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The biggest Ponzi Scam Ever?

Gord_in_Toronto said:
A popular currency trading website vanished overnight and $1-billion of investors’ money disappeared with it

http://business.financialpost.com/2...llion-of-investors-money-disappeared-with-it/

Repeat after me, "If it's too good to be true, I probably is . . . "

That is a lot of dough! :eek:
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Back in the early summer it seemed that all the financial do-it-yourself sites were full of people who claimed they'd put in from $5000 to 30,000 and lost it all.

(I hate the linked article... it's a commercial for an upcoming article. Give me a break! You either write news or you don't.)
 
Foolmewunz said:
Back in the early summer it seemed that all the financial do-it-yourself sites were full of people who claimed they'd put in from $5000 to 30,000 and lost it all.

(I hate the linked article... it's a commercial for an upcoming article. Give me a break! You either write news or you don't.)
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Curious. The url I posted took me right to the Financial Post web site. :confused:

Just checked from my post above and it works for me.
 
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Gord_in_Toronto said:
Curious. The url I posted took me right to the Financial Post web site. :confused:

Just checked from my post above and it works for me.
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Well, yes, because you're not an idiot! :mad: When sites break up articles with plugs for other articles, I tend to think they're done. And I didn't notice that the "ads" were part of the story, so I saw three links to related stuff and a couple of screen shots and said, "Damn! That's a short article."
 
Why invest in stocks, with their paltry 10-12% annual returns, when you can be making 250% returns!!!!!!

I bet a lot of Zero Hedge readers got caught up in this scam.
 
That $1B figure appears to be the phoney, inflated amount the website told investors they had on account. The actual amount investors gave to them is much less. The UK dr in the story invested 60K, but over 10 months that turned into 2.5M on the website. He didn't lose 2.5M, he lost 60K, plus, perhaps, some reasonable oppty cost.
 
I saw this in Bloomberg.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...ce-1-billion-loss-as-trade-site-vanishes.html

But the name of the company is "Secure Investment" and they guarantee the principle on their FOREX trading! That really should set off alarm bells all by itself. There's no way that a professional FOREX trader would guarantee the principle of money in trust. Also, it can't possibly be that profitable over the long term.
 
Gord_in_Toronto said:
http://business.financialpost.com/2...llion-of-investors-money-disappeared-with-it/
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:newlol Guess what ads I saw in this artiticle:

2vn15hw.jpg
 
From the OP article:

Mandal, the U.K. doctor who, along with his wife, invested $60,000, followed Secure’s postings and studied its advertisements. The details of daily trading results, the pitches in the videos and the testimonials won him over.

“I think they did it very cleverly,” he says.
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Yeah. Cleverly enough to swindle those whose financial illiteracy matches their greed, that is.
 
*sigh* When will people realize anything that sounds too good to be true is too good to be true...
 
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Foolmewunz said:
Well, yes, because you're not an idiot! :mad: When sites break up articles with plugs for other articles, I tend to think they're done. And I didn't notice that the "ads" were part of the story, so I saw three links to related stuff and a couple of screen shots and said, "Damn! That's a short article."
Click to expand...

I'm not an idiot? :boggled: Just a second while I rush off and tell my wife! :eye-poppi
 
psionl0 said:
:newlol Guess what ads I saw in this artiticle:

[qimg]http://i58.tinypic.com/2vn15hw.jpg[/qimg]
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I hate to be the one to tell you this but Google must be customizing these ads just for you based on your browsing history. The one I get says "PLAN FOR YOUR RETIREMENT NOW". :D
 
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Gord_in_Toronto said:
I hate to be the one to tell you this but Google must be customizing these ads just for you based on your browsing history. The one I get says "PLAN FOR YOUR RETIREMENT NOW". :D
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Obviously the ads are customized. Why do you think I took a screenshot?

I don't know if it's customized at the personal level but it wouldn't surprise me. Years ago I browsed some of these "how to get rich quick" websites but they never answered the question. They merely waffled incessantly about nothing (all in an attempt to get you emotionally invested in their site) and implied that this "free secret" (available at minimum cost) would change my life.

It didn't take me long to get fed up with this BS but the scammers have never given up on me.
 
Best I can tell it was plain old fraud, not a Ponzi. Doesn't look like any investors ever got paid any returns.
 
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