Nigerians who deposited millions of naira in an online investing platform, known as PXES, are counting their losses after the scheme ceased paying dividends and became unreachable.
It learned that the platform ceased paying participants in early September, leaving investors who committed sums ranging from tens of thousands of Naira to millions in limbo and in some cases, unable to reach the operators.
The collapse has prompted indignation among investors, some of whom assaulted and plundered PXES offices around the country to recoup some of their money, particularly in Adamawa and Kogi states.
The portal enticed investors with abnormally large daily returns, PUNCH journalists learnt Saturday.
The portal boasted 25 per cent to 50 per cent profits, with some packages as high as 120 per cent.
Our correspondent was not able to independently verify any of the returns reported.
Adamawa, Kogi in fury
Some dissatisfied investors, our correspondents learned, laid siege to the offices of PXES in Adamawa and Kogi states over their inability to withdraw their funds.
Videos circulating online showed individuals carrying chairs, tables and other belongings out of the premises in Yola while similar scenes were recorded in the company’s office in Kabba.
One of the videos showed a man crying and complaining that he could not get back his money after he purportedly invested about N209,000.
It was learnt that the Kabba manager of the site had earlier sent a message to investors after the payments halted promising them that the management will reimburse them for their patience.
Three days after sending out the message, the company purportedly closed its headquarters, leaving investors with little information about where the operators had gone or what had happened to their money.
The victims: How we was duped
One of the victims, Bunmi Awodipe, said he invested in PXES on the basis of the experience of others who seemed to be making money from the platform.
She told our correspondent that three of her friends had given evidence of getting returns from the PXES, which made her invest N200,000 in the plan.
“They told me they put money in PXES and they are getting their payments. “I was shown proof and I invested N200,000 and I was receiving N7,000 weekly. They only paid me for 3 weeks.
I went to their office last week and I didn’t see anybody. The property was all locked up and there was nothing in the office. “They took everything,” Awodipe added.
Another investor, Deji Mulero, said he joined the site after being introduced to it by a customer.
“It’s one of my customers that showed this thing to me on September 4. I registered with N65,000 and it crashed the same Friday. And that’s how I lost my money,” he stated.
Another user who represented himself as just Wale said he registered with N207,000 and had amassed approximately N600,000 in his account when the platform stopped operating.
Wale, reacting to an inquiry via an SMS from our correspondent stated, “Been there for some months. 207k registered. Now on first stage supervisor Already close to 600k on the account. “My friend in Abuja told me about the scheme.
For 68-year-old Jumoke Talabi, the investment was meant to give funds for school expenditures and household requirements.
“After seeing that others were being paid, I invested N64,800,” she added.
She said she got N70,000 from the platform before and chose to raise her investment after that.
She thought she would get another payment when the platform’s withdrawal deadline came.
“I was to collect N18,000 before school reopens and I thought I would finish collecting all my profit. But I haven’t collected no money till now.
“When they said we should pull out Friday I was dancing. I told my brother that the money didn’t come in my account but they told me that it will come in my account in the evening I was looking forward to it They didn’t pay me my N64,000. One of my friends doesn’t know what to do or where to turn. “She’s been crying,” she remembered.
“It was poverty that forced me,” the grandmother explained why she took the risk. I would not because of poverty, the money is for school expenses. I thought maybe I might see some to buy rice to eat.
Shola Adeshina, whose wife lost money in the scheme, told our correspondent several investors were enticed by claims that very small amounts might provide big profits each day.
At first, his wife dismissed his worries about the site because of the reports of individuals making money off it, he said.
“The stories of participants using money from the platform to buy cars and build houses enhanced the appeal.
“The scary part was when a couple that invested millions of naira went to a branch after the payment stopped and they discovered the office was abandoned,” he claimed.
How PXES worked
PXES had a tiered membership system where participants paid to join and were granted access to an online dashboard, according to interviews with participants and promotional materials seen by our correspondent.
“I withdrew my money before the crash,” one of the participants informed our journalist Funmi Deinde. She said the platform featured multiple levels, including Star 1, Star 2 and Star 3.
She said members were provided with a dashboard where they completed daily duties referred to as orders.
“If you are on Level Star 1, so to speak, it is about N21,600. Then Star 2 is at N54,800. Star 3: N207,000.
“When you join with this money, you get an account, you get a dashboard that you’ll be taking orders from every day,” she explained.
Deinde said products, even domestic objects, were presented on the dashboard for people to interact with.
“It’s like ordering products on e-commerce platforms like Temu and Jumia, but participants didn’t physically get the goods,” she said.
“When you click ‘Order’, they show you some of the things you should be clicking. The emphasis will be on household properties.
“The money that you have used to register has secured your membership. “So you have access to take orders every day,” added Deinde.
Initially, Deinde said, the platform permitted members to make daily withdrawals of their earnings but this was adjusted to weekly withdrawals as the number of participants expanded.
At first, each day, you can withdraw whatever you wish to remove. The lowest withdrawal was N1,500 N5,000 N20,000 N100,000 and so on,” she added.
Then Deinde observed that the different levels of membership were later given withdrawal days.
Another investor, Emmanuel Ajayi, said an N64,000 bundle earned him approximately N2,160 from the daily duties, while a N21,600 package earned him about N720.
Other bundles include N64,800 and N207,000 and online promotional materials seen by our correspondent also showed packages from N21,600.
The materials stated that N21,600 might earn as much as N259,200 in 360 days and N64,800 could generate as much as N777,600 in the same period.
The claims were multiples of the original investment amounts.
Participants also claimed members may bring new people to the site and develop networks.
A security guard (name withheld), who contributed N64,000, said he was originally reluctant to join when his sister recommended the idea to him.
He said he invested after several attempts to be convinced. He said he withdrew approximately N20,000 twice before he lost the rest when the platform stopped paying.
He said his sister lost almost N1m on the site, as she created a bigger network.
Digital Marketing or Investment?
The characterisation of PXES by its advocates raises doubts regarding the nature of the business and the source of the money utilised to pay participants.
At an event in Kabba recently, officials of PXES defined the organization as a digital marketing and advertising company and not an investing platform.
PXES offered digital marketing jobs to unemployed people and graduates, said a company spokesperson, Olubowale Ayodele.
“It’s a job that once you’re doing it, we promote others, we promote brands from clients that have been giving to our company,” he said.
Ayodele called on unemployed persons and graduates to take up what he called digital marketing jobs using their mobile phones.
“If you know that you are a graduate, you know that you are unemployed, you know that you just have your smartphone, use it to do this digital marketing work because it works,” he said.
He also said one of his team members was earning N700,000 weekly.
“By the grace of God, I have got somebody even from my team that is receiving 700,000 weekly as salary,” Ayodele stated.
A second PXES representative, Eniola Oluwatobi, who described himself as the firm’s training director, said the company was an advertising firm.
“This is an advertising agency. “They partner with eBay and Amazon, those people give them and PXES give us to advertize for them,” he stated.
He said the products were supplied to subscribers for advertising purposes via the PXES app.
“So, the PXES gives us those products to advertize for them on their app. “So people are seeing the products by that,” Oluwatobi remarked.
Similarly, the Obadofin of Oweland, Olusegun Are, also identified PXES as an economic opportunity at the same Kabba ceremony.
“PXES is a very laudable program that will assist all of us in Nigeria to have another stream of income,” he remarked.
The traditional ruler further said PXES distributed food items to more than 300 aged persons in Kabba.
Questions of authorisation
The collapse has also raised doubts about whether the platform was licensed to solicit investment funds from the public.
George Samuel, a financial consultant, advised prospective investors to verify whether an organization was licensed to collect deposits or solicit investment funds before putting their money into it.
He stated registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission alone does not empower a corporation to take investment monies from the members of the public.
“Corporate Affairs Commission number may be required, but that is not a licence to collect deposit or investment funds,” Samuel stated.
“Do not deposit or invest with any unlicensed companies. “They have to put their licence up in their office, so ask or look for that SEC licence and do basic due diligence,” he said.
Samuel said institutions that took deposits and those that offered investments were under regulatory obligations and appealed to Nigerians to confirm the requisite licensing before investing.
Kemi Junaid, a banker who has been scammed, said that the promise of extremely high returns and guarantyd profits are big red flags.
“People were often desperate for money and lacked financial literacy, which made them vulnerable to schemes promising quick and large returns.
“Prospective investors should ask an organization how it intends to generate the returns it promises, instead of testimonials from other participants.
Report Investment Scams- EFCC
Meanwhile, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it would investigate reported incidents of financial crimes and investment schemes submitted before it.
EFCC spokesman, Dele Oyewale, told our correspondent that the commission would act when allegations were filed before it.
“The commission will investigate any issue of financial crime, Ponzi scheme, investment scam properly reported to the EFCC. But it has to be properly reported,” Oyewale said.
He said the commission had before warned Nigerians about investment scams.
As a form of reminder, the commission has published various warnings cautioning about investment scams and Ponzi schemes. “And we will continue to advise members of the public to do due diligence before going into investment,” Oyewale added.
He said the commission was still committed to combating financial crimes and ensuring that members of the public do not suffer needless losses.
“But as an anti-corruption agency, we are relentless in our operational and preventive modalities to ensure that members of the public are protected from all of these avoidable losses,” he said.
But the EFCC spokesman did not disclose that the agency has initiated a probe into PXES specifically.
A cycle that repeats
The PXES issue comes barely two years after a number of investment schemes had promised Nigerians ungodly profits and left them counting their losses.
One of the largest recent ponzi-related problems in Nigeria was the collapse of Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX) in April 2025.
No fewer than 600,000 Nigerians apparently invested in CBEX with losses assessed at roughly N1.3tn
The platform guaranteed investors 100 per cent profits in 30 days using so-called artificial intelligence trading.
The Securities and Exchange Commission later declared that CBEX and its affiliates were never registered to operate as a digital asset exchange or solicit investments from the Nigerian public.
The Commission said its preliminary inquiry found the platform gave a deceptive impression of credibility and offered “implausibly high guarantyd returns” in a short timeframe.
The collapse led to the probing of the plan by the EFCC.
The commission claimed some promoters were arrested and recovery and forfeiture processes were initiated by July 2025.
Just six months later, another portal, EMAAR, is said to have failed after attracting more than 4,000 investors with the promise of rewards from alleged real estate investments.
In our research, published in December 2025, we found that the platform was mostly operating online, with its promoters using Telegram groups to attract and connect with investors.
On October 27, 2025, the site crashed and the victims could not withdraw their payments. Later sources put the suspected losses at about N3 billion.
Another investment platform, XM Future Music Group, also supposedly crashed in May 2026 after investors were unable to withdraw their assets.
The victims later invaded the workplace in Badagry, Lagos State and reportedly took away generators, chairs, fans, televisions and other office equipment.
The portal was said to provide members returns for listening to music and doing online jobs with entry packages from N21,600 to several million naira.
Nigerians are now familiar with the pattern of aggressive recruitment, early payouts, claims of exceptional profits, referral incentives, withdrawal difficulty and final collapse.
PXES website, WhatsApp, Facebook not working
Our correspondent also tried to access the platform’s known website, https://www.pxesng.com/, without success.
Some investors also gathered that the platform’s WhatsApp channel had been shut.
Checks showed its latest post on its Facebook site, PXES NG, was on June 21.
A look at the page indicated it was mostly used for advertising training events and meetings for participants. This included offline sessions planned to instruct them on team building and how to increase their income.
The page also functioned as a point of contact between the platform and its participants, with posts emphasising the operations of PXES and its purported expansion throughout Nigeria and across Africa.
In other articles, the site claimed to have more than one million members and reached them through financial stability and welfare help.
About the Author
