Cape Town - Tens of thousands of people are broke and some even homeless after investing their life’s savings in a fruit and veg ‘business’ which turned out to be a scam.
Retirement packages, school fees, grocery money and rainy-day savings are all gone after people invested in Tiger Agriculture, registered with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) and which claimed to be linked to the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, with the SA Reserve Bank as its regulatory authority.
Victims were told they would help emerging farmers by investing in seedlings and the profits would be paid into their ewallets on the Tiger Agriculture app, which could be downloaded from the Google Play store. But once the scamsters got their claws into the victims’ money, it vanished.
Nobody knew the people behind the scam because they often changed names. Gauteng doctor Kagisho Thomas, who was previously named as a top 200 achiever, opened a case of identity theft after his photo was used with a different name.
Pietermaritzburg pensioner Manny Pillay said a friend told him about the money-making opportunity which he thought would be a great chance to bolster his pension. The “agents” told him the farming operations were in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, where the soil was good.
“You have to put money into the account, and you buy a seedling. They’ll tell you if you buy this seed, for 40 days, this is how much you’re going to get.
“There’ll be strawberry one day, there’ll be a potato one day, there will be grapes one day, and so it goes on.”
Pillay said the person who signed him up claimed the company had at least R1 billion in its coffers.
However, when it was time to withdraw the profits, there weren’t any and now he is homeless.
He said one of the recruiters was named Santa, but attempts to get hold of her this week failed.
Those scammed vented their anger on social media, cursing the scammers with death and disease.
“Owners and management of Tiger Agriculture will die a painful death. Our tears won’t fall down. I need my money back ASAP,” a Facebook post said.
Shanelle Syfers, from Paarl, learnt about Tiger Agriculture on TikTok, and signed up because it had many endorsements and lost R6 000.
“I was sceptical at first, but then they showed proof that they were making money and posted all this information about them doing good deeds,” she said.
Neil Naidoo invested R200 000 into Tiger Agriculture after joining from a link his friend gave him. He then got 70 relatives and friends to sign up.
“I have lost everything that I saved for the last four years for my family.”
Six close friends invested R500 000 in pumpkin seedlings, four others put in R1m and were part of the company for three months.
“We were told that one pumpkin seed planted will give you nothing less than 10 pumpkins so we were getting profit per seed in a packet of 50 seeds. So you are getting 50 times the profit. I have a background in agriculture so it made sense to me.”
Naidoo was in the leaders’ group because he signed up 70 people and so he controlled the group.
Naidoo said he was able to withdraw money from the app six times: twice for company obligations including an online meeting for new members, and the other times to host charity events.
“Everything looked so legit to us. They were posting everything from their events, documents and vehicles which people received. We never expected this.”
He would check the app from time to time to track his money, but then things changed.
Some people were paid to open bank accounts in their own names, and a few were arrested.
A Gauteng victim, who identified herself as a recruiter, said she was also a victim.
“I lost R6 000 in the scheme, after being promised R25 000. This was my hard-earned money that has gone down the drain,” she lamented.
Agriculture Department spokesperson Linda Page said they did not run investment initiatives for the public.
“The department would further like to caution communities against falling for get-rich-quick schemes of this kind, where the name of the department and its logos are used fraudulently. We ask that the public exercise due diligence, and refrain handing over their monies to criminal elements.”
It’s unknown how long the scam has been running, but the Financial Sector Conduct Authority issued an alert in November that Tiger Agriculture was not authorised to render financial services-related business.
“It has come to the attention of the FSCA that Tiger Agriculture may be unlawfully offering members of the public investment into agricultural product(s), offering profitable returns of up to 257% per month upon maturity of the agricultural product(s).
“Tiger Agriculture uses referrals and videos on YouTube, TikTok, its website and Facebook (social media platforms) to solicit investment from members of the public into its scheme,” the FSCA warned.
Police have appealed to anyone with information on the fraudulent activity to come forward.
Several attempts to contact Tiger Agriculture proved futile.
IOS