Have you heard of Initiative Q?
It’s a new ‘sign-up quick’ scheme spreading around on Facebook and Twitter like wildfire, inviting people to sign up to ‘Q’ – a new form of private currency created by the ‘ex-PayPal guys’.
To entice people to join what has been dubbed the next bitcoin – even though it is not a cryptocurrency – the developers are claiming they are giving away significant sums of the currency.
In turn, they state it could be worth $2trillion in the future to early users.
This email is sent once you’ve successfully registered to the scheme
Here, the developers themselves have admitted that ‘Q’ will remain worthless for years to come – even if all goes to plan.
The $2trillion target seems to be one plucked out of thin air to drum up interest.
You may think that you have nothing to lose by signing up to the initiative because it’s free and the company has given its word that personal data won’t be shared or sold on, but privacy policies often evolve.
The adage, ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’ is also worth remembering here.
On the flipside, the founder Wilf, has past experience in the payments industry and sold a business to PayPal which reflects well.
Whether the initiative will succeed remains to be seen.
But if you’re serious about investing, you should do so for the long term in quality companies, funds, investment trusts and markets according to Ben Yearsley, director of Shore Financial Planning.
He added: ‘The quickest way to lose money is to invest in get rich quick schemes that look too good to be true and often are.
‘If it feels wrong, it probably is! For most investors, sticking to mainstream investments is the best strategy.’