Hashtalk was a very hostile place, and all negative comments was attacked by loyal customers and killed by moderators. This should have flagged concerns, but most people were "money blind" and just accepted it as the norm. {It's our place, and if you do not agree, just STFU}
I also fell for this, but pulled out when things started to look dodgy. {When one person tells you, something is legit, you brush it off... When 100's of people tell you the same thing, you take notice and eventually start to believe it}
Looking back at that, many people would say we were fools... and they would be correct, but how many of them did the same with other companies doing the same thing? We tried a service that looked legit at the start... when they failed with the legit business model, they turned to Ponzi funding, and they made us all look bad.