Consumer Watchdog Dissuades CBN Recruitment

Pauline Dikuelo | Monday December 10, 2018 18:00

 

According to Consumer Watchdog founder, Richard Harriman there are people promoting CBN claiming that for a single joining fee of P100, and recruiting others to join the scheme, participants can eventually earn a car worth R1.2 million, a house worth R2.5 million including a range of other benefits.

“CBN explains that the only activities necessary to achieve these things are through recruitment only, no selling of products and one has to simply recruit them to join under their name and will be making money,” he said.

Harriman said CBN is obviously a pyramid scheme highlighting that the new Consumer Protection Act states that a person shall not directly or indirectly promote, or knowingly join, enter or participate, or cause any other person to promote, join, enter or participate in a pyramid scheme.

According to Section 9 of the Consumer Protection Act of 2018, a pyramid scheme is where participants in the scheme receive compensation derived primarily from their respective recruitment of other persons as participants.  He said the law is clear that the penalty for doing so will be a fine not exceeding P100,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or both.

“CBN clearly satisfies that definition, admitting that there are no products involved and that money is made solely by recruiting other people into the scheme,” he added. He urged people not to fall victim to this illegal pyramid scheme and to alert the authorities if any person promoting it approaches them.  According to Harriman, he has not established how many people have fallen victim to this scheme locally. “It’s difficult to say for sure how many victims are joining CBN, but people who are currently recruiting others into the pyramid have told me that many people have paid to join the scheme already.

“I’ve also been told that recruits are encouraged to open multiple accounts to maximise their earnings,” he said.He said this just adds more cash in the pyramid and does not benefit the recruits in any way other than making them work harder to recruit even more people under them.