I quote Andreas Antonopoulos here..
"How do we make people more resistant to ponzi & pyramid schemes? Does regulation stop them? Is the added attention a risk for the rest of the cryptocurrency space? As long as you don't make the mistake of stealing from the rich, regulators are not very effective at stopping scams. Scams and schemes happen in both thoroughly regulated and unregulated markets. Most of what regulators do involves restricting entrants on both sides of the market, and by consequence limiting liquidity. They will continue to happen. Most investors will have to have to experience losing money (perhaps repeatedly) in order to learn. It's very hard to just tell them, to convince someone who's making returns they've never seen in their life that they are participating in a scam which will inevitably collapse. What you definitely don't want to do is tell investors that if they outsource decision-making and risks, they will get bailed out; that will only make them stupider."
Now I want to show you someone who is active and does not have any BITCOIN, but sure would like you to think he does..
This is from 2 days ago..
Meet Chadwick..
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(Not defaming character, pointing out facts, protecting consumers)
Lifelong thief, burglar, home invader, and sociopath . .
When first contacting him, before my google search..
Me:
"Hi, will you sell me 0.016 bitcoin for $100 USD?"
Him:
"Hi (my name) ..How about 0.026+BTC, please pay my paypal, paypal email address is, [email protected]"
Me:
"SWEET!"
(at this point I just google 0.026 BTC to USD, and google tells me that that is about $168 U.S. dollars worth..RED FLAG, but hey, if this bozo is going to gift me some extra satoshis I'll gladly make the trade)
Him:
" please pay my paypal, paypal email address is, [email protected] "
(at this point I try and get some more info out of him and start searching google)
Me:
"I use bitmex testnet to play with swap contracts but being in the usa I can't use mainnet bitmex, but i have been looking into bitsgap and ibroker, can you tell me what are the good sites? bitsgap 1 click arbitration looks like it is very lucrative, click and make hundreds over and over it says, you might be in a better position than me to do that..lol"
Him:
"I have been on the internet since 1997, runing microsoft windows. I usually stay on the computer for at least 5 hours a day. I just bought a computer from portatech, 8 core 4.3 Ghz, 8 megs of ram, case, power supply, and a $10 hitachi sata 3 320gig hard drive for $350.00. Its nice when your computer works. I bought bitcoin in 2011, lost the account information, and have been looking for the account since the last 2.5 years. I bought around 450 bitcoins in the first 6 months of 2011 based on a tip from a student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock where I earned 16 hours collage credit. So I found the account number and website the coins are on, bitstamp.net but I need to remember the password. crazy story huh!. ....so rest assured I will you will get the best deal.
please pay my paypal, paypal email address is, [email protected]"
Me:
"Interesting"
Him:
"here you go. you also have my ebay id littletroychad
and you have my paypal address.
I have had an ebay account for over 10 years.
please send directly using friends and family at [email protected]
or
go here h ttp://pa ypal.me/cchadwicka
Chadwick Allen Austin (Muscovalley)"
(I know, I know...but I give him a chance..)
Me:
"my bitpay wallet address is 12EFmnUTjMb92Q5WE27Ex9XE8UM6EfdQBj"
Him:
"please send directly using friends and family at [email protected]"
(This the point I collected a couple screenshots and painted them together)
Me:
"I found something.."
.png)
(Honestly, this is only a fraction of what came up on his record, I got tired of screen-shot copy/paste)
Him:
"yes I have been pursecuted by the government. I am not who they say I am. Last time I went to court I asked the Judge to ' deport ' me. I have been arrested over 40 times, beaten, maced, tazed, locked in a concrete room alone, only let me out for one hour a day to take a shower behind a steel door. FYI, I am a straight A student and have 16 hours of college credit at UALR. I have had my ebay account for over 10 years, paypal account for over 10 years, i hasve positive feedback on my ebay account. Basically, the united states doesn't need a good reason to slander my image, they dont have to have a reason to arrest you. Many of those charges are incorrect, for instance, I walked into a real estate office and asked the lady if I could use the phone, she said yes, then while I was on the phone in the hall a cop walks up behind me and cuffs me. I was in jail for over 6 months after pleaing innocent, 6 months later im still in jail so i changed my plea to guilty and the judge let me out. If you are interested in doing business, we can.
Chadwick Allen Austin (Muscovalley)
---Cchadwicka-- :)"
Me:
"Sorry to hear that, I do hope you have learned your lesson. I sure hope you do not break the law again, but seeing how you have a history of theft, and there is not a way to give feedback on your eBay add, you send first"
...okay so this is basically where he stopped responding,
But the scary thing is when thieves portray themselves as honest victims and blame the Government. I think the government has been over compassionate in his case but opinions are just that.
Do you think he is a good guy and I am wrong for writing this?
Do you think he is a victim?
Please comment and let me know how you feel..
I think the U.S. Government is good at protecting consumers, is not just out to arrest anyone for no reason, and that he is ridiculous, let me know if you agree..
https://wealthrecoveryint.com/news/
https://www.finder.com/bitcoin-scams
https://www.thestreet.com/investing/bitcoin/bitcoin-scams-14640202
Thanks for reading