Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). on Thursday said it has uncovered yet another suspected illegal investment platform identified as TOFRO.COM (Tofro).

The Commission, in a notice raising the alarm, warned Nigerians against falling for their antics to obtain money through the usual promise of high returns.

The statement warned that no such investment platform which holds itself out as a cryptocurrency trading platform has been registered by it, stressing that based on its investigations, Tofro’s operations exhibit the typical indicators of a fraudulent Ponzi scheme.

These, it continued, include: The promise of unusually high returns, heavy reliance on a referral system to sustain pay-outs and failure to honour withdrawal requests from subscribers.

It strongly advised Nigerians to be wary about investing with Tofro, noting that any person who places such investment with the entity, does so at their own risk.

The commission reminded “potential investors of the need to VERIFY the registration status of investment platforms via the Commission’s dedicated portal: www.sec.gov.ng/cmos before transacting with them.”

The notice quoted its Director-General, Emomotimi Agama, as stressing the crucial necessity for Nigerians to understand the dangers of putting their hard-earned money into ventures that are not registered or regulated by the SEC.

He lamented the situation where “some Nigerians and foreign accompanies have specialised in duping Nigerians and govt won’t sit and watch Nigerians being duped and this is what SEC is coming out to the people to educate them that if it too good to be true, then watch out.

“We have seen many Ponzi schemes in the past, and the Investments and Securities Act  had been signed into law by the President and the law recommends N20m fine and 10 years imprisonment for offenders of Ponzi Scheme.

“So, that has empowered us to be in a better position to flush out all these fraudulent investment schemes that are damaging our economy,” he added, assuring all of the commission’s willingness to to help them confirm legitimate investment schemes and we are letting them know we feel their pain.

“As we are doing this, we have helped to educate them against being duped. CAC registration and EFCC certificate is not enough to show that the company is registered with SEC and these are red flags.

“Training programmes being organised by these people to lure people into their schemes are also illegal.  Verify before you invest in any scheme, and that is our message to Nigerians,” he further added.