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Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Business
Pelumi Salako

‘I invested in a Ponzi scheme’: Nigerians fall victim to crypto scams

A man in Lagos, Nigeria checks a cryptocurrency application on his mobile phone [File: Temilade Adelaja/Reuters]

Lagos, Nigeria — Mandela Fadahunsi, who works at a technical training school in Ikeja in Nigeria’s Lagos, never believed he could fall victim to a Ponzi scheme.

On April 6, the 26-year-old was starting his day when a WhatsApp notification lit up his phone screen. Someone on the group chat for investors of the cryptocurrency investment platform, Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX), had tried and failed to withdraw some funds, so they wanted to confirm if it was a general issue. Fadahunsi quickly logged on to his digital wallet and tried to withdraw 500 USDT, a cryptocurrency that stands for United States Dollar Tether, or simply Tether.

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