71–80 of 305 posts
Cryptocurrency enables a big part of this. Not saying that there weren't any wire scams before crypto, but crypto has made it much easier for average people to make anonymous international money transfers that can't be reversed. Not to start a big argument, but to my eyes the main usecases of cryptocurrency are to bet on them as a speculative asset or to use them for various forms of crime. Someone will probably tell…
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The banks here have said that if you get scammed and money has been transferred (no cryptocurrency involved), there's nothing they can do. It was a bit surprising to hear since you only hear cryptocurrency transactions being irreversible.
Banks aren't perfect, but they also aren't anonymous. If you feel wronged, you can take appropriate legal recourse. Crypto offers no such thing.
If you don't then you'll easily get the bad side of it since abusing the power is not that hard.
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If I had to throw out a number describing how many more times I trust the FDIC than I trust some cryptobro, the first thing that comes to mind is "ten billion". And my trust in the current administration is rather low.
Well, they're pretty comparable in many parts of the world (and I despise cryptocurrency, btw). Despite what you might think, the current US administration is far from the worst compared to what some of us live under. Americans simply lack a proper "zero point" to be able to properly gauge this. I place exactly zero trust in what our administration says, because they've lied about the country's economic situation and…
Perhaps if financial regulations were not so onerous, traditional payment processors like PayPal would be able to handle more types of transactions with a lower overhead. As it is, the large number of prohibited categories creates a demand for cryptocurrency. As you noted, inflationary monetary policy is another source of discontent. Perhaps if central bankers had exercised a bit more restraint, there would be less demand for cryptocurrency. The same can be said for capital controls and more...
So there is a bit of irony when posters appeal for even heavier regulations and prohibitions. These are the forces which have created demand for wholly unregulated markets. It shouldn't be hard to see how these overreaches have created a counterbalancing force. Tragically, these overreaches generate a safe-haven for additional bad actors.
This stuff makes me so mad. I know a friend who told me about a loved one getting scammed. Dude meets some girl from a foreign country online. Next thing you know he thinks she got him into some great cryptocurrency, and nothing anyone can tell him will make him realize he is getting scammed. Sad stuff.
I believe these guys can be a big part of the solution. YouTube creates a financial incentive for individuals to go down this route, and apart from being entertaining to viewers, it broadens awareness of scammer tactics, which hopefully means more people detect scams early.
I wish these guys success and hope to see more anti-scam YouTubers appear.
Examples:
Cryptocurrency enables a big part of this. Not saying that there weren't any wire scams before crypto, but crypto has made it much easier for average people to make anonymous international money transfers that can't be reversed. Not to start a big argument, but to my eyes the main usecases of cryptocurrency are to bet on them as a speculative asset or to use them for various forms of crime. Someone will probably tell…
Reason of most scams is the absurd level of trust existing in Western countries. When i first saw Upwork where hours were paid by the tracker in a guaranteed manner and people SIGNED for it, i knew West was doomed. I still find it hard to believe people can be that easy to dupe. Level of trust in the Western societies needs to be radically reduced through government propaganda, church and other channels. The world ha…
> INTERPOL argues that the term ‘pig butchering’ dehumanizes and shames victims of such frauds, deterring people from coming forward to seek help and provide information to the authorities.
"Romance baiting" is proposed instead.
https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Events/News/2024/INTERPOL-...
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A high trust society is actually a good trait, not a bad one. It’s rather easy, lazy even, for a culture to devolve into a low trust minima. That’s basically the default state that people have endeavoured to evolve out of. I think it’s also the kind of thing that can easily overwhelm anxious minds. The kind where “what if it’s a scam?” leads them to never taking a risk, donating to a cause, doing someone a favour. No…
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Sorry, are you saying that the main reason immigrants from Eastern Europe and India become rich is through scamming hapless fools? Not through, say, hard work and educational opportunities? And are you saying this is a change, or how it’s always been?
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Whether you see international money transfers outside of the government control as a positive or negative force largely depends on how much you trust your government. How much it should limit things for your own safety? I suspect that for majority of the earth population the trust level is rather low, even though in some countries it could be different.
If I had to throw out a number describing how many more times I trust the FDIC than I trust some cryptobro, the first thing that comes to mind is "ten billion". And my trust in the current administration is rather low.
And if you compare chances of that with chances of being deported to El Salvador prison... Well let's say frozen bank accounts doesn't sound that impossible.
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A high trust society is actually a good trait, not a bad one. It’s rather easy, lazy even, for a culture to devolve into a low trust minima. That’s basically the default state that people have endeavoured to evolve out of. I think it’s also the kind of thing that can easily overwhelm anxious minds. The kind where “what if it’s a scam?” leads them to never taking a risk, donating to a cause, doing someone a favour. No…
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Sometimes cynical(/fear driven) people have such strong biases, they are the most easy to dupe.