Invest ₦280,000 With Us and Receive ₦444,600 After 30 Days
If you don't have this, you can invest ₦56,000 and get ₦88,920.
Let's say things are tight and you still can't afford this, you can invest ₦14,000 and get ₦21,600.
At least I'm considerate, right?
If you think the proposal above is ridiculous, that's because it rightfully is.
This was the promise of Racksterli, a popular Ponzi scheme in 2021 which, as expected, crashed after some months.
The concept of Ponzi schemes is not new. In fact, the original scam that the name “Ponzi scheme” was coined from happened in 1920, and it left people scammed to the tune of $15M–$20M.
If you must know, adjusted for inflation, $15M is around $300M in today's money or roughly ₦475 billion (yes, billion).
You’d think people would learn from past mistakes and not repeat them—but no. A hundred years later and people are still heavily falling for it.
Just last month (April), another scam—CBEX—crashed and took people’s money to the tune of billions of naira.
I would have loved to tell you that I’ve never participated in these schemes—but I did Racksterli for a few months before deciding it was too risky.
While I didn’t lose money from Racksterli, I did lose money from about three other schemes in 2020/2021.
(My mom reads my letters... But ma, hear me out 😂)
While greed plays a role in why people fall for these, ignorance is actually a major driver.
Many people don’t even know the meaning of the term investment—they just throw their money at things they don’t truly understand, expecting magical returns.
They’ll tell you:
“We will collect your money and use it to trade Bitcoin/Forex and pay you from the profit.”
But do you really know how trading works?
Or what kind of profit can be reasonably expected from it?
Or whether profits can be expected at all?
Or maybe they’ll say:
“Invest with us and share our post daily. Each post you share makes you ₦x.”
How?
Where does the money come from?
This brings me to the golden rule of investing:
Never invest in what you don’t understand completely… especially how they make money and what kind of money can be reasonably expected from it.
A lot of things people call investments are outright gambling—and that’s not what you should be doing with your money.
The ROI (Return on Investment) on the Racksterli plans above were:
58.79%
58.79%
54.29% per month.
For context, the Nigerian Stock Exchange’s NSE All Share Index returned 401.73% from January 1, 2010, to January 1, 2025.
Using the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) formula gives us just... wait for it:
11.64% per year.
Let that sink in.
Investing is a long-game venture, not a “get-rich-quick” venture.
So anyone promising unusually high returns is already waving a red flag.
And irrespective of the returns—or how captivating the offer is, never forget the golden rule.
So how then can we invest reasonably?
Stay engaged with my Finance Simplified deep dives. They’ll contain my extensive research on this subject to help you make informed decisions.
Kindly share this with anyone you know who’s always investing in every new thing that pops up.
The one who wants you to invest wisely,
Adedoyin
Have you or someone you know ever fallen for a Ponzi scheme? What did you learn from the experience? Hit reply, I’d love to hear your story.