Hey everyone, I was convinced by someone to put my money into what I now believe is a Crypto Ponzi scheme. They promised returns of over 10% a month. The person who got me in wasn’t even part of the platform; they were just a "Referral Marketer" using their referral link. For bringing me in, they earned 5% of my daily earnings from the platform.
Now, my funds are locked up (which I guess is in line with their terms) and my returns have dropped to just 1% a month.
I’m thinking about suing the person who referred me, but they’re pushing back with their reasons:
Their Points
- They don’t own the platform, just acting as affiliate marketers with that referral link.
- They’ve moved to another country, but they promoted this platform to me while I was in my country.
My Points
- They didn’t have a financial services license (though Bitcoin isn’t seen as a financial product here).
- They don’t have a registered company.
So, can I actually sue this person or is it just the company behind the Ponzi scheme that I can go after? Also, what’s the deal with costs, the process, and is it even worth pursuing? I’ve put in $40,000 and my cash is stuck on this platform.
I've never heard of a case in my country where promoters and referrals were sued. I have read of the government issuing them fines but it's typically related to false promotions or misleading advertisements (like on billboards).
Your best bet for success is to look for others like yourself, who lost money, and to find representation willing to go for class action. Then you pursue the business who accepted your funds. See, even if you bring your friend to court and win, your money's with the company and not your friend. Most court could ask is to ask him to return you his referral commission. That's my non-legal expert opinion.
You do have yourself to blame, after all. Hopefully you learnt something from this.
You didn't tell us which those countries are. That's very important as legislation and legal process varies between countries.
Does your country have some kind of consumer or finance complaints board where you could file a case without having to incur the overhead of full-blown civil proceedings?
If you were from The US or Canada, absolutely. One example is the story of 12DailyPro, it was a paid autosurf running more or less on the HYIPs model. until the SEC starts investigating this Ponzi. Another one is Bitconnect. Promoting a scam is an act punishable by a justice sanction. Usually a fine equivalent to the amount you won, so you have to pay back to the courts your winnings you generated with the scam.
As other users above said it depends on the laws in your country, that's what really matter.
I just remember a quote from one of my business class teachers in college who was a lawyer.
"You can sue anyone for any reason, the real question is will you win".
Contact a lawyer in your country and ask them, if they don't want to take the case, you have your answer. Most law firms will take a case if they feel they can make money doing so.
You could argue that he's acting maliciously to mislead you into investing into a ponzi scheme. And since he's receiving a portion of what you invest, and he admits to being an affiliate, you could possibly be able to use that argument to your advantage to establish the concrete link between him and the ponzi in question.
Although, we have no idea what jurisdiction you are in, or what the legal system is like within that jurisdiction. So whether this is actually an offense or not is unknown.
I've heard of in the US lawsuits following the exit scam of Bitconnect, when a bunch of youtubers that were promoting the scheme apparently got sued (Trevon James, for example). I haven't heard much about the proceedings apart from the fact that a lawsuit was pending, though.
I personally would say that your chances of success is slim, and you'll need to invest high amounts of energy and funds into this (again, concrete numbers are unknown since we don't know what country you are in). So unless it's a big amount involved, I wouldn't bother, but rather try settle this privately.
You know what? Don't get offended but your arguments against them are nonsense. You have stated that you were convinced by them. The question is why?
Let's look at their argument first.
You knew about the Crypto Ponzi Scheme Platform but you were convinced? You knew that everything doesn't grow over time but you were catched with the trap of 10%+ a month in ROI?
You knew that they don't own the platform yet you are using them because of convincing you?
Let's move to your Argument.
You knew that they didn't have a financial service license, but you were convinced. Why?
You know that they didn't have a registered company yet you were convinced. Why?
Answer these questions and get a lawyer.
Thanks everyone, the country I'm from is Australia. The person who promoted it to me is American and he just moved back there.
I guess I can sue him, but I doubt I'd get anything out of it based on all the time and energy I pour into it.
Anyways, based on Australia what do you guys think? I could sue the promoter for $ or they'd just get issued some fine?
It is, but you have to prove that the promoter knew what he was promoting (intent). One case can be totally different from another. To visualize this I'll give you some examples.
1. The promoter took a referral link from a site that he was investing in and believed to be real, not a scam. You clicked in the link, registered into the program and lost.
2. The promoter thought it to be legit and told you about it, invited you in. You know the rest.
3. The promoter knew it to be a ponzi scheme and invited you in, but he was honest and told you what it was and that you're risking everything.
4. The promoter knew what it was but joined the referral program to lure others in. He did not invest himself, only took profits from the referral program.
5. The promoter was paid to lie about the program and invite people in. He knew what it was, did not invest himself, was being paid a wage.
6. The promoter was an employee of a company that he believed to be legit and paid a wage. He was hired to advertise them and was never told that it's a scam.
If he was a contract worker on a wage you'll be wasting time. In all cases you'll have to prove that he knew what he was promoting, and it would be best if he had a stake in the scheme and pulled out before the collapse. If he also lost money (was scammed), it will make the case much harder if not impossible to win.
You cant yet theres no one who force you to join up that program even he do explains or do invite you out, you still have the final verdict or decision either
you would agree or just simply ignore him.Your funds,your decisions then theres no one you can sue out and getting these things to legal aspects.
Better directly seek out that investment company but I doubt this wont really be an easy task and would cost out money if you do tend to fight on legal or even
just searching them up will surely cost you.
You can sue anyone for any reason! Take it as a thumb rule but it doesn't ensure that you will win the case. Since the company is not a registered player in the financial market and also the affiliate marketer is an American, Australian court can't held him for any reason unless and until that person decides to come back to your country! I would rather suggest not to go ahead as sue this person because you will end up only spending money behind a lawyer. Instead try to negotiate with the ponzi company if they can refund the money to you without any interest.
I believe you have learned the lesson in hard way! There are no such real world businesses which can generate as much as 10% monthly income. Ponzi is basically a money rolling business and 99.99% of ponzis are scam! Please don't invest even a nickel in ponzis no matter how good they sound!
Thanks, do you think I have to convince a court to hold him if he comes back to Australia? As in spend money on a lawyer and go to court to convince them? Would it be guaranteed that they would hold him if he comes back?
As in - If I "sue" someone, are they put on a travel ban to make sure they can't leave the country? Im guessing I have to convince authorities to put a travel ban on him if he comes back even though he's not a citizen, just an American.
It was definitely #1. The promoter invested and referred to me (we both thought it wasn't a scam)
Do you think the Promoter would get at the very least charged by the gov for promoting a scam?
There might be a connection with him and those site owner so you can try a legal way to address this problem, you can ask your legal team for this.
But if there is no connection, then you cannot sue him because he doesn't control the site and its your fault to invest without your proper education, don't just trust anyone especially when it comes to money.
Move on now, you can earn more if you learn from this mistakes and start to invest on a real project, go for bitcoin and top altcoins.
Note that I'm not a professional lawyer, but even if you had all his personal details it would be really difficult to persuade the prosecutor to press charges. Why? Because you admit that he didn't know of it being a scam, so his intentions were good, and there's a chance he also got scammed, so he's a victim, like you. His only fault was spreading the word, but this is natural for someone excited and full of confidence in the scheme. Technically, I'm spreading the word about yolodice in my every post, but am I responsible for their every move? No. I could tell you now to go play there, because I personally find the site to be fair and legit, but the code can theoretically be modified, or they can at some point in the future decide to run with the money. Should I be held responsible and sued?
Imagine that you invest in something and tell everyone you know about it, just like I'm telling people around me about bitcoin, and this investment happens to be a big scam. Should the court find you responsible for other people's losses? In such case it would be possible to sue TV stations, newspapers, advertising agencies, graphic artists, even actors who play in ads.
The justice system is unpredictable at times, but there are cases we can use as examples. One of such is the one of Bernie Madoff. He had a special room where the scheme was being run from, and people inside knew the details. He also had a company in which he employed people who had no idea they're participating in a massive fraud. The employees of the company were never charged, even though they took part in finding clients and promoting the company. They were being fed information by Madoff and acted on his behalf. They also did not profit from the scam.
It all points out on whether you got scammed or not and looking at your OP I can tell that you have "invested" in their ponzi scheme, so if you have lose the money then you have valid points on suing someone. The tricky part here is if the one who referred you to the ponzi isn't really at all connected to the scam, he might just be an accessory or worst a victim like you just like how other ponzi schemes are. Most people getting caught from failed scams are also victims of the scam and not the real culprits of it.
If you can convince the court of law that the person advised you about the ponzi scheme is a scammer, then anything can happen. However, since the person is not an Australian citizen, the court has limited power to control the situation.
If I was standing at your situation, I would first try to negotiate with the ponzi company to get the principal amount back without any interest or at least the major percentage of the principal amount.
The answer depends largely on how the domestic legislation of your country of residence governs this situation. However, as a general rule, it is possible to hold a person accountable for fraud in order to obtain other people's property, that is, for committing fraud. In many countries, responsibility for fraud comes criminal, in which case it is necessary to go to the police, and not to the court. In some states, you can apply in court, but in this case you need to look for yourself and present in court evidence of your innocence.
Just only putting up on ones mind that everything sounds too good to be true here on online world are really scams.No sustaining company would offer high returns on a short duration and thinking up this thing mainly would already be enough for you to be convinced on not putting any investment with it.
On the situation where you can actually sue someone but you would really have the problem to fight yet its not citizen on such country where you are just wasting up your time and money.
if you sued all of the affiliate promoters promoting shady services , half of the affiliate marketers would be serving a jail term
the only case if you can provide evidence that this person knowingly helped to defraud you out of your money
won't be easy and will depend on the lawyers and your countrie's legislation
a quick question - have you withdrawn any money at all from that ponzi at all
and why on earth did you invest into anything that offers 10% monthly ROI , as if it wasn't clear from the get go how would it end?