An online scheme that attracted investors from around the globe, including Calgary, has disappeared into cyberspace along with as much as $400 million.

Securities regulators in Alberta and B.C. say “Genius Funds”, a so-called high-yield investment program, was nothing more than a Ponzi scheme operated through a slick-looking website. It purported to be a company registered on the other side of the globe — and out of the reach of prosecution — in Cyprus.

“I think we have only scratched the surface of what’s there,” Evans said of the proliferation of online investment schemes.

Indeed, google the term “HYIP” — the acronym for high-yield investment program — and there are hundreds of sites offering online investments supposedly paying incredible rates of return, or reviews and rankings of them. With a cult-like following, there are entire forums dedicated to discussion about which ones are paying and which ones aren’t and plenty of people subscribing to ostensible investments like Genius Funds.

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