It sounded like a great investment. It promised a return of 2% on R1000 every day for six days of the week.

If you invested well, you could make up to R5000 every week if you invested R3500 and above.

But now IM Auctioning Direct has left investors like John Mhlanga broke and frustrated.

Mhlanga, of Mayibuye in Midrand, is among scores of people who have lost thousands of rands in the scheme.

Mhlanga was introduced to the scheme by a friend around April last year. At first he was reluctant to join. But when he learnt that people were making good returns, he borrowed R3500 from his wife's stokvel account.

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Then he took out two further loans of R10000 to invest in IM Auctioning Direct. He was charged a R450 administration fee for every R10000 investment and R150 for the R3500 he deposited.

He then opened another account of R1150 for his child. Within a few weeks, Mhlanga saw his investment accounts reflecting more than R70000.

"The more people you brought, the more you stood to make money," Mhlanga told Sowetan. As a result, he recruited his brother, who also recruited his friend.

Then when his colleagues found out, said Mhlanga, about 80 of them also joined the IM Auctioning scheme hoping to strike it rich.

But all that has turned into a very bad episode for thousands of investors like Mhlanga.

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Since July last year, members have been unable to withdraw their cash and have been unable to trace the man behind the scheme, believed to be a Durban-based man by the name of Norman Mhlongo.

Mhlanga said all he has managed to recover from his investment was a paltry R4000.

Now he is left in debt and has joined other frustrated investors in a bid to recover their money.

"I have lost out big time. I didn't benefit anything," he said.

Mhlanga said he still had misgivings about the scheme even when he recruited people and always warned them he didn't "trust this thing".

But, he said, the temptation of making a killing got him hooked. He feels others were drawn by unemployment and debt.

"People would do anything. People are hungry. They would even gamble with the little money they have just so they can buy food."

Sowetan has seen affidavits by other affected desperate investors demanding reimbursement.

A woman from Mbizana in Eastern Cape said she had deposited R10450 in July last year. Another investor from the same area said she invested R3800 in July last year and had not received her money.

A 53-year-old man from Uvongo in KwaZulu-Natal said he deposited R10450 in September last year.