In December 2016 Noseweek reported extensively on the flood of binary options scamsters, most based in Israel and Cyprus, who were targeting the South African market on social media and via internet news channels (nose206). A damning follow-up article appeared in February 2017 (nose 208).
Despite the scale and brazenness of the frauds, we noted the absence of action from any regulatory authority and law enforcement agency. Even in the UK, where the fraudulent sale of binary options was by then the country’s biggest scam, there had been no successful prosecutions. The official explanation: the fraudsters are usually located abroad.
The UK National Fraud Intelligence Bureau’s deputy director and financial crime specialist, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Fyfe, said that on an average two reports are made to police in Britain each day and the average investor loses £20,000 (more than R300,000).
Most people there were not bothering to report their experience in the knowledge there was little that police could do. The business was also not overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) because it is classed as gambling. And the UK Gambling Commission only regulates operators that have equipment based in Britain.
Denne historien er fra February 2020-utgaven av Noseweek.
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Denne historien er fra February 2020-utgaven av Noseweek.
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Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
After losing his cool when his fees were questioned
Panel Beater De Luxe
Danmar Autobody and its erstwhile directors get a serious panel beating in court papers. Corruption and theft are said to have destroyed the firm chaired by Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, leaving 200 workers destitute and threatening to kill.
Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman
Ronald Wohlman – EX SOUTH African copywriter, author, and actor – never dreamt that his lockdown diaries, written on Facebook and followed by people all over the world – would become his “life’s work”.
A Picture Of Peace?
Beware: Appearances can be deceptive
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be
Everybody Drinks Corona
I am hesitant to go Into the pub today. Not because it’s illegal, but there is a crème colored 1985 Mercedes 300D parked behind the pine tree. This means the devil is inside; that’s what we call Dr. De Villiers. You don’t know whether you will encounter the good doctor with the charming bedside manner or the violent, bipolar bully. The problem is, most of the time, you can never be sure which it is, so it’s best to always keep a social distance.
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary
The money train
Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’
Bush school – A memoir
OUR SCHOOL WAS IN THE MIDDLE of the bush, ten miles from the nearest town in the harsh beauty of the Zimbabwean highveld. It started life in World War II as No 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, a Royal Air Force elementary flying training school and I arrived there in 1954, just seven years after it became an all-white co-ed state boarding school.
