Last Updated: May 12, 2026
Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission has formally identified seven SEC flagged investment platforms as illegal operators running schemes with classic Ponzi hallmarks. These are not rumours or unverified social media posts. Each entry on this list comes from an official public notice issued directly by the Commission, naming the platform, describing its tactics, and warning Nigerians to stay away entirely. If you currently have money in any of these platforms — or if someone close to you recommended one — this post gives you everything you need to understand the threat, confirm the facts, and act before it is too late.
The SEC’s crackdown accelerated sharply after April 17, 2025, when it formally blacklisted CBEX — Crypto Bridge Exchange — for operating without registration and deceiving the public. That single collapse erased an estimated ₦1.3 trillion from between 250,000 and 300,000 Nigerian investors. For full context on how that disaster unfolded, read the complete breakdown of the CBEX collapse and how Nigerians lost ₦1.3 trillion. Between April and June 2025 alone, the SEC flagged eight additional platforms — compared to just two in the entire first quarter of the year. Furthermore, the newly enacted Investments and Securities Act (ISA) 2025, signed by President Bola Tinubu, gave the Commission significantly expanded enforcement powers, including asset freezing, fines of up to ₦20 million, and prison sentences of up to ten years for Ponzi scheme operators. The CBEX disaster was Nigeria’s regulatory turning point, and the seven platforms below are the direct result of the enforcement surge that followed it.
Each platform below received a formal public notice from the SEC in 2025. In every case, the Commission confirmed the entity was neither registered nor licensed to operate in Nigeria’s capital market. Here is a detailed breakdown of each one, in the order the SEC raised its alerts.
UYJ Multitrade Limited, operating publicly under the name My Share, received one of the first SEC warnings of 2025 on March 6. The Commission identified it as an unauthorised investment scheme soliciting funds from the public under the pretext of genuine investment opportunities. My Share held no registration with either the SEC or the Central Bank of Nigeria. Additionally, it had no credible business model capable of generating the returns it promised. The EFCC listed My Share among dozens of suspicious schemes it flagged in the same period, indicating coordinated cross-agency concern about its operations well before most investors knew anything was wrong.
Pro-Vest, which also traded as Promiseland Estate and Construction Ltd, received its SEC warning on March 6, 2025 — the same day as My Share. The platform posed as an investment adviser and fund manager while operating an unlawful scheme. It later attempted to rebrand itself as a crowdfunding platform to appear legitimate, but the SEC confirmed its earlier fraudulent activities disqualified it entirely. Investors who were drawn in by the real estate branding lost money due to a complete absence of genuine business activity backing the promised returns.
Pocket Option presented itself as a credible online investment adviser and fund manager, promising profitable investment opportunities to everyday Nigerians. The SEC’s investigation revealed that the platform operates primarily through social media and online forums, displaying the classic traits of a Ponzi scheme. Specifically, the Commission found that Pocket Option uses recruitment-based payouts rather than genuine trading or investment activity to generate returns. It is not registered to offer any investment service in Nigeria. Therefore, anyone who has deposited funds into this platform is engaging with an unlicensed entity operating outside Nigerian law — with no regulatory protection whatsoever.
F&B paraded itself as the Nigerian arm of a legitimate Swedish advertising firm. Its promoters promised Nigerians automatic employment — but only after paying varying sums of money and recruiting additional members into different tiers. The SEC’s investigations confirmed this model as a pyramid-style scam. No real employment exists inside the structure. The promised income comes entirely from fees paid by newly recruited members, not from any genuine business activity. Moreover, the deliberate use of a real foreign company’s name to manufacture credibility is a deception tactic the SEC flagged explicitly in its public notice as a key warning sign for investors to recognise.
Value Growth Platform attracted investors by advertising guaranteed returns and monetary rewards for recruiting new members. The SEC described its operations as exhibiting typical indicators of a fraudulent Ponzi scheme. Specifically, the Commission noted that promises of guaranteed returns — which no licensed investment firm can legally offer in Nigeria — and a referral-based payout model are the defining structural features of this platform. Value Growth Platform holds no investment licence. As a result, anyone invested in this platform has zero regulatory protection and no legal recourse if the scheme collapses and withdrawals are blocked.
CMTrading deployed one of the most technically sophisticated deception tactics seen in Nigerian investment fraud. The platform created cloned versions of widely trusted Nigerian media outlets, including Punch Newspaper, Vanguard Newspaper, BBC Nigeria, Channels Television, and Arise Television. It also posted edited photos and fabricated videos featuring prominent Nigerians to create the impression of celebrity endorsement. The SEC confirmed that CMTrading’s operations rely heavily on high-return promises and a referral-based payout model — both textbook red flags of Ponzi fraud. Furthermore, the use of cloned media websites to manufacture editorial credibility represents a deliberate escalation in scam sophistication that most investors would be unable to detect without active fact-checking.
Sapphire Scents Limited presented itself as an investment adviser and fund manager offering a formal investment scheme. The SEC confirmed it is not registered to operate in any capacity in Nigeria’s capital market. The Commission issued a clear warning: any member of the public who engages with Sapphire Scents Limited or its representatives in any capital market business does so entirely at their own risk. This platform is particularly deceptive because its name suggests a fragrance or consumer goods company — a deliberate misdirection designed to lower investors’ instinctive caution before funds are solicited.
Examining all seven SEC flagged investment platforms together reveals a consistent structural pattern. Every single one promises returns that no legitimate, licensed investment firm could legally guarantee. Every single one relies on referral incentives to sustain payouts, meaning existing investors receive returns from the deposits of newer recruits — not from real profit. Every single one operates without SEC registration. And every single one uses at least one layer of manufactured legitimacy — a foreign company name, cloned media sites, celebrity photos, professional titles, or real estate branding — to appear credible before the fraud collapses.
Here is the critical insight that most coverage of these platforms fails to state directly. Every one of the seven platforms listed above was identifiable as illegal before a single naira was invested. The SEC maintains a public register of all licensed investment entities at the SEC Nigeria official investment verification portal. Any platform that does not appear in that register is operating illegally in Nigeria, regardless of its website quality, foreign affiliations, media clones, or social media testimonials. A name search in that database takes under 60 seconds. The fact that hundreds of thousands of Nigerians invested in unregistered platforms without running this check is not a failure of intelligence — it is a failure of habit. Verification is not yet a standard step in how most Nigerians approach investment decisions. That single habit change is the most impactful protection available to any investor today.
The SEC has made verification accessible and free. The following process works for any investment platform operating in Nigeria, whether or not it appears on any watchlist.
First, go directly to sec.gov.ng by typing the address into your browser — never follow a link shared on WhatsApp or social media, as that link itself may lead to a cloned site. Second, navigate to the Capital Market Operators section and search for the platform by its exact registered name. Third, if the platform does not appear in the register, it is unregistered and therefore operating illegally. Stop investing immediately and report the platform using the SEC’s online complaint portal. Fourth, even if a company name appears in the register, confirm that the registration type matches what the platform claims to do. A company registered for one capital market activity is not automatically licensed to offer fund management, investment advisory, or digital asset services. Fifth, cross-check with the CBN consumer protection portal for any platform that also processes naira deposits or bank transfers. Understanding the new CBN BVN rules designed to prevent financial scams adds a second layer of protection when verifying platforms that handle your bank account details. This full two-step check takes under three minutes and is the only reliable confirmation of a platform’s legal operating status in Nigeria.
The Investments and Securities Act 2025 represents the most significant overhaul of Nigeria’s capital market law in nearly twenty years. Under ISA 2025, virtual asset service providers and digital asset exchanges now fall directly under SEC jurisdiction for the first time. Operators of unregistered investment schemes face fines of up to ₦20 million and prison sentences of up to ten years. Importantly, ISA 2025 extends liability beyond platform founders. Influencers, bloggers, digital marketers, and any individual who promotes an unregistered investment scheme — even indirectly through social media posts — faces the same criminal penalties. This specific provision directly targets the referral and influencer recruitment model that all seven platforms on this list used to grow. The Nairametrics investigation into SEC flagged platforms in 2025 confirmed that between April and June 2025, eight platforms were flagged — more than in any comparable period in Nigeria’s regulatory history.
Yes — and faster than most observers expected. The EFCC confirmed in 2025 that five companies from its list of flagged illegal operators have already been convicted in Nigerian courts, with five additional firms having entered guilty pleas and awaiting sentencing. Legal proceedings are ongoing against the remaining cases at various stages of prosecution. However, the gap between active schemes and completed prosecutions remains wide. By mid-2025, the SEC had flagged over 79 suspected Ponzi and fraudulent investment schemes — far more than the seven highlighted in this post. That number confirms the depth of the problem and the scale of enforcement work still ahead.
If you recognise any platform from this list — or if a platform you currently use cannot be found in the SEC register — take the following steps immediately. Do not wait for the platform to restrict withdrawals, because by the time restrictions appear, the collapse has typically already begun internally. First, attempt to withdraw your full balance now, before any account locks are introduced. Second, screenshot everything without delay — your account dashboard, deposit confirmation records, transaction history, and every message exchanged with platform administrators. These records are essential for filing a fraud report and for any subsequent legal action. Third, report the platform formally to the SEC at sec.gov.ng and to the EFCC at efcc.gov.ng using their respective online complaint portals. Both agencies accept digital submissions. Fourth, warn your personal network immediately. Because all seven of these platforms spread through personal referrals, the people most likely to be invested alongside you are your closest contacts. Alerting them is urgent, not optional. If you are looking for verified income opportunities that do not promise fixed guaranteed returns, legitimate daily income options for Nigerians do exist and are built on real economic activity.
Recovery after a Ponzi scheme collapse is genuinely difficult. When CBEX collapsed in April 2025, the EFCC confirmed it recovered only a portion of the stolen ₦1.3 trillion — and even that partial recovery involved significant legal and technical challenges converting cryptocurrency assets back into cash. SEC Director General Dr. Emomotimi Agama has been direct on this point: when Ponzi schemes collapse, the stolen money is typically spent, hidden offshore, or converted into assets that take years to trace. This reality makes the pre-investment verification step — checking the SEC register before committing any funds — the only form of protection that is 100% effective. Post-collapse recovery is uncertain. Pre-investment verification costs nothing and takes under a minute.
The seven SEC flagged investment platforms documented in this post represent a documented, growing pattern that has already cost Nigerians hundreds of billions of naira in 2025 alone. Four conclusions stand out from this full analysis. First, no legitimate investment platform in Nigeria legally guarantees fixed returns — that single promise is enough to disqualify any platform from serious consideration, regardless of how professional it looks. Second, SEC registration verification at sec.gov.ng is the legal minimum check before any investment decision, takes under 60 seconds, and eliminates every unregistered scheme on this list before a single naira changes hands. Third, referral-based income structures that gate withdrawals behind recruitment targets are the defining mechanic of every Ponzi scheme on this list — not a feature of a genuine business. Fourth, ISA 2025 now makes promoting these schemes a criminal offence, which means sharing an investment link without verifying the platform’s registration status carries real legal risk for the person sharing it. To protect yourself further from schemes that use false institutional legitimacy, the Theobarth grant investigation shows exactly how manufactured credibility works to target Nigerian investors across different sectors. If someone shared a platform name with you and you searched to verify it — that instinct is exactly right. Check the SEC register now at sec.gov.ng, report what you find if it is not listed, and share this post with anyone you know who may be invested in any of the seven platforms named above.
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