Too Good To Be True? Another Unregulated Investment Promoted By Instagram Influencer Joycelyn Quek

Just last month, I uncovered this investment that was making its rounds on Instagram, after being promoted by local social media influencer Rachell Tan (@pxdkitty) and even her friend Ang Chiew Ting (@bongqiuqiu) who had invested into it, while sharing why I found it so questionable.

Well, guess what? Here's another one again. And while the durian investments saga previously only required a minimum of $1k+ to get started, this particular one is asking for a minimum of USD 10k!

Let me ask you again, why would you put so much of your hard-earned money with someone on Instagram whom you don't even know?! Even if there ever comes a day where SG Budget Babe asks you to invest money with her (which will never happen, btw), you should rightfully be skeptical and run for the hills!

 

I got alerted to this by a few readers who checked in with me on whether this investment was legitimate, and that was when I discovered plenty of red flags.

And the methods used to promote this investments are starkly similar to that of the previous ones I've highlighted, with the majority of the posts being shown on the influencer's Instagram stories (where all evidence disappears after 24 hours, unless someone took a screenshot).

Let's take a closer look at these two investments that @jocelynq is promoting on her Instagram stories. All screenshots below were retrieved from this Instagram page before the owner removed them after 24 hours.




"Investment" #1: FOIN & Financial.org

Claims made by @joycelynq:

• Guaranteed returns!
• Monthly dividends!
• FOIN is going to be bigger than Bitcoin! with proven numbers!

 

To present greater credibility, she also emphasizes that the company is legitimate and is a sponsor of the F1 race.  She also goes on to share testimonials, supposedly by clients who have invested with her, on her IG Stories as well:

   

Some of my readers were initially drawn in, and asked her for more information. Here's what she said:





You'll see that she mentions two key names - Financial.org and FOIN. I'll elaborate more on each of these later.

Joyce also insists that interested parties / investors have to meet her up, and pass the USD 10,000 in cash to her. Are you kidding me?!

Why I feel FOIN is a questionable crypto investment



I'm fairly in tune with the crypto scene, so I went to ask around but NO ONE had heard of a crypto, much less an ICO, called FOIN. When I tried to research, there was barely any information on it either - no whitepaper, no details on the coin structure or technology, no github, nor any of the usual stuff that most cryptos have.

All I could find was a blog and an introductory Youtube video of FOIN here, promising that it is going to have bigger and crazier returns than Bitcoin, Ethereum and even Ripple.

Nope, I do not believe that at all.

You're telling me that a coin that no one that has simply appeared out of nowhere is going to become bigger than Bitcoin and Ethereum? Are you kidding me? How exactly are those returns delivered?

Well, this is what their company website claims:







FOIN promises guaranteed returns! Built into their programming language! *rolls eyes to the moon and back*

Isn't it also a little odd that the company's website is on a hosted WordPress site? This doesn't seem very professional to me considering what it'll cost to get a proper and official corporate website done up. You can view the original article where I took the screenshots above here.

Even their Facebook looks really unprofessional and with so little likes.



Joyce Quek also shared on her IG stories that she had to fly to Indonesia to attend the company's conference, where she took pictures with "royalty". I have no idea who those people are, but when I researched further into the gala conference that she had posted about, I found this writeup here on BTC Manager where it says that Financial.org is the main sponsor. Also, if you scroll to the bottom of the article, you'll find that it is a paid press release!

Given that MAS guidelines suggest digital tokens that promise a form of return are effectively securities and thus need to comply with the relevant securities regulations, it remains to be seen if FOIN actually meets these requirements, and what will happen to Joyce Quek for promoting such an "investment".

I'm bullish about cryptos but I've always warned time and time again in my previous posts that scams are aplenty in the crypto universe, and there are plenty of "shitcoins" circulated around. If you're not careful, you're likely to get burnt.


Financial.Org - an unregulated "investment" firm on various regulatory watchlists

Now let's take a closer look at Financial.Org, the company behind the investments.

Firstly, what on earth is Joyce Quek doing by promoting an unregulated investment firm?!?!

Financial.Org is notorious for having being placed on the alert lists of various regulators around the world, including:

• MAS Investor Alert List
• "UAE warns investors not to deal with Financial.org"
• Malaysia warns of Financial.org
• Indonesia and Thailand

Source

Source

Financial.org seems to also be owned by a UK citizen who is linked to many dissolved and liquidated companies, according to this source investigation:

Source

If you're interested to find out more, there's this really informative website dedicated to exposing Financial.org which you can check out here.

Now, I'd watched @joycelynq promote this particular investment (Financial.org and FOIN, which you'll only find out after you DM her) on her IG Stories for the whole of last month, and was glad that she FINALLY started tuning it down.

But then I saw this:

"Investment" #2: Joint venture project for a developer!



Another new "investment"!?!?!

Looks like a leopard doesn't change its spots. And the stakes keep getting higher - initially it was USD 10k while now it has been raised to SGD 20k.

Remember what I said about corporate guarantees when I got a lawyer to examine the legal contract provided by @pxdkitty and the company in the durian investments saga? If you don't remember, you can read it again here to understand why such "corporate GUARANTEEs" are pretty meaningless.

But once more, it appears like she's getting plenty of interest in her "investment" opportunities:

Remember, stay savvy, keep your money safe, and don't be so quick to trust any random investment that any Instagram influencer promotes to you.

With love,
Budget Babe