There’s a saying that when money talks, people listen but when greed screams, people obey. That’s exactly what happened in the CBEX fraud saga.
A financial horror story that will live long in the memories of thousands of Nigerians.
In the streets, CBEX was praised as the next big thing. People whispered about how it was changing lives overnight.
You probably heard the buzz too, right?
Maybe it came from your cousin who just bought a new car. Maybe it was your friend who suddenly started giving unsolicited financial advice after his so-called investment matured.
Or maybe it was your own voice in your head, saying, What if this is real?
Here's the thing...
Why CBEX?
CBEX sold hope disguised as high returns. And that’s what made it deadly.
The truth is, most people didn’t invest in CBEX because they believed in the business model.
They didn’t even care if it was a business at all.
What they cared about was what they stood to gain and how quickly they could double or triple their money. There was barely any due diligence.
No one asked the hard questions. Nobody checked the books. Nobody researched the system. Because greed had already hijacked common sense.
In a country where poverty is on every corner and survival often feels like a lottery, it’s easy to see why CBEX gained traction.
It knew the language of the streets. It didn’t talk like a traditional investment platform. It promised speed, access, and guaranteed success, everything a desperate nation wants to hear.
The CBEX fraud was carefully designed to appeal to emotions, not logic. And that’s why it worked.
Greed made people overlook the obvious red flags.
Tell me...
How do you explain an investment scheme that promises unrealistic returns and still gets massive support? How do you justify trusting a platform with no regulation, no traceable financial backing, and no long-term strategy?
The answer is greed.
People weren’t thinking long-term. They weren’t even thinking rationally, they were thinking like gamblers.
And gamblers always believe the house will be kind to them, until it isn’t.
What’s more terrifying is how greed turns victims into evangelists.
People who fell for the CBEX scam didn’t just suffer in silence, they promoted it with confidence.
They invited their friends, family members, even church members.
They encouraged others to take loans, sell assets, and pour it all into this amazing opportunity.
Why?
Because their own greed needed fuel. Their own investment needed more people to sustain the illusion.
So, they became recruiters for the scam that would later crush them.
That’s the most dangerous part of this story.
Greed doesn’t just affect your wallet, it compromises your judgment, your relationships, and your integrity.
When you become obsessed with the returns, you stop caring about the risks.
You start believing lies because they’re comfortable.
And that’s exactly what CBEX fed on, emotional greed dressed in the language of empowerment.
There’s no denying that the economy pushed people toward CBEX.
Inflation, unemployment, and a weak naira created the perfect storm.
But even in that storm, people still had choices.
Greed blurred the lines between risk and recklessness.
It made people throw their life savings into a system they barely understood.
It made educated people ignore common sense and professionals forget the basics of finance.
Let’s be real...
CBEX didn’t offer a product, service, or innovation, but it sold a fantasy.
And people bought it not because they believed in the future, but because they couldn’t wait to escape the present. That’s what greed does.
It convinces you that shortcuts are smarter than strategies. It makes you ignore process and worship outcomes.
But real wealth doesn’t come overnight. It doesn’t scream with urgency or seduce you with impossible promises, it grows quietly.
It builds through discipline, not desperation.
The people who avoided CBEX weren’t always smarter, they were just more patient.
They understood that slow growth is better than fast failure. They knew that when an investment looks too good to be true, it probably is.
And now, after the dust has settled, the scars are visible. People have lost money, peace of mind, and trust.
Families are broken and friendships are ruined.
And many still can’t believe they were fooled so easily.
But it wasn’t just CBEX that fooled them, it was their own unchecked desire for instant success.
How People Were Greedy Towards the Ponzi Scheme
If there’s one thing CBEX proved, it’s that greed isn’t always loud.
Sometimes, it whispers in your ear with the promise of more, more money, more ease, and more freedom.
And before you know it, you’re knee-deep in something you don’t understand, defending it with your life because you’re convinced it’s the key to your breakthrough.
That’s how CBEX worked. It didn’t just scam people but it exposed them.
It brought out the hunger so many were trying to hide beneath motivational quotes and humble captions.
People didn’t fall for CBEX because it was sophisticated. They fell because they were desperate for shortcuts. And that desperation wasn’t passive, it was powered by greed.
You see, greed wears different clothes.
Sometimes it looks like hope. Other times, it sounds like ambition.
But when you strip it all down, it’s still the same thing: Wanting more than you’re willing to work for, and faster than life is designed to deliver.
Let’s look at how greed showed up in the CBEX fraud.
First,
Obsession with multiplying money overnight
People weren’t looking for a smart investment plan. They weren’t interested in wealth that grows through time-tested strategies.
They were looking for an instant miracle. CBEX didn’t even have to try hard.
It just dangled the bait of high returns and watched people chase it like it was the only ticket out of financial frustration.
There were no questions asked. Just blind deposits and faith in a system they didn’t understand.
Then came the pressure to not be left out.
Once people saw others sharing testimonies, screenshots, and lifestyle upgrades, they felt like losers for sitting on the sidelines.
Greed isn’t always about wanting more, it’s often about not wanting others to get more than you. That fear of missing out wasn’t driven by logic.
It was fueled by envy masked as excitement. CBEX became a competition.
- Who’s cashing out bigger?
- Who’s reinvesting more?
- Who’s going all in?
And as the numbers got higher, so did the greed.
People who had no business risking their money were emptying savings accounts, selling land, and borrowing just to be part of the show.
People who had already gained and wanted more
Instead of pulling out after the first win, they reinvested everything, again and again, thinking the money tap would never stop flowing. This was unchecked greed.
It’s the same mindset gamblers have when they think the next bet will double the last win.
But in the world of financial fraud, the house always wins.
CBEX was the house, it knew that as long as people were high on profit, they wouldn’t notice the holes in the system and it was right.
Even worse, greed made people ignore obvious red flags.
CBEX wasn’t subtle in its inconsistencies. The business model didn’t add up, the promises were outrageous.
There was no traceable customer service, no real-world operation, no transparency whatsoever but people still stayed in it.
Why?
Because greed clouds judgment. It tells you to ignore what you see and focus on what you want.
You see, it’s not that people didn’t suspect something was off, many did.
They just didn’t care as long as the returns kept coming. They were willing to play dumb for profit, that’s greed in its rawest form.
Some people began to lure others into the scheme
Not because they wanted to help them, but because CBEX gave referral bonuses.
So, they turned into marketers overnight, pushing friends, family, and even strangers to invest.
They hyped it like gospel, not because they believed it was secure, but because their own pockets were tied to other people’s deposits.
It was the classic pyramid energy, but with a modern face.
Greed turned them into recruiters for a scam they didn’t fully understand.
And when it all collapsed, their victims came knocking.
Let’s talk about silence, too.
When CBEX started showing signs of distress, delayed payments, vague excuses, and disappearing support, many people stayed silent.
They didn’t warn others, they didn’t pull out. They just hoped it would bounce back long enough for them to make one last profit.
That silence was also greed.
Because the honest thing to do would’ve been to raise the alarm, cut losses, and tell others to run.
But no one wanted to ruin their own chances of one more cash-out.
So they kept quiet and watched others walk into the same trap they saw coming.
Some even started fabricating fake wins to keep the hype alive.
They faked screenshots, lied about earnings, and posted recycled testimonials.
All just to keep the CBEX engine running long enough for their own exit strategy.
This wasn’t just greed, it was manipulation rooted in fear and selfishness. And it made the eventual crash even messier.
There’s also the crowd that ignored real investment opportunities just to stay loyal to CBEX.
Traditional assets like land, mutual funds, stocks, or businesses were right there.
But they were too slow.
CBEX felt modern, digital, and fast. Greed made people abandon proven paths for shiny traps.
They didn’t want sustainable income. They wanted explosive returns, even if it came wrapped in lies.
Then there were those who took loans just to invest more, let that sink in.
Borrowing money at interest to fund an unregulated scheme with no structure.
That’s not courage, that’s greed in denial.
They were so focused on what they could gain that they ignored what they could lose.
And many did lose.
More than just money, some lost peace of mind, reputation, and relationships.
So, what’s the lesson here?
It’s not just about avoiding scams. It’s about confronting the mindset that makes us vulnerable to them.
Greed isn’t just an emotion, it’s a blindfold.
It makes you see only what you want, not what’s real. And in a digital age where scams evolve faster than regulations, the only way to protect yourself is by sharpening your financial sense, not chasing shortcuts.
Ask yourself...
- Are you investing because you believe in the vision, or because you’re afraid of being left behind?
- Are you studying opportunities, or just reacting to hype?
- Are you building wealth, or just gambling in disguise?
CBEX may be over, but more like it will come. They always do.
They’ll have different names, different websites, maybe even celebrity endorsements. But they’ll all prey on the same weakness, greed.
The solution isn’t more fear, it’s more education.
If Nigerians understand what real investment looks like, they’ll stop falling for fake ones.
If we teach our children about risk management and long-term planning, they won’t grow up believing in financial magic.
And if we start rewarding patience more than flashy success, we’ll slowly starve the greed that drives scams like CBEX.
We need more financial conversations at dinner tables, not just prayers for breakthrough.
We need more people asking,
How does this work? instead of How much will I make?
We need to normalize saying no to deals that don’t add up even if everyone around us is diving in.
Because at the end of the day, wealth built on knowledge is the only kind that lasts.
CBEX was a painful chapter, but it doesn’t have to be the final one.
Let’s rewrite the story, let’s build a mindset that can’t be manipulated by shiny offers.
And above all, let’s keep our eyes open, not just to opportunities, but also to the temptations that come disguised as blessings.
Because when greed sits in the driver’s seat, destruction is always around the corner.
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