The latest scam trying to fleece South Africans is masquerading under the name of a well-known American company — StoneX.
Using websites like dailyreturnfund.com, dailyreturnfund.ru, and stxttfund.cc, the scammers behind this scheme are once again banking on confusion, desperation, and false promises to extract hard-earned money from ordinary people.
As with many scams of this nature, the perpetrators have stolen the identity of a legitimate firm. In this case, they are misappropriating the name of StoneX (stonex.com) — a real financial services company based in New York and listed on the NASDAQ (ticker: SNEX). The real StoneX has no offices in South Africa; its only presence on the African continent is in Lagos, Nigeria. Yet the scam brazenly claims legitimacy through association, stating on its fake platforms:
“StoneX, as a fully regulated public company (NASDAQ: SNEX), meets the highest standards of corporate governance, financial reporting and disclosure.”
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This is a tired, well-worn tactic. Scammers find it easier to piggyback off a trusted brand than to create credibility from scratch. And for many would-be investors, the presence of a well-known name disarms scepticism. That fog of borrowed legitimacy is all the scammers need to get started.
A Familiar Playbook with a Financial Twist
The scam offers what it calls “investment products,” packaged in familiar digital Ponzi fashion. Whether it’s virtual farms, scooters, vending machines or now, “virtual financial products”, the pitch is the same: deposit money, get daily yields, and supposedly withdraw your profits.
Here’s one example of the sales pitch for the Weekly Fund:
“When you invest R200 to buy Weekly Fund 1, you can get R60 profit every day, and a total of R420 profit in 7 days. All profits will be transferred to your withdrawal balance every day and can be withdrawn to your bank account at any time.”
The Monthly Fund and Yearly Fund follow the same logic, promising increasingly absurd returns:
- Monthly Fund: Invest R200, earn R50 per day, total R1,500 in 30 days.
- Yearly Fund: Invest R200, earn R40 per day, total R14,600 in 365 days.
These yields are not only improbable — they’re laughable. But the inclusion of a yearly option is noteworthy. Most scams don’t bother with long-term products, knowing full well they won’t last more than a few months. This scam, however, is trying to pose as if it’s built for the “long haul,” which is ironic considering how quickly these schemes usually collapse.
The Pyramid Element: Invite and Earn
The scam doesn’t stop at investment lies. It features a predictable affiliate system:
“As long as the members you promote purchase products on StoneX, you can get a commission reward of 30% + 5% + 1%. The more members you promote, the more rewards you will get.”
To support this, the scammers released so-called proof of payments on Thursday, 24 April 2025, just two days after launching (the scam started promoting on social media on Tuesday, 22 April 2025). These “evidence” screenshots — which you’ve likely seen making the rounds — were posted with celebratory captions encouraging others to do the same.
As always, the early adopters are the enablers. They invest, refer others, withdraw early profits (funded by later deposits), and try to exit before it all crashes. But as I’ve repeatedly said, these scams follow a predictable three-phase cycle:
- Low visibility, high yield – early adopters join, promote, and cash out.
- Mid-phase rush – mass participation, where the scam peaks in size.
- Final peak and collapse – withdrawals are frozen, delays begin, and excuses like “technical issues” or “taxes due” are given. This is when the true victims emerge — the late joiners, lured in by fake success stories.
For background on how these patterns typically unfold, see our past reports on the Trouva scam, Tiger Agriculture, and the Stagwell TV scam.
A Scam Disguised in Corporate Language
To lend credibility, the scammers even offer “professional” instructions, including this absurd excerpt:
“Every time you top up, please get the latest account number… Payment must choose ‘Immediate Payment’… Follow the requirements of the operation, your recharge success rate is 99%!”
No legitimate company speaks like this. These directives — constant account changes, pressure for instant payment, reliance on screenshots to prove transfers — are the hallmarks of burner or mule bank accounts and fraud.
And lest you think I’m interpreting too much, here’s how StoneX (the scam version) defines its own business model:
“When you become a member of StoneX, you can make money in StoneX in the following three ways:
- Make money by investing
- Make money by promoting
- Make money by sharing”
Show me a legal, sustainable business built solely on those three actions and I’ll show you a unicorn that lives on the sun. It is nonsense — and it is fraud.
Signs of Strain: The Glitch and the Grab
On Monday, 28 April 2025, the scam briefly paused deposits, likely due to banking complications. The site posted:
“All deposit channels are under maintenance now… The withdrawal channel is normal…”
The next day, 29 April 2025, they came back with this “update”:
“Due to the recent rapid growth in the number of users… The minimum deposit amount is adjusted to R200, the minimum withdrawal amount is adjusted to R300…”
Translation? They want more money — and fewer people cashing out with small withdrawals. This engineered “glitch” is the first of many tweaks to come as the scam enters its extortion phase, demanding fees and inventing blockages to delay payouts.
Real Compliance, Real Checks
We checked the CIPC: While there are some companies with “StoneX” in their name, none are linked to this scheme.
We checked the FSCA: StoneX (the scam version) is not a registered financial services provider in South Africa.
And we ran WHOIS domain checks:
- dailyreturnfund.com – Registered 24 April 2025, Hong Kong.
- dailyreturnfund.ru – Also 24 April 2025.
- stxttfund.cc – Registered 28 April 2025, Hong Kong.
No connection to the real StoneX. No compliance. No legitimacy.
The Final Verdict
This is not an investment opportunity. It is a Ponzi-style scam wrapped in stolen identity, run through burner domains and informal payment channels, and pushed with fake testimonials and affiliate incentives.
Avoid it. Warn others. And if you’ve already sent money, report the incident to the FSCA, the South African Police Service, and indeed the banks to which you made the transfers. You might not recover your money, but you’ll maybe be able to freeze the funds of the recipient or beneficiary bank accounts to perhaps recover once legal processes play out, or at least be part of exposing the con.
I got scammed.