A good friend of mine introduced patron pay to me. It was mid-2021 and I was almost done with National Service. I have been saving my Allowance aggressively because I needed to start a business right after NSS.
As someone who just beginning to understand the fundamentals of financial literacy, I was aware that saving my allowance in my mobile money account only meant intentionally retarding the real value or purchasing power of my money. I needed to invest my savings into somewhere that can generate some reasonable passionate income.
It did not take much effort for me to be convinced that patron pay was the perfect investment solution for me. I just needed to create an account, buy one of their oil barrels with bitcoin and wait for nine months to withdraw all my investments plus my ROI.
I first invested $25 and in less than a month, I was able to withdraw $10 worth of bitcoin directly into my Coinbase wallet. According to them, investing in any one of their oil assets could earn you up to 2.5% of your investment every weekday for nine months, as ROI. So investing in a $25 oil barrel could generate up to $150 ROI in nine months. (Very laughable)
The first $10 withdrawal I made in bitcoin was enough proof for me to put all of my NSS savings into patron pay. I invested in their $200 barrel and wait patiently waiting for nine months to withdraw $600(mumu meš)
Everything was running smoothly, people were doing withdraws day in and day out and I was already planning on my big business thatāll shock everyone. Until one day when my friend who had referred me had an emergency and wanted to do a panic withdrawal. As an Investor, patron pay allows you to withdraw your already generated ROI as far as your investment is over three months.
We tried all the withdrawal means but to no avail. They kept postponing the time of withdrawals until we were fed up.
We called the numbers on their address in Germany and lo and behold, a lady answered the told us that no client bares ā Patronpayā. We ended the call and started researching this Patronpay. It took a little effort before we realized that Patronpay was just another ponzi and our monies had been scammed.
The website was still running so we continued trying to do the withdrawals but to no avail. We tried warning other people to stop investing and try withdrawing their monies. Some listened others did not.
Gradually, their websites began freezing until our logins were not recognized anymore. The only withdrawal I made out of the $225 I invested was the $10 bitcoins test withdrawal I did initially.
I wanted to die. I couldnāt believe that all my hard-earned NSS allowance was gone. And not only that, my business plans were shattered. I could not think straight. I did not tell my parents about it. I was miserable and my then-girlfriend even married an Alhaji in their village after she had told me that she was going to visit her parents.
I donāt remember how I survived it but I almost gave up. Nss was finally over and I had nothing to show off. I did not squander my allowance and I did not have it too.
Just this morning I did a small research about Patronpay and I realize that theyāre still running. They have over 1,500 subscribers on their telegram channel who are yet to realize that their monies will be soon gone.
One important lesson I learned from this experience is that if the promised ROI seems too good to be true, then there are huge chances that itās not true.
The experience I had with Patronpay taught me a great deal about online investments. Iām happy that I survived it and I was able to move on.
ALL PICTURE IN THIS POST ARE SCREENSHOTS FROM PATRONPAY WEBSITE (except otherwise specified)
Thank you for going through my experience. I hope you pick up a thing or two.