6 ms·

There's something hilarious about a guy getting rich and famous for lying and tricking people for profit, when it turns out he got rich and famous by... lying a

There's something hilarious about a guy getting rich and famous for lying and tricking people for profit, when it turns out he got rich and famous by... lying and tricking people for profit in a different way? I mean, complaining about being taken advantage of sounds pretty silly, it's not like he didn't tell you he was a liar who tricked people for profit!

rasfincher 6y ago
Con man turns out to be con man. Granted the con isn't as glamorous at it was made out to be, but still a pretty effective con.
- jrochkind1 6y ago
  Even better, the actual con may not be illegal in any way? Not sure. Depending on nature of any contracts he signed, perhaps a contract violation with civil liability? Big reward small risk, compared to what he had claimed to do!
  - anonyxyz 6y ago
    I mean, he still probably forged checks, no?
sopooneo 6y ago
Similar to many famous "how to get rich" advisors.
- offtop5 6y ago
  Get rich advisors, life style coaches, dating coaches. I don't really have respect for people who haven't actually accomplished anything aside from a grift. I do read books like Principals by Ray Dalio or I Love Capitalism! by Ken Langone.
  - chrisseaton 6y ago
    Getting rich quickly is clearly a fantasy, but what's odd about life or dating coaching? Seems unlikely that someone who does dating coaching would never have had successful dates and wouldn't know what they're talking about?
    - tcoff91 6y ago
      What's odd about life and dating coaching is it usually ends up in an unqualified person practicing psychological counseling.
    - jordan_curve 6y ago
      I think “dating coaching” is usually a term used akin to “pick-up artist” i.e. using manipulative tricks to convince people to have sex with you. I don’t think having there’s anything wrong with having some sort of social interaction coach or the equivalent to help learn what the social norms around dating are. Although not usually for dating, that is a form of therapy that can be helpful for people on the autism spectrum who may have trouble understanding the social cues on their own.
      - phkahler 6y ago
        >> I don’t think having there’s anything wrong with having some sort of social interaction coach or the equivalent to help learn what the social norms around dating are. If you're looking for something long term why seek advice from someone that's chronically single but an expert at "dating". And if someone has been married a long time, they probably don't know anything about the current "dating scene". But if you just want to learn to hook up with lots of people then maybe they have something to teach you.
        runawaybottle 6y ago
        They aren’t selling you dating tips, they are selling you a guide to have confidence. Part of making headway into a problem where someone has low confidence is building them up (in whatever way) to be less fearful. If you are deathly afraid of rejection, we pretty much have to hide a pill inside a donut so to speak, where one must be convinced the girl/guy across the table is no big deal. It’s a necessary evil sadly for people that suffer from chronic insecurity.
- DonHopkins 6y ago
  Which is why cryptocurrency shills are so unpopular here. If their get-rich-quick pump-and-dump schemes actually worked, they'd have a lot better things to do with their time than evangelize Bitcoin and Ethereum and ICOs and NFTs in online forums.
  - redstripe 6y ago
    I don't know. I wish I fell for their scam back in 2009/2010 when they were flooding HN with bitcoin posts. There were so many it seemed coordinated.
    - skinnymuch 6y ago
      Sure. However if you were to fall for that. Who knows what else you’d fall for? What if you then staked all your immense profits on Nikola, with leverage. Lose most of it. 5x your initial amount with dogecoin only to lose 90% of it again with some other peddling stuff. All while spending your time believing all the BS every one is saying. I guess this is for my self too. My thinking is I’d be a wildly different person if I not only fell for shills peddling stuff and “successful experts” selling courses. On top of that, keeping the money in risky investments is a whole other thing. Like staking a big stake of money in Bitcoin or Eth for the past 5+ years without cashing out. Or still having tons of money in dogecoin without cashing out. Of course I too wish I made tons of easy money. The fact that a friend bought into dogecoin a month ago and I didn’t. Means I’m never going to do this sort of stuff. Same friend/acquaintance wants me to buy into dogecoin during the next dip. Which to him is dropping ~15%. He wants me to buy in at 45+ cents. It’s at 55 cents right now after rising like 40% or something in a couple of days. He’s probably going to max out his credit cards to buy more dogecoin before Elon Musk’s SNL appearance. I am very tempted to buy in to dogecoin as well just for the hype of him. Sell before he actually presents. We’ll see.
zpeti 6y ago
I'm highly suspicious that most of wolf of wall street was complete bullshit, that was fed as a true story. The guy made loads of money from lying. Why would we trust him about some sort of crazy rich man's lifestyle story that almost perfectly stereotypes what a crazy evil wall street boiler room guy would do.
- logshipper 6y ago
  The story, in fact, was mostly bullshit. It was being "narrated" by Belfort (DiCaprio) all along, and the mere presence of some very obviously outlandish/fickle claims serve to establish the unreliability and narcissism of the narration. For example, at the start of the movie, he talks of driving a red Ferrari, and immediately changes it to white [1]. Another example is the 400lb bench press [2]. I also saw an interpretation on how Scorsese sought to present money and opulence as the ultimate salvation. So it only made sense to write the gospel in a way that extended that narrative. [3] Edit: Formatting [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxZ99H5_1Z8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxZ99H5_1Z8 [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/bvt20s/in_the_wolf_of_wall_street_jordans_home_gym_has/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/bvt20s/in_the... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxZ99H5_1Z8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxZ99H5_1Z8
  - SZJX 6y ago
    The third link you posted seems to be the same as the first?
- elliekelly 6y ago
  Some of the scenes in the story were based in truth but were pulled from other Wall Street scandals. For example, the little person tossing depicted in the opening scene[1] did indeed happen[2] - at Fidelity. And the SEC took action.[3][4] The scandal is more or less responsible for the heavy gift and entertainment regulation in the mutual fund industry. [1]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OxZ99H5_1Z8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OxZ99H5_1Z8 [2]https://money.cnn.com/2005/11/04/news/newsmakers/fidelity_party.dj/index.htm https://money.cnn.com/2005/11/04/news/newsmakers/fidelity_pa... [3]https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/business/06fidelity.html https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/business/06fidelity.html [4]https://www.reuters.com/article/fidelity-trader-idUSN0818028920110408 https://www.reuters.com/article/fidelity-trader-idUSN0818028...
jhbadger 6y ago
Reminds me a bit of Clifford Irving -- an author who wrote about art forgers -- and then later tried to pass a work of complete fiction as a genuine autobiography of Howard Hughes.
- dhosek 6y ago
  There was a movie about him too: The Hoax, with Richard Gere as Irving.
  - bobcostas55 6y ago
    And the Orson Welles masterpiece F for Fake.
asddubs 6y ago
world famous imposter turns out to be world famous imposter
- Viliam1234 6y ago
  the next level is getting rich by selling books how to get rich. actually, this niche is already quite full.
SilasX 6y ago
Exactly my reaction, except I would have phrased it as, "Wow, that's awesome! So you just acted confident and people believed whatever you said? But ... this story is real, right?"

rasfincher 6y ago

Con man turns out to be con man. Granted the con isn't as glamorous at it was made out to be, but still a pretty effective con.

jrochkind1 6y ago
Even better, the actual con may not be illegal in any way? Not sure. Depending on nature of any contracts he signed, perhaps a contract violation with civil liability? Big reward small risk, compared to what he had claimed to do!
- anonyxyz 6y ago
  I mean, he still probably forged checks, no?

sopooneo 6y ago

Similar to many famous "how to get rich" advisors.

offtop5 6y ago
Get rich advisors, life style coaches, dating coaches. I don't really have respect for people who haven't actually accomplished anything aside from a grift. I do read books like Principals by Ray Dalio or I Love Capitalism! by Ken Langone.
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  Getting rich quickly is clearly a fantasy, but what's odd about life or dating coaching? Seems unlikely that someone who does dating coaching would never have had successful dates and wouldn't know what they're talking about?
  - tcoff91 6y ago
    What's odd about life and dating coaching is it usually ends up in an unqualified person practicing psychological counseling.
  - jordan_curve 6y ago
    I think “dating coaching” is usually a term used akin to “pick-up artist” i.e. using manipulative tricks to convince people to have sex with you. I don’t think having there’s anything wrong with having some sort of social interaction coach or the equivalent to help learn what the social norms around dating are. Although not usually for dating, that is a form of therapy that can be helpful for people on the autism spectrum who may have trouble understanding the social cues on their own.
    - phkahler 6y ago
      >> I don’t think having there’s anything wrong with having some sort of social interaction coach or the equivalent to help learn what the social norms around dating are. If you're looking for something long term why seek advice from someone that's chronically single but an expert at "dating". And if someone has been married a long time, they probably don't know anything about the current "dating scene". But if you just want to learn to hook up with lots of people then maybe they have something to teach you.
      - runawaybottle 6y ago
        They aren’t selling you dating tips, they are selling you a guide to have confidence. Part of making headway into a problem where someone has low confidence is building them up (in whatever way) to be less fearful. If you are deathly afraid of rejection, we pretty much have to hide a pill inside a donut so to speak, where one must be convinced the girl/guy across the table is no big deal. It’s a necessary evil sadly for people that suffer from chronic insecurity.
DonHopkins 6y ago
Which is why cryptocurrency shills are so unpopular here. If their get-rich-quick pump-and-dump schemes actually worked, they'd have a lot better things to do with their time than evangelize Bitcoin and Ethereum and ICOs and NFTs in online forums.
- redstripe 6y ago
  I don't know. I wish I fell for their scam back in 2009/2010 when they were flooding HN with bitcoin posts. There were so many it seemed coordinated.
  - skinnymuch 6y ago
    Sure. However if you were to fall for that. Who knows what else you’d fall for? What if you then staked all your immense profits on Nikola, with leverage. Lose most of it. 5x your initial amount with dogecoin only to lose 90% of it again with some other peddling stuff. All while spending your time believing all the BS every one is saying. I guess this is for my self too. My thinking is I’d be a wildly different person if I not only fell for shills peddling stuff and “successful experts” selling courses. On top of that, keeping the money in risky investments is a whole other thing. Like staking a big stake of money in Bitcoin or Eth for the past 5+ years without cashing out. Or still having tons of money in dogecoin without cashing out. Of course I too wish I made tons of easy money. The fact that a friend bought into dogecoin a month ago and I didn’t. Means I’m never going to do this sort of stuff. Same friend/acquaintance wants me to buy into dogecoin during the next dip. Which to him is dropping ~15%. He wants me to buy in at 45+ cents. It’s at 55 cents right now after rising like 40% or something in a couple of days. He’s probably going to max out his credit cards to buy more dogecoin before Elon Musk’s SNL appearance. I am very tempted to buy in to dogecoin as well just for the hype of him. Sell before he actually presents. We’ll see.

zpeti 6y ago

I'm highly suspicious that most of wolf of wall street was complete bullshit, that was fed as a true story. The guy made loads of money from lying. Why would we trust him about some sort of crazy rich man's lifestyle story that almost perfectly stereotypes what a crazy evil wall street boiler room guy would do.

logshipper 6y ago
The story, in fact, was mostly bullshit. It was being "narrated" by Belfort (DiCaprio) all along, and the mere presence of some very obviously outlandish/fickle claims serve to establish the unreliability and narcissism of the narration. For example, at the start of the movie, he talks of driving a red Ferrari, and immediately changes it to white [1]. Another example is the 400lb bench press [2]. I also saw an interpretation on how Scorsese sought to present money and opulence as the ultimate salvation. So it only made sense to write the gospel in a way that extended that narrative. [3] Edit: Formatting [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxZ99H5_1Z8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxZ99H5_1Z8 [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/bvt20s/in_the_wolf_of_wall_street_jordans_home_gym_has/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/bvt20s/in_the... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxZ99H5_1Z8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxZ99H5_1Z8
- SZJX 6y ago
  The third link you posted seems to be the same as the first?
elliekelly 6y ago
Some of the scenes in the story were based in truth but were pulled from other Wall Street scandals. For example, the little person tossing depicted in the opening scene[1] did indeed happen[2] - at Fidelity. And the SEC took action.[3][4] The scandal is more or less responsible for the heavy gift and entertainment regulation in the mutual fund industry. [1]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OxZ99H5_1Z8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OxZ99H5_1Z8 [2]https://money.cnn.com/2005/11/04/news/newsmakers/fidelity_party.dj/index.htm https://money.cnn.com/2005/11/04/news/newsmakers/fidelity_pa... [3]https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/business/06fidelity.html https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/business/06fidelity.html [4]https://www.reuters.com/article/fidelity-trader-idUSN0818028920110408 https://www.reuters.com/article/fidelity-trader-idUSN0818028...

jhbadger 6y ago

Reminds me a bit of Clifford Irving -- an author who wrote about art forgers -- and then later tried to pass a work of complete fiction as a genuine autobiography of Howard Hughes.

dhosek 6y ago
There was a movie about him too: The Hoax, with Richard Gere as Irving.
- bobcostas55 6y ago
  And the Orson Welles masterpiece F for Fake.

asddubs 6y ago

world famous imposter turns out to be world famous imposter

Viliam1234 6y ago
the next level is getting rich by selling books how to get rich. actually, this niche is already quite full.

SilasX 6y ago

Exactly my reaction, except I would have phrased it as, "Wow, that's awesome! So you just acted confident and people believed whatever you said? But ... this story is real, right?"