This is the story of an innocent-looking boy who managed to turn an app similar to the Facebook game FarmVille into a huge Ponzi scam which resulted in him fleeing his country with a reported $131 million and sparking a public outrage that even led some victims to commit suicide.
The name behind this massive fraud is Mehmet Aydin, who used to rap under the alias “Egoman” and also tried to sell glasses that he claimed showed people nude before inventing the game, Farm Bank, in 2016.
The game, which was billed as a way for players to “win as they play and have fun as they win,” allowed players to trade virtual animals and crops; however, it differed from FarmVille in that they had to invest real money in what they thought was actual livestock and agricultural land. Aydin said this money would be used to finance Europe’s largest dairy farm project.
Players spent real money to keep the virtual chickens, sheep, bees, and cattle alive in order to earn cash back in the game, and they were also given a tiny part of the earnings for bringing in new players. They were also compensated for the time they spent playing the game.
Thanks to the positive press and some people claiming to have received returns on their investments, more than 500,000 people played the game at its peak, with 132,000 of them investing real money, per Rest of World.
The promise was that people thought their money would be invested in real livestock in different farms across the country. In 2017, Farm…
