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BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

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Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#91

Post by beefield »

conanbatt wrote: post #63
everdev wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ponzi scheme work because people believe the fraud (promise of high returns). If they said, deposit your money and we'll pay you back only if enough people after you also deposit their money then you'd have an interesting point, although I'm sure it's still illegal even if you announce your intentions before doing something illegal.

> Ponzi scheme work because people believe the fraud (promise of high returns). Lotteries work the same way and are legal.

My understanding is that lotteries are quite open about the expected return that is heavily negative (and most people do understand that the expected return is negative). So they do not work the same way.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#92

Post by TeMPOraL »

drexlspivey wrote: post #85
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Famous Youtubers and other individuals with influence convinced hundreds of people to put their money into BitConnect in order to profit off of referrals If you lost money in this scheme and are in the United States or Canada, contact your state securities regulator [1]. Mention any such referral sources. Those individuals may be liable for securities fraud under state and federal law. If you're in the United State…

Most of them took down their videos by now

This is the Internet, there must be a copy somewhere.

Maybe a different youtuber criticized one of those famous recommenders, and included relevant clips of the recommendation in their video?

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#93

Post by Trundle »

ceejayoz wrote: post #17
FLUX-YOU wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=BitConnect+refe... Jesus, this is pretty blatant.

Several of the "get referrals!" videos literally use pyramids in their thumbnails to illustrate the program. Holy crap.

People don't get involved with pyramid schemes because they're too dumb to see that they're pyramid schemes (well some might). They do it because they delude themselves in to thinking that they're getting in near the top.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#94

Post by beejiu »

JustFinishedBSG wrote: post #90
closeparen wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t fraud require deception? Wasn’t this pretty upfront about being a Ponzi scheme?

No, Ponzi schemes are illegal. Even if you write in huge bold red letters "HEY THIS IS A PONZI SCHEME" before people "invest" it wouldn't change anything legally.

> Even if you write in huge bold red letters "HEY THIS IS A PONZI SCHEME"

Remember a few years ago the service ponzi.io, a openly transparent Bitcoin ponzi scheme. Here's the discussion from back then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7202182

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#95

Post by TeMPOraL »

spookthesunset wrote: post #55
dmix wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of large long-running "pyramid" structured marketing companies that are totally legal though. Just because it's a pyramid scheme doesn't mean it's a ponzi scheme nor automatically imply that it's exploiting people. Just wanted to make that distinction. Not commenting on BitConnect directly.

> Just wanted to make that distinction. Useless pedantry. A scam is a scam no matter what you call it. Getting caught up deep in terminology is a great way to for shysters to obfuscate any wrongdoing. These "business structures" are all part of the broader category called "things that are a scam".

I think GP tried to make the point that not every pyramid-shaped scam is illegal.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#96

Post by TeMPOraL »

allannienhuis wrote: post #62
bhouston wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I noticed this other apparent BitConnect-like Ponzi scheme here: https://polynetwork.org Funny thing, I noticed because it is using an old version of our 3D player on their home page (the 3D robot), and they are getting an incredible amount of traffic.

It's almost shocking how transparently dishonest they are. And yet people put real money (well, I suppose real bitcoins) into a black hole like this...

Through my experience watching people in MLMs (and getting way too close to the event horizon once), I learned that scammers and greedy people tend to hang out together (the latter usually becoming either victims or overzealous lieutenants of the scammers).

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#97

Post by netsharc »

ve55 wrote: post #5

For those unaware, Bitconnect was a Bitcoin-based ponzi-scheme that had operated 'successfully' for quite some time. I don't say 'ponzi' as an insult in the way some do for cryptocurrencies, it was quite literally just a bare-bones ponzi scheme, where you deposit your money (Bitcoin) on their website, buy their token, 'lock' your funds for some amount of time, and you are promised very high interest rates while encou…

Do they get returns in Bitcoins too? E.g. "Get 5% more BTC every month"? That would be funny in "Geezus, you can't be that stupid!" kinda way.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#98

Post by detaro »

netsharc wrote: post #97
ve55 wrote: post #5

For those unaware, Bitconnect was a Bitcoin-based ponzi-scheme that had operated 'successfully' for quite some time. I don't say 'ponzi' as an insult in the way some do for cryptocurrencies, it was quite literally just a bare-bones ponzi scheme, where you deposit your money (Bitcoin) on their website, buy their token, 'lock' your funds for some amount of time, and you are promised very high interest rates while encou…

Do they get returns in Bitcoins too? E.g. "Get 5% more BTC every month"? That would be funny in "Geezus, you can't be that stupid!" kinda way.

No, the returns are in the token that nobody else uses.

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#99

Post by Nursie »

ForHackernews wrote: post #89
bhouston wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If $200M was printed today, then it likely doesn't exist. Hilarious that this is going on. At some point the music has to stop.

There's a twitter account that tracks the printing of new Tether: https://twitter.com/tetherprinter There was another $100m invented 11 hours ago, in addition to the $100m created on Monday.

Jesus, they've printed 250 million of them in the last three days!

Re: BitConnect Closes Exchange as States Warn of Unregulated Sales

#100

Post by lagadu »

TheSmiddy wrote: post #48
saalweachter wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, this being the internet, it could have started as a tongue in cheek joke and then when the money started rolling in the founders just kind of went with it. Which I think is a potential lesson for HN readers: something can be funny, but still be fraud.

for example: https://www.chemtrailvaccines.com/ Not really a fraud though, they WILL send you a bottle of mints as described

> 100% proven to combat all symptoms caused by government released chemtrails

Can't argue with their claims either, the mints really do combat all the symptoms caused by government released chemtrails.

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