… how to use it to gull the rubes:
“My child is fine”
Sir, your child started a ponzi scheme at age 15 https://t.co/AByqfVzWDs— James Medlock (@jdcmedlock) June 6, 2021
Ponzi schemes are praxis so long as you're under 30
— NotSoBlindCaesar (@JokeTrainRobber) June 6, 2021
Right? Gotta ponzi while you can
(*this is not investment advice*)
— Akhil Acharya???? (@akhilcacharya) June 6, 2021
“She has tons of cash on hand” and “she can’t pay back the thousands she owes the investors” are not two things that vibe unless your daughter is doing some sketchy shit
— federal kook (@misterurb) June 6, 2021
At that age I’m mostly impressed, and horrified that everyone around her just sort of let her take their money to invest in fake internet coins
— James Medlock (@jdcmedlock) June 6, 2021
Some churches actually train pastors in how to recognise Ponzi schemes because affinity fraud is so absolutely rife in some denominations
— Dan Davies (@dsquareddigest) June 6, 2021
*Jesus flips your laptop off the table.*
— William ?????????????? (@william_now92) June 6, 2021
At least the kid has the excuse of youth, not to mention she’s only gonna ruin a handful of her associates…
How did you come up with a plan that hinges entirely on the US government being unwilling to intervene the affairs of a Latin American state.
Did you think this through at all. https://t.co/4ENBTmltlK
— Syndicalist Weedle Collective (@Weedledouble) June 8, 2021
Chetan Murthy
Avik Fucking Roy. Putz.
NotMax
Heh. Paramount+ (boy, did they miss a bet in not naming it Paramount Peak) is pulling out all the stops across media to push its original series, Infinite. Must have been barraged by about three score ads or static promos for it just over the past week.
Reviews have been blisteringly scathing about what an utter piece of steaming streaming ca-ca it is. (Not a service to which I subscribe, so no chance of my encountering it. YMMV)
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
That can’t possibly be real.
Omnes Omnibus
I just wanted to see that again.
dmsilev
From the Reddit thread,
(Emphasis added)
‘It’s on a computer’ doesn’t make it any less of a pyramid scheme.
Ken
The mother claiming the only reason the pastor wants to shut it down is because he’s jealous of the girl is a nice touch
I also think it’s important to find out if the kid’s ever actually bought any crypto, or is just telling her marks that she did – which is pretty much what Madoff did.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Do bitcoin cultists not believe in vaccines?
Chetan Murthy
@dmsilev: Sure, I got dour opinions about all cryptocurrencies. But setting those aside, that parent’s description is *literally* that of a Ponzi scheme. Literally. The mind boggles. Somebody call the FBI fer crissake.
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Forget it, Jake, it’s Florida.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chetan Murthy: Well, to be completely fair, it wasn’t started by someone named Ponzi.
NotMax
@dmsilev
But- but – there’s a pyramid on the back of the one dollar bill!
//
dmsilev
@Chetan Murthy: Yeah, exactly. Here, ‘crypto’ is just a buzzword being used to attract the victims. Twenty years ago, it would have been ‘web’ or ‘Internet’. Some other buzzword fad will eventually emerge. Doesn’t change the essence of the scam.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Cue the gold bugs. Let the crazies battle one another.
Mai Naem mobile
‘Mother’s Ministry’, five kids and a daughter named Hadley makes me think this is a LDS family. Also they’re kind of known for MLMs – Nuskin, Mellaluca, Young Life, DoTerra etc.
James E Powell
My failure to understand cryptocurrency continues despite several attempts to explain it.
What I don’t get here is that the lady says her daughter has been doing well. Apparently “doing well” doesn’t mean that she is making money on the investments.
The Moar You Know
The daughter is a criminal and is committing a felony right now. The mother is an accomplice. The “investors” are morons. No matter how this turns out I’ll be fine with it.
Chetan Murthy
@James E Powell: The parent is a moron. crypto is unrelated to the fact that the kid is paying early investors with funds from later investors. Straight-up pyramid scheme.
Jean
@James E Powell: I don’t understand cryptocurrency either. Not at all.
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
The whole point of Bitcoin is to replicate the things goldbugs love about gold.
Kent
First, why would anyone invest in bitcoin by handing their cash to a 13 year old instead of just going online and buying their own bitcoin? My youngest daughter is 15 and I would never trust her to do that.
Second, wake me up when you can take out a 30-year mortgage in El Salvador that is denominated in bitcoin. Until then it isn’t a real currency no matter how many banana republic presidents insist otherwise.
KrakenJack
I will plug “Lying for Money” by Dan Davies here. A great overview of the main types of fraud up to the most socially pernicious. He’s also clear about the economic trade-offs in preventing fraud.
Chetan Murthy
@Kent: What Avik forgets, is that the US doesn’t need to interfere in the internals of El Salvador. All they have to do, is interdict every connection between BTC and the international banking system (which the US controls). Done and dusted.
Chetan Murthy
@KrakenJack:
Speaking of, this is always excellent: https://www.bradford-delong.com/2017/08/daniel-daviess-one-minute-mba.html
D-SQUARED DIGEST — FOR BIGGER PIES AND SHORTER HOURS AND AGAINST MORE OR LESS EVERYTHING ELSE http://blog.danieldavies.com: “(1) Avoiding Projects Pursued By Morons 101 http://blog.danieldavies.com/2004_05_23_d-squareddigest_archive.html…
As thy say, “read the whole thing”.
Kent
@Roger Moore: Bitcoin is basically gold that you can also use for trafficking drugs, weapons, humans, and child pornography. Hence its appeal.
Martin
Crazy financial scheme sucks in people at church. Gotta think that’s never happened before.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kent: Try to make a ring or necklace out of bitcoin.
Chetan Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus: Your point is well-taken: unlike gold, BTC … has no other uses, than as a medium of exchange. Gold, silver, fiat money, they all have other uses than for transacting. Not BTC.
ian
She would be unable to pay back the thousands of dollars she owes….
Good thing this is the pastor asking, and not the creditors. This lady should count her lucky stars someone tried to stop the ball rolling before it spiraled even further out of control.
As to the club creating legal headaches for her, well yeah, its *your* child.
Omnes Omnibus
There is a part of me that wants to connect the discussion in the Versailles thread with this one.
Martin
So, Trump DOJ subpoenaed Apple for phone data for Adam Schiff and one other Democrat on House Intelligence Committee along with their staffers and family members. Apple was under a gag order.
I don’t know why Democrats aren’t going after Republicans harder.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Martin:
The news came about four hours ago. What do you want them to have done ?
Delk
I can’t remember the last time I handled cash. Well over a year. I noticed the cash only hot dog stand down the street has a sign announcing that they now take credit/debit cards.
Martin
@ian: The kid doesn’t owe jack shit. The parents do. The kid is a minor.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Guillotines?
Ms. Deranged in AZ
@Mai Naem mobile: That was my thought too
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: Well, that just not necessarily so. Lots of states have limits on parental liability. Often around $10-15k. Plus, there is a whole assumption of the risk thing here. They gave their money to a teen to invest. Come on, man.
Martin
@KrakenJack: Reminds me of the analysis of why email schemes are usually poorly written, with typos, etc. It’s deliberate. If you make the scheme too believable you attract critical thinkers who will eventually figure it out before you get money out of them, but will waste a lot of time. If the marks don’t pick up on the typos and poor writing, odds are they won’t figure it out later.
MisterForkbeard
Just checking back in. My cat Thule went peacefully earlier today at the vet – it was very clearly her time. Also, she clawed the vet when he was trying to give her sedatives – he said it was the first time in 10 years a cat had gotten the drop on him.
I was (and am) very sad, but I’m also weirdly proud of my little cat. 18 years old, terribly sick and STILL nailed the vet. Way to go, kittle.
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No one dies of COVID-19 in Florida anymore! Remember?
Omnes Omnibus
@MisterForkbeard:
Condolences and kudos. Going Out In Style.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mai Naem mobile: LDS wouldn’t say pastor, bishop.
mrmoshpotato
@dmsilev: So grown adults gave money to a 15-year-old for something that wasn’t a bake sale or a run/walk-a-thon?
Am I understanding this correctly?
Omnes Omnibus
@mrmoshpotato: Yes.
mrmoshpotato
@Omnes Omnibus: Excellent. I would like a contact list. You see, I have a lovely bridge in Arizona…
Kent
deleted
HumboldtBlue
I ain’t got no bit coin just some summer love. Da flute.
mrmoshpotato
@Kent: Well in that case, I take back everything I said!
ETA – I didn’t see any reference to her being 13 either. ?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: London Bridge?
HumboldtBlue
How did youse manage to delete Kent?
I bet he likes rock flute too, don’t you, Kent?
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Turns out we’re fresh out of Nigerian princes.
//
?BillinGlendaleCA
@HumboldtBlue: Just edit your comment to say “deleted”.
mrmoshpotato
@HumboldtBlue: Sax-A-Boom, please.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: No. That fell down.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Sort of the melding of the GOP boxes labeled “Cancel Culture” and “Self-deportation.”
;)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: It did but they took the pieces to Arizona and put it back together again.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: I see that //.
You! Lie!
(And the margins are messed up for some reason.)
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yes. Read about it in one of Neil Peart’s books.
Comrade Colette
I don’t for one minute believe the story in
Penthousethe Reddit post is true – it hits too many hot buttons to be real. I absolutely believe that something like this has already happened in more than one church, private evangelical school, or machine shop break room in East Bumfuck, Nowhere.Also, even though pastors are not a thing in LDS, I’ve heard members use that word to translate what they mean to outsiders.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Or for those in search of musicality with a sharper edge….
;)
Kent
I deleted myself. I realized that I said something wrong (that the girl was 13) and I didn’t have anything intelligent to replace it with while the edit clock was ticking so I just wrote “deleted”
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: I was expecting musical saws, but that was good too.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Would you maybe settle for an axe?
Another Scott
Puerto Rico power outage blamed on explosion
https://p.dw.com/p/3ujj4
There was also a DDOS attack on the power company the same day…
Not good. The good people of PR can’t seem to catch a break.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Mary G
@MisterForkbeard:
“Rage, rage at the dying of the light.” Good for little Thule, though I know you must be terribly sad. May her memory be a blessing.
Mary G
A pocket of an extremely endangered species has been found in Oregon:
HumboldtBlue
Bye, Thule.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: I’ve seen it and walked on it.
Poe Larity
She needs to do a kickstarter for non-magnetic bitcoins stat.
HumboldtBlue
@Kent:
But do you like rock flute?
Huh?
Kent?
jl
I though Avik Roy stuck with flacking for big corporate health care interests. So, he’s a cryptocurrency and foreign affairs expert too? When did that happen?
But maybe Roy has a point. IIRC the US only occupied or overthrew the governments of Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras. Other than those little oopsies, we never intervened.
Edit: leaving out all the islands, otherwise the list would be way too long.
Amir Khalid
@MisterForkbeard:
She went out on her own terms. That is admirable.
I’m sorry for your loss. May your next kitty have her strength of spirit.
Martin
@Another Scott: They don’t need a break, just a federal government that recognizes they are part of the US.
something fabulous
@MisterForkbeard: Oh so much loss lately. So sorry to hear, and as you have already heard from so many of us, hoping you can find comfort in helping her not to linger too long. (And kudos to her fierce spirit! Probably helped her to live out such full 9 lives.)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: Nah, just some paper towels.
yellowdog
@Martin: The kid is unable to enter into a valid contract. How did she BUY the stuff without an adults cooperation? And the contracts with the parishioners are also legally worthless.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@MisterForkbeard: I’m so sorry for your loss. It’s so hard to lose a loved one.
ColoradoGuy
Yellowdog has a good point. Minors can’t sign legally binding contracts. If BTC was involved at all (which seems doubtful), any transactions to and from the minor were illegal, and if an adult was co-signing for the minor, I doubt that would be legal either. And taking money from new “investors” to pay off the original “investors” is a straight-up Ponzi scheme and a serious violation of Federal law. The parents are on the hook for this, whether they like it or not.
prostratedragon
Just as I read the main tweet, the radio gave me “Simple Gifts.”
NorthLeft12
I was going to say that Mr. Roy is not very aware of the history of the US, particularly with respect to its relations with Latin American, South American, Southeast Asian, Asian, Middle East, African, and European countries.
Hell, let’s throw in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand too.
You guys cannot help involving yourselves in everyone else’s business. It’s in your DNA.
Chris T.
@NotMax:
I’ve been told
Someone in the know can be sure that his luck is as
Good as gold
Money in the bank and you don’t even pay for it
If you fold
A dollar in the shape of the pyramid that’s printed on the back
Uncle Cosmo
@mrmoshpotato: You see, I have a lovely bridge in Arizona…
I know you think your post was oh-so-cleverly-sarcastic, Moshie. I guess you were unaware that London Bridge was moved to Lake Havasu 50 years ago…
(ETA: I see BIll at #48 got there foist, minus my counter-sarcasm…)
captnkurt
@Chris T.:
I’ve consulted all the sages
I could find in yellow pages
But there aren’t many of them
And the Mayan panoramas
On my pyramid pajamas
Haven’t helped my little problem
Ha, thanks for the flashback to Alan Parsons Project.
tokyokie
@Mai Naem mobile:
Except the LDS Church doesn’t have pastors.
Jinchi
The parent would be smart to get a lawyer who could extract the girl from this scheme as fast as possible. At 15 she should have a lot less legal exposure and, in all likelihood, is not at the top of the pyramid, but rather one of the rubes desperately trying to bring in new ones to cover her losses.