What is Loom?
(It depends on who you ask!)
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, Loom means to appear as a large, often frightening or unclear shape or object:
And in the world of BitCoins, Loom Network is a blockchain-based platform designed with large-scale social apps and games in mind. The platform has been developed with the idea of proving that the applications of blockchain technology aren’t limited to transactions.
In Nigeria
The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a warning to Nigerians investing their money in an online investment scheme tagged “Loom Money Nigeria.’’
Mary Uduk, Acting Director-General of the commission, gave the warning at a news conference on Thursday in Abuja.
Uduk said: “We are aware of the activities of an online investment scheme tagged ‘Loom Money Nigeria’.
“The platform has embarked on an aggressive online media campaign on Facebook and WhatsApp.
“They lure the investing public to participate by joining various Loom WhatsApp groups to invest as low as N1,000 and N13,000 and get as much as eight times the value of the investment in 48 hours.
“Unlike MMM that had a website and the promoter known, the people promoting Loom are not yet known and this pyramid scheme operates through closed groups mainly on Facebook and WhatsApp.
“If it were a local Ponzi scheme with known offices, it would be very easy for the Commission to seal their offices and freeze their accounts.
“We, therefore, wish to notify the investing public that the operation of this investment scheme has no tangible business model hence it’s a Ponzi scheme, where returns are paid from other people’s invested sum
“Also, its operation is not registered by the Commission”.
Two years after the popular Mavrodi Mundial Moneybox (MMM) Ponzi scheme crashed with millions of Naira lost, Nigerians are starting to flood towards Loom, another scheme that promises astonishing returns on investment.
MMM penetrated the Nigerian market in 2015 with over 2 million people signing up for the scheme by the time it crashed in December 2016.
Despite the loss of billions to that scheme and many of its ilk, Loom Money Nigeria is starting to gain widespread following among Nigeria’s online community.