With the demise of the Trouva scam, its network of websites is predictably crumbling, with Centamin being the latest casualty.
Just days after Trouva’s collapse, another of its scam sites, Centamin, shut down on Saturday, 5 October 2024.
Users attempting to log in were greeted with a “This site can’t be reached” message—clear evidence that the website had been taken offline.
The most popular Centamin sites, cm-gold.com and centamin-za.com, have folded, while lesser-known domains like centamin-sa.com, centa-xty.com, and cmin-lw.com still linger, though their time is likely running out.
Centamin, like the other Trouva-linked scams circulating in South Africa ahead of the festive season, was built on the same tired lie: “investing” in products that would supposedly increase in value.
Investors were promised daily payouts from the so-called profits of the “business.” It’s a tired playbook, but it still snags those hoping for easy returns.
In Centamin’s case, the “assets” were mining-related products, with the scam brazenly piggybacking on the reputation of Centamin, a legitimate and publicly-listed company headquartered in Jersey, Channel Islands.
The scammers shamelessly copied Centamin’s logo and business narrative, passing off non-descript “machines” as investments.
These machines were priced from R90 (with a laughable daily yield of R4.50) to R45,600 (promising an improbable daily return of R3,556.80).
The machines, of course, were nothing but meaningless placeholders, given random designations like FY 65, KS 605, and XHM M1—the only real purpose being to classify how much money they could extract from unsuspecting victims.
Unlike Trouva, Centamin’s collapse didn’t come with any final con—no last-minute identity validation fees or desperate attempts to squeeze more money from investors. It just died.
Some users had already reported issues logging in and problems with withdrawals, and by Saturday evening, Centamin was no more.
Those still able to access the site via the lesser-used domains were met with the same technical glitches and empty wallets.
Yet, despite Centamin’s collapse, many Trouva-linked scams are still operating. For now. Notable among them are Annoushka (annoushka-b2c.com), Kenco (kc-kenco.com), and Jo Loves (joloves-c2c.com).
Another prominent scam, EF Jewelry (jewellery-ef.com), recently folded, pulling the same tired trick of demanding R2,100 to “verify” accounts before withdrawals could resume.
One WhatsApp group leader even reassured “investors” with, “I swear to God, your funds are safe,” followed by the ironic threat, “but if you don’t top up the verification amount, your EF account will be destroyed.”
A classic damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation, though the truth is, investors were always doomed.
As media scrutiny and banking compliance tighten around the accounts receiving proceeds from these scams—starting notably with Trouva—it’s expected that all Trouva-linked scams will fall like dominoes.
Yet, despite this, many people continue to promote the unaffected scam websites on social media, presenting them as “the real Centamin” and luring in more unsuspecting victims.
The tragic irony of these scams is that the collapse of one often serves to market another, which may or may not be related to the one that just failed.
In an economy marked by near non-existent growth and rampant unemployment, South Africans are constantly looking for ways to make their money grow.
As a result, shoddy investments—obviously illegitimate and deserving of outright dismissal—are sadly seen as viable opportunities.
Worse still is the reckless behaviour of those who knowingly “invest” in pyramid schemes, hoping to cash out before they inevitably collapse. This complicates efforts to combat the proliferation of such scams.
As long as this state of affairs continues, scams like Trouva, Centamin, and others will spread like wildfire through South African society.
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The Anatomy of a Scam: A closer look at Trouva following its collapse
The post Trouva Scam – linked websites, including Centamin, Fold – many still standing appeared first on Political Analysis South Africa.
