CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Police questioned eight people Friday after discovering an investment scam that used Oprah Winfrey’s name days after she interviewed prospective pupils in South Africa for her new all-girls school.

Some 500 people crowded into a community center in the eastern city of Grahamstown after being told that they could make a simple payment of $1.40, with the promise of then receiving $168 per month for 10 years. Police said Winfrey knew nothing about it.

Authorities who went to the community center Thursday after hearing locals boast about their pending windfall were shouted at and told to go away, the South African Press Association reported Friday.

“This process is believed to have started earlier this week,” regional police spokesman Mali Govender told SAPA. “By word of mouth the community were informed of this easy way of making money.”

Police confiscated 160 applications and returned nearly $280, he said.

Scams are a frequent occurrence in South Africa, where they are targeted mainly at the poor and uneducated. The latest one apparently was fueled by publicity surrounding Winfrey’s brief visit to the country to interview prospective pupils for the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.

At a ceremony Sunday, Winfrey selected all 73 girls ages 11 to 12 who had shown up for interviews. More children from other parts of South Africa will be chosen later this year.

Lisa Halliday, a spokeswoman for the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation, said the aim is to admit 150 students in the first year.