Not All Financial Crime Starts With Million-Dollar Transfers

Across Africa and the diaspora, more people are relying on P2P payment platforms and informal savings arrangements commonly known as Ajo, Esusu, or SUSU to save, support each other, and move money across borders. These have been part of our communities for generations, and many remain exactly what they're meant to be: trusted, community-based systems.

But here's what every contributor should know: these same arrangements and the broader P2P space in general are increasingly being targeted by bad actors, and the warning signs are often easy to miss.

Here's how it can go wrong:

• Contributions are collected via bank transfers or P2P apps, often from many different people
• The funds get spread across multiple personal accounts making it hard to trace where your money actually went
• Transactions are layered and moved around to obscure the trail
• In some cases, funds are converted to crypto, moved abroad, or simply withdrawn as cash

By the time anything looks wrong, the organizer is gone and contributors are left with little to no way of recovering their money.

Why does this happen so easily?

Because these transactions blend in. They're often small, frequent, and look exactly like everyday activity, the kind that doesn't typically raise red flags. That's exactly what makes informal P2P arrangements attractive to people who want to exploit them.

This is also why we built P2P differently at Voye.

If you're in the UK or Canada sending money home to Nigeria or Kenya, you've probably used informal channels before someone offering a "better rate" for NGN or KES, paid into a personal account, with little more than a WhatsApp message as your guarantee.

On Voye, our P2P feature lets users set their own exchange rates for NGN/KES, but every transaction sits within a regulated platform, with verified users, transaction records, and the safeguards that informal arrangements simply don't have. You get the flexibility and competitive rates of P2P, without handing your money to a stranger and hoping for the best.

A few things to keep in mind, wherever you're sending money:

• Know who you're saving with. A legitimate group has transparency, you should be able to see contributions, payouts, and who's managing the funds.
• Be cautious with informal arrangements that involve strangers or online-only groups, especially ones promising high or guaranteed returns.
• Don't ignore the speed. If money moves unusually fast, with little explanation or documentation, ask questions.
• Use platforms and providers that are regulated and can offer some level of accountability if something goes wrong.
• Talk about it. Many people only discover a scheme was fraudulent after it's too late and often, someone else in their network had concerns earlier. Sharing information protects everyone.

At the end of the day, prevention is always easier than recovery. A little caution and the right platform can save you from a painful loss down the line.

Have you used informal P2P arrangements to send money home? What would you tell others to look out for?