4 ms·

if something seems too good to be true....it probably is Feel sorry for those who lost money, but, I can't imagine transferring money to someone making such pr

if something seems too good to be true....it probably is Feel sorry for those who lost money, but, I can't imagine transferring money to someone making such promises

mjklin 12y ago
To a shady bank in Latvia, no less. This goes to show that if you dress something up the right way you can sell it to anyone. In Spanish we say "even though the monkey dresses up in silk, it's still a monkey." But people are blinded by their own greed and can't see through the sham.
- conistonwater 12y ago
  > To a shady bank in Latvia, no less. I kind of understand what you mean, but this is a little unfair to Latvia. It's a member of the EU and the eurozone, its banks are (don't laugh please) supervised, and the bank itself was very likely not shady at all. Rather, the bank's customer, which opened an account with the bank, was a shady fraudulent business. The issue with transferring money like that is that it makes investigations harder and slower, as there are more jurisdictions in play. But I think the bank that processed the transactions was basically quite all right, unless there is specific evidence to the contrary.
  - mootothemax 12y ago
    I kind of understand what you mean, but this is a little unfair to Latvia. Completely agree, it'd be just as possible to perform such a scam with bank accounts in e.g. the UK or the US. It doesn't take much. Here's a 16-year-old complaining about his bank's conduct after he was basically caught processing fraudulent payments via his bank account: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/jul/07/strange-bank-account-money-mule http://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/jul/07/strange-bank-ac...
  - kbart 12y ago
    Most of the banks in Latvia (same as in all Baltic states) are the branches of bigger Scandinavian banks, that as the last crisis has shown, are among the most trustworthy and respected banks. So no, it's not "some shaddy bank".
- markvdb 12y ago
  It's 2014. Latvia is part of SEPA, EU, and euro zone. This implies decent regulatory oversight. The severe economic depression that hit Latvia in 2008/2009 forced the worst problems in the banking sector to the surface. In that way, the Latvian part of the EU banking system might be even more stable than that in other EU areas.
- michaelt 12y ago
  To a shady bank in Latvia, no less. As a Brit I can assure you that just because a company has an address and bank account and its company registration in London, doesn't mean it's subject to effective regulation.
GFischer 12y ago
"if something seems too good to be true....it probably is" Except when it isn't, but it usually amounts to high amounts of information assymetry, or high (real or perceived) risk. I know people who have made massive amounts of money in short-term bets - during the fall of the Pound Sterling due to the threat of Scotland independence was the last such event, but they already had money to lose and were pretty experienced.

if something seems too good to be true....it probably is Feel sorry for those who lost money, but, I can't imagine transferring money to someone making such promises

mjklin 12y ago

To a shady bank in Latvia, no less. This goes to show that if you dress something up the right way you can sell it to anyone. In Spanish we say "even though the monkey dresses up in silk, it's still a monkey." But people are blinded by their own greed and can't see through the sham.

conistonwater 12y ago
> To a shady bank in Latvia, no less. I kind of understand what you mean, but this is a little unfair to Latvia. It's a member of the EU and the eurozone, its banks are (don't laugh please) supervised, and the bank itself was very likely not shady at all. Rather, the bank's customer, which opened an account with the bank, was a shady fraudulent business. The issue with transferring money like that is that it makes investigations harder and slower, as there are more jurisdictions in play. But I think the bank that processed the transactions was basically quite all right, unless there is specific evidence to the contrary.
- mootothemax 12y ago
  I kind of understand what you mean, but this is a little unfair to Latvia. Completely agree, it'd be just as possible to perform such a scam with bank accounts in e.g. the UK or the US. It doesn't take much. Here's a 16-year-old complaining about his bank's conduct after he was basically caught processing fraudulent payments via his bank account: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/jul/07/strange-bank-account-money-mule http://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/jul/07/strange-bank-ac...
- kbart 12y ago
  Most of the banks in Latvia (same as in all Baltic states) are the branches of bigger Scandinavian banks, that as the last crisis has shown, are among the most trustworthy and respected banks. So no, it's not "some shaddy bank".
markvdb 12y ago
It's 2014. Latvia is part of SEPA, EU, and euro zone. This implies decent regulatory oversight. The severe economic depression that hit Latvia in 2008/2009 forced the worst problems in the banking sector to the surface. In that way, the Latvian part of the EU banking system might be even more stable than that in other EU areas.
michaelt 12y ago
To a shady bank in Latvia, no less. As a Brit I can assure you that just because a company has an address and bank account and its company registration in London, doesn't mean it's subject to effective regulation.

GFischer 12y ago

"if something seems too good to be true....it probably is" Except when it isn't, but it usually amounts to high amounts of information assymetry, or high (real or perceived) risk. I know people who have made massive amounts of money in short-term bets - during the fall of the Pound Sterling due to the threat of Scotland independence was the last such event, but they already had money to lose and were pretty experienced.