English daily The Star however reported today that JJPTR’s founder, Johnson Lee, 28, had a plan to repay investors, some as far as Canada, US and China apart from those in Malaysia, by mid-May. He posted the message on Facebook.
One investor, speaking to The Star, and who declined to be named, said his dividend payment for April was not banked in, which was cause for concern since all previous payments had been deposited on time.
He was supposed to have received RM800, the 20% dividend for his RM4,000 investment, in December last year. He has already received RM2,400.
“The agent told me the company will be paying back investors who have yet to break even but I’m not holding my breath.
“I’m lucky that I only invested the extra money I had. I heard of people investing their life savings,” he told The Star.
Another investor, a 30-year-old marketing executive, who wished to be known only as Wah, said since she was initially sceptical, she invested only US$1,000 (RM4,400).
“When the 20% monthly returns came consistently, I invested another US$1,000 after I broke even in five months.
“We were allowed to top up our investments every six months and I’ve injected around RM20,000 so far,” Wah told The Star, adding that while she was relieved to have got back her investment, she has yet to receive the promised 20% return on her capital.
There were mixed reactions however from investors, once news broke that JJPTR’s accounts had been hacked.
While some have said they did not believe a hacking had taken place, others expressed their willingness to continue investing in JJPTR. Still others expressed their distress that their hard-earned money was now lost, the English daily reported.
Penang Commercial Crimes Investigation Department chief Asst Comm Abdul Ghani Ahmad told the daily that no police reports had been lodged against JJPTR so far.
“It is quite normal for ‘investors’ to wait six months to a year before lodging police reports in the hope of getting back their money.
“Penangites are always interested in taking part in such investment schemes to make fast money. There are still two or three such scams active locally,” he said.
JJPTR made headlines in major Chinese newspapers when rumours of a hacking job were confirmed by Lee, who described it as “the biggest mistake of my life”.
According to the Chinese press, the initials of JJPTR not only represent “Jie Jiu Pu Tong Ren” which in Chinese means “salvation for the common people”. It is also linked to one of its associate companies, JJ Poor to Rich.
JJPTR, JJ Poor to Rich and JJ Global Network are the three forex trading entities listed on the website, www.jjptr.com.
However it was also reported that the three companies were among 288 other entities and individuals on Bank Negara Malaysia’s Financial Consumer Alert list as of Feb 24.
Members of JJPTR are asked to invest between US$25 and US$1,000 (RM110 and RM4,400) and promised a monthly return of 20%.