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Maozorz

Shocked At Brazen Scam - How Does This Happen?

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I'm not going to post any links at any point in this topic even if asked. So don't ask! :P

Basically, there is a scam online, it looks VERY legit. The site looks slightly scammy now, but at the time (knowing nothing about investment) a part of me thought it may be legit!

Basically, the scam is that you give them money for 90 business days and you get a 3% return, every business day.

So, if you were to invest say $1000, you would get $660 a month. That's insane! But the whole site is made to look legit, they have a Facebook page with MANY people on it, many likes, Twitter etc, and VIDEOS showing suit-wearing people (supposedly from the company) telling you about the investment program and how much you'd be getting in return, etc.

I realise now this is a scam (thanks to alaskanbob and KaiH), but I am shocked at how brazen it is.

My question is, how in god's name can they get away with such a blatant scam? How can they have a verisigned website, Facebook page with a significant amount of likes/comments/so on and videos showing their faces on their site? Surely the authorities would have completely nuked the whole shindig ages ago and arrested the suit-wearing idiots who put their faces in the made-to-look-official videos?

Just how?

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They can because: As long as someone believes or is greedy enough to fall for the scam there is cash rolling in.

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True, and I feel like an idiot now, I did think it was too good to be true and needed confirmation, I feel 'relieved' in a way.

But still, how do they put their faces on it? Surely that's just a one-way ticket to jail?

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Lesson #1

If it appears too good to be true and concerns money. It is too good to be true.

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But still, how do they put their faces on it? Surely that's just a one-way ticket to jail?

There isn't anything illegal about talking people into giving you money.

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Lesson #1

If it appears too good to be true and concerns money. It is too good to be true.

So, so true. But yet again, their faces?

EDIT:

There isn't anything illegal about talking people into giving you money.

The law is broken and I have just lost a lot more faith in the government, the authorities, law etc.

Hated them before and hate them even more now.

Edited by Maozorz

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Isn't that just a Ponzi scheme? If someone wants to cash out their $660 bucks you pay em from someone else's money, but no-one ever will when they could earn more than that next month, therefore infinite money?

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Wow. Just thanks guys.

I feel shame but hey, I had to learn somewhere.

Edited by Maozorz

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The law is broken and I have just lost a lot more faith in the government, the authorities, law etc.

Hated them before and hate them even more now.

I don't think that the government should run around "correcting" every mistake people make. But that is a whole different topic. Not per say a rule being broken here. You believed them, you invested in something that is too good to be true and shouldn't be shocked when at the end of the rainbow there is in fact no pot of gold.

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brazen ponzi schemes..

these pop up almost daily.

/\

/ \

/__\ Pyramid scheme FTL!!!

broken pyramid even morelose

Edited by Makarus

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Money doesn't come easy. That's the first lesson high schools and university should teach.The people that make money easy, are those that have access to very classified everyday information or people that exploit others vulnerabilities and charisma.

As for the scam, technically it is legal. They are just a "legal" company that seeks venture capital from individuals that are ready to risk money in a potential low probability high gain result.

Known in the streets as the pyramid scam ;)

Edited by Issle

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I don't think that the government should run around "correcting" every mistake people make. But that is a whole different topic. Not per say a rule being broken here. You believed them, you invested in something that is too good to be true and shouldn't be shocked when at the end of the rainbow there is in fact no pot of gold.

No of course, but basically, these people in question should be stopped. It's bad!

Especially when you're tired, hungry and broke like me.

EDIT: The money-making forum I found this site through has 250 PAGES of people saying how they got their money.

/reason

Edited by Maozorz

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No of course, but basically, these people in question should be stopped. It's bad!

Especially when you're tired, hungry and broke like me.

EDIT: The money-making forum I found this site through has 250 PAGES of people saying how they got their money.

/reason

Just a tidbit you guys might chuckle over, :P you want to know where those 250 pages probably came from? Well I can probably give you guys a theory.

I'm a freelance writer, and I take a lot of oddball freelance jobs, to help cover the bills, I do projects for lazy collage students, business level research papers, etc. I work off of a site called freelancer.com

One of the things you learn quickly on that site is that anything can be sold to anyone if they are willing to pay for it, when it comes to the online medium, I see offers all the time for people to write bogus product reviews, to add a few hundred thousand facebook friends, etc. Its how many of us make a living, solving problems like that. You want to know how a product suddenly gets ton of glowing reviews, when its just junk? Well yea that's what happens, someone finds a freelancer that specializes in that kind of crap.

You guys don't believe me look at this :
/>http://www.freelancer.com/projects/Copywriting-Reviews/Need-Amazon-products-reviews-must.2575408.html
/>http://www.freelancer.com/projects/Internet-Marketing-Social-Networking/French-Likes-for-Facebook-Page.html

I see worse examples than that, but that I see jobs like this posted every day. Most of them are for legit reasons, like that french job posting for facebook likes, but some are just.... yea. Its not hard to figure out they are looking to promote bogus stuff. Don't get me wrong I hate that stuff, and would never take a job like that, I have my principals, even if I have to tighten my belt :P But they are always taken at the end of the day by SOMEONE who wants to earn a ratty buck :P

Moral of the story, NEVER take anything in the electronic medium at face value, the Glowing Amazon product review? Check it from several different sources before you decide on it. Remember... there are many a poor hungry writer in India who has to make a living somehow :P

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Likely Ponzi scheme, but basically this is just high risk investment. they theoretically could be making that kind of money, with insane stock exchange or equally ridiculous short term loans. A failure at doing so would be just that a failure, pay the manager, file bankruptcy and everything is "fine". Fraud would only be if they never intended to succeed, but try to prove that!

And once you have a sizeable capital, there are numerous ways to use the money to make additional money, beyond the scheme itself that drows it out.

At a lower level, that's basically how banks operate and why we got a depression recently.

That's why authorities don't do much until it becomes obvious.

As for what Battlepaw said, a little anecdote: What do you thing how Reddit became Reddit? At the beginning the producers sat there writing bogus posts all day, to set the right tone for the side. They even said so themselv.

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Just a tidbit you guys might chuckle over, :P you want to know where those 250 pages probably came from? Well I can probably give you guys a theory.

I'm a freelance writer, and I take a lot of oddball freelance jobs, to help cover the bills, I do projects for lazy collage students, business level research papers, etc. I work off of a site called freelancer.com

One of the things you learn quickly on that site is that anything can be sold to anyone if they are willing to pay for it, when it comes to the online medium, I see offers all the time for people to write bogus product reviews, to add a few hundred thousand facebook friends, etc. Its how many of us make a living, solving problems like that. You want to know how a product suddenly gets ton of glowing reviews, when its just junk? Well yea that's what happens, someone finds a freelancer that specializes in that kind of crap.

You guys don't believe me look at this :

http://www.freelance...st.2575408.html

http://www.freelance...ebook-Page.html

I see worse examples than that, but that I see jobs like this posted every day. Most of them are for legit reasons, like that french job posting for facebook likes, but some are just.... yea. Its not hard to figure out they are looking to promote bogus stuff. Don't get me wrong I hate that stuff, and would never take a job like that, I have my principals, even if I have to tighten my belt :P But they are always taken at the end of the day by SOMEONE who wants to earn a ratty buck :P

Moral of the story, NEVER take anything in the electronic medium at face value, the Glowing Amazon product review? Check it from several different sources before you decide on it. Remember... there are many a poor hungry writer in India who has to make a living somehow :P

Rah.

This post is very enlightening.

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My question is, how in god's name can they get away with such a blatant scam?
It's far less blatant than 'Hi, I'm a Nigerian with $6million in a bank account that I need to store somewhere, yu can have $1m of it if you give me your bank account details.'. If this never worked though, it wouldn't be done. Sadly the gullible are always prey.

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I had an Indian ,with such a heavy accent, calling me and I only understood half of what he said... Basically he said he was an officer of the court and I owed money from something I bought over the internet. I had to send him $1500 or he would come to my house and get it. He kept calling a few times a day. So I called the police and they came and called him from the patrol car. The police was cursed at by the guy and they did stop calling me. I filed a complaint with the FTC, and found out those ppl were being investigated so it is illegal to try to con ppl out of their money. I also found out these ppl were from India and made millions from scaring ppl.

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Obviously promising people something and not giving it after they gave you their money is illegal and punishable by law. There are "libertarian" anarchists out there that want no government at all, but lets hope it never gets to that.

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I don't know how Europe works but the U.S. has government protection against scams. I don't know how to get your money back if you lose it in a scam but you have a place to complain about it thru the FTC:

About the Federal Trade Commission

Our Mission

To prevent business practices that are anticompetitive or deceptive or unfair to consumers; to enhance informed consumer choice and public understanding of the competitive process; and to accomplish this without unduly burdening legitimate business activity.

Our Vision

A U.S. economy characterized by vigorous competition among producers and consumer access to accurate information, yielding high-quality products at low prices and encouraging efficiency, innovation, and consumer choice.

Our Strategic Goals

  1. Protect Consumers: Prevent fraud, deception, and unfair business practices in the marketplace.
  2. Maintain Competition: Prevent anticompetitive mergers and other anticompetitive business practices in the marketplace.
  3. Advance Performance: Advance the FTC’s performance through organizational, individual, and management excellence.

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A ponzi scheme only becomes a ponzi scheme when the recruits run out. Recruits being, people who actually believe they will make that kind of money and buy in. People who buy in early will naturally make the most money, as they are in a sense being paid the premium chunk of any true investment the firm might be making. When recruits run low, the % return will drop lower and lower until the initial recruits start selling their shares out (usually from insider trading secrets).

Once the firm files for bankruptcy, it depends on how many people have lost out on financial investment, how much was lost as a whole, and if the group of financial losers can convince a lawyer there is profit in hunting down and prosecuting the people who ran the firm.

You can make a crap ton from "too good to be true" schemes like this. However, you need to know when to let go of the coat tails. I would never ride something like this for more than a month or two. Go for about 30% of investment gain and pull out.

It is not a scheme if this money is actually being invested in the market. But, you as an investor will never know if this has occurred.

Edited by Jarosz

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