GWI Ponzi Intelligence
Check any trading or investment website before you deposit. Domain forensics, regulator warning lists from 150+ authorities, threat intelligence, and community reports in one evidence-based report.
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Known Scam Platforms
Sources: IOSCO I-SCAN aggregated regulator warnings from 150+ authorities, national regulator cautions, community reports, and GWI automated platform scans. Community reports publish after 3 independent reporters, or 1 if a scan already flagged the platform.
The collapse pattern
Platforms like QVSE, which froze thousands of Kenyan deposits in September 2026, follow an identical lifecycle: register a fresh domain, recruit through a "professor" signal group, show guaranteed daily returns, pay early withdrawals from new deposits, then freeze withdrawals behind invented fees and disappear.
Every step of that pattern is detectable weeks before the collapse. That is what this scanner exists to expose.
Before you deposit
- Verify the licence number yourself on the regulator's official register.
- Treat any guaranteed percentage return as a red flag by definition.
- Never pay a fee to unlock a withdrawal.
- Be sceptical of profits shown inside the platform's own dashboard.
- Scan the domain here first, then search its name with the word scam.
Six red flags of an investment scam
Individually each is a warning. Together they describe nearly every collapsed platform we track.
Guaranteed or daily returns
Any platform promising fixed daily profits, a set percentage per trade, or "risk-free" returns is describing arithmetic no licensed investment can deliver. Licensed firms are legally forbidden from guaranteeing returns.
Professor and signal-group recruitment
Schemes across Africa run the same playbook: a "professor" or "expert trader" posts timed signals in WhatsApp or Telegram groups. The signals exist to create trust and urgency, not profit.
A brand-new domain claiming an old company
If a platform says it was founded years ago but its domain was registered weeks ago, one of those claims is false. Fresh domains are the single most common trait of collapsed schemes.
Fees before withdrawal
"Verification fees", "taxes", or "anti-money-laundering deposits" demanded before you can withdraw are the endgame of the scam. Legitimate platforms never charge you to access your own money.
Regulatory theatre
Name-dropping the SEC, FINRA, CMA, or FCA without a verifiable licence number, or citing rules that do not apply to them, is designed to look compliant while staying unlicensed.
Pressure and referral bonuses
Deposit tiers, VIP levels, countdown timers, and referral commissions exist to maximize deposits quickly. Real brokers do not pay you to recruit your friends.
What the scanner checks
Every report shows the underlying evidence, not just a score. You see what we found and where it came from.
Domain forensics
Registration date, expiry term, and registrar reputation via RDAP, plus Certificate Transparency history for the first day the site ever existed on the web.
Regulator watchlists
Continuous sync of the IOSCO I-SCAN portal covering 150+ regulators, national regulator caution lists, and our own research seed data. A warning-list match alone marks a platform critical.
Infrastructure analysis
Hosting provider, ASN, and proxy masking. Scam platforms favor anonymous bulletproof hosting over enterprise infrastructure.
Content signals
Guaranteed-return language, implausible percentage claims, deposit tiers, signal-group lingo, fake licence references, and withdrawal-friction text extracted from the live site.
Threat intelligence
URLhaus, urlscan.io, Google Safe Browsing, and PhishTank verdicts, with a public screenshot of the site when available.
Template fingerprinting
SimHash comparison of page content against flagged platforms. When scammers relaunch the same script under a new name, the template match exposes them.
Common questions
A platform is not flagged. Does that mean it is safe?
No. A clean scan means none of our signals fired, not that the platform is licensed. Always verify the company directly on your regulator's public register before depositing, and never invest money you cannot afford to lose.
Someone I know is earning real withdrawals from a platform you flagged. Are you wrong?
Early withdrawals are how Ponzi schemes build trust. Operators pay early users with new deposits so they recruit others. The scheme still collapses when deposits slow; the question is when, not if.
The site shows a licence or registration certificate. Is that proof?
Check the licence number yourself on the regulator's official register, not on the platform's website. Scam platforms routinely cite rules that do not apply to them or display certificates for unrelated shell companies.
My withdrawals are frozen and they want a fee to unlock them. What do I do?
Do not pay. The unlock fee is the final stage of the scam. Document everything, contact your bank or mobile-money provider about reversing recent payments, and file a report with your financial regulator.
Platform reports present verifiable evidence and regulator sources, not legal verdicts. Always confirm licensing on your regulator's official register.