Racksterli owned by Michael Oti, apart from now promising mouth-watering return on investment within 45 minutes – an incredibly short period of time – from the 30-day period it dangled before investors in the past until its crash in June 2021, has also increased the amount of ROI on each investment made.
An investment platform known as Racksterli, which had earlier been exposed for defrauding members of the public, has devised new tactics to continue scamming people.
Racksterli owned by Michael Oti, apart from now promising mouth-watering return on investment within 45 minutes – an incredibly short period of time – from the 30-day period it dangled before investors in the past until its crash in June 2021, has also increased the amount of ROI on each investment made.
Investors are now assured by the firm that whatever amount they put in would be doubled within the 45-minute timeframe and that the financial reward is certain.
Scores of Nigerians desperate to boost their finances have been jumping at the offer from Racksterli without envisaging what may come.
"At first, they tell you that they will double any amount you deposit within 45 minutes.
"But the problem starts after you make your first deposit and they start to extort you by demanding all sorts of money from you.
"I invested N50, 000 but they ended up extorting N175,000 from me without any returns. They were even still asking me to pay more.
"A lot of Nigerians have fallen victim to this all because Davido was involved.
"Racksterli has refused to pay any return on investment or refund my entire money. They are rogues," an aggrieved investor, Max Okechukwu, who lost his money to the firm, said.
In audio recordings of a conversation between Okechukwu and Oti, who claimed his name was Davidson, our correspondent observed how the Racksterli founder vigorously cajoled the investor to put in more money in order to have his bank account credited with six times the original amount he put in within one minute.
Urging Okechukwu to "behave like a man" and erase fear from his mind, Davidson told him that the firm recently paid over 1,750 investors several millions of naira for their loyalty and faith in Racksterli.
According to him, if Okechukwu paid in more money as he requested, all the financial benefits would be withdrawn at once and sent into his bank account.
Oti claimed that investors’ funds were partly used to trade in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, adding that they were certified by various government agencies, so customers had no reason to worry.
However, findings by SaharaReporters revealed that all those talks were part of new strategies adopted by Oti and his group to continue to squeeze hardly-earned funds from unsuspecting members of the public.
The firm has changed its website and constantly deletes comments of complainants on its various social media platforms in order to continue deceiving members of the public.
Apart from musician Davido, Nollywood stars, Nancy Isime and Williams Uchemba, are among Nigerian celebrities who endorsed Racksterli in the past before the company was initially exposed as a fraud.
When contacted by SaharaReporters on Tuesday over his continued scamming of unsuspecting Nigerians, Oti declined to speak.
This is not the first time that business people promising massive returns on investments would be running away with funds belonging to members of the public –the latest merely adds to a long list of such fraudulent acts by conmen often aided by powerful Nigerians.
For instance, in May 2021, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arrested one Amos Olaniyan for using DHIL Nigeria Limited to allegedly defraud people of over N128 million through a shady investment scheme.
In September 2021, 24-year-old Adewale Jayeoba of Wales Kingdom Capital Limited, was declared wanted by the EFCC for allegedly defrauding unsuspecting victims to the tune of N935 million.
Between October 2020 and August 2021, Nigerians were fleeced of over N12 billion by about 10 Ponzi schemes promising outrageous returns on investments, according to data obtained from the website of the EFCC.
This is aside from the over N18 billion Nigerians lost to the infamous Mavrodi Mundial Movement (MMM) between 2015 and 2016.
Despite several petitions to anti-graft agencies in Nigeria, not many perpetrators of these crimes have been punished for the frauds.