Note: This is a repost from an article written by a Golden Sun investor, sharing lessons. See link to his blog at the end.
By Eddie Kabuni
The internet has brought about many benefits, including the ability to make money online. However, it has also brought about an increase in scams that target people looking to make a quick buck. Papua New Guinea has not been immune to these scams, with many people falling victim to fraudulent schemes that promise easy money.
One such scam that has affected many Papua New Guineans is the Golden Sun scam. This scam involved watching and rating 15 seconds of film for which the company promised to pay its employees. To join, people had to pay a fee, and then they were instructed to recruit more people to increase their chances of earning recurring commissions. The company promised that once a person joined, they would become an employee.
I, too, fell for this scam and paid the $40 fee to join the E level. I recruited more people using my social media following and made over $2,000 in three months. However, I chose to ignore the numerous warning signs, including the use of aliases by regional managers, the poor command of English, the lack of a customer service center, no physical office, and web-based email addresses. I continued to promote the scam and recruit more people, even though my younger brother, Michael Kabuni and other government officials and leading journalists warned me about the swindle.
It wasn’t until my last withdrawal was delayed for almost three weeks that I knew the end was near for Golden Sun. Fortunately, my friends and I received our return on investments, but the guilt of promoting the scam still lingers with me. I apologize to those who lost their money through my referral link.
Scams like Golden Sun are not the only ones that have affected Papua New Guinea. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a rise in scams across the country. Scammers have been targeting vulnerable individuals who are struggling to make ends meet, with fake job advertisements, fraudulent loan schemes, and online investment programs.
It is crucial to be cautious and informed when it comes to investing in any program or scheme. Scams can happen to anyone, regardless of their education or socio-economic status. We must continue to educate ourselves and others about the dangers of scams, especially during these challenging times.
If you come across any investment program or scheme that promises easy money, take the time to do your research. Look for reviews online, and talk to people who have had experience with the program. Be wary of programs that require you to pay a fee to join, and be especially cautious if the company promises you large returns in a short amount of time.
In conclusion, let us learn from our mistakes and make sure we do not fall prey to these scams again. We must continue to educate ourselves and others about the dangers of scams and be cautious when investing our hard-earned money. By doing so, we can protect ourselves and our loved ones from falling victim to these fraudulent schemes.
Note from Academia Nomad:
We warned that Golden Sun was a scam earlier. It has collapsed within a month since then. Whilst we agree that scammers are targeting the vulnerable, especially following the Covid-19 pandemic, Papua New Guineans could have avoided this scam. Scams are not new in PNG, and there’s an established pattern: no services or products offered, quick money, network marketing, etc. We hope that Papua New Guineans learn from this experience.
The Pacific has been central to geopolitical rivalry in the Asia Pacific for a few years now, and emerged as the one of the highest recipient of foreign aid, but remains prone to natural disasters and political upheaval, climate change, and struggling with poor human development indicators.
All these issues gives rise to countless research and commentaries. It’s important to keep informed of what’s happening, but many people do not have the time to read 15-20 pages articles. The max one can enjoy is 2 pages, but you want that 2 page content to be good. Below are 7 platforms you should subscribe to or check daily if you’re interest in PNG and Pacific economics, policy, social, political, legal etc. issues.
Note: only sites that have independent editors listed here. Personal blogs are not listed because they contain personal views, and are usually not scrutinized by independent editors.
1. Crawford School of Public Policy’s Development Policy Blog
This platform, based at ANU, has one of the largest, if not the largest PNG and Pacific content in the world. The articles are usually 2 pages long, and are concise. Their articles frequently feature on Post Courier & The National Newspapers, and other Pacific media outlets. All though it’s based at ANU, PNG based researchers and practitioners are frequent contributors.
This site is very much like Development Policy Blog, but has emphasis on Policy related issues. It’s based out of Sydney, and one of the leading platforms on Pacific content in the region. Their “Aid Map” tracks all the foreign aid in the Pacific. If you are interested in which foreign countries are spending how much in PNG, in which sectors, etc., Lowly Institute is the best site to visit.
3. The National Research Institute Blogs (Spotlight)
NRI is based in Port Moresby, and has various publications, but it’s blogs are short and concise. The content writers are mostly NRI staff but researchers and policy practitioners outside of the institute also contribute. NRI has various publications but for a quick read check their ‘spotlight’ articles.
Blogs on this site focus on security issues in the region. Security is multifaceted, and for this reason, blogs on this site cover a range of issues from climate issues, food security, elections, geopolitics, transnational crimes etc. It’s funded by DFAT specifically to research and disseminate content related to Australia and Pacific’s security.
5. Asia & The Pacific Policy Society (Policy Forum)
This site covers a wide range of policy issues in the Asia Pacific region. As the name suggests, it’s has a much wide focus, covering Asia and the Pacific.
This site is focused on Pacific and East Asia, but unlike the those listed above, articles for this platform are peer reviewed. This means articles submitted to this platforms are scrutinized by at least two experts in the field, and undergoes several revisions before its published.
This platform provides 2 pages summaries of research, and has tons of PNG and Pacific content. All the papers published by this platform are peer reviewed, and carries the same weight as papers published in academic journals. This is why you can find papers published in this site on academic web search sites like Google Scholar.
Papua New Guineans can also publish in these platforms. Go to their sites, and look up guidelines for submissions. You will also find email addresses you can submit your articles to. At the end of these articles (except the last one – 7) there are sections for comments. That is where you give you feedback, for instance, you may not agree with the conclusions because you’re working in that filed and author may have gotten it wrong.
There’s a lot more happening outside your work cubicle, and the information shared on social media is not verified by or critiqued by someone other than you. These blogs helps in that they are short and relatively more reliable than Facebook and Twitter.
Context: Golden Sun is the next hot thing in PNG – an unbelievably easy way to make money through “investment”. But it has all the features of a SCAM. Below is a post by someone named Gabriel on Facebook, who has been engaged in e-commerce (including online payments). He did a bit of research that reveals Golden Sun is actually a clever scheme run with PNG, and not out of the UK as Golden Sun website claims.
By Gabriel
I did some research on Golden Sun. I know some of you are making money through that, well and good. This post is to verify whether you are paid online through the website or not, technically.
I registered and logged in (through a link of course). did some movie reviews in F level, attempted a widthrawal just to make a request so I can trace the destination if it actually will go through a payment gateway with Visa ID. This is because I know any payment gateway processor will have an algorythm that checks the validity of your visa card number.
After analyizing the packets, I found out that these transactions (packets of data) dont go anywhere to a IPG, they go to a data center in UK (CloudFlare) that is managing this website, Remote Address: 172.67.133.109:443.
Now, I did quite some few side hustle with e-commerce websites and I know that for you be paid online it has to go through a payment gateway. Golden sun nogat displa.The movie reviews, they dont go anywhere, 0 payloads.
Now you will also watched some of our country men on youtube doing widthrawals through the golden sun website and recieveing money in their BSP account but what they dont know is The USD they see in their golden sun account is nothing but calculated digits and someone else is transfering money to their account via sms/internet banking.
Once you click the widthrawal button,a website administrator here in PNG recieves your request with your user ID and bank details together with USD points while doing the fake movie review and physically transfer money to your account via SMS or internet banking to compensate you for referring clients to register with golden sun via the link you shared.
It has a a code at the end that is tied to your account ID so they monitor how many people registered through the link you shared. Thats why people have to wait 6-7 hours to see their account credited.
Note from Academia Nomad :
Golden Sun doesn’t create any product or service. Airlines get money from ticket sales, street vendors sell buai. There’s a product or a service offered for money.
Pyramid scheme scam: you register with K700, your money is used to pay the guy registering with K160 at the lowest level. You then get paid with the money paid for by the guy who upgraded using K3000.
Are you getting paid? YES!
Is Golden Sun creating a product or service? NO!
What happens when one-third of the guys want to withdraw at the same time but less than one-third either registered or upgraded?
There’s no money to repay and everything collapses.
Please watch ponzi schemes, and scam artist documentaries. Golden Sun is playing one PNGean against another without creating any product or service. It’s unsustainable and risky.
Golden Sun has every feature of a SCAM. And the end goal of a scam is people lose hard earned money. If something sounds too good to be true, it’s potentially a scam. God told man to “work”. Anything that doesn’t involve work of some sort will cost you).
The Stanley Hotel in Port Moresby advertised that they would be holding a ‘walk-in’ interview for about 100 positions. More than 2000 showed up for the interview in early February 2023, and stood in line for hours soaked in the pouring rain. This comes after about 20, 000 applied for just 576 positions advertised by the PNG Police Department at the end of 2022. PNG SEEKJOB website, an online recruitment portal reports that 86, 262 applicants have registered for just 213 jobs advertised, and the site has 110, 000 visits per month. These statistics gives a snap-shot of the level of unemployment in a country of about nine million. What consequences lie ahead is anybody’s guess, but definitely not a good one. The PNG Trade Union Congress President called the unemployment rate a “ticking time bomb.’
Whereas the private sector is the largest employer in many countries, in PNG, the state is the major employer. The state employs about 700, 000 people, whilst the private sector employs an estimated 260, 000 people (2020 estimates). The troubling news is that not only are there limited employment opportunities: there are more and more people losing their jobs as this study shows. Period for which data is available shows that there were about 305, 000 people employed in the private formal sector in 2013, but dropped to about 260, 000 in 2020. As Figure 1 below shows, this drop started before COVID-19, so COVID-19 is not the sole reason for unemployment.
The problem in PNG is threefold: first, the government focuses more on the mineral and extractive sector which provides minimum employment opportunities; second, the business environment in PNG has deteriorated significantly; and third, the COVID-19 has stunned economic growth world-wide – PNG is no exception. Below we look at each point.
Mineral sector = low employment
According to World Bank data, Papua New Guinea is the tenth most resource intensive economy in the world. Guys from Devpolicy say that “measure of underground resource rents (profits from oil, gas, coal and minerals) as a percentage of GDP, out of 205 countries puts PNG tenth at 19.3%, just below Saudi Arabia at 20%. By comparison, the global average is only 1.5%.” PNG’s economy relies on extractive industries (PNG LNG, OK Tedi etc).
Why is this a problem for PNG?
This is a problem because the resource sector employs less people than manufacturing and service sectors. Case in point is the PNG Exxon Mobil Project. According to its website, PNG Exxon Mobil, a LNG company, employs around 3,200 people, 86 percent are Papua New Guineans. Exxon Mobil’s market cap is $460 billion or K1, 643 billion.
East New Britain Oil Pam Company (ENBPO), on the other hand, employs 25, 000 people, of which only 106 are expatriates – the rest are Papua New Guineans. How much ENBPO is worth is not known, but there was a K4.319 billion bid to buy the company in 2014. This amount was the market value or how much ENBPO was worth at the time. ENBPO engages in planting and manufacturing Palm Oil products in PNG.
As these two cases show, ENBPO Company employs about seven (7) times more Papua New Guineans than Exxon Mobil. Exxon Mobil, whose worth is about 410 times bigger than ENBPO employs less people.
Why are the differences in employment so big?
Because Exxon Mobil is a company that requires more machines to do its drilling and other related jobs, whilst ENBPO needs more humans to do every things from planting, and harvesting to manufacturing. These manufacturing companies are low-skilled and labour intensive. This simply means they employ people with low education, and need more people than machinery to do the work.
Another manufacturing sector that employs many Papua New Guineans is the tuna canneries. The seven tuna canneries in PNG employ more than 10, 000 people.
The obsession of PNG politicians with minerals companies means there is more focus on the sector (mineral resource sector) that employ less people. The neglect of manufacturing companies means the sector (manufacturing) that present the highest employment opportunities in PNG is neglected. Worse still, tax holidays given to mineral companies results in low revenues coming into the state coffers. The services sector such as tourism is also labour intensive, and provides more employment than the mineral sector.
Poor Business Environment
The second factor is the poor business environment in PNG. The World Bank used to produce an annual survey on the “ease of doing business” where it ranked 190 countries based on how easy it was to start and sustain small to medium enterprises or SMEs (was discontinued since 2020 after revelations that WB manipulated data for China to make it look good). The last report on PNG was published in 2020, and can be accessed on World Bank website. There are 11 indicators, and a country is ranked out of 190 – with number 1 being the best. By 2020, PNG ranked in the top 50s in only one indicator – getting credit – where it ranked 47 out of 190, whilst the worst was enforcing contract, where it ranked 173 out of 190. Overall, PNG ranked 120 out of 190. Any aspiring entrepreneur or SME owner will tell you how hard it is to meet the requirements of starting a business in PNG.
An important consideration for businesses that the Work Bank report did not sufficiently cover is the debilitating law and order problems in PNG. According to World Population Review, PNG ranks second in the world index of countries with the highest crime rate in 2023. Overall crime rate is calculated by dividing the total number of reported crimes of any kind by the total population, then multiplying the result by 100,000 (because crime rate is typically reported as X number of crimes per 100,000 people). Only Venezuela beats PNG in the number one position. With a crime rate like this, businesses, especially foreign companies, will not invest in PNG. No investment means no jobs.
Other constraints include poor government policies such as currency rationing. Case in point of such policies is the Puma-Bank of PNG-Air Niugini saga in early 2023. In the first week of January 2023, Air Niugini flights were grounded because Puma Company, which supplies the aviation fuel Jet A1, did not supply the fuel to Air Niugini. Puma’s argument was that it did not have enough foreign currency to import the A1 fuel. The Bank of PNG controls the amount of foreign currency (FX) given to companies. In this case, it placed limits FX Puma requested – or rationed foreign currency. FX rationing has been an ongoing problem in PNG. If businesses are affected, employment is affected. There are other factors such as the level and quality of literacy in the country that contributes to low investment in PNG.
COVID-19
COVID-19 as a cause for unemployment is self-explanatory. COVID-19 has affected businesses world-wide, and PNG is no exception. The difficulties businesses face range from social distancing requirements, and low demands, to increasing costs of doing business. Struggling businesses lay off workers. An article on Devpolicy estimates that about 10, 000 jobs were lost in PNG in 2020. Whether this has recovered is not clear.
Conclusion
There may be many factors, but the three discussed above, in my view, are the main causes for high unemployment in PNG. Addressing these problems will take a government that is serious, and is not afraid of making unpopular decisions.
First, sincere apologies for the long delay. I forgot my password and couldn’t log in. Also, didn’t have much time to put the extra effort of navigating technology and getting in (partly due to milestones for PhD pilling up). The Academia Nomad Facebook has been active so that’s a good thing.
But I’m back! Will provide a summary of the developments in PNG and region, and my views on them soon. Will also get to respond to questions and comments posted here (quiet a number – thanks).
Academia Nomad 