'48 Percent Returns Monthly': How 32,000 Vietnam Investors Got Caught By Ponzi Scheme

Around 32,000 investors were reportedly duped by the scams and lobbied outside the offices of Modern Tech in Ho Chi Minh on April 8, although the owners had liquidated the company and evacuated their office space more than a month ago.

Pincoin, an ERC20 token powering the PIN project, promised users up to 40 percent monthly return on investments on the landing page of the website.

His reaction came in tandem with a directive from Vietnamese prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to the State Bank of Vietnam to ensure no financial institutions process cryptocurrency transactions.

According to Tuoi Tre News, Modern Tech were promising users in Vietnam 48 percent returns monthly for iFan tokens, but they had to make an initial investment of $1000.

Users were given an 8 percent commission for referring new investors.

Vietnam vetoes cryptocurrenciesThe use of cryptocurrencies have been outlawed in Vietnam since Oct. 2017 after a directive from the country's central bank.

That didn't stop the likes of Modern Tech's aggressive multi-level marketing scheme to attract investors to the ICOs in question.

Considering the relatively small volume of virtual currency trade in Vietnam, the ban on cryptocurrencies has had little effect on the price of Bitcoin at the time.

Scammers target areas of low financial literacyTo understand how people are so easily enticed into scams of this scale, Cointelegraph reached out to American investor and founder of Skill Incubator, Chris Dunn.

"Recently, we've noticed scammers have been focusing promoting their Ponzi schemes in countries where financially literacy is low, which makes for easy targets."