Told You So Moment

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(Edited)


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I wrote a post a few weeks ago about something a mate of mine was involved in and was trying to rope me in to joining. I was curious and looked it over and why I asked if anyone on here had heard of them as it looked to good to be true. I was not tempted and had more concern for his family who were all involved.

I spoke with him this morning and he was a little down as his Bitcoin has gone along with the company. I had warned him saying I wasn't getting involved as it just looked like a scam. He has lost around $5000 plus his wives account of $500 and his daughter had $15000 invested. There were thousands of accounts just like his and along with the company directors who are left with nothing.

I told him that as soon as Bitcoin rose in value it would be gone and two weeks he tried to withdraw his money and all of a sudden there is a problem. After two large investors failed to claim their funds their was a court ruling and the company has been placed in liquidation.

The head of the company has fled the country and no doubt has a full wallet of BTC valued in the $10's of millions. In my eyes a bounty should be put on his head as making an example of these types of individuals needs to happen. There is no real deterrent right now and a majority seem to get away with this type of crime. The beauty about crypto is it is easy to move and carry on yourself in the form of a cold wallet. We often here not your keys not your coins and this is so true. You have to be in control of your wallet at all times as otherwise you are open for this type of behavior.

I know him well and he unfortunately has a greedy streak which he would openly admit to. After I warned him he said he would take it into consideration and he still thought it was legit and not a ponzi scheme.

These things give crypto a bad name and they are all too common as the masses learn the hard way. This to me is all too easy as who would give you 125 returns every month. If you were trading then yes you could probably make more and I am sure many do as 12% is not that much considering. Bitcoin had risen over 1000% this year so juts buying and holding in a cold wallet is far safer than doing some stupid scheme.

I am going to have coffee with him on Friday and it should be interesting to hear the details. I don't like I told you so moments and maybe he will listen to me in the future. I still have my Hive and Leo and now he has nothing and the one I feel sorry for the most is his daughter who was obviously influenced by daddy.
He would have made commission of her as that what these schemes do by paying out a referral and a percentage on all trades they do.

Maybe 5 years ago I would have fallen for a scheme like this, but not today as I am wiser and smarter seeing things for what they are. The masses need to learn the hard way before they start to understand what is and what isn't possible in the crypto world.

I just checked and they had a reported 280 000 members involving more than 17 000 Bitcoin. The bitcoin bought was sent to a wallet controlled by one person and that is the person who has fled. How dumb are people and how dumb are the directors to all not have part of the wallet code and not just with one person. They were reckless and I blame them all for not understanding what crypto is.

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Wow. That is some serious money to be scammed out of. Tough situation. I get ticked off when Eth fees fail and I have to re-try to send again with more gas fees. Can't imagine how upset at them and myself I would be if I lost $20k including my kids money.

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(Edited)

I would be highly peeved as this is a tough lesson to swallow. I was wondering if he now feels guilty for selling the idea to his daughter and if he feels obligated to pay her back. He must have roped others in as he tried to get me to join. I will know more on Friday as I am curious how many of his friends he got to join.
He just got back from his holiday in Cape Town where he says he was unwell and not surprised as this scheme paid for his holiday and he was relying heavily on this. I am sure he will be feeling sick for some time.

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It is an age old story. If something sounds to good to be true it probably is. I hope this was money he could afford to lose and like you say he pays his kid back too. I hope you buy his lunch for him... whew...

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No it was definitely not money he could afford to lose and his daughter worked overseas in Korea teaching for that stash. Coffee no lunch as I am on a tight budget myself until I get paid from my business. He needs to listen as this could have been avoided.

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Wow. That is just terrible. I have a couple hundred in a cloud mining deal that I'm not sure is going to work out, but it isn't going to hurt me much if I don't get my money back. Greed is a powerful motivator that makes people do stupid things.

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That is horrible that this happened to them. This is the similar sort of thing that my wife's acquaintance is involved in and I have a feeling it is going to fall the same way for her at some point. Especially if the price of ETH continues to rise. I purchased my first cold wallet the other day. I am waiting for it to arrive. I am pretty excited about it.

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They need to get out as quickly as possible as losing everything is what happens. If they can't see it let them continue as it seems these types of schemes run their course and everyone gets burned. Maybe some much needed growing up won't go amiss and they will know better for the next one.

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This one seems to be going for a long longer than I had expected. It makes me wonder what their "out" number is. We haven't seen any posts by her talking about how she got screwed over, but we know they are probably coming.

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I think covid may have made this one in SA panic and wrap it up early as they could have been stuck with no international flights being part of an escape route. Most likely they have a number and hoping for Bitcoin to surpass $50k for a proper pay day.

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That makes sense.

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Sad but people seem to fall for that stuff all the time. It is one thing to lose money it is another to be scammed out of it.

I remember a guy I dealt with years ago who said he did mind losing money. He lost lots of it and it is part of the game. What he hated was it being taken from him.

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I also see it like that as if you lose it and still have some it is not so bad as maybe you can earn it back. Once it is gone it is gone and you have just thrown it away. I was wondering why he self isolated on holiday and must have been depressed. I know he paid for it using this scheme and had plans going forward so that is all gone now.

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For sure. I've lots money in the stock market and I blame no one but myself (well and my one buddy who kept giving me bad advice). But this is getting robbed. A very hard lesson with the amounts he lost - especially his daughters money. Wow.

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(Edited)

That’s terrible and it could happen to anyone of us (those who use centralised services at least).
I would be only half surprised if someday I read that Celsius or NEXO or blockfi just run away with the cash.

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As far as I know you hold the keys and only use their wallets. They use it as leverage and doesn't leave your wallet from my understanding and why it is different.

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You’re right it’s a bit different as there is a custodian in between those 3 and the user.
Good news or bad news the custodian is the same for those 3: BitGo.
He has the keys and could run away :D

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Would do my homework then on that one and will ask some of the others who are using it on here how exactly are they protected? @felander is this correct or is there something we are missing here.

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Pure ponzi... We've had similar ones involving fiat money since the early 90's and people seem to be still falling for such schemes. Wouldn't have been easier to just buy BTC or any other crypto and hold that for half a year or more... They would have really made good money. Oh, if I only had $15,000 to invest in crypto right now.

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