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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

#71

Post by JumpCrisscross »

pibefision wrote: post #53
ashleyn wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

> You can get 20% of return on yearly bonds in dollars

Argentina has basically turned defaulting into a sport [1].

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_debt_restructuring

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

#72

Post by orthecreedence »

908087 wrote: post #48
mkirklions wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, as someone that has been around for years, I have no sympathy for alt-coiners. We told them to trust BTC only. We told them HODL applies to BTC only. We told them 99% of alt coins die. They decided not to listen.

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?

"Buy the dip!!!1"

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

#73

Post by dopamean »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #54

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…

$660 million across 32,000 people is over 20 grand per person. That seemed a little crazy to me.

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

#74

Post by AndrewStephens »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #57
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.

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?

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

#75

Post by orthecreedence »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #67

> raising $660 million from approximately 32,000 people. Honestly where is this money coming from? Is there just that much money sloshing around in the world chasing after these harebrained ideas?

> Is there just that much money sloshing around in the world chasing after these harebrained ideas?

No, it's probably based off market cap. Let's say I generate 100B tokens. I happen to con you into buying one for $0.01. Boom, the price of my token is $0.01 per coin, and I have 99,999,999,999 of them at a market cap of $1B. Only $0.01 of actual value has been exchanged, but I can now "exit scam" with $1B in supposed value.

In reality, they probably had a few million, maybe tens of millions at most. $660M is a ridiculous number, probably only achieved by factoring their stupid coin's market cap in.

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

#76

Post by chrischen »

mkirklions wrote: post #26
chrischen wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because normally there are regulations in place when dealing with USD that protect these people.

Nah, these people knew damn well what they were doing. They knew it was a high high risk cryptocurrency. Its like instead of buying 10,000$ of stock, these people bought 10,000$ of lottery tickets. The horrible part is that on /r/cryptocurrency is that people still have this mentality.

That would imply that no one actually believed in their marketing. A lottery ticket does not tell you of guaranteed earnings.

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

#77

Post by Thriptic »

hmahncke wrote: post #36
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…

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.

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

#78

Post by cecilpl2 »

akvadrako wrote: post #51
ashleyn wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

7% is not ridiculous at all. twino.eu has been paying 10-13% backed by their own guarantees and a good income stream for several years.

This is commonly referred to as "picking up pennies in front of a steamroller".

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

#79

Post by swarnie_ »

pibefision wrote: post #53
ashleyn wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

Exactly. Return and risk are inherently linked.

Anyone lending money to Argentina does so knowing their money is 50% not coming back.

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

#80

Post by SilasX »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #57
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.

I would have stopped at ”ICO” .

I know this sounds like low-effort snark, but ... yes, I agree.

For whatever else might be wrong or gameable about the stock market, at least IPOs require you to connect your identity as an officer of the company, and take on an obligation to work for shareholders' benefit, so there is a "neck to strangle" if you flout your agreement and run off with the funds. ICOs have no similar mechanism, making them extremely lucrative for scam artists.

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