We all know the stories of people like Bernie Madoff who ran one of the most successful ponzi schemes, if not the most successful of all time. However, there are many more people out there that have been doing the same types of scams under the radar and nobody catches them. These people are complete psychopaths with not only zero remorse, but actually lacking the ability to feel bad about what they have done. Most of the people running these scams actually think in some ways they are helping people.
My best friends dad worked 30 years has a policemen, with much of that time spent doing forensic account and catching white collar criminals. I asked him about what some of the most bizarre stories of people he encountered were and what they were like. He said almost always these people were considered pillars of the community and well respected for years. No one ever had any reason to expect them because they would never get screwed over, that is until the money dries up. He also mentioned that probably 50% of the people he investigated were able to hustle their way onto esteemed positions like working for the local government investing funds, or doing so for religious organizations.
In addition, like I said before he mentioned about 90% of the people were convince they were doing nothing wrong. He said his personal favorite was this guy they busted in the 90s who was selling shares of made up companies to people. In his mind he wasn’t running a scam because as long as he got another greater fool he would make the other people rich. In fact at one point they wanted to do a lie detector test on him and ask him if he knew he was defrauding the people that invested with him. My friend’s dad told them not to do it, the guy is a full on psychopath, but they did the test anyway. The guy passed with flying colors with over 50 questions. Ultimately the lie detector test hurt their prosecution and they were only able to send him away for 5 or so years. My friends dad says he looks him up every once and a while and since they put him in jail hes done the same thing three times.
Also the problem why so many of these conmen go under the radar is because their either make friends with the right people, for example Madoff was friends with multiple people in the SEC and in law enforcement, or they simply don’t make enough money to warrant an investigation. My friend’s dad said more than once they would call the FBI because they had to deal with somebody who either went over state lines or they operated in multiple areas. He said when they called the FBI and said “this guy stole 800k from people” often times they were too understaffed at the moment so they would say “call us back if he steals 2 million”. There are many people who spend their entire lives as conmen and it never catches up to them because they don’t make enough of a splash.
The same thing happens on Wall Street with penny stocks and the various groups and forums that pump and dump them. There are people with 20k+ followers who pay to get into a group that just selects a target and decides to pump it for no reason. Then it dumps and people get caught holding the bag. This is blatant security fraud, but the SEC doesn’t have enough manpower to do anything about it. You cant ever assume that someone is legitimate. You always have to look at someone for yourself and if something seems easy and too good to be true it usually is.
The problem with the crypto space is many of these psychopaths have come here to scam. It is still the wild west and bitcoin alone has made many scammers millions of dollars. Basic scams as affinity scams, which are when someone risks their reputation, which almost always means nothing, or basic ponzi schemes, are commonplace. Onecoin, was able to scam people out of millions because people were buying products that they had no idea how they worked. The selling pitch was literally “bitcoin but better, and oh you cant sell it”. Its crazy how much money people threw at them.
There are conmen everywhere, but they will always go to the places that are the most profitable, which is currently the crypto space. Watch out for people who promise the world and always fall flat on their expectations or make excuses. Don’t trust anyone on the internet with your money.
Thanks to @Elyaque for the badges