New Zealand has become the latest country to sound the alarm over the BG Wealth Sharing /DSJ EX scam, joining Tonga, the UK, Australia and the United States in a growing international effort to stop the scheme spreading through Tongan communities.
Regulators warn that the scam has rippled through family networks, church groups, and social media, noting that Tongans at home and across the diaspora face significant financial risks if they continue to download the app or invest in the platform.
In a joint statement published on the New Zealand Financial Markets Authority’s website on Monday, Tongan and New Zealand authorities said the scheme is accelerating through community networks and urged Tongans everywhere to stop downloading the app, stop investing, and warn others before more people lose their savings.
The joint warning follows earlier reporting by Kaniva News, which revealed that the BG Wealth Share scam has gained significant traction among members of the Tongan diaspora, particularly in New Zealand, Australia and the United States.
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The BG pyramid scheme is the latest in a string of suspected investment scams targeting Tongans over the last few decades, following a series of multimillion-dollar schemes, such as Hyperfund (also known as Hyperverse), Validus, Tongitupe, and several other locally run Ponzi-style operations led by Tongans in New Zealand.
Kaniva News, which has been covering multiple scams targeting the Tongan community since its launch in 2009, has observed recurring patterns across these schemes. They are typically promoted heavily through friends, relatives and church networks, rely on aggressive recruitment tactics, and promise unusually high returns.
Inevitably, many of these schemes collapse, leaving participants to later reveal how they were misled and lost their savings. In New Zealand, several locally operated pyramid schemes run by Tongans have ended up in court, with some organisers receiving hefty fines and being ordered to repay investors’ funds.
“The scam, currently known as BG Wealth/DSJ EX, is part of a wider Ponzi‑style investment scam known as TXEX which uses multi-level marketing (MLM)‑type recruitment tactics. The FMA’s warning currently lists 813 websites and 30 entities which have been linked to this investment scam as they were found to be duplicates,” the joint statement read.
“The scammers start by inviting people into investment groups on social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Viber and Bon Chat,” the joint statement read.
The groups are often led by a professor and his assistant, they promise 100 percent returns and encourage victims to recruit their friends and family into the scam.
“Once in the group, victims are told to open a cryptocurrency exchange account and load it with funds from their bank. The scammers then tell them to transfer their cryptocurrency into a so-called trading account on a fake app. The app contains malware, creating risk of further harm,” it said.
Authorities said many people may not initially realise they are dealing with a scam because the platform allows a few early trades to go through, creating the impression that the system is genuine.
“Early recruits are even able to make small withdrawals which builds trust and encourages them to recruit others. But when they try to withdraw their full funds, they are told they need to pay a fee to release the money. Even if they pay the fee, they will not get their money back. As with other Ponzi schemes, once recruitment slows, all users are locked out of their accounts and the scammers disappear.”
Tonga Central Bank CEO Tatafu Moeaki has issued a renewed warning about the BG Wealth Sharing scam, joined this time by New Zealand authorities as losses continue to mount across Tongan communities worldwide.
Moeaki urged Tongans in Tonga and abroad to exercise “extreme caution” and to immediately alert family members and friends who may already be involved.
“We recommend extreme caution around this investment scam. If you know family members, friends, especially people in Tongan communities both in Tonga and New Zealand already involved, please share our warnings with them immediately,” Moeaki said.
“This scam often promises fast and easy payouts, but there are no guaranteed quick pay-outs—only high risks of loss.”
Moeaki was joined in the warning by New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Clare Bolingford, the FMA’s Executive Director of Licensing and Conduct Supervision, said people in Tongan communities are losing significant sums of money across New Zealand, Tonga, Australia and the United States.
“Together with the National Reserve Bank of Tonga, we want to raise awareness of this scam and remind people: do not download the app, do not invest, and don’t share it within your community networks,” Bolingford said.
The regulators say BG Wealth Sharing Ltd. is not registered to trade in or provide advice on securities or derivatives, and urge investors to avoid dealing with unregistered firms, noting there is no guarantee of investor protections when using such entities.
