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Exit scammers run off with $660M in ICO earnings

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Re: Exit scammers run off with $660M in ICO earnings

#121

I'm also skeptical about the $660M number. To put that in perspective, Vietnam's GDP is $232B, so this is about 0.3% of Vietnamese GDP. 0.3% of the US GDP would be about $50 billion. FWIW most articles I'm finding source the $660M number to the linked Tuoi Tre News story. Their quote is "The victims said the company had conned them out of VND15 trillion (US$660.79 million)." https://tuoitrenews.vn/news/business/20180…

Maybe they are so good that they were able to get most people of means in Vietnam to invest?

Re: Exit scammers run off with $660M in ICO earnings

#122
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped at the 'C'. Even if you accept that bitcoin has some legitimate worth there is no justification for all the rediculous Coins that pop up constantly. Why do people buy them? Are they trying to collect them all like a young person's version of Franklin Mint?

Sounds as useful as collecting RSA public keys. If you want them all...

No thank you Sir, I'll stick to my collection of GPG public keys.

Re: Exit scammers run off with $660M in ICO earnings

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take look at Argentina's market. You can get 20% of return on yearly bonds in dollars. Yes, its a bubble but its more mature than any kids ICO

I know nothing of Argentina finance, but if I take your sentence a facevalue, my assumption is that they have a high rate of estimated future inflation. There is no free money in finance.

> I know nothing of Argentina finance

They have a big sailing ship and an (obviously unpleasant) guy in New York got it impounded in West-Africa a few years back (purely from a sailor's perspective).

Re: Exit scammers run off with $660M in ICO earnings

#124

Again we find that the current, unregulated, ICO market is the most interesting system for parting fools from their money in recent history. Jokes apart, I think it's a good thing. It's 2018, if people are exposed to that kind of scam today, they will evolve quickly, especially the kids. They will develop critical thinking and bullshit detectors. They will stop believing in advertisement and, more importantly, propag…

And hopefully remember why we have things like the SEC and securities regulation.

[deleted]

Re: Exit scammers run off with $660M in ICO earnings

#125
post #2

> "Investors have been told that they would enjoy a profit rate of 48 percent a month from their initial investment, and recoup all investments after four months. People would also be rewarded with an eight percent commission for every new member they have introduced to the network." There's your red flags right there.

I would have stopped at ”ICO” .

Maybe so, but it breaks the HN guidelines to post shallow dismissals whether you're right or not, so would you please not post like this to HN?

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Exit scammers run off with $660M in ICO earnings

#126
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's practically the definition of a pyramid scheme.

Ponzi not Pyramid. Pyramid means that each participant makes their money directly from their downline, in a self-similar way. And a Pyramid scheme can be totally honest, relying eyes-wide-open on the sigmoid curve for its initial success and eventually failure. A Ponzi scheme lies about the source of financial returns.

They're being told to recruit people to "invest" so there is money in the fund that can be taken out before the inevitable crash. The returns they talk about are clearly just numbers they pulled out of their ass. Nobody should give those a second glance. It's all about getting more suckers in there and getting out before they realize they've been suckered.

Re: Exit scammers run off with $660M in ICO earnings

#127
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> >6-7% annual returns I wouldn't say quite that low, even S&P averages are often higher than that. But 48% monthly is going to be something like a >1000% yearly interest rate. You really don't get much more of a dead giveaway than that, at that point you're either a fool or you're gambling and hoping you get out before a greater fool does.

>>> 100*1.48**12 11044.360771961152 That's ELEVEN THOUSAND percent a year. 110x your money every year. That's enough to turn a dollar into 16 billion in 5 years.

> That's enough to turn a dollar into 16 billion in 5 years.

I think it's actually 1.6 trillion

Re: Exit scammers run off with $660M in ICO earnings

#128
post #97
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this post meant to be a joke? How are those people you guys were telling to buy in and "HODL" at ~$20k doing now?

Is this meant to be a joke? Just wait until “institutional” money starts flooding in and the government converts to bitcoin and all oppressed nations are freed and then we will see who is laughing.

I presume this is sarcasm, and if so, jolly good, but if not, god save us all

Re: Exit scammers run off with $660M in ICO earnings

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is arguing they can't default; even banks can default. The point is 7% interest isn't absurd.

> 7% interest isn't absurd It does require asking intelligent questions. Like what has been the historic default rate amongst TWINO’s borrowers? Is the borrower quality for recent cohorts higher or lower than for earlier cohorts? How might one enforce their claims in a Latvian court? Cryptocurrency gamblers don’t do this. If you’re earning 7% in U.S. dollars or Euros and not reading and thoroughly understanding the p…

It's not a "past performance isn't indicative of future performance" scenario in any reasonable sense. The loans you buy are already sold and it's fixed rate. You are calling the risk of the whole company defaulting "performance" and that's what I disagree with.

Their highest rated loans (11-13%) are guaranteed by them; that's quite explicit. The end-borrower default-rate is pretty low which is why they can do it.

Re: Exit scammers run off with $660M in ICO earnings

#130
post #97
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this post meant to be a joke? How are those people you guys were telling to buy in and "HODL" at ~$20k doing now?

Is this meant to be a joke? Just wait until “institutional” money starts flooding in and the government converts to bitcoin and all oppressed nations are freed and then we will see who is laughing.

It is impossible for every All Time High to be surpassed. Also, supposedly "institutional" money has already been entering via OTC trades.
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