Ponzi's on Bitcointalk.org

[julian071]

The last couple of weeks have seen a couple of supposed cloudmining companies turn out to be ponzi's. That gives BTC a bad name, but it's hard to do anything about (accept maybe things like the topic that Puppet started that I link in my sig).

However, sometimes an obvious ponzi is started and bitcointalk.org is used to lure people in, like here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=906261

There's no way something like this could be legit.

My question is: does bitcointalk.org have a policy against this sort of thing, can this sort of stuff be reported somewhere, and will action be taken?

If the answer is no, I think that would be not only bad for the reputation of BTC, but also of this board.

[1715161017]

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[1715161017]

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[Quickseller]

The forum does not moderate potential scams. If it were to do so if it were to not moderate a potential investment or trade and such turned out to be a scam then the forum would have essentially endorsed a scam.

As you pointed out there is no way that investment can be legit and any reasonable adult will likely come to the same conclusion. Anyone investing should know they are playing a game of musical chairs and will likely lose their money.

You can report it via the report to moderator button on the bottom right of a post however the action taken will be the report being marked as a bad report if you are reporting it because it is a ponzi/scam and it has broken no other rule, and is posted in the correct section.

[hilariousandco]

Ponzis or HYIPs are allowed under current forum policy in the Gambling section. As for Cloud Mining companies how do we differentiate between legit ones and ponzis?

[julian071]

The forum does not moderate potential scams. If it were to do so if it were to not moderate a potential investment or trade and such turned out to be a scam then the forum would have essentially endorsed a scam.

As you pointed out there is no way that investment can be legit and any reasonable adult will likely come to the same conclusion. Anyone investing should know they are playing a game of musical chairs and will likely lose their money.

You can report it via the report to moderator button on the bottom right of a post however the action taken will be the report being marked as a bad report if you are reporting it because it is a ponzi/scam and it has broken no other rule, and is posted in the correct section.

Thank you for your clear explanation. Too bad but understandable. I guess people will have to learn the hard way. Only upside to that is that people who learn it that way really learn something..... The other day I saw a post from someone in one of cloudmining-scam-threads, who invested more than he could afford to lose in order to earn money for medicine for his dad. Harsh lesson that surely will not be forgotten.

[hilariousandco]

The other day I saw a post from someone in one of cloudmining-scam-threads, who invested more than he could afford to lose in order to earn money for medicine for his dad. Harsh lesson that surely will not be forgotten.

Are you sure that isn't just the excuse he gave to try get some donations after? It's not uncommon for people to pour out the sob stories after being scammed etc (though obviously terrible if true but I'd err on the side of cynicism here usually).

[Quickseller]

The forum does not moderate potential scams. If it were to do so if it were to not moderate a potential investment or trade and such turned out to be a scam then the forum would have essentially endorsed a scam.

As you pointed out there is no way that investment can be legit and any reasonable adult will likely come to the same conclusion. Anyone investing should know they are playing a game of musical chairs and will likely lose their money.

You can report it via the report to moderator button on the bottom right of a post however the action taken will be the report being marked as a bad report if you are reporting it because it is a ponzi/scam and it has broken no other rule, and is posted in the correct section.

Thank you for your clear explanation. Too bad but understandable. I guess people will have to learn the hard way. Only upside to that is that people who learn it that way really learn something..... The other day I saw a post from someone in one of cloudmining-scam-threads, who invested more than he could afford to lose in order to earn money for medicine for his dad. Harsh lesson that surely will not be forgotten.

If he lives in the US then the medicine will most likely be socialized as you can get health insurance very easily under the ACA that has certain minimum coverage requirements. I don't think the lesson will be remembered.

If that person did not gamble in a cloud mining operation then he probably would have gambled it somewhere else. If he had invested in a "legit" cloud mining operation then he would have still lost money because of the fact it is overpriced.

IMO if you have money then you need to act like an adult, do your own due diligence and use common sense. This forum allows young people to register (they do not ask your age) however the target market is older people who are adults.

(P.S. were you talking about hashie? If you were they were affiliated with AM1 and were endorsed by your signature as of several weeks ago)

[julian071]

The other day I saw a post from someone in one of cloudmining-scam-threads, who invested more than he could afford to lose in order to earn money for medicine for his dad. Harsh lesson that surely will not be forgotten.

Are you sure that isn't just the excuse he gave to try get some donations after? It's not uncommon for people to pour out the sob stories after being scammed etc (though obviously terrible if true but I'd err on the side of cynicism here usually).

I'd normally be cynical about a claim like that too, but since he had very little posts and did not ask for donations I judged it to be a true story from somebody who just wanted to share their utter disappointment. I can always be mistaken of course. Whatever it may be, I'm sure cases like that do occur. People are just to gullible.

Edit:

If he lives in the US then the medicine will most likely be socialized as you can get health insurance very easily under the ACA that has certain minimum coverage requirements. I don't think the lesson will be remembered.

If that person did not gamble in a cloud mining operation then he probably would have gambled it somewhere else. If he had invested in a "legit" cloud mining operation then he would have still lost money because of the fact it is overpriced.

IMO if you have money then you need to act like an adult, do your own due diligence and use common sense. This forum allows young people to register (they do not ask your age) however the target market is older people who are adults.

(P.S. were you talking about hashie? If you were they were affiliated with AM1 and were endorsed by your signature as of several weeks ago)

He was not from the US.

I hope the new regulations in the US help fix the fact that about a third of the people used to be uninsured. I'm sure not everything has been fixed right now as that is a major issue to take care of. In related news a NY hospital tried charging a British couple USD 200k for caring for their prematurely born child: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/01/british-couple-hospital-bill-baby-born-new-york

It was not hashie but pbmining. The fact that that ponzi was endorsed by a (supposedly) legit company underlines the point that I made that distinguishing between ponzi's and legitimate companies is quite hard. The set of criteria proposed in the topic in my sig is very helpful.

[jambola2]

I'd normally be cynical about a claim like that too, but since he had very little posts and did not ask for donations I judged it to be a true story from somebody who just wanted to share their utter disappointment. I can always be mistaken of course. Whatever it may be, I'm sure cases like that do occur. People are just to gullible.

Well, if he had "very little posts" wouldn't it be more likely that he was trying to beg for donations later ?
What if he was doing it as a competitor trying to defame ?
In this anonymous scene, you should never assume that anyone is sharing a true story, unless they have proper proof (or trusted by you yourself to a huge degree).

Secondly, there is nothing such as a risk-less investment. The idea that someone invested money in order to "earn money for medicine for his dad" is just a bad idea.
Investing is a bad idea. (atleast if you have no knowledge of what you are investing in)

[Vod]

The last couple of weeks have seen a couple of supposed cloudmining companies turn out to be ponzi's. That gives BTC a bad name, but it's hard to do anything about (accept maybe things like the topic that Puppet started that I link in my sig).

How many ponzis have started using cash?  Hundreds, if not thousands.

Do you think that gives fiat a bad name?