISS CASH, UNIVERSAL FOREX SYSTEM, GLOBAL AMERICA and PRIVATE FOREX TRADE, INC. These entities are not registered with the Commissio, and have no permit or authority to solicit investments from the public. Private Forex Trade, Inc. has in fact been found to be misleading the public by showing a fake SEC Certificate of Registration on its website.
The following are some of the features of an internet-based ponzi investment scheme:
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- No SEC registration
- Investment in foreign currency, preferably in US Dollars
- Offers or guarantees a huge profit in a very short period
- Utilizes a binary network (i.e. upline and downline) to earn commissions
- No paper trail (i.e. contracts, receipts)
- Promises little or no financial risk
- Provision for a lock-up period where an investor cannot touch the investment (i.e. 60 days)
- Assures pay-off of investments in a short time
- Uses high-pressure methods to convince investors to reinvest their earnings
- Unknown principal office, address, founders, directors or officers
- Orientation seminars are conducted informally
This investment scheme ordinarily collapses as fast as they are created while leaving its investors behind and unable to recoup their investments.
The public is therefore urged to report any offer of investment made by persons who represent the above-mentioned entities or other entities using similar modus operandi to the undersigned in order that the appropriate enforcement action can be taken:
Director Hubert B. Guevara
Compliance and Enforcement Department
Securities and Exchange Commission
5/F SEC Building, EDSA, Greenhills, Mandaluyong City
(632) 727-3367
ced@sec.gov.ph
BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. also issued a warning to the public against these online investment scams. In an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, he said that FrancSwiss is "an online Ponzi scheme. The Bangko Sentral, in coordination with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Philippine Stock Exchange and the National Bureau of Investigation, is looking into this."
Media companies Philippine Star and ABS-CBN also recently published reports reiterating the BSP and SEC warning.
Do you believe FrancSwiss is a scam? Join the discussion in the HYIP: FrancSwiss thread in the PMT Forum.
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August 20th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Naginvest din ako sa kagaguhang to jst months ago..sa UniversalForexSystem na yan.. at first ok kc un nga binibili nung upline na frend ko ang interest na naearn ko daily, by that tym d pa daw nag 1mnth ung scam na to kc June plang un.. Tapos dumating ung media issue bwt sa SF but sabi-sabi samin d2 e ok lang daw un kc d naman kmi gaya nung SF na Phil based , ang UniversalForexSystem daw e Aus based… So ung naearn ko nireinvest ko ulit..lahat lahat.. Ryt now medyo malaki laki na rin naearn ko..BUT BUT BUT..d na ko makaencash ng pera ko(ung bogus dollars earned na yan)!!!!!!!!… Ang nakakasama sa loob ko tlaga is stil seeing the site normally running and my account continuously earning daily interests…In reality BUM ak ngaun kc naubos ko lahat ininvest and wala naman ak naeencash sa banks d2 tlaga sa earnings ko!!!! Stil seeing ds site running means dey r stil continualy fooling Filipinos around.. Sana kung meron man nakakaalam sa wereabouts ng mga gagong nagumpisa n2, ireport agad sa NBI..sana mahuli kau lahat!! O Masagasaan ng Trak!! O Lamunin ng halimaw na kagaya nu!!! Mga gago!!! Kung meron man nagreklamo na sa UNIVERSALFOREXSYSTEM pls email me .. magreklamu din ako para naman mastop na to and malaman ng taumbayan.. THANKS…
July 31st, 2007 at 10:41 am
Grabe ang epekto niyan sa ibang forex company na nadadamay lang sana wag lahatin at sa mga investor icheck nyo po muna sa BSP at SEC then punthan nyopo agad ung companyng pag invest nyo alamin nyo po kung pano ang transactions,risks at kung long term pb ung company.
at sa mga scam tigilan nyo na coz “THAT MONEY IS HARD EARN MONEY FROM THE PILIPINO PEOPLE” inbis na sana the money will work for us eh baliktad ang nangyayari. Maawa kayo sa tao at sa ibang kompanyang dinadamay nyo like us!!!
July 12th, 2007 at 3:24 am
kung di agad nailabas sa media ito, marami pa lalo ang maloloko/ mawawalan ng perang pinaghirapan. kung iisipin ang makabawi sa nailagay na pera at sisisihin ang pagkakalabas nitong scam sa media, mag isip isip din naman… katumbas ng mababawi mong pera at kikitain mo kunwaring pera eh galing din naman sa mga kawawang mabibiktima pa.. kung maayos talaga yang company na yan, di sana nandyan pa yan , walang naghahabol ng pera.
sa mga taong nagsimula nyan, ipanalangin ninyo sana na wala sa mga kamag anak ninyo, o magiging anak o apo ninyo ang mabiktima ng ganitong panloloko sa mga darating na panahon. baka yan ang maging karma ninyo. perang pinaghihirapan ng iba, ninanakaw pa. nawa’y di kayo patahimikin ng kunsenya ninyo.
July 10th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Before the media exposed the francswiss scam everything is doing good. Tapos ito na kmi ngayon umaasa na mababawi pa ung investment namin. Sabi nung friend ko na close kay anna (wife ng isa sa top investor) na nagrecruit sa kanya kinukuha daw ng gov’t natin ung mga ariarian nila. Sana nga kung may makuha sila e magkaron ng way na maibalik sa mga investor na hindi man lang nakabawi ng ininvest nila like me. Matulungan nyo nga sana kmi.
July 10th, 2007 at 2:00 am
Hay naku,
Kung legal at maayos itong kompanya nito, bakit papangit sya kung may media exposure???
Why should the government help those who “invested”? Do they garuntee gambling losses? Because that’s what you did with your money. Pinasugal mo lang.
When someone approached my girlfriend about joining this, I did what any responsible investor would do. I did research on the internet about this company. Earnings reports, quarterly filings, regulatory reoprts and so on. On that first google search I found that this same company had scammed people in Malaysia & Singapore, so I refused to join.
At lahat kayo na sinasabi “Francswiss is a good company, I got xxxx pesos out of my investment”. Lahat ng pera na binigay sa inyo ay galing sa lahat na nag join at nawalaan ng inital investment. All your profits are from the losses of others.
July 9th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
I was encouraged to join weeks before pumutok ito sa media. I have friends in showbiz telling me about it and usually sila ang nauunang pumasok either because of their network sa industry or for the company to use them for their testimonials.
I also have a friend I respected in business who invested US$5000 into the scheme kaya lalo akong napaisip. Sino ba naman ang makakatulog after being offered the opportunity to earn 4.5% DAILY on their money? Simula pa lang amoy scam na and if this didn’t hit the media now eventually it would pa rin, and i think a lot of the people who got in knew this pero they were hoping that the scheme would still be alive for them to earn back their original US$1000. “Mukha ngang scam pero tatagal pa naman siguro yan ng 22 days para makapag pullout tayo.” is what the existing and prospective investors would say.
Now we know what happened and the people responsible are now being arrested. Too bad for those who were also hoping for their event this month wherein they’ll be giving away a new car.
As the saying goes, “If it looks like it’s too good to be true, then it most probably is (too good to be true).”
July 9th, 2007 at 12:45 am
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
GRABENG LOKOHAN TO!
PLEASE READ THIS!!! IMPORTANT!!!
Baka ito ang makakasagot sa mga tanong mo na hindi masagot ng “ tangang mga upline daw”.
meron akong findings on how these on-line investment runs:
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sa maniwala kayo o hindi, mapapaisip din kayo after reading this article.
1. and FS ay pinapa takbo ng 8 batikang mga networkers from closed MLM
2. they funded this company, started P50,000 each…
• bought PC units for the internet set-up
• hired people (ITs) to make the website look good and set up the system.
• based lang ito sa pilipinas kasi na trace ng friend ko nag we-web design.. sa cavite lang daw ang IP address ng francswiss. (.com / .biz /.org / .net )
• hindi lang ang FS ang ganito ang style - SM fund (manila based), Global America, Euro, etc…. madami yan!!! Pareho lang ang laro nila.
• bumili sila ng software na syang magpapatakbo ng automatic calculations of e-points.
• pinaganda nila ang website – para magmukang gawa sa singapore and US but hindi tutuo yan, gawa lang yan ditto.
• Then, kunyari bumili sila ng e-points sa Singapore at US at dinala dito sa pinas. ang tutuo nyan, hindi sila naglabas ng pera. madali lang gawin ang first 1 million epoints sa system na gamit nila. then binenta nila ito sa mga networkers $1.00 per 1 e-point, eh di kumita kaagad sila ng $1,000,000.00 (or P47,000,000.00). bilis kita noh?. simple calculation lang yan but they can actually make as much as e-points as they want. Then sell it to people. Eh diba 8 sila? So they had 1million e-points each. Ganun kadali gumawa ng business na ito. May friend ako na marunong gumawa ng web at alam nya paano ang operations ng system na ito, pero ayaw nya syempre magsimula ng kalokohan na ganito.
3. then next, yung mga bumili ng 1000 e-points (mga na-recruit) will earn 4.5 percent a day so they will earn more e-points a day (FSDI). Kunyari dollars yun $45 a day. So padami ng padami ang epoints nila para ibenta din sa ibang downlines.
4. ENCASHMENTS: syempre, ganito yan, noong bago pa ang FS. Kunti pa lang ang networkers ang sumali. They mano-mano to deposit cash direct to the member’s account. Dati, 2 days lang, nasa bank mo na. so maniniwala talaga ang mga bagong recruits na okay ito kasi na-e-encash ang pera. Then napansin ninyo now, marami ang nag papa encash online. Pero 10 days na wala parin. May na meet ako 15 days na, di pa sya naencashed. May isa, mag 20 days na di pa naka encashed kasi hindi pumasok sa banko. Then sinasabi ng mga uplines, “wag mo lagyan ng dash ang account number, kasi kung meron, hindi ma-eencash” that’s a lie. Ang dali basahin ang number. Any system can read numbers. Simpleng calculator nga marunong mag add, yun pa kayang mas hi-tech na system na gamit nila. Ayaw lang talaga nila mag-encash. Ako nag pa encash ng $50 from my FSDI (francswiss daily interest) since june 28, now wala parin. Sige lang, I-annouce ko pag n-encash na. saying din yun. P2350 yun. Ilang pirasong lenchon manok ng andoks or baliwag din yun, then may sukli pa pambili ng coke.
5. EPOINTS: kailangan talaga nila ng new recruits to sell their accumulated e-points (or trade into real dollar bills). Ganito lang ka simple ang business – “kung walang new recruit, walang bibili ng e-points, then walang perang papasok, so Walang dollars”. Some uplines would buy epoints from you (that’s good at least meron), kasi nag rerecruit sila, at kinukulang sila ng e-points for new sign-ups. So literally, kumita karin kasi binili nila (uplines) ang e-points from you then pera ng downlines yung binayad sayo. Di nyo ba naisip yan?!!!!
6. SEC REG: Securities and Exchange Commission was alarming people about this investment. Well, they were just concerned to all citizens. That’s right! But kung totoo talagang sa US ang office ng francswiss, then the Philippine gov’t has no jurisdictions over on-line business and has no right to imprison people for joining this business. Their role is to warn people but not to dictate what the people will do with their money. Again “THEIR MONEY”. But on the other side, if this francswiss and other online companies were based in the Philippines, they should go through legal process – start right and definitely the company will run on the right path. As I have said ******, if this FS is based in the US or Singapore, then our country has no right to stop this. They can warn but not stop this. But sa una kung paniniwala, ang FS ay based lang sa cavite. If you don’t believe me, try to research and investigate.
7. BSP’s WARNING: “DON’T THINK TWICE, JUST SAY NO!!!”
-from our source
-next i will post who and where are these people behind… *watch for it!
July 7th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
the government must now help the investors of francswiss retrieve their money in no time.. while elly castillo is under their custody
July 6th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
francswissis okey if media did not interfere..it pays its traders well til media came in the scene…it helps a lot not only to individualbut in tyhe philippine economy as a whole.
July 5th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
i for one invested with francswiss, after 23 days i got my money back….so if i earn more….not bad but if it shuts down, no loss at all.after all i alredy got my investment back…..
July 4th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
My friends were convincing me to invest. Minimum investment is $1,000 but after learning my lessons on my 4daily and 6daily experience, I am now a lot wiser.
Authorities should do something about it.