Introduced to an investment opportunity by a friend, a farmer in Malaysia has lost the equivalent of approx GBP30,000 in a fraud.

Encouraged to "invest" in a venture to raise and sell goats, he later discovered that there were no goats.

It is not an unreasonable venture: globally, goat meat is the second most popular animal protein after chicken, apparently.

Baby goats are not expensive: in the USA, they are as little as USD100 depending on the breed.

The fraudster paid decent returns at first, then persuaded the farmer to hand over more money. That's when the payments stopped and the fraud was discovered.

No one is saying the word "Ponzi" but the farmer was not the only victim reports say.