4 ms·

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=BitConnect+referral https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=BitConnect+refe... Jesus, this is pretty blatant.

ceejayoz 9y ago
Several of the "get referrals!" videos literally use pyramids in their thumbnails to illustrate the program. Holy crap.
- idbehold 9y ago
  The pyramid was literally on the Bitconnect FAQ page: https://youtu.be/wK0ztRcXvNQ?t=135 https://youtu.be/wK0ztRcXvNQ?t=135
  - saalweachter 9y ago
    I mean, this being the internet, it could have started as a tongue in cheek joke and then when the money started rolling in the founders just kind of went with it. Which I think is a potential lesson for HN readers: something can be funny, but still be fraud.
    - spookthesunset 9y ago
      No. My USDT is on them deliberately putting that crap on the site in order to weed out anybody with a functioning brain. It's kinda like Nigerian prince scammer emails are full of deliberate grammar and spelling errors. You gotta filter out the noise in your conversion funnel. Lots of crypto-coin stuff, including virtually all "name brand" crypto's, do the same thing. Most of the marketing is full of complete political, financial, and computer science nonsense. Anybody educated in any of those topics takes one look at the crypto space and goes "nope. sounds too good to be true. pass". What's left is a much more, shall we say, naïve set of marks to go after. You know, the kind that won't likely sue the shit out of those at the top of the pyramid... or even report them to the authorities. A very nice feature of Bitcoin is it specifically targets those with an anti-authoritarian bent--the kind who blather on about tax-theft, how the police should be deregulated, free market private industries and how the system of law should be replaced with cold, hard, unfeeling computer programs. If you were a scammer, wouldn't you want to target a group of people who wouldn't in a million years report you to the police? Good stuff. The "crypto space" is an amazing thing to watch. Never a dull moment.
      - asddddd 9y ago
        I disagree, lots of smart people who know it's bullshit are still involved (because it's very easy money if you know what you're doing). Any sort of tangible value is utterly irrelevant, what matters is future market opinion. Quite the same for gold, stocks, forex, or anything else, just with much greater volatility. > If you were a scammer, wouldn't you want to target a group of people who wouldn't in a million years report you to the police? Most of the fresh faces that make the bubbles happen don't care about any of that stuff, they are just blinded by greed and will get burned for it. The ancap/libertarian ideologues who have been involved for years are the ones who are worth ridiculous amounts of money these days. The fact that it's a relatively large community of fresh millionaires/billionaires (they won't tell you, but that's a huge percent of people involved in crypto for 5+ years) with an unwillingness to convert to fiat currencies (revoking citizenships to avoid taxes, even) does mean that there's a willingness to put money in marginal opportunities.
      - trophycase 9y ago
        Email scammers lose time if they don't quickly eliminate bad targets. Ponzi schemes have no such issues.
    - TheSmiddy 9y ago
      for example: https://www.chemtrailvaccines.com/ https://www.chemtrailvaccines.com/ Not really a fraud though, they WILL send you a bottle of mints as described
      - TaylorGood 9y ago
        That’s brilliant.
      - lagadu 9y ago
        > 100% proven to combat all symptoms caused by government released chemtrails Can't argue with their claims either, the mints really do combat all the symptoms caused by government released chemtrails.
        daemin 9y ago
        I didn't know chemtrails caused bad breath! /sarcasm
        jacobush 9y ago
        it combats that too
  - ce4 9y ago
    Video was deleted by the user. Any other source?
    - rplnt 9y ago
      Not sure, but this is what I've found: https://bitconnect.com/images/referal_bonus.png https://bitconnect.com/images/referal_bonus.png
      - npongratz 9y ago
        Image also archived here: http://archive.is/wdET3 http://archive.is/wdET3
- dmix 9y ago
  There are plenty of large long-running "pyramid" structured marketing companies that are totally legal though. Just because it's a pyramid scheme doesn't mean it's a ponzi scheme nor automatically imply that it's exploiting people. Just wanted to make that distinction. Not commenting on BitConnect directly.
  - sillysaurus3 9y ago
    Yep. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6MwGeOm8iI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6MwGeOm8iI
  - spookthesunset 9y ago
    > Just wanted to make that distinction. Useless pedantry. A scam is a scam no matter what you call it. Getting caught up deep in terminology is a great way to for shysters to obfuscate any wrongdoing. These "business structures" are all part of the broader category called "things that are a scam".
    - TeMPOraL 9y ago
      I think GP tried to make the point that not every pyramid-shaped scam is illegal.
      - tomclive 9y ago
        Herbalife just escaped being labelled a pyramid scheme a couple of years ago and seems to hover around the edges of legality: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/15/herbalife-ftc-fine-200-million-pyramid-scheme-label https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/15/herbalife-f...
  - saas_co_de 9y ago
    Multi-level marketing is perfectly legal if you are selling a real product. If you are selling stock in your business that doesn't actually produce anything except for marketing materials to sell stock then not so much.
- Trundle 9y ago
  People don't get involved with pyramid schemes because they're too dumb to see that they're pyramid schemes (well some might). They do it because they delude themselves in to thinking that they're getting in near the top.

ceejayoz 9y ago

Several of the "get referrals!" videos literally use pyramids in their thumbnails to illustrate the program. Holy crap.

idbehold 9y ago
The pyramid was literally on the Bitconnect FAQ page: https://youtu.be/wK0ztRcXvNQ?t=135 https://youtu.be/wK0ztRcXvNQ?t=135
- saalweachter 9y ago
  I mean, this being the internet, it could have started as a tongue in cheek joke and then when the money started rolling in the founders just kind of went with it. Which I think is a potential lesson for HN readers: something can be funny, but still be fraud.
  - spookthesunset 9y ago
    No. My USDT is on them deliberately putting that crap on the site in order to weed out anybody with a functioning brain. It's kinda like Nigerian prince scammer emails are full of deliberate grammar and spelling errors. You gotta filter out the noise in your conversion funnel. Lots of crypto-coin stuff, including virtually all "name brand" crypto's, do the same thing. Most of the marketing is full of complete political, financial, and computer science nonsense. Anybody educated in any of those topics takes one look at the crypto space and goes "nope. sounds too good to be true. pass". What's left is a much more, shall we say, naïve set of marks to go after. You know, the kind that won't likely sue the shit out of those at the top of the pyramid... or even report them to the authorities. A very nice feature of Bitcoin is it specifically targets those with an anti-authoritarian bent--the kind who blather on about tax-theft, how the police should be deregulated, free market private industries and how the system of law should be replaced with cold, hard, unfeeling computer programs. If you were a scammer, wouldn't you want to target a group of people who wouldn't in a million years report you to the police? Good stuff. The "crypto space" is an amazing thing to watch. Never a dull moment.
    - asddddd 9y ago
      I disagree, lots of smart people who know it's bullshit are still involved (because it's very easy money if you know what you're doing). Any sort of tangible value is utterly irrelevant, what matters is future market opinion. Quite the same for gold, stocks, forex, or anything else, just with much greater volatility. > If you were a scammer, wouldn't you want to target a group of people who wouldn't in a million years report you to the police? Most of the fresh faces that make the bubbles happen don't care about any of that stuff, they are just blinded by greed and will get burned for it. The ancap/libertarian ideologues who have been involved for years are the ones who are worth ridiculous amounts of money these days. The fact that it's a relatively large community of fresh millionaires/billionaires (they won't tell you, but that's a huge percent of people involved in crypto for 5+ years) with an unwillingness to convert to fiat currencies (revoking citizenships to avoid taxes, even) does mean that there's a willingness to put money in marginal opportunities.
    - trophycase 9y ago
      Email scammers lose time if they don't quickly eliminate bad targets. Ponzi schemes have no such issues.
  - TheSmiddy 9y ago
    for example: https://www.chemtrailvaccines.com/ https://www.chemtrailvaccines.com/ Not really a fraud though, they WILL send you a bottle of mints as described
    - TaylorGood 9y ago
      That’s brilliant.
    - lagadu 9y ago
      > 100% proven to combat all symptoms caused by government released chemtrails Can't argue with their claims either, the mints really do combat all the symptoms caused by government released chemtrails.
      - daemin 9y ago
        I didn't know chemtrails caused bad breath! /sarcasm
        jacobush 9y ago
        it combats that too
- ce4 9y ago
  Video was deleted by the user. Any other source?
  - rplnt 9y ago
    Not sure, but this is what I've found: https://bitconnect.com/images/referal_bonus.png https://bitconnect.com/images/referal_bonus.png
    - npongratz 9y ago
      Image also archived here: http://archive.is/wdET3 http://archive.is/wdET3
dmix 9y ago
There are plenty of large long-running "pyramid" structured marketing companies that are totally legal though. Just because it's a pyramid scheme doesn't mean it's a ponzi scheme nor automatically imply that it's exploiting people. Just wanted to make that distinction. Not commenting on BitConnect directly.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  Yep. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6MwGeOm8iI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6MwGeOm8iI
- spookthesunset 9y ago
  > Just wanted to make that distinction. Useless pedantry. A scam is a scam no matter what you call it. Getting caught up deep in terminology is a great way to for shysters to obfuscate any wrongdoing. These "business structures" are all part of the broader category called "things that are a scam".
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    I think GP tried to make the point that not every pyramid-shaped scam is illegal.
    - tomclive 9y ago
      Herbalife just escaped being labelled a pyramid scheme a couple of years ago and seems to hover around the edges of legality: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/15/herbalife-ftc-fine-200-million-pyramid-scheme-label https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/15/herbalife-f...
- saas_co_de 9y ago
  Multi-level marketing is perfectly legal if you are selling a real product. If you are selling stock in your business that doesn't actually produce anything except for marketing materials to sell stock then not so much.
Trundle 9y ago
People don't get involved with pyramid schemes because they're too dumb to see that they're pyramid schemes (well some might). They do it because they delude themselves in to thinking that they're getting in near the top.