Kenyans are at risk of losing millions of shillings in yet another pyramid scheme-type syndicate after a Pay Bill number through which they were accumulating funds was stopped.
Public Likes Kenya, a social media marketing site, had secured an M-Pesa PayBill number 135079 that was being used by those enlisting in the venture see all incoming and outgoing transactions.
However, the PayBill line has been cancelled by Safaricom pending an internal probe into the venture’s credibility, translating to a possible loss of millions to Kenyans who had subscribed.
The scam, which operates like the Social Trade scam in India, has been the talk of the town with most users confessing how they were either promised money or making some.
A trial by Business Today to confirm that the pay bill number had been closed brought the message: “Transaction failed, M-PESA cannot complete payment of Ksh4,500.00 to PUBLIC LIKES. Organisation receiving the payment is unavailable. Try again later.”
The scam ran its course and it did pay off for some people until it didn’t. It purported to be an online paying job where one is Paid To Click (PTC). Upgrading one’s account ensured more Adverts to Click on. The cheapest account upgrade was Ksh 4,500 then increased to Ksh 14,000, and the mother of all account upgrades is the Ksh 90,000.
On the site, they have listed KCB and Equity Bank as their partners. However, KCB came out to refute the claims of relationship/partnership/affiliation with Public Likes.
The scam paid off even more once an upgraded account recruited other people and got them to upgrade their accounts.
According to an online source, money withdrawals had to be made in the wee hours of the morning with some requests taking days to be approved. Apparently, the least amount of money one could withdrawal was 5,000.
An upgraded account also had an expiry date meaning that should your account expire before reaching the minimum account balance, then there was no way of accessing your money without another account upgrade.
Public Likes recently introduced a bank withdrawal option, excuse being Mpesa withdrawals had limits and were too many.
Some users have had difficulties withdrawing their money for close to two weeks now.
While some people claimed the site has been in existence for long, it emerged that it was only founded in March this year.
According to eliteaffiliatehacks.com, the site was also not registered in the United States as claimed but in Kenya and its owners remained affiliates. Also, one did not earn money through clicks but referrals.
Other tell-tale signs it is a scam include repetitive adverts and its high returns as compared to other social media marketing sites.
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