KAMPALA, UGANDA: Hundred of Ugandans are crying foul after a Ponzi scheme dubbed BLQ Football conned them billions of shillings in the latest wave of cybercrime.
BLQ which initially posed as an online betting platform dupped Ugandans including students on how they can easily get rich by multiplying their deposits through bets throwing many unsuspecting individuals to fall victim to the online scam.
The “click a button” BLQ Ponzi scheme purposefully targeted Uganda a few months back with dubious links spreading like wildfire on WhatsApp, and other social messaging platforms.
BLQ Football promised users they would make quick money and become rich through reverse betting.
Reverse betting is a unique type of betting which allows you to make a bet with reverse action. This means that you have two wagers placed both ways. If your first wager wins or pushes, then your second wager will be placed, or wager two wins, place one.
Basically, the company alleges that they get all the money from investors and place two well-calculated big bets. They then share winnings with the investor getting 2.2% of their investment per match.
The company also pledges that in the event of a loss your investment money is reimbursed without profits for that game.
BLQ Football started selectively disabling withdrawals and locking accounts a few weeks ago. Over time the amount of withdrawals and accounts being locked increased.
The last message BLQ Football Club posted on Twitter on October 12, at 11:54pm, simply read: “I’m Out!” It was accompanied by a peace emoji. There was, however, nothing peaceful about its users in Uganda losing an estimated figure believed to have breached the Shs60 billion mark.
Yet one of the scam leaders had the audacity to tell victims of the pyramid-cum-Ponzi scheme on the social media app, Telegram thus: “You Ugandans thank you, you have been fooled but I am coming with another trick after this money is over.”
A female victim, who had put about Shs500,000 in the BLQ Football Club scheme narrated that she joined the Ponzi scheme a few weeks before it shut shop. Evidently sad, the woman, who identified herself as Birungo told us that she was simply looking for more opportunities to make money. The risk, she added, was in joining late or staying for too long.
“Wait, are you going to help members get their money back or? Because as for me, mine was so little. Actually, I have made it today and I am looking for another app to invest in,” she said.
The reason as to why Ms Birungo was almost oblivious to the fact that her fingers had been burnt is because early “investors” in BLQ Football Club made rich rewards. Or so we were told.
Sometime in 2019, the BLQ scam was established in the country. The scam would eventually obtain a trading licence from Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and some documentation from Uganda Revenue Authority (URA). The documentations were used to create a sense of legitimacy among their “nosy targets” who asked some questions.
To spruce up the con, the people behind the scam—believed to be Nigerian nationals as per various sources—told their targets that they had partners in China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), South Africa and Nigeria. They claimed their headquarters were in the English city of Manchester.
With the con set, all the sources Saturday Monitor spoke to say the recruits were placed in one group on the social media platform Telegram. The group had 5,648 members at the time of the collapse.
Hedging bets
The scam operated like a betting site where users would put forward fixtures and predict their matches. Users would be in business if the scammers predicted that the final score in a particular football match would be 2-0 and the prediction was incorrect. Former members say even when they lost their bets, which was often, the scam baited them by compensating the money lost. The money kept coming in.
The scam had a corporate social responsibility arm that engaged in charity by reaching out to people, giving different foodstuffs as per someone familiar with their operations.
The scammers also acquired offices, including one at Kyamula near Total Energies Fuel Station on Salaama Road, Kampala. By October 13, their premises were marked “permanently closed.”
In promotional photos and videos seen by this website, the supposed employees of the scam are filmed looking down to avoid direct eye contact with the camera. Only one video recorded hours to the collapse of the scam has an unidentified man assuring the members of the viability of the project.
Regulators speak out
This came in a wake of a public notice warning issued by the National Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board regarding the legitimacy of BLQ Football.
The lotteries board advised the public to refrain from dealing with BLQ Football Uganda because it is not licensed to carry out any gaming services.
The notice read dated October 11, 2022 read thus: “The attention of the National Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board has been drawn to a company trading as BLQ FOOTBALL Uganda on social media platforms such as Facebook, operating through the following url: website (https://blq66.com/#/) on Facebook at https://facebook.com/groups/ugandablq/?ref=share) and Twitter https://twitter.com/BLQFootballClub.
“Upon investigation, the Board has established that Acclaim BLQ Sports SMC Ltd t/a BLQ Football Uganda is operating illegal online gaming activities without a license,” the board said in a statement on October 11.
According to the Lotteries and gaming Regulatory Board, BLQ has been using the gaming industry as a strategy to market its membership. It claims to be an investment company where members make money by recruiting people to join the BLQ Football Club platform.
“We have alerted Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and are in receipt of a directive to MTN, Airtel and other internet service providers to block this site from providing any gaming services to Ugandans,” the statement adds.
The public has been advised to refrain from dealing with unlicensed or illegal gaming operators who lure and defraud unsuspecting members of the public. The public is also advised to always verify the registration and license status of such companies and schemes before engaging with them.
The National Gaming Board Uganda (NGBU) is a body corporate established under the Lotteries and Gaming Act No. 7 of 2016 which came into effect on 8th April 2016.
Section 4 of the Lotteries and Gaming Act, 2016 is mandated to issue licenses for Lotteries, Casinos, Gaming and Betting in Uganda. The mandate includes Licensing, Supervision, Enforcement, and dispute resolution.
BLQ however made fun of Regulatory Board’s statement from the Lotteries board and said they would never sign up as it is of no use.
“Dear @lgrb_uganda we’re officially inviting you to signup and start making money with our platform, than calling on MTN & AIRTEL to delay payments for our members BLQ won’t join your association; you even failed to save Betway & SBA. ….Hello USDT users,” BLQ said.
After this BLQ announced how “Notice: All withdrawals have been returned to their respective account balances! All members can now withdraw, our current withdraw will be automatically credited to your account within 24-48hrs. we regret for the inconvenience.”
As the participants in the scheme were still jubilant, BLQ Football dropped a time bomb on them as it announced that it was signing out and these should count their losses and tears started flowing again.
“I’m Out!” Read the last tweet from BLQ FOOTBALL.
Within 24 hours after this notice, the Ponzi scheme initiated the final steps of its exit-scam. On October 13th BLQ Football’s websites went offline.
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