Since this man is German, he lost euro's, not pounds or dollars. Or more accurately, bitcoin.
German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
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Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#92Wow, It's sure is a nice feature that Bitcoin doesn't have any way to dispute charges and that it's mostly anonymous. This article is yet another amazing illustration of why that's definitely two features you want from something that's intended to be used as a currency.
You obviously don't want that in every situation, only some situations.
Would you make an argument like "Wow, it's sure a nice feature that [full disk encryption software] doesn't have any way to reset lost passwords" on an article about someone losing their life's work due to misunderstanding the consequences of full disk encryption?
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#93> There was a timer counting down, and the website promised participants that they could double their money. It is amazing how people fall for these scams. They seem to forget the time tested truth which is "if it sounds too good to be true then it ain't".
Avg person today is frankly stupid about many areas of modern life. Our education systems no longer equip people to handle the modern world.
I don't think that's a problem of the modern world. It just wasn't as easy previously to learn about all the stupid things people did.
But note that the person in question has studied and works at a marketing position in the IT industry. Not sure if he qualifies for "average".
All kinds of people can be stupid at times.
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this is a bad comparison. His situation would be closer to buying a house for $40k, making $40k renting it out. Then someone tells you you could probably sell the house now for $500k, but you don't and instead you gamble it away. You never had the $500k to begin with. You had a house people say could be possibly worth that much.
There is no question he really could have exchanged the coins for $500k of value though. If he had sold the bitcoins for cash and then used the cash to buy bitcoins again immediately after so that he could send them to the scammer, then would they be "realized" as opposed to "unrealized", even though there's no practical difference between the two situations?
It's the same situation. You don't have $500k - you have an opportunity to get $500k if you do things right. If it's kept as BTC, there's a number of things that could bring the value to $0 without the scam.
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no question he really could have exchanged the coins for $500k of value though. If he had sold the bitcoins for cash and then used the cash to buy bitcoins again immediately after so that he could send them to the scammer, then would they be "realized" as opposed to "unrealized", even though there's no practical difference between the two situations?
It's the same situation. You don't have $500k - you have an opportunity to get $500k if you do things right. If it's kept as BTC, there's a number of things that could bring the value to $0 without the scam.
I think this is a pointless distinction. A 500k bank balance is just an "opportunity" to withdraw 500k of cash. There are a number of things that could bring your bank balance to $0 without the scam. 500k of cash is just an "opportunity" to extract 500k of value. etc.
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#96> The 42-year-old says he first invested $40,000 in Bitcoin in 2017, and quickly made his money back as the value of the coins rose on the open market. He cashed out and got his initial money back, but then watched excitedly over the years as the 10 coins grew to be worth nearly 500,000 euros. Fortunately this sounds like he didn't lose anything, just never realised extra gains. I know it's slightly nitpicking, but l…
"Fortunately this sounds like he didn't lose anything, just never realised extra gains." Sounds like if someones house caught fire the owner did not loose anything because he did not sell it? That were His bitcoins he was the owner of the bicoins and he was scammed.
Nobody denies that he was scammed.
But he didn't lose anything but opportunity costs and because he cashed out his initial gambling money, he is not worse off than if he didn't gamble with Bitcoin to begin with.
Coming out of the crypto game with a big fat zero is better than many others who tried it.
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#97> The 42-year-old says he first invested $40,000 in Bitcoin in 2017, and quickly made his money back as the value of the coins rose on the open market. He cashed out and got his initial money back, but then watched excitedly over the years as the 10 coins grew to be worth nearly 500,000 euros. Fortunately this sounds like he didn't lose anything, just never realised extra gains. I know it's slightly nitpicking, but l…
No. This is a common way to think about it, but it's wrong imho. Because that money is real and it buys you real stuff. If you have that money one day and it is gone the next, you effectively lost that money. It doesn't matter where it came from. Think about it: You inherit $500k. You lose it through a scam or a bet or gambling. Do you think it doesn't matter? I mean, you didn't earn that money yourself, right? There…
But it's not real money, it's an asset! I think you have a wrong understanding of what unrealized gains are. It's not about whether you earned it yourself - it's about whether it's liquid cash or just an asset. Only once you sell your asset do you realize your gains.
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
The bank is FDIC insured. If the bank loses your money and FDIC cannot make you whole, you would be in a serious problem even if you had a pile of cash, as that is basically a 'the entire USD economic system has collapsed' scenario.
Well yes, but if you invest your own money without going through banks at least you have some choice in where it goes (oil companies, weapon companies, sustainable funds, &c.) and you get to cash out all the benefits (or loss) I'll take my 7%+ average over the last 100 years vs the "insured" 0.5% my bank proposes me (which doesn't even pay for what my bank charges me monthly)
In other words, you are exposed to approximately 0 downside risk and 0 upside risk when you give your money to a bank. That is practically the opposite of them gambling for you.
It is a fine critism to say that the bank uses your money to invest for itself, and you would rather use your money to invest for yourself; or that you would rather have input in what your money gets invested in for reasons other than financial return.
I'm not sure why you put "insured" in quotes. Do you have doubts about the FDIC?
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#99This is a terrible scam, but I am astonished by the frivolity with which people would move life-changing amounts of money into something with absolutely no due diligence. When I took on a financial advisor I verified their identity with the govt regulator, verified their written bank details over the phone, and then verified those details with my bank before I even considered sending a single penny. Even then I sent…
People simply don't know what due diligence is. If you don't know that financial advisors are supposed to be registered with government regulators, why would you go to verify them with that regulator?
If someone unfamiliar with the workings of the financial/legal system and the Internet goes to some website that looks trustworthy to them - looks like other websites they trust, has gushing testimonials, large numbers, and TrustSeal(R) graphics proclaiming that it's Guaranteed and Secured, and there are posts on Twitter and Facebook that say this site is trustworthy, and some blogger has also rated them highly... they may believe they've done their due diligence.
They're not a fool, they're simply uninformed, and they don't know they're uninformed, and they don't know they don't know they're uninformed. The information age is changing fast - it's pretty recent in human history that you have to distrust published writing as much as you do today - and some people are unable to keep up.
Re: German man loses 400k GBP about $500k in Twitter Bitcoin scam
#100This is a terrible scam, but I am astonished by the frivolity with which people would move life-changing amounts of money into something with absolutely no due diligence. When I took on a financial advisor I verified their identity with the govt regulator, verified their written bank details over the phone, and then verified those details with my bank before I even considered sending a single penny. Even then I sent…
It was just bitcoin money. He never worked an hour on them. He lost $40k which was his initial bitcoin investment in 2017.