Online investment scams in Kenya

Bitcoin and Forex scams

These usually fall under investment scams, as reported by the United States Internet Crimes Resource Center (IC3).

Online scams usually target youthful populations hoping to invest in digital trades and earn quick or passive income. 

The most brazen scammers promise investors to invest a certain amount, usually Ksh 10,000 - Ksh 100,000 (about $100-$1000), and multiply their investments within a certain period (usually 24 hours).

However, once the victims send money, the fraudsters disappear and block the investor. 

These fraudsters are usually members of cybercrime gangs operating in foreign countries such as India, Russia, and North Korea. However, a small group of domestic scammers has mastered the trade.

Multilevel marketing schemes (Ponzi schemes)

These scams usually involve pay-to-earn and recruiting family, friends, colleagues, and strangers.

The victims are promised to earn a certain percentage of profit from every person they recruit to the system.

The more people you recruit, the higher your earnings, although most recruiters will never be able to withdraw the money.  

However, early recruiters do get paid handsomely to motivate them to recruit more people. Most people re-invest the money to earn even more, only to lose all the money.

This type of fraud leads to betrayal among family and friends because recruiters use every trick to enroll people who trust them.

Members are also promised more earnings by buying more expensive subscription packages with higher earning rates. Some parents buy packages for their children and vice versa to increase their earning potential.

Some MLM scams involve dubious assignments such as viewing getting paid to view ads, posting products on social media status to earning per view, earning by watching YouTube videos or being rewarded by just registering on the system. 

Some recruiters/victims also circulate potentially fake PayPal screenshots and M-Pesa messages to convince others that they're earning on the platform. 

However, most people who register on these platforms lose more than they make or never make any money. 

Remote job scams

While these remote jobs are usually genuine, many scammers use them to defraud innocent victims. 

Many fake remote jobs require applicants to pay a certain amount to access jobs. Some scammers may offer actual jobs to the victims but fail to pay them once the job is completed. 

Such scammers usually work as subcontractors paid to do the jobs themselves but resort to taking advantage of interested Kenyans. 

Online writing scams

These usually involve academic writing that involves helping international students complete their assignments.

However, many desperate Kenyan graduates are assigned tasks but never get paid. 

Similarly, others are tricked into signing up on some local writing platforms and requested to pay a certain amount of advance fee to access orders or students' assignments. 

Many victims end up never receiving any task or never getting paid.

Online writing scams also involve selling foreign writing accounts that post writing jobs. While most of these accounts are real, the brokers don’t own any of the accounts or can sell one account to several buyers. 

Additionally, some victims buy terminated accounts or general accounts such as Grammarly, Turnitin, or client accounts.

These accounts usually trade for hundreds of thousands of Kenyan shillings or thousands of dollars.

Online writing account selling scams also involve insiders who provide Kenyan brokers with accounts to sell and then terminate them to sell to new buyers.

Subsequently, opening a new writing account for free is almost impossible because insiders sell them via brokers. 

Agricultural investment and land scams

These scams usually target people interested in agriculture or land ownership. The investors are advised to buy pieces of land that the company would develop by planting crops on their behalf and pay them profits after several months. 

Others are tricked into buying overpriced exotic seeds, animals, or birds with the promise of a foreign company buying their produce at very high prices.

Others are lured to buying land in remote areas with the promise that its price will skyrocket after a certain amount of time or when the government develops certain infrastructure projects in the area.