Claim: 100% World Remit investment scheme has been endorsed by notable celebrities like Kidi and Gyakie
These personalities have no association with the investment scheme posing as worldremit money transfer and have not endorsed the service.
Full Story
A message making the rounds on WhatsApp under the guise of Worldremit, an investment scheme, is encouraging people to invest various amounts of money starting from 150 Ghana cedis to get a return of more than 100% in a few minutes.
The same scheme was also shared on Instagram operating under an account named edore.swipe.global.limited.
Surfing through the page, a number of well-known Ghanaian personalities have been posted as associated with the investment scheme.
These personalities include CEO of the Angel Broadcasting Network (Abn), Mr. Samuel Acheampong, as well as Ghanaian musicians, Kidi and Gyakie. There are also posts with celebrated Ghanaian actor Adjetey Anang and another one with the CEO of Springfield Oil, Mr. Kevin Okyere.
These posts suggest to interested persons that these influential individuals are either their brand ambassadors that have endorsed their services or have transacted successful business with them before.
One of the posts on the page shows Mr. Samuel Acheampong, CEO of the Angel Broadcasting Network, posing with an award with the caption “Thank you all for the support…Yesterday, we won the most successful Young Entrepreneur of the Year.”
Verification
During our verification, we realized that the initial link to the page had been removed. Further checks revealed that the page had been re-named he.reigns.ventures from edore.swipe.global,limited.
To verify their association with the page and its activities, Dubawa successfully contacted three out of the five individuals mentioned and found that they have no connection with the said scheme.
The management of the Ghanaian musician Kidi, when contacted, told Dubawa that they have also seen the posts but have had nothing to do with the group. Albert, a member of the management team who spoke to us said that they have seen the scheme and tried reaching them but to no avail.
“We tried sending a message. Administrator said he sent a message to that instagram account that we saw had posted it but nothing has been done…Basically, the faces really bothered us but we didn’t know what to do about it,” he said.
On the part of Gyakie’s management, a representative made it clear to Dubawa that they are not “involved in anything with worldremit”.
The General manager of the Angel Broadcasting Network, Mr. Kwadwo Dickson, also confirmed that Mr. Acheampong, the CEO of the group, is not involved in any business with worldremit and the issue has since been reported to the police.
We also found that the picture of him posing with an award is on his page from an award he took at the 2020 edition of the Forty under Forty Awards organized in September, 2020. At the fourth edition of the said awards, Mr. Samuel Kofi Acheampong, CEO of Angel Broadcasting Network, was honoured in the category of Journalism (Radio, TV, Newspaper) for being an outstanding young executive under age forty.
Mr. Acheampong also posted the same picture on the suspicious page but didn’t mention the awards the page claims he won; Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
Encounter with the original Worldremit
Dubawa further made contacts with agents of worldremit through their application’s live chat feature that allows subscribers to have direct interactions with their representatives. We were able to get in touch with an agent called Kurt who also confirmed that worldremit does not “offer any services like that [investment]” adding “Please do not provide any information or send funds as this is a scam or fraud.”
Worldremit is an international financial service that allows people to transfer money abroad using their computers, tablets, or phones.
Dubawa’s Unique Experience with a Worldremit-ponzi scheme
In order to find out how they operate, we contacted a recruiter for one of the Worldremit schemes here in Ghana who gave his name as Divine.
He said that interested persons only need a mobile money account to purchase a credit card online from a dump site which can be used only twice to make a deposit with the investment plan of their choice and receive the corresponding return in a matter of 15 minutes.
He explained that “worldremit is just [an] online transaction which involves a credit card and a registered mobile money account…So it is done by purchasing the card from the dump site online…So after the first and the second withdrawal, then that account cannot be used for the transaction again”.
He also explained after every return, he will take 30% of the amount that one gets which is his reward.
Asked if this particular organization is the same as the global worldremit organization, Mr. Divine confirmed it is not. In a bid to convince our fact-checker who posed as someone interested in the investment policy, he explained that what he was getting into was a matter of class where he [the fact-checker] only needs to trust him for business to go on.
“Why are others receiving theirs and you will not receive your own?” he asked me, adding “don’t be scared…There is no harm in trying. I can’t just dupe you just like that my brother.”
However, this assurance comes on the back of many complaints we received that this scheme is a scam after people shared stories of how they have lost their money while engaging in this business.
Dubawa’s checks with the Securities and Exchanges Commission, Ghana, revealed that the organisation is not registered with the commission. A customer service representative, Precious Oteng, further disclosed this to us in a phone call.
Conclusion
The organization working as worldremit here in Ghana is posing as the global brand, which is a money transfer application and platform. While the global brand provides money transfer services across the globe, the Ghanaian impersonated worldremit group is operating a ponzi scheme that promises huge returns for investments made, a venture that is known to be a scam.
This report was produced under the Dubawa Student Fact-checking Project aimed at offering students in tertiary schools aspiring to take up the opportunity to acquire real-world experience through verification and fact-checking.