Myself, Nor the Forum Is Responsible... (Required Reading)

[MJ DeMarco]

Guys,

I've been here to 10 years.

Over those 10 years, we've had MILLIONS of people come and go.

Of these millions, you can be 100% sure there are certain individuals who are here for nefarious motives. We've already seen this several times. From MLM crap to sketchy mentoring schemes, these people are here for ONE REASON ONLY: RECRUITMENT.

Just because someone on the forum has a certain illusionary cred (whether that's rep bank, years here, posts, etc.) does NOT mean you can give them your bank account number and the keys to your house.

You can never let your guard down and I'm saddened that I continually NEED to repeat this. (And bump this thread.)

Be careful, not just here, but anywhere on the web where you are approached with offers for X, Y, or Z.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

 

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[Scot]

does NOT mean you can give them your bank account number and the keys to your house.

You can never let your guard down and I'm saddened that I continually NEED to repeat this. (And bump this thread.)

Wait.. are we speaking figuratively or literally here...?

Because that'd be one crazy story.

 

[McFirewavesJr]

I used to think this kind of thing only happened on the internet...

Until I came across a conman in real life.

This was a great life lesson for me and many of you should run in the opposite direction if you see these signs...

I've been living in Thailand for a few months and I've managed to move into a house with several guys doing eCommerce.

We ran into someone in town that said he came from San Francisco (Silicon Valley)...

He was a chill guy at first. We looked up his name and everything checked out.

He said he recently sold his company for $x amount (in the millions)... which made us suspicious.

But we searched up his company and we saw several articles saying it was acquired.

There was also several podcasts he had been on, he was on their Product Hunt page and on their LinkedIn page.

Everything checked out.

Every time he came by the house, he provided us with a lot of value.

He knew what he was talking about and was very confident.

I showed him my results with FB ads and he told me that he had some friends with startups in Silicon Valley that were looking for a FB ads manager.

Wow, what a great opportunity... right? That's what I thought...

Only thing is, I was supposed to pay this guy $300 and he would find these companies for me.

I said f*** that... naturally. All of my friends agreed it was a bad idea.

Anyway, he dropped the issue and said it's all right - I didn't have to use his service. And that was that...

Fast forward a week later, we go to a meetup that this Chinese hardware incubator was holding.

One of the members of this reputable incubator was holding a speech (and he was legit).

At the end of the meeting him and the conman were talking about an investment deal... which... psychologically convinced me that the conman was legit...

Little did I know that he was playing both sides. Even one of the owners of the incubator thought this guy was legit.

...except the conman positioned himself as knowing the founder of the incubator for years.

I never thought to ask the guy how they met.

He never pushed further for $$, besides using his service (which was a "reasonable" service... but I can close my own clients without paying a cent so I didn't go for it).

We all leave the meeting with high energy, feeling like we're networking with the right people.

Fast-forward a week later, the conman brings a guy to our house that is doing dropshipping.

He told this guy that I was the "best" marketer on the planet.

... then I started talking to the dropshipping guy alone. He tells me that they're going to work together on his store.

That's when a big red flag went off in my head.

Obviously a big-shot Silicon Valley investor would never work on a dropshipping store with a kid he met in Thailand.

I just wish I told the guy before he left the house not to trust the guy.

A few days later, the dropshipper meets my friend at a bar.

He says the conman is asking him for $5,000 to invest in cryptocurrencies for him.

We tell him to stay far away from the guy.

...but little did we know that he already installed a RAD (remote access device) virus onto the dropshippers computer.

It's a virus that keylogs your computer and gives you remote access when connected to WiFi.

He accessed the dropshippers Shopify store and changed the bank account info to his own.

The guy with the Shopify store was getting over $1k-$2k payouts a day, so he ended up losing around $4K.

Luckily with insurance he was able to get some of the paypal $ back, so he only lost $1k in the process.

But we all had to wipe our computers, change our info and enable two-factor authentication.

Anyway, we hit up some more people in the community and we find out that this guy ripped off the Silicon Valley companies' founders for $15,000 and another $15,000 from a marketing consultant that he "went into business with."

He also was charged in court for ripping off $15,000. He ripped off another person in Thailand for $700 last year.

Apparently he invited his former partners to his house for dinner, introduced them to his family and the whole shabang.

He now has a lawsuit pending on him in Cali. Only problem is he keeps bouncing around South East Asia "on the lam."

These types of people are sociopaths and will unfortunately have to live their lives on the run... forever.

The weird thing is this guy was actually talented. He knew what he was talking about...

He just had a sick perversion to make his money by scamming others.

Hopefully this helps somebody else. ALWAYS do extra due diligence. You're not only vulnerable on the internet.

TLR Guy posing as silicon valley investor tried to scam me for $300, then ended up scamming a new friend of mine for $3k-$4k (but he got most of his money back through Paypal), had a history of scamming people in Silicon valley for up to $30,000. Now he has a pending lawsuit on him.

I know some of you are going to read this and say "Wow, you should have known he was a con artist from the beginning."

But like the Darren Brown video above, this guy was very good at using persuasion techniques.

He brought different groups of people together as "unsuspecting victims" to build trust among both groups.

Hey I recently spent 2 months in Thailand working by myself on my laptop like a rat in a closet lol (just 1 or 2 hours per day really) . Where were you located?

 

[BrooklynHustle]

Guys,

I've been here to 10 years.

Over those 10 years, we've had MILLIONS of people come and go.

Of these millions, you can be 100% sure there are certain individuals who are here for nefarious motives. We've already seen this several times. From MLM crap to sketchy mentoring schemes, these people are here for ONE REASON ONLY: RECRUITMENT.

Just because someone on the forum has a certain illusionary cred (whether that's rep bank, years here, posts, etc.) does NOT mean you can give them your bank account number and the keys to your house.

You can never let your guard down and I'm saddened that I continually NEED to repeat this. (And bump this thread.)

Be careful, not just here, but anywhere on the web where you are approached with offers for X, Y, or Z.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Should really go without saying

Use your common sense, people...

 

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[Mac]

Hey I recently spent 2 months in Thailand working by myself on my laptop like a rat in a closet lol (just 1 or 2 hours per day really) . Where were you located?

Chiang Mai. Been here since February

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Seems like every day I have to bump this thread.

And when some type of shit goes down behind the scenes at this forum, people come running to the management looking for us to have some type of solution. As if we have a magic wand.

Sorry, but we have no solution for due diligence.
We have no solution for your intuition.
We have no solution for "Pay me $10K in advance before I work on your project".

I repeat, the forum DOES NOT VET members, advertisements, signature links, or monitor PMs or side deals.

If you give a stranger money half way around the world with no recourse in retrieving that money if something goes south, please take responsibility.

I'm sorry that I continually have to bump this thread. When the forum receives emails about deals gone south, as if we can mediate, the only solution I can offer is THIS THREAD.

In the end, losing money on a bad deal is the price of experience.

Take a look at this thread.

Beware of PLS Literary Agency, Korea, FRAUD / SCAMMERS

My inexperience cost me $16,000. But I can guarantee you, I learned from it. And yes, it sucks azz so I can identify with the sickening feeling.

Don't be the next person who is writing the forum about deal gone bad because you didn't read this thread.

This is the freaking internet and a thief will always be one click away.

Never drop your guard. Play worse-case-scenarios. Trust, but verify.

 

[Roli]

Trust, but verify.

This is my internet mantra from now on.

 

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[Scot]

I vote for a wall of shame. If a forum member is a shady a$$, I don't think it would hurt to let the rest of the forum know.

 

[G-Man]

I vote for a wall of shame. If a forum member is a shady a$$, I don't think it would hurt to let the rest of the forum know.

Might be a good idea. We've even had some "rep"utable members turn out to be shady

 

[Raoul Duke]

Timely bump.

 

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[Scot]

Timely bump.

No. I’m nosey as hell and I expect juicy stories everytime this thread is bumped!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

No. I’m nosey as hell and I expect juicy stories everytime this thread is bumped!

Half the time I don't even know.

 

[lowtek]

No. I’m nosey as hell and I expect juicy stories everytime this thread is bumped!

I think it's in response to the 6 figures / 3 hours a week amazon publishing thread

 

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[AllenCrawley]

Time for a bump.

Trust but verify.

Truth always survives investigation.

 

[theag]

Time for a bump.

Trust but verify.

Truth always survives investigation.

Seems like I missed an opportunity for a memefest.

 

[socaldude]

It's interesting because society actually conditions you to trust blindly.

Because trust is actually necessary for it to function at its best.

Scammers and thieves actually try to mimic what we would normally trust in a routine setting in society.

The key is to know WHO to trust and HOW to trust. Because its easy to say "Don't trust anyone!" after getting burned. Because as business people we are gonna have to give our trust.

 

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[Tommo]

Bump.

I am new here so can someone please explain what "Bump" means. Thanks in advance.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I am new here so can someone please explain what "Bump" means. Thanks in advance.

It just puts the thread back at the top of the active conversations. In other words, it makes more people read the original topic that might have not yet read it. Such "bumped" content usually is transcendent, meaning, this post will be relevant today, next year, and next decade.

 

[Vigilante]

I wish I could set this post to Limitless reposting so every Alexander, Bill, Tom or Andrew that found this site through a google search of entrepreneurs would be careful to do their due diligence before falling for a sales pitch. Know that we as volunteers nor the CEO / ownership of the forum do not vet, authenticate or endorse any of the claims made on the pages within nor do we coach people on how to engage with others. Do so at your own risk.

 

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[theag]

Alexander, Bill, Tom or Andrew

 

[RobD88]

Might be a good idea. We've even had some "rep"utable members turn out to be shady

View attachment 16569

Could be a slippery slope. Unless it's outright fraud, there are two sides to every story. One man's shady character is another man's Justin Bieber.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Bump.

 

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[Late Bloomer]

The purpose of Vig's post is to point out that you cannot use content contained herein that was posted by someone else. There was concern in the past that anything one may post on the forum would become the sole property of Viperion therefore that content no longer belongs to you. I believe that was edited by MJ well over a year ago. He has no desire to take sole ownership of the content you post. Vig is dissuading others to use any of the content here that is not their own for any other purposes.

I apologize for my thread based on my own misunderstanding about this. If I'd read this thread all the way through before making that other post, I wouldn't have made that other post. If it would clean up clutter to delete it, please feel free to do so.

 

[Late Bloomer]

I really need to get a BOT and just bump this every month.

I wish I could set this post to Limitless reposting

It seems like it might be a useful feature in forum software, for admins to be able to set a certain post, or small collection of posts, to show to everyone who next logs in, until everyone has seen it. Along with scheduling this particular thread to show up automatically, maybe every other week or so?

 

[Late Bloomer]

Ever think that maybe I want to be roped into an MLM or Affiliate Scam? No. You didn't. You only think about yourself.

You're in luck, I met a guy with an MLM that needs new members. Shoot me a PM and I'll set up an appointment for you when he's next back at McDonald's.

That reminds me of when I worked at the grocery store and some lady dropped a can of food on her head that she couldn't reach.. and then instead of asking for a doctor she asked for her attorney! LOL LOL

Help, I've fallen and I can't get up the courthouse steps!

 

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[BrooklynHustle]

Bump.

I miss something?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I miss something?

Let's hope not. But on the off-chance that someone offers you a cash loan via PM and just happens to live in Nigeria, well, I'm not responsible.

 

[BrooklynHustle]

Let's hope not. But on the off-chance that someone offers you a cash loan via PM and just happens to live in Nigeria, well, I'm not responsible.

Most of my family lives in Nigeria actually

(And my mom is out there doing academic research until August)

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Most of my family lives in Nigeria actually

Not withstanding the quip in association with African princes who need to offload $150M (USD), that country is really having an economic revival isn't it?

 

[BrooklynHustle]

Not withstanding the quip in association with African princes who need to offload $150M (USD), that country is really having an economic revival isn't it?

It's definitely emerged from recession and started down a better path, but the country is still so oil dependent, making the recovery fairly precarious. We shall see what happens from here.