Financial woes push professionals to online pyramid scams

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

Pyramid schemes, or “double-your-money” scams, have been a staple for as long as people have been struggling to provide for their families, but with the continued advancement of social media, these activities have spread through messaging apps, where they are hard to trace.

Myrna* from Aklan and Millet* from Iloilo City discovered these when they learned that their mothers, both teachers, had been somewhat involved in these scams.

Myrna, whose mother is an elementary teacher at a public school in a town near the capital, Kalibo, says that she discovered her mother’s involvement with a platform called Duob Top sometime around August 2025.

At the time, her mother was added by a co-teacher, who had already recruited other fellow teachers, and who also encouraged Myrna herself to join.

“I think that [my mother] had been [added to Duob Top] for around one or two months already [when I learned],” Myrna said.

“She was invited by her co-teacher, and the co-teacher told my mother to invite me. So, my mother explained to me what Duob Top was, this investment [platform], and told her I would check it out,” she added.

If it wasn’t for her instinct to watch videos about the said platform, she wouldn’t have known that it was a scam.

But her mother was a bit insistent that it was legitimate because they were able to withdraw more money than what they had invested.

“There were so many red flags, and I told my mother that it was a scam, that it would end up as a scam. But she said that it wasn’t, because her fellow teachers who joined earlier than she did were able to withdraw,” she said.

“Their main leader here in Aklan was able to withdraw; like every week, they get around [PHP 10,000]. That means that they invested big because they get back big every week too,” she added.

Meanwhile, Millet, a lawyer, and her husband were being recruited by her own mother, a retired teacher, to invest in JMT or Joy Music Tech.

She had tried to verify what JMT was, and could not find any company or entity by the name, only testimonials from other teachers who were also promoting and recruiting more people to join.

“I learned that [my mother] was being recruited when she tried to recruit me. That was the only time that I had heard of JMT. She was telling me and my husband to try to register with JMT because she said it’s something for my husband to do while waiting for me in the office,” Millet explained.

“She told me initially that it wouldn’t be time-consuming because it would only take 20 to 30 minutes of your day,” she added.

Both Myrna and Millet realized early on that their family members had fallen into what they believed were pyramid schemes.

Pyramid schemes are defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as an investment scam where people earn money primarily by recruiting new members, rather than by actually selling legitimate products or services.

How they operate

Like the traditional pyramid scheme, both Duob Top and JMT rely on two key components: Money invested and People recruited.

Duob Top requires recruited investors to place a minimum of around PHP 2,000, with the promise of earning at least PHP 66 every day.

Investors are entitled to at least 10 percent of the money put in by the people whom they have successfully recruited.

In addition to the usual deposit and recruitment requirements, Duob Top also features components that are more designed for mobile gamers, including “skins”, or equipment, clothing, and other accessories, that could be used by characters in popular mobile games, and access to gaming live streams.

Buying skins is also a way for an investor and their recruits to profit within the platform, with a promised return on investment when they buy.

But similar to those usual requirements, to be able to fully use these game skins, or unlock “more powerful” ones, they have to keep spending money and recruit more people.

To be able to withdraw one’s earnings, they would still have to add more money, which is promised to be returned on the next possible payout.

Myrna said that those who were being recruited were promised up to 100 percent of their returns, which was what actually made her doubt the platform in the first place.

“It was so interesting, being told that there were over 50 percent returns and 100 percent sure that your investment will come back to you. That’s easy money that’s already very doubtful,” she said.

Meanwhile, JMT asks users to log in to a portal where they can play 20-second sound snippets, among other tasks, which they claim can easily earn investors money.

Millet’s mother told her to deposit around PHP 1,500 before creating an account with their website, where they will be sent the “music” that they should listen to, which is actually their first “task”.

Investors in JMT are called “employees”, who are given a set of tasks every day, with playing sounds as the primary task, but other tasks that are doable within the platform may also be performed.

After completing their tasks, they would receive envelopes containing corresponding amounts, which would depend on the type of music to play or other tasks that they would be assigned.

The catch for both schemes is to increase their returns or unlock more perks, investors have to recruit more people or deposit more money.

Similar to traditional pyramid scams, recruiting more people or investing more money is promised to yield a higher percentage of returns, or other forms of commission.

Duob Top’s promise is simple–the more money that they put in, and the more that they recruit people who also invest money and effort–the more that they gain.

But JMT’s system is a bit more structured than that of Duob–with “tiers” indicating a hierarchy, each “tier” corresponding to higher payouts.

Tier 1 is for those who have no recruits, while Tiers 2, 3, and 4 are for those who have recruited, with the potential to “level up” another tier.

A quick perusal of screenshots provided to Daily Guardian also revealed that there is potential to increase to other Tiers, going as far as Tier 9.

The number of songs to be played also depends on how much an investor deposits.

“There’s music that are PHP 2.00 in value. There are others at PHP 5.00, but if you are lucky enough [to finish] your tasks for the day, each song will be valued at PHP 7.00. [My mother] told me that there are at least 10 songs per day, sometimes 15,” Millet narrated.

Millet’s mother, who was recruited by the wife of a former colleague, was able to successfully recruit not only her sister, but also other former colleagues, relatives, and friends.

But her mother did not go up another “tier”, citing slots that have already been filled.

“She told me that she was able to withdraw based purely on the tasks, but her [tier] did not go up because [Tier] 3 and [Tier] 4 slots have already been filled. So, she wasn’t able to earn commissions based on her recruits,” she said.

Aside from playing music, JMT also sells what appears to be insurance and stock products which are promised to also yield revenue for the investor.

For both schemes, payouts may also be withdrawn through the usual e-wallets and bank accounts either used in transacting or submitted to coordinators.

But their activities are not limited to the online sphere, sometimes making their presence felt offline.

JMT conducts multiple activities offline, with investors inviting people to marketing activities to entice them to invest.

Duob Top, for example, holds dinners for its investors through its local coordinators, and at times, partake in charity activities wherever they may be present.

Where do messaging apps fit in?

Daily Guardian found that messaging apps, like Messenger, Telegram, and WhatsApp, are used to coordinate with the so-called investors.

For all of the apps, coordinators who sent out announcements and other messages to the groups, to whom the investors flock, only have profile pictures which may have been generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

Myrna described Duob Top’s coordinators as going by two simple names: “Teacher” and “Kevin”, whose profile photos may indicate being AI-generated, and whose manner of responding also indicated patterns of going through a translator application.

“They send out activation codes to access the platform. The main guy, whom they call ‘Teacher’, has an AI profile photo. That’s actually why I kept saying that [it was a scam] because they couldn’t have anyone to go after when things go wrong,” she said.

Similarly, upon joining JMT, investors would be added to a WhatsApp group chat, where information on how to increase their revenues and the corresponding increases per recruit and per additional investment would be shared.

Most of the instructions would come from an account named “Lucy Mitchell”, whose profile photo, like that of “Kevin”, seemed to be from an AI-generated stock photo collection.

Daily Guardian tried to verify the profile photo via reverse image search machines but yielded no results.

Millet was able to obtain several screenshots of the WhatsApp group since her sister was also successfully recruited.

Since her sister had an intellectual disability and was staying with them, she had access to her WhatsApp account, where she learned the whole system, including who had recruited her mother.

“I saw that JMT’s system was similar to that of a Ponzi scheme. They had [tiers], [Tier] 1, [Tier] 2, [and] [Tier] 3, and their commissions earned also depended on the number of people they recruit,” she shared.

According to Millet, while the “Lucy Mitchell” account may be accessible via the app, only it could contact investors, who were prohibited by group chat admins from communicating with the account directly.

Millet’s sister had attempted to do so, and it resulted in her account being suspended from the group chat for three whole days.

But not only did “Lucy Mitchell” have an AI-like photo, the said profile photo was also being used by other WhatsApp accounts who are admins of the group.

The JMT WhatsApp group chat’s top admins used the +44 country code, pertaining to mobile numbers in the United Kingdom.

These messaging apps are also used to promote these scams. In one instance, Daily Guardian found that a Telegram group used to spread pornographic material was also being used to promote JMT.

Tech expert and blogger Bob Reyes from The Filipino Tech Explainer told Daily Guardian that the promises of privacy within WhatsApp and Telegram are what make it easy for these scammers to carry out their operations.

“Particularly for Telegram, it’s a privacy-first messaging platform. Over the years, its features include secret or disappearing messages, and then there are also features that when you screenshot over the platform using a mobile device, it may notify the other person who are talking to,” Reyes explained.

“That’s one loophole, that it can be used for fraud. That’s what these groups use, that’s why they like working around privacy-enabled platforms,” he added.

He added that the encryption features of these messaging apps also allow scam operators to make it hard for law enforcement or surveillance agencies to trace their identities and locations.

“These platforms work independently and they use strong encryption over their network that makes it impossible for law enforcement to hunt them down if they ever get caught,” Reyes said.

“They were designed to be like that, that you can’t easily track the end-user at the other end of the line,” he added.

Reyes also mentioned having encountered similar schemes himself recently, with unknown users suddenly popping up on his Viber inbox to ask him to invest and perform tasks, without the need to recruit more people.

“The transaction will go on via Viber, if you will ride along, and once the payment transaction happens, that’s the only time that they will ask you to transfer to WhatsApp, Telegram, or other channels, but the invitations and the [first] tasks, would be done via Viber,” he said.

Like in Duob Top and JMT, Reyes observed that scam operators over Viber also respond in a manner like it was constructed by an AI-powered bot.

“The last one I encountered in Viber was actually talking to me in Tagalog, but when you analyze what they said, you will realize that it’s like you’re talking to AI because they type fast. When you answer, they already have a long paragraph in response. You can definitely feel that it was automated when you’re in [the] technology [field],” he shared.

Authorities’ response

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in November 2025 issued a public warning against Duob Top, following complaints lodged with the commission’s Iloilo Extension Office.

Neither Duob Top nor JMT are registered with the SEC, as indicated through their verification portal, Check with SEC.

Most of the complaints that the SEC, including its local extension office, has received refer to dubious online app-based loan services.

But there have been notable pyramiding scams in Western Visayas like Duob Top and Valtoro that have targeted professionals, and which have also resorted to other gimmicks to pull more victims in.

Lawyer Josefa Maria Castro-Alfabeto, Securities Counsel I with SEC-Iloilo, shared that their process of looking into investment schemes is to determine whether an entity is an investment-taking entity.

In these cases, the SEC applies the Howey test, a legal framework from the United States Supreme Court case of Securities and Exchange Commission v. W.J. Howey Co.

The case, pursued by the United States’ own SEC, outlines requisites that determine whether a transaction constitutes an investment contract.

The test requires a transaction, contract, or scheme whereby a person (1) invests money, (2) in a common enterprise, (3) with the expectation of profits, (4) to be derived solely from the efforts of others.

If the entity satisfies the test, they are required to secure primary and secondary licenses from the SEC, even if they are already registered with the Department of Trade and Industry.

Primary licenses refer to their registration as a corporation, while the secondary license refers to a license to enter into investment-taking activities.

“If it is in fact investment-taking, the entity is required to secure a secondary license with the SEC before it can conduct such solicitation or investment-taking activities, or invite the public to invest in the corporation,” Castro-Alfabeto said.

But because the SEC’s mandate is limited to regulation of large commercial entities, they would have to refer the complaints to law enforcement agencies.

Law enforcement agencies, including the National Bureau of Investigation and the Anti-Cybercrime Unit (ACU) of the Philippine National Police, assist the SEC in conducting background checks and gathering further information before it could recommend prosecution under Republic Act No. 8799 (Securities Regulation Code or SRC).

The SEC’s extension offices, like the one in Iloilo, are supported by their central office’s Enforcement and Investor Protection Department (EIPD), who files the proper complaints with the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Similar to what they had done with Duob Top, the SEC issued advisories warning the public to refrain from investing in unauthorized entities before seeking prosecution.

“If we have enough complainants, if we have witnesses who are willing to take it to court, that’s the time we prosecute,” Castro-Alfabeto said

Lawyer Joel Lenaming, also Securities Counsel I, explained that while investment-taking activities normally fall under the SEC’s jurisdiction, these activities in Western Visayas fall under the Police Regional Office-6’s Regional ACU.

“Those related with task-based or game apps like Duob [Top], those are forms of investment taking but they use online platforms to make themselves look legitimate. Normally, because these are investment-taking activities, they would fall under the SEC,” Lenaming explained to Daily Guardian.

“When it comes to securities violations, it is under [the SEC’s] jurisdiction. Schools, hospitals, [or] any other corporation, [if] they seek investments and they don’t register their securities, those are violations of the [Securities Regulation Code], so we would be the ones to file with the [Department of Justice]. In contrast, when it involves a cybercrime with an online platform like Telegram, it should be coordinated with the RACU.”

“But because [this case] involves online [activities with] cybersecurity, they actually fall under cybercrimes, and they fall under the RACU, so there’s a delineation. We just check if these are registered. So, if there are complaints, we look at the status,” he added.

The SEC would have to make these referrals to law enforcement, however, with the complainants’ consent, which had not been given to them.

“We weren’t able to refer Duob Top to the NBI or the RACU because we were waiting for the complainant to [consent] to be referred [to law enforcement], but they withdrew at the last minute,” Lenaming said.

“What happened here is that we couldn’t move forward, because while there is investment taking, there is no complainant to sign the affidavit,” he added.

But even as the RACU has jurisdiction over cybercrime, Lenaming stated that going through the SEC, especially in SRC violations, would be the best approach.

He cited a case which was dismissed by a local court in Iloilo, citing the SEC’s primary jurisdiction over SRC violations.

Castro-Alfabeto also shared that aside from Duob Top, they were also able to encounter two other pyramid schemes within the region: Cpreneur Perfume Trading and Valtoro Spartan Consultancy.

Cpreneur presented itself primarily as an online business selling perfumes through franchisees, but the SEC’s background check yielded that they had been engaging in recruitment activities.

Meanwhile, Castro-Alfabeto narrated that the Imus City, Cavite-based Valtoro, which was previously registered with the SEC’s head office in Makati City, involved coaching and mentoring, with a cryptocurrency aspect.

The SEC had issued an advisory against Valtoro on January 15, 2026, more than a week after it had conducted a fun run along Sunset Boulevard on January 5, 2026, which also featured men in uniform.

One of the fun run’s promotional material also featured logos of government offices, and a source familiar with the matter confirmed to Daily Guardian that the logos of the uniformed services were used without their permission.

Ultimately, the SEC later revoked Valtoro’s certificate of incorporation in mid-March 2026, after they found out that it had been offering investment activities which were not listed as their primary purpose.

At the time of their revocation, Valtoro had been promising returns on investment between 7.5 percent to 912.5 percent between 15 days to one year, in exchange for a minimum US$ 50.00.

It also offered a five-percent commission for every recruit, and an additional one percent when their recruits also successfully engage other people to join.

Pyramid schemes are just some of the scams being investigated by the NBI, along with other online scams and other fraud, scam, spoofing, or impersonation.

For investment scams alone, which include pyramid schemes, the NBI has lodged 103 cases in Western Visayas between 2020 and 2025, according to their data.

NBI Western Visayas Scam Cases (Multi-Level)

Type of Scam	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	TOTAL
Investment Scam	15	55	7	6	16	4	103
Online Scam	27	22	17	24	11	10	111
Fraud / Scam / Spoofing / Impersonation	1	3	4	0	0	2	10

Source: National Bureau of Investigation-Western Visayas Regional Office

Why do they fall into this trap?

Like the traditional pyramid schemes, they suddenly go haywire, and then go dark, leaving their clients scrimping.

Myrna’s mother had not been involved with Duob Top for quite some time after her last withdrawal around September 2025.

Some time after they engaged with the platform, Millet’s mother and sister were no longer able to withdraw their earnings.

While she wasn’t aware of exactly how much her mother and sister had actually invested, by being able to access her sister’s WhatsApp, Millet was able to piece together how the scheme operated.

Upon her daughter’s explanation, Myrna’s mother seemed to be the first to realize that the whole Duob Top setup was a scam.

“She was shy to tell her co-teachers that it was a scam, so she didn’t tell them [at first]. I just advised her not to deactivate her account, and just withdraw if there is [money] withdrawable. Just don’t put in money,” she said.

Since they lived in a small town, the co-teachers who invited Myrna’s mother also invited her relatives, who were not as receptive when she tried to explain the scam to them.

“[The co-teacher] asked me why I didn’t become a member under my mother, telling me about the incentives [or] commissions when you join. I told her I wouldn’t, because based on research and experience, investment scams had red flags,” she narrated.

“They [the co-teacher and my relatives] did not listen to me, telling me that there were many people from other places [like] Cebu who had also signed up, and showed me pictures of dinners where they invite interested people, and explain what that investment is. They didn’t listen to me that it was a scam,” she added.

The trouble with Duob Top started with a so-called “Countdown” between end-August and early September, which required investors to pay “buwis” (Tagalog for “tax”) for them to allegedly verify their account and access their benefits.

When Duob Top abruptly shut down around mid-October, she hadn’t been able to reach out to her relatives due to the sensitivity of money matters involved.

“The last thing I asked them was if they were willing to be interviewed by the media. They said that they couldn’t,” she shared.

But even as Duob Top was no longer accessible, another co-teacher approached Myrna’s mother to try out another scheme, Omni-Aire.

Similar to JMT, Omni-Aire had simple promises: Do tasks, earn points, and convert to cash, in exchange for some consideration, but that platform also disappeared within a week.

As for JMT, everything crashed down in late November, but weeks before, concerns have been raised by investors as to why they hadn’t been able to access the platform for several weeks before that.

Concerns had already been raised with “Lucy Mitchell” early on, but investors were informed that they needed to invest another “management fee” so they can withdraw, with a greater amount required depending on the Tier level.

They required their “employees” to pay these “management fees” before November 26, with “gift packs” to be released on the next day, November 27, or else they risk losing access to many of their promised benefits.

But the group admin later reneged, allowing people to withdraw without having to pay the management fees.

But even as investors placed their trust and money into the so-called platform, nothing could stop the pyramiding scheme cycle from crashing down further.

A group of JMT investors, where Millet’s mother and sister belonged, also had their own discussion over Messenger about the happenings, where they began to realize that the whole set-up was a scam.

Millet said that some users in Iloilo and Guimaras were scammed with a range of up to PHP 12,000, while the highest amount was from an investor in Nueva Ecija worth PHP 2 million.

Like in Duob Top, as JMT also crashed, one of the investors, who was also an active recruiter, tried to invite peers to Golirous, which, like JMT and Duob Top, required an initial investment, performance of some tasks, and recruiting people.

Currently, JMT has an official group channel on Telegram, that has been marked by the messaging platform as a scam, along with its admins, with a warning to users not to send money.

But the channel has remained active as late as June 4, 2026, continuing to invite people into other schemes.

Several employees of a regional government office have also confirmed to Daily Guardian that there were employees in their office who actively participated in Duob Top.

But all of them have declined to provide further information, fearing that their office and their personal identities might be discovered.

Ilonggo economist Joseph Ladrido told Daily Guardian that the enticement of people into pyramid schemes are based on structural pressure, which reinforces thoughts of need for individual economic gains.

“The first is a positive approach, saying that, ‘I can win’, which goes to the second point, which is, ‘If others are winning, why can’t I?’, like in lotto or any other forms of games of chance, and the third is more on, if we look into the general socio-economic conditions of those who are primarily affected or influenced by these online phenomena, is, ‘I need to win’,” Ladrido said.

“Maybe it’s not a conscious way of thought, maybe you don’t necessarily think of those, but those are the underlying foundations why people keep doing this,” he added.

As to engaging in these schemes, despite the knowledge that these may be scams, Ladrido explained this as a phenomenon called “risk-seeking in a loss domain”.

“You’re taking on more risk in an area where you already know that the chances of you losing are greater than the chances of you making money. That is the loss-making domain,” he explained.

“They’re already under financial stress, and because of their obligations they need to make more money. Their wages are stagnant, and the cost of living is getting higher. They’re actually becoming poorer because their real wages [are] not commensurate to their state [of living].”

“One would think that why would they still risk this phenomenon, but for them, something that promises high returns feels like a necessary and logical step for them rather than a reckless or irrational bet. What drives them is the need to make more money, and given the lack of options to be able to increase their current lifestyles or economic conditions, for them, it makes economic sense to do these things,” he added.

Reyes said that the ease of doing online tasks, as compared to doing their usual jobs, in consideration for some amount of money, easily pull people in.

“It’s easy money. Like those invitations that I received on Viber, they offer PHP 200 in exchange of liking a YouTube channel or Facebook page. It starts like that, then after you finish the task, they will ask you to join a Telegram or WhatsApp group to get the payment via eWallets,” Reyes explained.

“When you get the [initial] money, you would think, ‘Oh, easy money, I just watched a video and got PHP 200,’ that’s how they entice you that if you want to get more tasks like that, then you would have to shell out something like PHP 500 or PHP 1,000. The scam starts there,” he added.

Reyes also attributed people falling victim to educational and psychological background, particularly their lack of personal knowledge on online hygiene and cyber security, which makes them easier targets.

“They can see that they can earn fast. If your tasks are just to like Facebook pages and YouTube channels, in exchange of money people will definitely, because of the difficulties of life, will bite into that, without them knowing that scammers use flowery words,” Reyes said.

As to professionals falling victim, aside from their lack of online knowledge, Reyes also pointed to a greater need for income, and in more recent times, being fueled by succeeding events that have affected the economy.

“They may be of a professional level, educated people, but when it comes to cyber hygiene and cyber security, their know-how may be a bit low, and that’s where they get lured, that they don’t know that they are already engaged in scams,” Reyes said.

The collective victimization of investors in these scams creates a “moral neutrality” according to Ladrido, where the investors feel less shame or guilt because of the same occurrence to their fellow investors, especially people they know.

But at the same time, Ladrido also noted that there’s a feeling of shame, with people opting not to talk about losing money to scams.

“For the most part, it happens within a community. In many cases, they all know each other, so basically there’s a moral reframing that goes on, like, ‘If I lost, my uncle, my nephew, and my sibling also lost.’ They rationalize it that way. Eventually the scam becomes morally neutral and an accepted opportunity because others did it, and the way they came out of it is basically the same as almost everyone else came out,” he said.

“There’s also that behavior where you’re trying to minimize your outward appearance to others where the loss makes a huge impact on you. So that’s how they are able to live with themselves,” he added further.

The lack of personal economic progress, however, may still push victimized investors to pursue these schemes, and other money-making machinery in the future.

“Filipinos in general are very resilient when it comes to things like this. This doesn’t actually stop them from doing it again and again. As long as the underlying conditions haven’t resolved, particularly, the feeling of lack of progress in terms of their own economic standing, they will always be potential victims to these scams,” Ladrido said.

*Names changed for anonymity