The latest trickery to grab national attention is steeped in swindling an undisclosed sum of money, that one can only imagine runs in the thousands.

Under duped circumstances, heads should already be rolling.

But there are no heads to begin with.

The closest local connection to the unravelling of the crypto scam, was the signature of Fiji’s former taxman. But like the scam itself, those dockets are most likely falsified.

As more tales surface of the blatant daylight robbery under the Ebayshop name, the burning question hovers over the existence of loop holes, which enabled a commercial operation to continue full swing, without the bare minimum a business license.

Earlier in the year, the central bank ruled out any suggestion of tapping into the crypto currency space. That was enough of a warning for a nation akin to learning the hard way.

The same bank later warned against Ebayshop operations.

No one listened.

Crypto Scam.

Not until a public warning was issued from the Trade minister, did the whole situation gather some vibration, where users claimed they earned more than they ever did in the shortest timespan.

By this time, the scheme quietly erased its footprints, leaving scores scratching their heads about where the financial investments went.

The itaukei term ‘vesu mona’ best describes the gripping pump and dump scenario that many openly succumbed to, through EBayshop’s online trading platform.

Fiji is not the first to suffer such a scam. Earlier attempts at higher local level were foiled, if you recall.

There is no quick fix. In fact, there is no fix.

Your investment is gone, up in thin air. The shutters have gone up at the designated shops. The agents nowhere to be found.

Learn from it.

And don’t be so gullible in future.

Feedback: frederica.elbourne@fijisun.com.fj