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'Tech entrepreneur took our money but failed to deliver our startup dreams'

bbc.co.uk

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Re: 'Tech entrepreneur took our money but failed to deliver our startup dreams'

#21

Post by dtech »

chrisstu wrote: post #16
fakedang wrote: post #5

> Eventually, she requested a refund through her bank and complained to the UK's Financial Ombudsman Service. A senior investigator there has provisionally recommended that the bank return $39,000 (£30,000) to Amy, according to documents seen by the BBC. She is still waiting for her bank to agree to the recommendation. Glad that this is possible in the UK. There are a ton of folks in Dubai itself who have fallen to s…

And guess who is paying for her mistake? Everyone except the perpetrator. That bank refund comes from somewhere.

In my country this is only possible if enough funds are in the target account (banks coorporate), it's not a general customer refund...

Re: 'Tech entrepreneur took our money but failed to deliver our startup dreams'

#22

Post by tapotatonumber9 »

fakedang wrote: post #4
colesantiago wrote: post #2

The best thing about tech is that technology becomes a commodity very quickly. Now you don't need to pay huge sums of money to these consultant grifters any more as now AI tools like Cursor, Windsurf, Devin, Bolt, Lovable and Replit can build these apps and websites for you almost for free. I nearly signed off a six figure deal for someone to make an app for us and we instead went down the AI tools route after some e…

Sorry, but these tools are far from usable for the average run-of-the-mill guy. They are specifically tailored for developers and people who can code. The people who were scammed were literally average folks, a working mum, a tarot-card reader, a truck driver.... If a scammer wants to, they can flee from all repercussions without building anything, even if all the AI tools were available to them. While Josh Adler is…

This wouldn’t be the first time “tarot card reader” and “scammed” have appeared in the same sentence.

Re: 'Tech entrepreneur took our money but failed to deliver our startup dreams'

#23

Post by catgary »

jongjong wrote: post #9

>> So don't tell the client that it cannot be done because we'll find [a contractor] that can do it when they've paid As a software developer (who did contract work in the past). I think this is actually sound logic within certain parameters... Sometimes clients do ask for impossible or infeasible things. But in most cases, the constraints are money and skills. Someone who is good at sales should not have to reject c…

> Someone who is good at sales should not have to reject clients because something is difficult.

What does that even mean, honestly? Because I would argue that a salesperson who doesn’t accurately represent the product or service they’re selling is a conman, and I think there is a fair bit of established law on the subject.

Re: 'Tech entrepreneur took our money but failed to deliver our startup dreams'

#24

Post by anshumankmr »

I know a couple of people who have sort of done that, including one person who made an app to view all books in all libraries of Delhi. He bought a nice sedan with his seed money and bragged about it. (probably worth a few lakhs easily, not like a high end one but better than what I had cause I had just graduated and was interning)

Re: 'Tech entrepreneur took our money but failed to deliver our startup dreams'

#25

Post by graemep »

dtech wrote: post #21
chrisstu wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And guess who is paying for her mistake? Everyone except the perpetrator. That bank refund comes from somewhere.

In my country this is only possible if enough funds are in the target account (banks coorporate), it's not a general customer refund...

In the UK if the funds cannot be recovered the bank takes the loss for push fraud.

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/what-to-do-if...

It has made banks very nervous about transfers as even payments to a legitimate business can be part of a a fraud (e.g. buy gold and hand it over to the fraudster for "safe keeping") and people have complained they have had problems making legitimate transfers.

Re: 'Tech entrepreneur took our money but failed to deliver our startup dreams'

#26

Post by graemep »

fakedang wrote: post #13
luckylion wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that work? Her bank is responsible for the delivery of services she agrees on with third parties in other countries?

I honestly don't know. That's why I'm surprised the UK actually has provisions for clawing back funds. Maybe they put adequate pressure on the Dubai-based banks to reverse the transfer?

No, the bank just takes a loss if necessary. See my comment above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43810904

Re: 'Tech entrepreneur took our money but failed to deliver our startup dreams'

#27

Post by peterpost2 »

tapotatonumber9 wrote: post #22
fakedang wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but these tools are far from usable for the average run-of-the-mill guy. They are specifically tailored for developers and people who can code. The people who were scammed were literally average folks, a working mum, a tarot-card reader, a truck driver.... If a scammer wants to, they can flee from all repercussions without building anything, even if all the AI tools were available to them. While Josh Adler is…

This wouldn’t be the first time “tarot card reader” and “scammed” have appeared in the same sentence.

Not sure why she would go to national media. Seems clear that she can't be too good at her job.

Re: 'Tech entrepreneur took our money but failed to deliver our startup dreams'

#28

Post by graemep »

petesergeant wrote: post #17
maccard wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I whole heartedly disagree. This guy is clearly a crook, I feel horrible for the woman but this is basic B2B contracts. Banks shouldn’t be the arbiter of B2B contract terms.

I am very curious about who’s downvoting this; do people really think it’s the bank’s responsibility?

Probably people who do not understand how the UK system works and think the banks are just recovering the money rather than taking a loss when the money canot be recovered.

Re: 'Tech entrepreneur took our money but failed to deliver our startup dreams'

#29

Post by graemep »

colesantiago wrote: post #2

The best thing about tech is that technology becomes a commodity very quickly. Now you don't need to pay huge sums of money to these consultant grifters any more as now AI tools like Cursor, Windsurf, Devin, Bolt, Lovable and Replit can build these apps and websites for you almost for free. I nearly signed off a six figure deal for someone to make an app for us and we instead went down the AI tools route after some e…

What did you build?

I have not seen an example of anything that should cost six figures done by traditional development done using AI tools.

Re: 'Tech entrepreneur took our money but failed to deliver our startup dreams'

#30

Post by admissionsguy »

jongjong wrote: post #9

>> So don't tell the client that it cannot be done because we'll find [a contractor] that can do it when they've paid As a software developer (who did contract work in the past). I think this is actually sound logic within certain parameters... Sometimes clients do ask for impossible or infeasible things. But in most cases, the constraints are money and skills. Someone who is good at sales should not have to reject c…

> There are people straight out of university who know nothing and can't deliver anything on their own earning over $200k per year and seasoned experts who can deliver anything barely earning 100k.

In my model of the world, there is exactly one country in the world that values skilled labor, the US. The highly skilled 100k people from abroad are firewalled from it by the visa regime and the fact that most people with money have IQ too low to effectively work remotely (so they have to work in person to be able to assess the vibes of a person using their lizard brain).

The 200k kids are from good families (hence psychologically stable) joining established orgs where the important thing is to be a good cog shapeable into a decent engineer rather than just the ability to deliver.

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