Experts say financial illiteracy, lax regulations, greed and economic hardship make people susceptible to scam companies.
Lagos, Nigeria — Mandela Fadahunsi, who works at a technical training school in Ikeja in Nigeria’s Lagos, never believed he could fall victim to a Ponzi scheme.
On April 6, the 26-year-old was starting his day when a WhatsApp notification lit up his phone screen. Someone on the group chat for investors of the cryptocurrency investment platform, Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX), had tried and failed to withdraw some funds, so they wanted to confirm if it was a general issue. Fadahunsi quickly logged on to his digital wallet and tried to withdraw 500 USDT, a cryptocurrency that stands for United States Dollar Tether, or simply Tether.
But 24 hours later, a process that should have taken just 10 minutes was yet to complete. He knew then that something had gone wrong. He started to panic, but half-hoped it was just a glitch or a minor system error.
“They [CBEX administrators] said it was as a result of the excessive volume of people trying to withdraw, and that all withdrawals have been placed on hold until 15th of April,” Fadahunsi told Al Jazeera.
