Financial Times

The Central Bank has once again alerted the public over reports of network marketer GoldQuest cottoning on to a new marketing trick by introducing an international direct dialling (IDD) dial-up facility as an investment tool and ditching its coin business.

Central Bank officials told The Sunday Times FT that GoldQuest is targeting AL students with a new product called ‘I-connect’. “It is a call facility and the participants have to invest Rs. 47, 000 initially. After the investment, a phone number is given to the customer and he is instructed to dial it and cut the line, after which he gets a phone call,” a senior Central Bank official said, adding that the phone call comes to whatever the phone line the customer dialled the his given phone number. He said the customer is then given a personal identification number (PIN) and instructed to dial it to activate the IDD facility.

“The overseas call charges are 50 percent less than other telecom service provider charges such as Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) and other lines,” he said.

He said the company seems to have abandoned their coin business. “Once I-connect is sold to a customer, he is instructed to bring in more people.

If he brings five people, he is refunded Rs.23, 500, which is half of his initial investment,” he said, adding that when he brings five more, making his total ‘brought in’ customers to 10, he is given the rest of his investment.

“Likewise, he is returned cheques each time he brings in five people, which works as a pyramid,” he said adding that such schemes are banned under the Banking Act. Reports say many A/L students have been roped into the scheme.

The Bank also last week placed ads issuing a fresh warning on pyramid schemes. “We will be very aggressive with the awareness campaigns because we have found out that this new scheme is catching on with the rural youngsters,” the official said.