How can I spot Ponzi schemes?

[LittleBitFunny]

I'm pretty new to Bitcoin and the idea of cloud mining seems pretty appealing. However I keep hearing about Ponzi schemes which rely entirely on new members to stay alive.  Besides the blindingly obvious, what are the main signs that a service might be a Ponzi?

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[Emoclaw]

Easy. If they promise things that are too good to be true, they probably aren't.
Just go to this section: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=207.0 and avoid all websites there.

[Chin Cheng]

I'm pretty new to Bitcoin and the idea of cloud mining seems pretty appealing. However I keep hearing about Ponzi schemes which rely entirely on new members to stay alive.  Besides the blindingly obvious, what are the main signs that a service might be a Ponzi?

The real meaning of ponzi scheme is giving a promise of a greater return in a short amount of time and you will be getting a share of the later investors. The problem with cloud mining sites is that ,the mining difficulty will keep on increasing and the chances are that you might not even get the invested money and if the price of bitcoin drops they could void your contract. If you are planning to invest in cloud mining just check every details before entering.

[avatar_kiyoshi]

In cloudmining case, usually you should research more about the company profile and the proof of their mining activity.

The basic of ponzi scheme is your money come from the next investor, then the next investor money come from the next one, ect.
Mostly ponzi scheme offer you with high return investment than other investment. The characteristics usually can longer survive, until the owner/company of such investment can't repay or just runs away the money.

Also there are a similar scheme, pyramid scheme, but usually pyramid scheme very vulnerable to collapse early.

[senyorito123]

I'm pretty new to Bitcoin and the idea of cloud mining seems pretty appealing. However I keep hearing about Ponzi schemes which rely entirely on new members to stay alive.  Besides the blindingly obvious, what are the main signs that a service might be a Ponzi?

The real meaning of ponzi scheme is giving a promise of a greater return in a short amount of time and you will be getting a share of the later investors. The problem with cloud mining sites is that ,the mining difficulty will keep on increasing and the chances are that you might not even get the invested money and if the price of bitcoin drops they could void your contract. If you are planning to invest in cloud mining just check every details before entering.

and also we can detect it as ponzi if the site doesn't have any proof of their mining farm,location,owners information. So for us to not get victimized by this scheme well we should not try to invest at them since i truly believe that we don't have any good fortune at them, they where surely be turned scam somehow and that is the play if ponzi scam investment site.

[philipma1957]

I'm pretty new to Bitcoin and the idea of cloud mining seems pretty appealing. However I keep hearing about Ponzi schemes which rely entirely on new members to stay alive.  Besides the blindingly obvious, what are the main signs that a service might be a Ponzi?

Go to  hashnest.com

 They are run by the biggest builder of asics in the world.

They are the God or King or Goddess or Queen of cloud mining.

Read their offers  basically they offer  3 to 5%  for 6 month contracts.

Any cloud mining   That offers a lot more is most likely no good.

[kano]

No cloud mining will return you a bitcoin profit.
i.e. if you put in X Bitcoins, you'll get back less than X.

The question is how small or large your loss will be.

[bravehearth0319]

I'm pretty new to Bitcoin and the idea of cloud mining seems pretty appealing. However I keep hearing about Ponzi schemes which rely entirely on new members to stay alive.  Besides the blindingly obvious, what are the main signs that a service might be a Ponzi?

First know the meaning of "PONZI SCHEME" stealing others money, then runaway in the end. If the information is not complete details about their business like from the owner, their officials are transparent, the developer is not updating the people form time to time, don't have proof that they have a business, or mining farm or not showing any road map, project flow, etc. those are the signs can be consider.

[boris singer]

I'm pretty new to Bitcoin and the idea of cloud mining seems pretty appealing. However I keep hearing about Ponzi schemes which rely entirely on new members to stay alive.  Besides the blindingly obvious, what are the main signs that a service might be a Ponzi?

Ponzi is money game and always has pyramid scheme,  takes money from people who are new sign up & invest, and enrich the old members, Ponzi usually have a tier of their direct referrals. Cloud Mining originally formed and operated in mining system. However, there are some owners who are tempted to embezzle investment funds that come in. They take full advantage of mines. So, Just pure revolving funds from member get member.

[Red-Apple]

I'm pretty new to Bitcoin and the idea of cloud mining seems pretty appealing. However I keep hearing about Ponzi schemes which rely entirely on new members to stay alive.  Besides the blindingly obvious, what are the main signs that a service might be a Ponzi?

as a rule of thumb whenever something looks too good to be true that means it is most probably a scam.
in case of a Ponzi scheme the scam always claims to have a backing business that is generating the profit (in this case mining bitcoin) but in reality there is nothing, there is no business (and in this case there are no mining equipment).

you ca read more about cloudmining scam here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=878387.0
and simply, as long as you haven't seen the place having real hash power don't trust it.

p.s. also remember that when it comes to cloudmining it is not enough to be legit, they aren't exactly profitable investments.

[youdamushi]

No cloud mining will return you a bitcoin profit.
i.e. if you put in X Bitcoins, you'll get back less than X.

The question is how small or large your loss will be.

That's a bit extreme in my opinion.
You CAN make profit with btc cloud mining

But clearly in general you won't, and even if you make profit the risk you're taking is SO HIGH it's definitely not covered by the profit you'll get

[jack1111]

I'm pretty new to Bitcoin and the idea of cloud mining seems pretty appealing. However I keep hearing about Ponzi schemes which rely entirely on new members to stay alive.  Besides the blindingly obvious, what are the main signs that a service might be a Ponzi?

The most obvious indicator is to give high return in short time, they promise a fixed percentage daily forever without clearing the kind of job they do to grow your money, the legit business does not guarantee profits. You can see how many sites offer 10% or more daily and forever, but after 1 or 2 months maximum they close and run away with your money.

[marlboroza]

I'm pretty new to Bitcoin and the idea of cloud mining seems pretty appealing. However I keep hearing about Ponzi schemes which rely entirely on new members to stay alive.  Besides the blindingly obvious, what are the main signs that a service might be a Ponzi?

Go to this section - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=207.0
There are all kind of scams - ponzi, fake cloud mining, doublers, pyramid, matrix etc.
You will find all sings there 

[amacar2]

Cloud mining = not profitable and the one which promises to give high daily return is just hyip not cloud mining.
Bitcoin doubler = all of them are scam no-one can double bitcoin within few hours.
Bitcoin donation ponzi = the one who will be in lowest level of the pyramid will struggle to get back what he have put into the program
Bitcoin hyip = They are hyip so they will not be online forever, some may run after few weeks some may run after few month. They will scam when they will stop getting new investment.

Better not to invest in any cloud mining site or any other program that offers high daily/weekly return. Learn trading so that you can make some bitcoin.

[Zadicar]

Don't be deceived on those too good to be true returns because those are just tools would really lure out greedy newbies to invest their money on because they always believe that they could possibly make them rich which isnt true at all.

[cengsuwuei]

I'm pretty new to Bitcoin and the idea of cloud mining seems pretty appealing. However I keep hearing about Ponzi schemes which rely entirely on new members to stay alive.  Besides the blindingly obvious, what are the main signs that a service might be a Ponzi?

you want create cloud mining site or only want join to cloud mining site
if you want create cloud mining site, and you have not ready mining hardware, i think you only want create ponzy site, not real mining

[passwordnow]

I'm pretty new to Bitcoin

Well first, welcome to the world of crypto's 

.. and the idea of cloud mining seems pretty appealing.

They are everywhere mostly here in forum you can found them in investor-based games. You can see a lot of them there but don't invest.

However I keep hearing about Ponzi schemes which rely entirely on new members to stay alive.  Besides the blindingly obvious, what are the main signs that a service might be a Ponzi?

It's pretty obvious, they are going to ask you to invest / deposit to them and you'll receive 100%+ profit in return without doing anything. Whatever it takes, don't try to invest into something that you'll just sit and wait for your profit without any source of income but from other depositors, you'll end up donating your bitcoins to them.

[sunsilk]

I'm pretty new to Bitcoin and the idea of cloud mining seems pretty appealing. However I keep hearing about Ponzi schemes which rely entirely on new members to stay alive.  Besides the blindingly obvious, what are the main signs that a service might be a Ponzi?

you want create cloud mining site or only want join to cloud mining site
if you want create cloud mining site, and you have not ready mining hardware, i think you only want create ponzy site, not real mining

Are you reading it right? He is not even planning to build a cloud mining site or wanting to join it. He's just simply curious about it.

I'm pretty new to Bitcoin and the idea of cloud mining seems pretty appealing. However I keep hearing about Ponzi schemes which rely entirely on new members to stay alive.  Besides the blindingly obvious, what are the main signs that a service might be a Ponzi?

Most of the signs for a cloud mining is being said by other members here. Maybe you should forget about getting curious with this things.

And just avoid when you see an exaggerated return of investment effortless.

[goldenchip]

It is possible to identify that it is a ponzi scheme when there is no product or service capable of generating demand, although the proposal says that the business is something revolutionary. I think with time of experience this becomes easier to identify, especially when one sees the unrealistic gains that are offered by such schemes.

[Hazir]

Spotting Ponzi schemes, HYIP or any other investing scheme designed to scam you is pretty easy.
You just need to know where to look and how to read signs. Also bear in mind that there are some extra elaborate scam attempts.

Signs of standard Ponzi:

1. high guaranteed profits - it is impossible to generate stable high returns, basically anything higher than 20% is totally out of the question and should be avoided
2. Risk free investment - You need to remember that real investing is never 100% risk free, there is always a chance that you will lose the money
3. Zero information, or fake info about people behind the company - if you can't find address, phone number, real name of the CEO or staff, no social media profiles etc - it is a huge red flag.
4. Vague info about what this investment is really about - you need to know how this investment will generate money, you can't conjure money from thin air.