Pastor Who Saw Crypto Project In His 'Dream' Indicted For Fraud (bleepingcomputer.com) 108
A pastor in Pasco, Washington, has been indicted on 26 counts of fraud for orchestrating a cryptocurrency scam that defrauded over 1,500 investors of nearly $5.9 million between 2021 and 2023. Many of the investors were members of his congregation. BleepingComputer reports: The US Department of Justice says the pastor, Francier Obando Pinillo, 51, used his position to recruit investors into a fraudulent cryptocurrency venture called "Solano Fi," which he told them "came to him in a dream" and was a guaranteed investment. "Pinillo used his position as pastor to induce members of his congregation and others to invest their money in a cryptocurrency investment business known as Solano Fi," reads the US Department of Justice announcement. "Pinillo claimed the idea for Solano Fi had come to him in a dream and that it was a safe and guaranteed investment."
The pastor also set up a Facebook page for Solano Fi to attract more investors outside his direct sphere of influence, as well as a Telegram group named 'Multimillionarios SolanoFi,' which had 1,500 members. The indictment alleged that Pinillo promised investors they would receive guaranteed monthly investment returns of 34.9% at no risk whatsoever. The indictment further claims he directed the victims to make cryptocurrency transfers to wallets under his control, and instead of investing the funds, he diverted them for personal use. Investors were provided access to a Solano Fi web app where they could manage their funds; however, the app showed fake balances and investment returns. Those convinced by the fraud were encouraged to recruit more investors for additional returns, expanding the victims' circle. As in similar scams, when the victims attempted to withdraw money from the Solano Fi app, the transaction failed.
The pastor also set up a Facebook page for Solano Fi to attract more investors outside his direct sphere of influence, as well as a Telegram group named 'Multimillionarios SolanoFi,' which had 1,500 members. The indictment alleged that Pinillo promised investors they would receive guaranteed monthly investment returns of 34.9% at no risk whatsoever. The indictment further claims he directed the victims to make cryptocurrency transfers to wallets under his control, and instead of investing the funds, he diverted them for personal use. Investors were provided access to a Solano Fi web app where they could manage their funds; however, the app showed fake balances and investment returns. Those convinced by the fraud were encouraged to recruit more investors for additional returns, expanding the victims' circle. As in similar scams, when the victims attempted to withdraw money from the Solano Fi app, the transaction failed.
seriously ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Are any of the "victims" being jailed for utter stupidity?
35% guaranteed return? If you believe that, you deserve to pay the learning fee for that lesson.
Re:seriously ? (Score:5, Funny)
Well, they ARE religious people, so there's that.
Re: seriously ? (Score:2)
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If I recall correctly, there was one guy who tried to sue god.
The court struck the lawsuit down. Reason: He couldn't give a delivery address for god to send court papers to.
No idea why he didn't give the pope's address and named him as a secondary defendent given that the guy claims to be god's second-in-command.
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The problem is the human condition is we believe people and sources that we trust, and we discredit sources that we distrust.
Even with the smartest people, they are going to have a belief bias based on information they trust. To change a persons mind they will often need need that trusted source to explain why it is wrong, or for events that would loose your trust into that source.
For many people a pastor or other religious person of some clout is in a position of being a trustworthy fellow. And they would
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they are just as irrational as the religious person
Not really, not "just as irrational". They still are somewhat irrational in some areas (e.g. "Apple fanbois"), however there are some large differences which are backed up by statistics (e.g. correlation between wealth and religion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]).
At any rate, a discussion for another time :)
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(who may have some good ideas, but also tied in with crazy ones),
This is the crux of the matter.
Few of us are educated to the point where we understand that people are not "in general" trustworthy or not, but "in specific". That we should trust our doctor in medical advise but not in political advise. That our friend Rob knows a thing or two about cars, but his ideas on women are ridiculous. That stuff comes with experience only. And my examples may seem obvious, but then there's the tech billionaires who, for no reason supported by evidence, we also listen to when they
Re: seriously ? (Score:2)
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It's a debate about priors and assumptions only. "Materialism" has morphed into a system of beliefs, namely anything which cannot be currently measured with instruments does not exist, no matter how suggestive the evidence.
Together with that they also believe in things that can never be measured.
Superstrings?
C'mon, now.
The Climate Model outcomes stay exactly the same when we discover that plants absorb 30% more CO2 than previously thought?
Really?
There are a few nonreligious people but way fewer than self-p
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Are any of the "victims" being jailed for utter stupidity?
35% guaranteed return? If you believe that, you deserve to pay the learning fee for that lesson.
Worse than that! Monthly!
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Some of the crapcoin pushers here make similar claims.
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They own the site
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Why? Being stupid is not a crime. Exploiting someone's stupidity for financial gain via a scam is a crime. If stupidity is illegal then every single human being is a criminal!
This comes up so often in Slashdot and I don't get it. Are you seriously excusing the criminals and blaming the victims?
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Are you seriously excusing the criminals and blaming the victims?
No, yes.
That doesn't excuse the criminals at all. I'm all for jailing him. Scamming people is a crime and rightly so.
And yes, I do blame the victims. If people were a little less complete idiots, there would be fewer scammers because it would be harder and more risky. There's being scammed by a really clever scam and then there's falling for something that everyone who's not a complete idiot should instantly see can't be true.
In the same way that we lock our cars and houses, we shouldn't fall for the most o
How did he plan to get away with that? (Score:2)
Re:How did he plan to get away with that? (Score:4, Funny)
Re: How did he plan to get away with that? (Score:4, Funny)
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[golf clap]
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35% monthly is not 420% since it should compound, e.g. if you start with $100 you should have $135 next month you make 35% on the $135 so you should have 182.25, so the end value after a year 100 * 1.35 * 1.35 * 1.35 * 1.35 * 1.35 * 1.35 * 1.35 * 1.35 * 1.35 * 1.35* 1.35 * 1.35 so the % increase formula is (1.35^12 - 1) * 100 its 3564% per year, good if you can get it.
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It's fraud all the way down (Score:2, Flamebait)
Fraudster pushing religious delusion gets taken to taask for pushing financial delusion.
Double standards!
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The truth is, he wasn't *actually* religious, he only claimed to be. It was part of his fraud.
Re:It's fraud all the way down (Score:4, Funny)
The truth is, he wasn't *actually* religious
The truth is, ALL religions are fraudulent so there is, factually, zero difference.
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Do you have some kind of divine revelation confirming that this is so? What is your scientific basis?
You have an opinion, but that doesn't make it fact.
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Do you have some kind of divine revelation confirming that this is so?
Nope. because "deivine revelations" are delusional breaks and are evidence of precisely nothing.
Exceptional claims require exceptional evidence. Provide one, concrete, irrefutable piece of evidence that your particular sky-beard, out the the thousands available, is both real *and* the genuine article.
Go ahead. We'll give you a few thousand years.
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Here's my evidence.
Based on science, nothing doesn't become something. Not ever.
Your religion teaches that nothingness suddenly formed a singularity that exploded into a universe and eventually, randomly, created life. All this with no cause, no Creator. That's a fairy tale that's harder to believe than that there is a Creator.
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Here's my evidence.
Based on science, nothing doesn't become something. Not ever.
Have you lost your sippy cup?
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What institution is actually trustful?
The Government?
Political Parties?
Corporations?
Hospitals?
Insurance Companies?
Not-for-Profit Orgs?
Charities?
Any institution is a good place to perform fraud in. Especially if you can perform good works overall, but skim off the top.
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Einstein said: "the more I study science, the more I believe in God'
Oh look, argument from authority. That's never happened before! Factually, he was referring to Spinoza's god, no particular deity out of the pantheon of manufactured beuings the human race has claimed serve.... but you don't care about that, because facts are anathema to you.
Spirituality and religion are garbage. A place-filler that was our first, poor, attempt to explain existence. It sucked in its infancy. It sucks now. Every claim it has made has been disproven, time and again as we've progressed and gro
Still the best (Score:4, Informative)
https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/ [web3isgoinggreat.com]
Crypto is a scam, and an enormously resource intensive wasteful one at that. It's a shame the cryptobros never put any these resources in to folding proteins for medicine instead.
Re:Still the best (Score:4, Interesting)
Now there's an idea. Rather than 'folding at home' as a charity effort, use part of the Bitcoin model. Protein folding in place of mining, with payouts if you're lucky enough to get a solution.
Big Pharma benefits from the drugs designed based on the results of this project, by injecting money into the system the participation rates would skyrocket.
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LAZY asses can't be bothered to post inidctment (Score:3, Informative)
Techdirt often calls people out for talking about a court filing but not including it. I do so here. Neither Slashdot nor Bleepingcomputer nor the US department of injustice bothered to include the filing.
Here is it:
https://www.scribd.com/documen... [scribd.com]
US DOJ: Fuck you for issuing lazy press releases and not including the filing.
BLEEPING COMPUTER: Fuck you for rehashing what the government liars say and not including the filing.
SLASHHDOT: Earlly "slasdot weekend with BeauSD"?
As to the discussion, this isn't about pastors or crypto. It's a conman who converted funds into his own name. Yes, he is a pastor (so what?) and yes he used crypto (so what?) but the crimes he's charged with have nothing to do with either.
So forget "pastor". Forget "crypto". The headline should read "Con man got people to give him money which he kept for himself."
The US DOJ are PR liars, and Bleeping Computers repeated it, and then of course slashdot weekd with BeauSD.
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So forget "pastor". [snip] headline should read "Con man
You're repeating yourself.
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Ooh, looky here...a CryptoBro with his knickers in a knot.
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Thanks for posting the link to the filling gavron.
Questioning what anyone is saying is always the best defense in life. When people choose not to, for any number of reasons, stuff like this happens and it seems to happen a lot.
That being said, this feels like a worse sort of bad because a person in a position of power/trust is abusing that position. A pastor bilking his flock smells like a firefighter committing arson to me.
Maybe his flock will help him become a better person through forgiveness after the b
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That being said, this feels like a worse sort of bad because a person in a position of power/trust is abusing that position. A pastor bilking his flock smells like a firefighter committing arson to me.
At least he wasn't puttering the choir boys.
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Hi, I'm a homeless, unemployed professional nose picker. I have a great investment idea. We're going to buy ocean front property in Arizona.
Do you see the difference between the two?
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All crypto is a con.
It's been said that the difference between a cult and a religion is that all the people in on the original scam are dead in the latter.
But the cult always has plenty of members who aren't in on it. Someone has to pay the bills.
Do religion next! (Score:5, Insightful)
I was promised salvation, but I don't feel forgiven!
On a serious note, given how religion seems to guilt people into parting with their money while offering things that can't possibly be measured as true, how is that not also fraud?
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how is that not also fraud?
I've been wondering what the authorities would do if I started selling updated accommodations for the afterlife. Want an extra garage or bath? Something closer to the golden throne, or further from all that off-key singing? Or most popular of all, something farther from those people.
Pay now and get it later, of course.
Re: Do religion next! (Score:3)
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I've been wondering what the authorities would do if I started selling updated accommodations for the afterlife.
Sounds very close to indulgences... Expect a call from the Vatican very soon.
Re:Do religion next! (Score:4, Insightful)
That would indeed be fraudulent. And I say that as a Christian. Just because some who claim to be religious are frauds, doesn't make them all frauds.
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Can you explain why it would be fraudulent. As another poster pointed out, the Vatican used to sell indulgences. That's very similar. In fact, the Vatican still provides indulgences, though not directly in exchange for money. If indulgences are/were Ok, then how is the poster's plan fraudulent? What specifically makes the Vatican's offer legitimate and his fraud? Or, if indulgences for money were always fraud, then how long was the Catholic Church fraudulent for and when did it stop being fraudulent?
you could call it "Science-ology" (Score:2)
A valuable and much needed service.
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Selling afterlife furniture is court-proof as long as no one can prove you're lying about it. Now wait til you learn about healing crystals and homeopathy!
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Religion has a legal exception because they have perpetrated their scam for so long, it is now part of the culture.
In other news, an actual modern society would give zero concession to religion and treat it as an entirely private thing.
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It's easy to criticize religion when your life is going OK. But as the saying goes, there are no atheists in foxholes.
Those who claim there is no God, are just as religious, they claim that the universe and everything we see just "happened," exploding out of *nothing* in an instant, then developing from base substances into DNA all without any design. If that's not religion, I don't know what is.
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But as the saying goes, there are no atheists in foxholes
Why not? People who think their god will protect them don't need foxholes. People in foxholes are putting their trust in the boring but well-established ability of a thick pile of dirt to stop bullets.
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You're missing the point of the saying.
No, God does not magically protect people from all harm. A religion that teaches that is pushing hogwash.
However, being in a foxhole (or other severe crisis) has a way of focusing the brain, because it forces us to realize that we don't have the level of control that we imaged we did. When things are going well, it's easy to convince yourself that YOU are responsible for your success, and that everything just got the way it did by pure coincidence. But when crisis hits
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as the saying goes, there are no atheists in foxholes.
Not an argument against atheism. This is an argument against foxholes.
The more you know...
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It's not about foxholes per se. The point is that people can become pretty smug in their own self-importance and ability to control their own destiny, until they are thrust into a situation that they cannot control. These events have a way of focusing the mind, and reminding us that we don't know as much as we think we know.
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These events have a way of focusing the mind, and reminding us that we don't know as much as we think we know.
Nope. Rational people accept that the universe cares not one jot about them, in fact isn't even aware of their existence, so it's entirely on the individual to cope with whatever the situation is. Irrational, delusional, chuckledinks believe they can make formal application to invisble skybeards to have the laws of phsyics and reality suspended in their favour.
Delusion, irrational, people do not react well under pressure. Speaking from experience, they suck in combat situations because they're so used to su
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So do rational people also believe that nothingness can suddenly form a singularity, that explodes into a universe? That sounds like a fairy tale that's less rational than that there is a Creator.
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So do rational people also believe that nothingness can suddenly form a singularity, that explodes into a universe?
Ahh, I see. Your one, ignorant, point and you are going to keep on flogging it.
Nice to see children engaging in these discussions.
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Sorry, how is that religion? I don't think you understand what a theory is.
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It's easy to criticize religion when your life is going OK. But as the saying goes, there are no atheists in foxholes.
There are. That is just another lie organized religion pushes.
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"Feeling" forgiven isn't a promise made by religion. And any "religion" that tries to guilt people into parting with their money, isn't real religion.
There is a such thing as religion that comes from the heart. It uplifts and connects people. Just becomes some who claim to be religious are frauds, doesn't make it all fraudulent.
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Just becomes some who claim to be religious are frauds, doesn't make it all fraudulent.
But doesn't the vast majority of it, at least, have to be? Or, if not fraudulent, at least wrong. There is no single majority religion in the world. There are, instead, a bunch of minority religions that are all mutually exclusive. For one to be right, all the others have to be wrong. However, they all have adherents who insist that their religion is the right one and have miracles and signs to point to as proof.
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First, it is possible to be both wrong, and not a fraud.
Second, yes, there are many religions that contradict each other. This is no different from there being many approaches to health and fitness that are contradictory, and yet many of them provide beneficial purposes.
As for which one is "right" there is, no doubt, only one truth. If there is only one truth, then there will be those who are opposed to that truth, and try to subvert it by coming up with alternatives. This doesn't make the alternatives more
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First, it is possible to be both wrong, and not a fraud.
Yes, we certainly both understand that. That's why I used a logical or and not a logical and when I wrote: "Or, if not fraudulent, at least wrong. "
Second, yes, there are many religions that contradict each other. This is no different from there being many approaches to health and fitness that are contradictory, and yet many of them provide beneficial purposes.
Ok, but that's not really an apt comparison. Approaches to health and fitness generally include a healthy diet and exercise. The diets may vary and the types of exercise will also vary. The point though is that such approaches to health and fitness are not mutually exclusive. However ""Let there be light', and there was..." is mutually exclusive with there being
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I believe there's an allowance in there, as for most charities, where as long as he pays at least part of the rent with the donations, he can also extract an "administrative fee" and use that to buy himself a new car. I am not sure if there are any statutory upper limits on administrative fees.
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Re:Do religion next! (Score:5, Insightful)
There are requirements for believers that put you on a path of goodness and love,
Take the universe and grind it down to the finset powder.
Run the powder through the finest sieve.
Show me one single atom of this "goodness" and "love" BS you're pushing.
Religious delusion is a mental illness. We should be treating it, not encouraging it.
There's a reason religious web sites are some of the most infectious out there. The religious make for some stupidly easy marks. Zero effort cons are pretty much guaranteed to work because their capacity for reasoning and critical thought are voluntrarily atrophied.
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Of course, it seems you're paraphrasing Terry Pratchett here. Specifically Feet of Clay. The point of the original quote was that concepts like justice, love, etc. exist, but that they are emergent properties of sentient beings, not fundamental things that could be detected anywhere if you ground up that sentient being. I thought it was a very cogent observation on PTerry's part: concepts like justice are, in fact, just things that humans made up, except that, by collectively believing in them and working t
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The strongest believers are the ones who have committed the worst atrocities in the name of their beliefs. And when you discredit them as not true believers you've inadvertently created a new religion, one incompatible with the old, congrats you're on the path to another war heathen.
Damn (Score:2)
Pastor Who Saw Crypto Project In His 'Dream' Indicted For Fraud.
Damn, what a gullible breed.
-- Agent K.
People are stupid (Score:2)
Religious people even more so. What else is new?
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Neither this "pastor" nor his congregation were religious. They were greedy people using a fake religion as a tool to satisfy their greed for ordinary *money.* Money, and lots of it, was their one and only objective. Religion had nothing to do with it.
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using a fake religion
All religions are fake. What's your magical point?
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You have evidence for this? That's a very broad and unsubstantiated statement to make.
YOUR religion (and you do have one) says that the universe suddenly appeared out of nowhere, out of nothing, and that life formed spontaneously. That sounds pretty magical to me!
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The claim that any religion is non-fake is an extraordinary claim. Hence it requires extraordinary evidence for credibility. But there is not even ordinary evidence for any of them. Your attempt to turn the burden of proof around is just a standard manipulation technique employed against the not-very-smart. It is obviously bogus.
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You have evidence for this? That's a very broad and unsubstantiated statement to make.
No fixing minds that cannot appreciate the irony of this statement.
Pro tip, a damned sight more evidence than the ravings of bronze-age desert dwellers. Be a better human. Stop wasting your life on faery tales.
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Pro tip: believing that nothingness suddenly formed a singularity that exploded into a universe, with no cause whatsoever, isn't science, it's a fairy tale.
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Pro tip: believing that nothingness suddenly formed a singularity that exploded into a universe, with no cause whatsoever, isn't science, it's a fairy tale.
Uber-pro tip: Ignorance is not the same as willful self-delusion. One day we may explain the origin of the universe. At zero point, ever, will any religion anywhere prove to be anything other than delusional garbage.
Kudos on believing in garbage and waving your ignorance like a badge of some sort.
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using a fake religion
All religions are fake. What's your magical point?
Indeed.
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So standard organized religion? Yep, makes sense. FYI, there is not "pure" version of organized religion, it is all done by people trying to get an advantage.
Fake app (Score:2)
If it had been a normal level of extracting money out of the congregation by promising prosperity gospel level returns based on a dream - I might just think the pastor was drinking his own koolaid and within US religious norms (and maybe being misled by some cryptobros in the congregation) and was just very wrong.
BUT the fact he made a fake app to trick people - that is some next level conman / Bernie Madoff level fraud.
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Religious people generally are gullible (Score:4, Insightful)
You would be hard pressed to find a more gullible group of people than the religious people. Religious people generally are uncomfortable with ambiguity. They need someone to tell them that it is all going to be OK in the end when they die. They prefer politicians and pastors that reassure them with falsehoods instead of saying we don't actually know.
While it is possible for a non-religious person to fall for a scam that promises 35% return on investment every month. It would be very difficult. If anybody is falling for that blatant scam, they very likely are a religious person.
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> While it is possible for a non-religious person to fall for a scam that promises 35% return on investment every month. It would be very difficult.
Were you around for "two weeks to stop the spread", "stays in the deltoid", and "double masking"?
All of the Cardinal Sins make people easy to con. And above them is Fear.
Speaking of which, new Nature article which shows the reality that biologists expected:
https://x.com/Kevin_McKernan/s... [x.com]
Not going to make it past the editors here.
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I don't know, there are a lot of people who can barely count to potato. Mathematics ignorance doesn't imply faith.
And a lot of people are dreaming really hard for that big opportunity. That secret easy fast track they believe others have found, and now it's finally their turn. I think it's the same mindset that creates conspiracy theorists and pseudoscience groupies.
But did god get his 10% tithe? (Score:2)
nothing new (Score:3, Interesting)
Every pastor is a fraud, even if they believe their delusion.
Could'a been a good play (Score:2)
2) Side note: Can we please get percentage PER PERIOD, annotated in these quotes and stories? Even in WSJ, reporting very sloppy using percentage benchmarks.