A very sad outcome...

I sent the following email in Feb 2022 to someone I highly respect (and still do) after I was invited to invest in a crypto project (I don't have strong views for or against crypto investments). Very sadly, the company and promoters of the scheme have now been exposed to be a fraud.

One of my pet peeves is seeing people lose money in all sorts of schemes that are set up to take advantage of their ignorance and, sometimes, greed. Sometimes it is just a simple desire to improve their family's livelihood.

In the email I sent to this person below, I highlighted some guidelines I use to determine if it was a fraud, hope it is useful to you.

Hi [ ]

I've opened the Coinzoom account successfully and then went on to read more about Hyperverse. One of my investment principles is that I need to understand what I am doing, otherwise I am just gambling. This is possibly a ponzi scheme. It has all the hallmarks of one:

- There is no actual value or goods provided (which makes me think the "returns" are coming from downlines)

- The payout formula is designed to encourage people to "reinvest" and also delay withdrawals as long as possible so that the plan can go on for as long as possible

- There is no documentation on how money is being made in order to provide the high returns promised.

At some point, the law of large numbers will set in, and the plan will be unsustainable. Let's say I invest $1m, and it grows at 15% per month or 180% per year as suggested. That $1m becomes $29 BILLION in 10 years, or $877 TRILLION in 20 years. Will I really be richer than Bill Gates in 20 years' time? Obviously I am not going to do it but $1m is only 100 people putting in $10,000 each.

Actually, the promised returns are higher than that, because the uplines (up to 7 levels?) get the sum total (or more) of the rewards promised to the investor. When you add all that up, where are they going to find the money to actually pay everyone out in future?

Please do not take this negatively. I am a regular reader of your articles because they are so full of wisdom and I will continue to read them regardless of what happens with this. You also have my utmost respect because I see your heart in doing this.

I don't want to offend you and struggled with writing this email but after much wrestling, I have decided to share what is in my heart and I believe you will take it in the right spirit. What I am a little concerned about is that you are putting your reputation on the line for this and all the goodwill built up through your faithful ministry all these years.

I am not saying this is actually a ponzi scheme because we won't know unless it collapses. But if it is, the consequences for your reputation and the people who have put their trust in you will be quite devastating. What's at stake here is the many more years of powerful impact you will be having through your ministry being brought down IF this does turn out to be a scam. I am NOT saying this is definitely a scam or a ponzi scheme, it just appears to be that way to me because of the lack of details.

We all know God wants us to be good stewards. He also teaches us to test and approve what is good. So unless I can get clear insight into how the returns promised are actually produced, I can only test this out. IF this is indeed a scheme that works, then it will still be around in a few years' time and it will not be too late to invest then.

The risk that everyone who has invested is taking is that they may lose their entire investment in this (which I presume won't be much if they are properly diversified). Some will lose more if they have been tempted by the paper gains they are seeing in their account so far and kept investing more.

The risk that you are taking is more than just the money. It will be your reputation and all the great years of ministry, past and future to come. That is my biggest concern. For people who have already invested, if you want to test whether this is a genuine investment plan, may I humbly suggest that everyone in the group immediately request to make a full withdrawal. The downside of doing that is that the future returns are compromised. But like I said, if this is a true plan, then it is a small price to pay for having peace of mind. And we would have done our part to test and prove whether it is legitimate.

Anyway, I have no vested interest in this whether it succeeds or not. You may have already thought about the above, please forgive me if I have been presumptuous or spoken out of place.

With much love and blessings