Not only FrancSwiss :Other online scams still duping victims of money

BY GINA DIZON

BAGUIO CITY -- It is not only FrancSwiss. Other online scams are still defrauding investors of millions of money but still, the list of victims is going up due to greed and ignorance, Dept. of Trade and Industry officials said.

With a 1.8 daily interest for a minimum deposit of $20 to above $5,000, any sucker would grab the opportunity offered by Euro-America Index which is posing as an online investment company.

But be warned, DTI officials here said Euro-America Index does not have a principal office address nor even a telephone number where one can reach the co-called company.

In Bontoc, Mountain Province, DTI investment promotions officer Joel Fagsao said EAIndex is an obscure company since its legitimacy is not established.

In DTI’s Friday radio program, Fagsao warned the public not to invest in dubious companies like Euro-America Index or even FrancSwiss invading Baguio City and other parts of the country.

With no principal office or company officers to deal with, the investor can only rely on the agent who is speaking for the so-called company. Where the identity of the agent is not legally established, added to the fact that the investor does not even know him or her personally makes the deal doubly risky.

Who can the investor turn to in the end that he gets duped? Investors in the infamous Line card and Mariposa pyramiding companies three years ago sued their local uplines for estafa for not giving the promised returns.

In EAIndex, the upline could only turn to the agent who seemingly is the contact to the ‘company’ and who collected registrants' payments, it was learned. EAIndex uses uplines who usually are locals who register new recruits, collect their investments also and remit these to EAIndex.

Using a system such as epoint trading, investors buy and trade among themselves. The problem begins when the ‘company’ will not deliver interest returns as promised and there are no fresh recruits to turn in additional cash.

The investor who has the biggest deposit is considered the “banker” to whom the uplines will get their money returns everyday, it was learned. An investor however said she still did not get the interest of her investment since she gave P1,000 to her upline.

Through the internet, investors check how much they made out of their invested money. An investor with Euro-America Index is hopeful she would get her money’s supposed worth.

“I am a gambler so I invest,” she said. Among EAIndex investor- gamblers, the risk is very high however.

Bloggers warn that EAIndex is not real. A website was displayed “somewhere in the US but turned out to be fake”. The one who owns the website now may be somewhere in South East Asia , a blogger questioning the legitimacy of the company said.

This high yielding investment promo is fast spreading in South East Asia which started September last year.

Sources say Euro-America Index was banned in Malaysia following unrealized profits of individual investors. Malaysian depositors are still looking for their supposed money’s worth.

The seemingly dubious scheme of AEIndex where there is no visible office and the company not even registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, makes Euro-America Index highly uncertain to deal with.

Double your money scams come fast and go. And yet, hundreds, if not thousands still hunger for quick money and they never learn getting fooled.

DTI officials said obscure investment companies swindled a number of people here in the province and the people should learn not to get victimized by their own greed.

These companies include companies which employed illegal pyramiding schemes like the infamous LineCard and Mariposa investment companies using phone cards as items.

These ‘double our money schemes’ like Ponzi operate similar to the infamous Dimensional in the ‘70s which swindled a number of people from the Mountain Province of their hard earned money.

Provincial DTI Director Juliet Lucas said she already warned government employees here during the regular Monday program 1st week of July not to invest in Euro America Index which invaded Bontoc and FrancSwiss operating in Baguio City.

Most of those who invested in Euro-America Index are government employees, it was learned. Some even loaned huge amounts just to avail of the supposed investment opportunities, she said.

While there is no indication of illegal pyramiding schemes employed by EAIndex, Lucas strictly warns the public not to fall into investing with dubious companies which promise “double your money schemes’ and are not even registered with the SEC.

Not only is the investor duped of whatever investment he may have deposited to the company’s agents. Lawyer Tomas Bayogan said a dubious company also makes money illegally in the country and runs away with whatever taxes it is liable to pay.

EAIndex for one, is liable to pay the Philippine government of whatever profits it has derived from making business in the country. And, the company has to be registered under Philippine laws, Bayogan said.

As it is however, Euro America Index is not even registered with the SEC nor a license to operate in the country.

Provisions of the law (RA 8799) require that companies dealing with securities including shares, interests or profits in a company sealed by a contract or certificate whether in a written or electronic instrument, need to register with the SEC.

FrancSwiss, along with subsidiaries SwissCash, Universal Forex System and Global America are not registered with SEC in the Philippines .

Earlier, the regional SEC office considered as fraudulent the investment schemes of FrancSwiss, an online investment firm. Elements of the National Bureau of Investigation arrested one Eleazard Castillo, FrancSwiss agent operating in Baguio City, last week, following the complaint of some investors that they were not able to withdraw the promised returns of their invested money.

FrancSwiss investors were promised $4.5% or $45 daily per $1,000 which they invested.