After Cameo Shell and Liyeplimal, a new network marketing company Omega Pro, an online money investment platform, has victimized people in Benin. The alert was raised by victims in the week of August 17, 2023, on social media.
In Benin, several savers from Omega Pro, a network marketing structure, have denounced on social media being victims of organized scams and fraud. This structure, which is believed to be a Ponzi scheme, is accused of scamming thousands of its customers, including Beninese people who have been complaining for almost two weeks on social media.
According to reports, the Omega Pro platform was created in 2019, but in November 2022, the platform reportedly blocked customers from withdrawing their funds. These customers could not even log in to their accounts. The alert was given on Thursday, August 17, 2023, by the young Beninese entrepreneur Rodrigue Sodansou, who had attracted attention with the rapper Blazz at the beginning of Omega Pro’s activities in Benin.
Looking for easy gain? Like several others, they had strongly praised the Omega Pro platform and invited internet users to join. “Today, I’ve decided not to withdraw a dollar from my back office anymore to publicly protest against the founders of the Omega Pro company, now known as Go. They might say it’s not them, I haven’t seen them since Omega, but well, we all know. Anyway, guys, reimburse. We’re tired of waiting,” he exclaimed on his Facebook page.
Like a bomb, his media release prompted victims to step up and demand their money back from the Omega Pro platform. This reignited the debate about network marketing and money investment platforms on social media.
In the wake of this, several internet users accused the Beninese rapper Blaaz of misleading them. According to Rodrigue Sodansou’s clarifications, the initial goal was to help people. “We understand, you want to win more than help. But today, I’m publicly asking for what I’ve been asking for privately for 9 months, and for which you’ve always pretended to agree. I’m demanding a full and immediate refund for all clients of the Omega Pro company,” he insisted.
For now, while the Cameo Shell case is still pending in court, the Beninese authorities have not yet reacted to the wrongdoing of Omega Pro, which, after defrauding several Beninese people, changed its name to Go.
Preventive measures by the government Recall that on July 31, 2023, the government of Benin, through the Minister of Economy and Finance, banned all forms of investment in cryptocurrencies. “Individuals claiming to be specialists in cryptocurrency trading are urging the population to invest their savings in them while encouraging them to adopt these virtual assets as a means of payment,” alerted Minister Romuald Wadagni, who took care to point out that these investments result in cases of fraud and loss of savings of the population seduced by the promise of exceptional gains.
“It does not fulfill all the functions of money and therefore cannot serve as a means of payment,” the statement read.
Moreover, the Minister of Economy and Finance did not mince words in explaining clearly that “by encouraging the population to use cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, the authors of these messages expose themselves to the rigor of Article 290 of Law No. 2018-16 of December 28, 2018, the Penal Code of the Republic of Benin.”
