Feds put $5M bounty on 'CryptoQueen' Ruja Ignatova Uncle Sam has put a $5 million bounty on any information leading to the arrest or conviction of self-titled "CryptoQueen" Ruja Ignatova, who is wanted in the US for apparently bilking victims out of more than $4 billion in what the Feds describe as the "one of the largest global fraud schemes in history." In 2014, Ignatova and …
information on the totally stupid twats that could not see a "ponzi" scene if it wrapped itself round a brick and twatted them in the gob, so that I can invite them to invest in my totally not fake cryptocurrency, guaranteed to give 4000% returns in 14 hours. It will take over the world and kill all other currencies. It's called "phuqwytcoyn"
Thank you in advance. I love you all, well, at least I love your money... Ishy
I highly recommend listening to the BBC podcast linked the article before passing judgment on the "totally stupid tw*ts" who got taken. The scheme played upon the desperation that spun out of the 2008 financial crisis (where, as you might recall, banks got bailed out and everyone else got wrecked).
The scheme (I use the more pejorative American sense of the word) was a classic "affinity fraud," hatched out of the hustle and bustle of the early Bitcoin rush, when Bitcoin went from nothing to hundreds, if not thousands, of illusory dollars in the space of a couple of years, and who wanted to miss out on the Next Big Thing, especially when hustled by a charismatic figure like Dr Ruja, as she came to be known. She wouldn't lie to them. Cult leaders never do.
OneCoin was billed as a way out of financial insecurity and desperate people often do desperate, irrational things. To call them stupid is condescending at best.
OneCoin built a belief system, not much different in structure from most cults, with a lot of "la-la-la-I-can't-hear-you" denial of any inconvenient fact. Just try getting into an argument with a Flat Earth believer some time. Or a member of any religion. The fact that their beliefs contradict the observable laws of the universe is completely irrelevant to them. It puts them in the "in group" that "knows" the true facts and everyone else is either deluded or a "hater."
I won't name names but look around and you'll likely see parallels everywhere.
Its origins are somewhat obscure, according to at least one etymological dictionary but it emerged in the 1630s as a cribbage term, of all things, meaning "to spoil (someone's) score." The country of origin is not given. It does appear to be most commonly used in the US though one source gives a usage from the UK as to "steal fuel from a self-service filling station" by driving off.
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