Sceptical about friend’s invite to join Bitcoin/forex app

badger09

gatters wrote: »

One of my Facebook 'friends' has just got into this. The relentless marketing/positivity is cult like............

And as most of us know, Facebook 'friends' are not real friends;)

5MeoDmt

Malthusian wrote: »

This isn't just a pyramid scheme, this is a pyramid / Ponzi hybrid. It promises a 96% per annum return on money invested, even if you don't recruit anyone or do any selling. This means you know right from the start that your only hope of getting the return is to recruit enough suckers to come in after you.

I got invited to one of the private Facebook groups and posted that I thought it was a Ponzi .. this is the response I got:

"I usually ask people to define what a ponzi scheme is (often they cant) - then explain that USI make 5 - 8% a day 4 ways, bitcoin mining, partnership mining, arbitrage and crypto forex - thus its easy for them to pay out 1% per day. Ponzis are not sustainable - they rely on constant input of money to support as the maths doesnt add up, USI is different as you can just join for free, put money in, not sell and make a passive income. With ponzis you always have to sell and grow a bigger team to get anywhere and they dont have a real product - like bitconnect..."


My logic is struggling to refute the claims.. could those four 4 methods realistically generate a daily 5 - 8% ?

Reaper

No, it is not credible to make 5-8% a day, and even if they could why would they need to sell the scheme to other people?

By my calculations if they can make 8% per day then they only have to invest £1 to get £1,466,381,582,247 after a year thanks to the magic of compound interest. That's very roughly the GDP of the whole of the UK.

To quote their own post back at them "the maths doesnt add up"

coyrls

5MeoDmt wrote: »

My logic is struggling to refute the claims.

My logic is struggling to see any support for their claims.

Malthusian

5MeoDmt wrote: »

"I usually ask people to define what a ponzi scheme is (often they cant) - then explain that USI make 5 - 8% a day 4 ways, bitcoin mining, partnership mining, arbitrage and crypto forex - thus its easy for them to pay out 1% per day.

Anyone who posts this sort of drivel is not worth arguing with.

You can go back to them and point out what Reaper said but they will either reply with more drivel, or delete your comment.

It is pointless to argue with scammers, or anyone who has thrown the arbiter of objective reality off the field of play. You might as well play football without goals, or chess with someone who can move all the pieces wherever he likes.

It is of course possible to make 5-8% in a day by trading Bitcoin or forex, in the same way as you can make 100% a day by going to a casino and putting all your money on red. Is it possible to make 5-8% a day consistently? Of course not.

robatwork

Malthusian wrote: »

This isn't just a pyramid scheme, this is a pyramid / Ponzi hybrid. It promises a 96% per annum return on money invested, even if you don't recruit anyone or do any selling. This means you know right from the start that your only hope of getting the return is to recruit enough suckers to come in after you.

I think some people are genuinely financially so naive that they really don't realise their money comes from the [STRIKE]members [/STRIKE]mugs below them in the scheme.

They really think there is something almost magical that makes the money, or that someone somewhere is selling widgets that they are investing in.

But - by the time they realise they will only make money persuading others to join - they will know it. And they have a choice. Call it an awful life experience and write it off. Or smile falsely and sucker in their friends. Only low-lifes do the latter.

Malthusian

robatwork wrote: »

I think some people are genuinely financially so naive that they really don't realise their money comes from the [STRIKE]members [/STRIKE]mugs below them in the scheme.

There's a concept in law called reasonable belief. The legal definition is "not thinking that you can legally get 96% per annum returns". It doesn't matter whether you have "genuinely" talked yourself into thinking that someone is making 5-8% day in day out in forex trading if no reasonable person could believe it.

The only genuine victims are those who've just handed over money to their friends/relatives/fellow churchgoers without knowing any details at all. I don't deny they exist, but anecdotal evidence suggests they are a minority. Most people sign up because they think they're going to double their money in a year.

None of these people are financially naive while the scheme is in operation. They bang on about "doing your research" and how "everything has risks" and gloat about the money they're making. (Take a look at the comments from some of the scammers in the BehindMLM thread I linked earlier, they're very educational.) These are not things that financially naive people say. Financially naive people keep their money in the bank.

They only become financially naive when the scheme collapses and they lose money, and their downlines are bombarding them with text messages asking them the money is.