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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

#111

Post by s73v3r_ »

quadcore wrote: post #85

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.

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

#112

Post by dsacco »

ashleyn wrote: post #21
pjc50 wrote: 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.

This is one thing most people don't understand. If someone is selling you a financial instrument with >6-7% annual returns, it's as ridiculous as someone selling you a time machine or the cure to death. The top 500 companies by market cap don't do much better than 6-7% annually on average.

> This is one thing most people don't understand. If someone is selling you a financial instrument with >6-7% annual returns, it's as ridiculous as someone selling you a time machine or the cure to death.

That's actually pretty achievable using market neutral strategies. Considerably higher is also achievable, you just can't really access them unless you have a lot of capital. However, 6-7% per month would be much more suspicious and should be an immediate red flag.

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

#113

Post by TeMPOraL »

Thriptic wrote: post #77
hmahncke wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, normal people do deserve protection from financial scams; and they don't deserve what they get just because they are not as sophisticated as a HN reader.

I don't think it takes a particularly high amount or sophistication to google "ico", see that most of them are scams, and stay away. People shouldn't invest in things they don't understand.

For many people, greed, or just having no financial luck in life and being desperate for a way out, are both powerful forces that can pretty much turn off any rational thought.

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

#114

Post by mrb »

AndrewStephens wrote: post #74
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have stopped at ”ICO” .

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?

«no justification for all the rediculous Coins that pop up constantly»

The market certainly agrees with you, this is why the top 5 coins account for the 75% of crypto market cap, valuing the combined value of the hundreds of others at less than 25%.

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

#115

Post by BinaryIdiot »

Rotdhizon wrote: post #17

At this point you really can feel no sympathy towards anyone who gets suckered into these types of scams. Same thing with facebook scams or instagram/snapchat pyramid schemes. If you really are that nice word for lacking intelligence or any ability to think for yourself , then you deserve what you get in terms of financial loss or social backlash. There isn't even a target demographic for this, people from all over t…

> Getting down voted for being blunt. Sucks to lose rep because people don't like to hear the truth

I think you're getting downvoted for dehumanizing the people affected by scams. Crypto scams are not the only scams in town. There are tons of them of varying from legal to illegal (MLM, Nigerian Price, etc). Do you not care for the victims of _any_ scams or just specifically for crypto scams?

The common thing in any scam is that there is a victim. Not everyone knows better. In fact, you hear on the news constantly about how bitcoin is huge or some new crypto currency is taking off and people who know absolutely nothing about it want to figure out a way to get into it, not having any idea they are getting scammed. I've had non-techie friends ask me "how do I do this crypto thing? everyone is getting rich from it!".

Having a high and mighty attitude of "you're stupid therefore you deserved it" doesn't progress anything and just shits on the victims. Instead, let's try to figure out ways to create _less_ victims.

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

#116

Post by BinaryIdiot »

Thriptic wrote: post #77
hmahncke wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, normal people do deserve protection from financial scams; and they don't deserve what they get just because they are not as sophisticated as a HN reader.

I don't think it takes a particularly high amount or sophistication to google "ico", see that most of them are scams, and stay away. People shouldn't invest in things they don't understand.

You'd think so but literally no one in my family was able to do this.

You're coming from a place of higher-than-average technical knowledge. Many who do not, especially folks who never learned how to think critically, have no idea how to verify a claim or to verify that something is what it says it is. Many, in fact, take what is said on TV as the "correct" thing and rely on that to help steer their knowledge.

People just see everyone getting stupid rich around them on TV by investing in "crypto" so they obviously would like to do the same thing. But crypto is hard. Even the hard core crypto fans have many blind spots.

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

#117

Post by dsacco »

wtvanhest wrote: post #61
pibefision wrote: post #53

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.

> There is no free money in finance.

There can be free money in the sense that a strategy can beat the market at a similar or lower level of risk. The "cost" for this is in personnel and infrastructure capital.

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

#118

Post by blechinger »

AndrewStephens wrote: post #74
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have stopped at ”ICO” .

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?

I've tossed money at a few smaller projects that solve a legitimate need. Projects like Nano, or Kyber, or Loopring. The difference, I think, is that I rarely get in on ICOs, I don't throw any money at it I can't lose, and I think of it less like an investment opportunity and more like an easy way to help tech startups I believe in without having to get directly involved.

That's why I "collect" them. :)

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

#119

Post by Balgair »

pjc50 wrote: 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.

It is always amazing to me that humans are just so predictably greedy. You'd have thought that we'd have learned any damned thing from history. For other readers with a bit of free time this Friday afternoon, XtraHistory has a great series on the 'South Sea Company' Bubble and the always interesting First British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1kndKWJKB8

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

#120

Post by ghaff »

Sangermaine wrote: post #105
Rotdhizon wrote: post #17

At this point you really can feel no sympathy towards anyone who gets suckered into these types of scams. Same thing with facebook scams or instagram/snapchat pyramid schemes. If you really are that nice word for lacking intelligence or any ability to think for yourself , then you deserve what you get in terms of financial loss or social backlash. There isn't even a target demographic for this, people from all over t…

>EDIT: Getting down voted for being blunt. Sucks to lose rep because people don't like to hear the truth. Because it's not the truth, it's just you being a jerk. It's not one person being scammed over and over. It's people reading about the stupid rates of return we've seen on cryptocurrencies over the last few years, reading about some 19 year old who's now a millionaire overnight, and thinking this might be their w…

And I had a Lyft driver all interested in bitcoin a couple of months ago. It's easy to laugh at people and call them stupid and greedy especially in retrospect when bitcoin crashes, the ICO scams, or the dot-com stock bombs. But plenty of people have also made out big with those things (maybe not ICOs--except for the scammers) and, as you say, I'm sure it's very tempting for people without a great financial future on the horizon to look at all that money and wonder if they can't maybe grab some of it.
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