Timeline for Friend was brainwashed by MLM-/ponzi investment scam. What can I do?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
24 events
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| S Mar 5, 2021 at 2:34 | history | suggested | Galactic | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
improved vocabulary and grammar
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| Mar 5, 2021 at 0:40 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Mar 5, 2021 at 2:34 | |||||
| Aug 8, 2016 at 6:19 | comment | added | Lilienthal | @M.M I'm aware but even if it was wrong of Bakuriu to post a half-answer without context as a comment, that's no excuse for reposting that as an answer without credit or context. At the very least this should say "If this is illegal then X" instead of a broad sweep condemning this as illegal without any evidence to that fact, especially when it's clear that the poster is not familiar with the laws and jurisdictions involved. This is dangerously close to personalised legal advice that's off-bounds for any SE site. | |
| Aug 8, 2016 at 5:06 | comment | added | M.M | @Lilienthal answers should not be posted as comments on stackexchange anyway. It's perfectly fine for someone to write an answer even if the same info had been posted in comments. Also, answers should be taken as applying to the question, not some generalization of the question. (OP's particular scheme is surely illegal because there's no tangible product being sold) | |
| Aug 2, 2016 at 20:52 | comment | added | Bakuriu | In any case the problem is not whether the OP can prove anything. The problem is to let the authorities know of a possible fraud in action, that this person is involved and plan to involve other people. It's the authorities work to find out whether they can act or not, but it is important to at the very least be sure that this situation is known to the authorities, that they know who is involved and what is planning to do so that they might keep an eye. | |
| Aug 2, 2016 at 20:48 | comment | added | Bakuriu | @Lilienthal That's why I didn't post this as an answer. It ought to integrate some more legal information. In any case: there is a difference between MLM-schemes and pyramid schemes (i.e. the former are legal, the latter aren't). From what the OP said I believe that his friend is in a pyramid scheme even though this "company" will try as hard as possible to make it look as MLM. | |
| Aug 2, 2016 at 9:48 | comment | added | Lilienthal | How on earth is this the top-voted answer? Not only was this copied from a comment without any improvement (the correct verb is "defraud" by the way), it's not even correct as many MLM-schemes are legal. | |
| Aug 1, 2016 at 16:31 | comment | added | SnakeDoc | @H.Idden Think about it from the other direction. You're saving your friend, not turning him in. The sooner you report this fraudulent scheme to the authorities, the sooner your friend is out of danger. As it stands, every day that goes by, your friend gets pulled in deeper and deeper into this scheme. From a law enforcement perspective, he may begin to look like someone who is conscious of the scheme, and deliberately is participating anyway. Before long, he may be risking jail time, or be on the hook for huge financial settlements. The sooner you act, the sooner you can save your friend. | |
| Aug 1, 2016 at 16:20 | history | edited | abrad1212 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
deleted 89 characters in body; added 61 characters in body
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| Aug 1, 2016 at 15:27 | comment | added | Ajedi32 | Is this in the US? If so, wouldn't this sort of thing be more of a job for the FBI than local police? Their website fbi.gov/investigate/… specifically calls out Ponzi schemes as one of the things they investigate. Also, obviously it's not just the OP's friend involved in this. The idea isn't to get him specifically busted, but whoever it was who started this scheme in the first place. The entire organization needs to be taken down. | |
| Aug 1, 2016 at 13:04 | history | edited | JTP - Apologise to Monica♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 89 characters in body
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| Aug 1, 2016 at 12:57 | history | undeleted | JTP - Apologise to Monica♦ | ||
| Aug 1, 2016 at 12:06 | history | deleted | JTP - Apologise to Monica♦ | via Vote | |
| Aug 1, 2016 at 10:31 | comment | added | Agent_L | The longer you wait, the more people your friend scams and the higher sentence he'll get. Abusing a position of authority will likely score him extra jail time. | |
| Jul 31, 2016 at 15:08 | comment | added | Daniel Anderson | This is not necessarily a criminal matter just yet, so the police are unlikely to do anything, especially since you can't prove that anyone has lost one cent. You're right that this is a scam, but police don't act on our hunches or suspicions, so there's little chance they'd do anything at all. They don't like involving themselves in financial crimes unless there's clear and convincing evidence of a crime, and at the moment that piece is lacking. Sadly it won't be until someone does lose that this evidence might become available and therefore be actionable. | |
| Jul 31, 2016 at 8:36 | comment | added | H. Idden | Even to access their official marketing material you need to be a paying member. | |
| Jul 31, 2016 at 8:36 | comment | added | H. Idden | I am willing to turn in his upline (the ones that invited him but even if I get their names the next problem is to prove the whole thing is illegal. The scam is known to police in about every Western country. There were even arrests in China and official anti-fraud authorities warn against it. But in Western countries they can't do anything without prove and the company has enough laywers to know how to rig everything that you can't prove them anything from outside. The company itself is in a country where the police will not do anything. | |
| Jul 31, 2016 at 3:34 | comment | added | abrad1212 | @Pharap I agree | |
| Jul 31, 2016 at 3:00 | comment | added | Pharap | @H.Idden Your friend might not get charged if it's a first offense. Aside from which you'd be helping anyone else he might try to rope in and in the long run, it would help him by showing him these kinds of things are dodgy and to stay clear of them. It's probably fair to prove to him that it's illegal first and if he chooses to ignore it - then go to the police anonymously. | |
| Jul 31, 2016 at 2:26 | comment | added | David Schwartz | @H.Idden You aren't really turning him in. You are stopping him from making a bad situation much worse for himself. You may want to talk to him first. If he really thinks it's perfectly illegal, he shouldn't have an issue. Also warn him that recipients of fraudulent transfers, which are what these are, are on the hook to repay any funds they receive. Have him punch "clawback" into his favorite search engine. | |
| Jul 31, 2016 at 0:25 | comment | added | abrad1212 | @H.Idden You need to stop him before he scams more people, sure it will be hard to turn him in, But you'll be saving other people and possibly your friend's life | |
| Jul 31, 2016 at 0:21 | comment | added | H. Idden | Good idea but I don't think I would be able to turn in a friend of mine ... | |
| Jul 30, 2016 at 23:25 | review | First posts | |||
| Jul 30, 2016 at 23:59 | |||||
| Jul 30, 2016 at 23:21 | history | answered | abrad1212 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |