Mr Kwame Boateng, a Sunyani-based businessman, has advised the general public to be circumspect in dealing with any micro-finance or online financial investment company now operating in the country.

He pointed out that most of them were in business to dupe their unsuspecting customers, adding: “a lot of them are fake on the internet”.

Mr Boateng was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani on Wednesday, on the directive by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) for the closure of operations of Diamond Investment Limited in Sunyani and two others, because they were operating illegally.

They are CB Net Marketing Concepts operating in Accra, Tema and its environs, and E Finance and More operating in Akrade, Akuse and Atimpoku in the Eastern Region.

The companies were ordered to cease operations because they were engaged in unauthorized business and illegal deposit-taking from the general public without licensing by the BoG.

Mr Boateng, a victim, said together with some people, they lost huge sums of monies taken by a company named EV Business, an online financial investment firm some months ago.

He explained that their mode of operations was to entice prospective investors or customers with promises of quicker returns of huge interest or profit margin.

Mr Boateng said, initially, transactions and communications would be smooth and normal like any usual banking business to sustain a customer’s interest, but when the savings had yielded enough interest or investments were matured to recoup profit, the company could not be traced anywhere.

He, therefore, warned the general public not to trust and conduct business with such companies, especially those online, because “withdrawing your interest or profit into your online bank account becomes extremely difficult and consequently you lose your entire investment”.

Mr Boateng advised that they should rather deal with the traditionally recognised banks and micro-finance companies whose offices were visible and could easily be located since the business of banking and finance depended on mutual trust between the bank and its customers.

He said it was more of an advantage for the larger interest of the society to deal with known banks and other micro and medium financial institutions because they pay taxes to the State for national socio-economic development.