Investors lose $387M to suspected bitcoin pyramid scheme

[thai tech]

Investors lose $387M to suspected bitcoin pyramid scheme

A bitcoin exchange based in Hong Kong, which stopped trading unexpectedly has allegedly closed with more than US$387M of investors money unaccounted for.

According to the South China Morning Post, 3,000 clients invested in MyCoin after each being promised a return of almost US$129,000 on an investment of US$52,000, as well as being offered Mercedes Benz cars and other lucrative prizes as incentives for clients to recruit other investors.

However, there is now widespread speculation that MyCoin was nothing more than a bitcoin pyramid scheme.

Read more: http://tech.thaivisa.com/investors-lose-387m-suspected-bitcoin-pyramid-scheme/4330/

[siampolee]

Greed leads to fools and their money being parted.Sorry no sympathy for those greedy '' gamblers investors.

[gk10002000]

Riiight. Invest 53,000 and earn 129,000. Sign me up...... with your money

[Maestro]

Removed an off-topic post.

[2fishin2]

And just yesterday someone here was recommending Bitcoin as an investment lol

[paddyjenkins]

Bitcoin...bitcoin ponzi scheme....bitcoin ponzi scheme in china....LOL....couldn't get any worse

[Cheesekraft]

And just yesterday someone here was recommending Bitcoin as an investment lol

this company =/= bitcoin just fwiw. bitcoin is not a company. Some companies scam people using other currencies as well.

[KittenKong]

Bitcoin is the ultimate Ponzi scam in itself: a totally worthless currency created out of nothing at all and which only acquires value when someone sells real money to buy it.

This scam is just an extension to that.

If I wanted to buy something intrinsically worthless I would buy gold: at least it's shiny.

[Cheesekraft]

Bitcoin is the ultimate Ponzi scam in itself: a totally worthless currency created out of nothing at all and which only acquires value when someone sells real money to buy it.

This scam is just an extension to that.

If I wanted to buy something intrinsically worthless I would buy gold: at least it's shiny.

why not buy thai baht if you want something intrinsically worthless? Gold has many more intrinsic uses, like dental, electronics, etc.

sorry, but you are wrong and misinformed on all counts.

[siampolee]

Cheesekraft post # 9

why not buy thai baht if you want something intrinsically worthless? Gold has many more intrinsic uses, like dental, electronics, etc.

sorry, but you are wrong and misinformed on all counts.

Looks and reads like a bankers statement.

Banker.polite definition

A morally deficient member of the bourgeoisie who will recklessly sacrifice others well being for personal gain.

Banker. U.K. slang version.

One who delights in self gratification Onaism style.

[Pib]

Seems we are seeing bitcoin "went belly-up, gone bankrupt, ponzi scheme" stories very frequently now days. Sure a person can say banks go bankrupt too, but in most countries the deposits in those banks are insured by the government so a person doesn't lose anything; not so for the unregulated bitcoin world.

[KittenKong]

why not buy thai baht if you want something intrinsically worthless? Gold has many more intrinsic uses, like dental, electronics, etc.

sorry, but you are wrong and misinformed on all counts.

I dont buy currency for itself. I use currency to buy things that give me a return (stocks, property), or I deposit it for interest. Bitcoin, like gold, does not give me that option.

Gold does have a few real uses but, unlike nearly all other traded metals, the requirements for real practical purposes are only about 10% of the total. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#Consumption If gold was not considered (for no valid reason) to be valuable and was not hoarded and used for jewellery then it would be trading for a fraction of what it is currently worth as it simply does not have the uses to warrant the high price.

There is no real difference between gold today and tulip bulbs in the 1600s: both are pretty enough but are not worth anything like the amounts they change hands for.

[Cheesekraft]

why not buy thai baht if you want something intrinsically worthless? Gold has many more intrinsic uses, like dental, electronics, etc.

sorry, but you are wrong and misinformed on all counts.

I dont buy currency for itself. I use currency to buy things that give me a return (stocks, property), or I deposit it for interest. Bitcoin, like gold, does not give me that option.

Gold does have a few real uses but, unlike nearly all other traded metals, the requirements for real practical purposes are only about 10% of the total. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#Consumption If gold was not considered (for no valid reason) to be valuable and was not hoarded and used for jewellery then it would be trading for a fraction of what it is currently worth as it simply does not have the uses to warrant the high price.

There is no real difference between gold today and tulip bulbs in the 1600s: both are pretty enough but are not worth anything like the amounts they change hands for.

that is interesting, I also use bitcoins to buy into investments such as stocks and also in very high interest 'savings accounts' as well, and have been for a long time. Anyways, I don't recommend buying bitcoin for investment purposes, but it is a godsend for sending/receiving money internationally, and get irritated when people who don't know what they are talking about think bitcoin-using companies = bitcoin. There is no CEO of bitcoin, its like the napster of money, and not tied to any company/person/group/etc.

Edited February 11, 2015 by Cheesekraft

[maisodni]

And just yesterday someone here was recommending Bitcoin as an investment lol

Any frauds or losses involving Bitrcoin over the six years that it has existed are just "chump change" or rounding errors, in comparison to thousasnds of years of frauds involving fiat currencies, and thefts of currencies and precious metals. Just for example:

Enron - Share price goes goes from US $90.75 in mid-2000 to less than $1 by November 2001 - followed by a US $63.4 BILLION bankruptcy filing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_scandal Do you blame the US dollar for that loss?

Parmalat - Italian milk company. Collapsed into US €14 BILLION bankruptcy due to accounting fraud - 2003 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmalat_bankruptcy_timeline Do you blame the Euro for that loss?

Viktor Lustig - 1925 - Posing as a government official, he "sold" the Eifel Tower to several diffferent Parisian scrap metal dealers, by picking up a bit over US $200,000 in bribes to steer the winning bid (on a non-existent scrapping project) their way. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Lustig Do you blame the French Franc?

Closer to home, how about Nick Leeson, Barings Bank, Singapore, 1995. Loss of £827 million (US $1.4 BILLION), resulting in the insolvency of Barings Bank. Do you blame the British Pound for that loss?

Ahh, but precious metals - gold - that's a safe sector, right? Well, it is until people start passing off gold-plated tungsten bars as "pure gold": http://ausbullion.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/tungsten-filled-gold-bars.html http://www.zerohedge.com/article/german-prosieben-tv-channel-finds-500-gram-tungsten-bar-wcheraeus-gold-foundary-bank-origin http://www.myfoxny.com/story/19578206/fake-gold-bars-turn-up-in-manhattan

Crooks exist in every niche of any and all financial-related markets. Everyone beats up on Bitcoin because it is "different" in a way that many people cannot understand.

Bitcoin may be a losers game, or be doomed to failure. But - the world fiat money system is GUARANTEED to collapse within a few years, as a mathematical certainty - mainly due to gross fraud and manipulation by the United States Federal Resrve system, which will drag the whole word under, at some point.

Cheers!

MS

Edited February 11, 2015 by maisodni

[2fishin2]

Ok Chicken little the sky IS falling soon....

Bitcoin is a scam period. Ill continue to put my money in currency and live my life as normal.

[Pib]

Bitcoin may be a losers game, or be doomed to failure. But - the world fiat money system is GUARANTEED to collapse within a few years, as a mathematical certainty - mainly due to gross fraud and manipulation by the United States Federal Resrve system, which will drag the whole word under, at some point.

Could you post a copy of that guarantee...I want to see if you read it right. Thanks.

[maisodni]

Bitcoin may be a losers game, or be doomed to failure. But - the world fiat money system is GUARANTEED to collapse within a few years, as a mathematical certainty - mainly due to gross fraud and manipulation by the United States Federal Resrve system, which will drag the whole word under, at some point.

Could you post a copy of that guarantee...I want to see if you read it right. Thanks.

Well: http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/01/17/you-think-the-deficit-is-bad-federal-unfunded-liabilities-exceed-127-trillion/

Since the entire world economy is $78 trillion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_economy), I'd say hat there is an insoluble problem there.

But - that' s just me.

MS