It looks like we have to talk about E-creator facing problems earlier than we anticipated. We are on record warning that E-creator is a scam and that it will end in tears for hundreds if not thousands of Zimbabweans.
It gives us no joy to talk about this as Iโm sure no one is thrilled that some unsuspecting people will lose their life savings when all is said and done.
E-creator has stumbled for the first time since its inception. See, E-creator promises that members can withdraw their deposits and commissions anytime.
Over the last few days, E-creator members have struggled to withdraw their funds. Some members tried withdrawing over 3 days ago and are yet to get their cash.
E-creator released a statement on why that is and it leaves a lot to be desired:
Notice: The reason for the delay in withdrawal is that E-Creator has obtained the E-Creator Merchant ACC of ecocash, so it needs to be connected with ecocash.
Future withdrawals will be free of withdrawal fees and can be made within an hour! There will be no withdrawal fees in the future,
e-creatorโs ecocash ACC account supports one-click payment, and all withdrawals can be completed within one hour. Inform all E-Creator employees not to worry about cash withdrawals, and the company headquarters will handle all problems. Moreover, during the upgrade of the cash withdrawal system, the company will compensate employees for incentive activities. E-Creator will always develop stronger and stronger, E-Creator will make our life better and better
For employees who have not received the cash withdrawal for more than 48 hours, after the cash withdrawal reaches your account, the company will compensate you according to 4% of the cash principal you withdraw
If we can be frank, this statement is a whole load of nothing. It doesnโt make any sense. They say the delay in withdrawals is a result of an upgrade of their cash withdrawal system.
What kind of upgrade is that? โ you ask. They say they opened an EcoCash Merchant wallet and it is not yet โconnected with EcoCash.โ
That doesnโt make sense for a variety of reasons. There is no way that an EcoCash merchant account would not be connected to EcoCash. It is an EcoCash account.
E-creator really said withdrawals have been delayed because they opened an EcoCash account and it is yet to be connected to EcoCash. Thatโs a ridiculous statement.
Some E-creator employees have been telling members that EcoCash and/or Econet, NetOne and Telecel are to blame for the delay.
One response from E-creator read:
The financial department is in the process of manual payment for the operatorโs network problem today. Please wait patiently for your understanding.
Itโs hard to decipher exactly what is meant but it seems to imply that their operators have been having network challenges. No doubt counting on the fact that we are prone to believe it, seeing as the operators have indeed faced many challenges of late.
This time around, the rest of us did not face those network challenges but somehow only E-creator did.
E-creatorโs deposit and withdrawal processes
Here is how E-creator has handled withdrawals. A member indicates that they want to withdraw and they enter the EcoCash number they want the funds to be deposited into. E-creator uses a host of EcoCash accounts which I presume belong to some of their employees to make the transfers.
Indeed E-creator members say they receive their funds from random EcoCash accounts. This suggests that E-creator did not have a merchant account, for sure.
The same thing happens with deposits. E-creator members will deposit to various numbers, the example given in the E-creator handbook shows the deposit going to Edger Chikwendeni Lutepo.
If E-creator had a merchant account, they would have used that for the transactions above.
That may be but the question still remains, if E-creatorโs income comes from posting fake reviews to Zalando and other platforms, why do YOU need to deposit any money with E-creator? Who has to deposit money with an employer before they can get to work?
Would a merchant account solve their problems?
Now that E-creator has a merchant account, we expect to see deposits going into the same account and withdrawals coming from that same account.
E-creator believes a merchant wallet would allow them to offer withdrawals in an hour. That is not possible.
See, the only way to liquidate a merchant account is to first transfer the funds to a bank account. Then you need to send a bulk payment order to then get funds transferred out to different accounts.
Thatโs easily a 48-hour process, at the very least.
This means E-creatorโs promises cannot be fulfilled. Itโs either they donโt know how EcoCash merchant accounts work or they are hoping their members donโt. I would bet itโs the second.
There will be victims
Many people who commented on our coverage of E-creator say they know that it is likely a scam but say they have already gotten back more than they put in and so are not worried about it going under.
That suggests that there will be no victims but thatโs not the case. In due time, there are some who will never get back what they put in.
We talked to a few E-creator members and they more or less echo the comments we got before. One guy has $300 in their account but says he has withdrawn much more than that already. So, should the whole thing crumble, he wonโt be in the red.
The other person we talked to is a higher-level member and would not disclose exact figures. He only says he has a few thousand in his account but has withdrawn more than that to date and so is in the positive.
Thatโs it for now. I hope members will rush to withdraw when withdrawals resume and the whole thing crumbles before it sucks more people in. However, I know thatโs not going to happen.
I see many people have more or less been consoled by the silly statement above. I guess, it will take a longer period of delayed withdrawals to shake the confidence of some. We shall see.
Also read:
E-creator โ this criminal enterprise is running a scam, stay away
E-creator will make some people money before it folds, shattering many โ classic Ponzi scheme
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