Podcast Link- https://bitbetterhavemymoney.com/podcast/cause-im-moving-on-up-dbc-trade-again/
Welcome to bit better have my money. I am Mitchell Stulken and today we are going to skip the trading stuff. Got something that I need to tell you and hopefully want to talk about story. I can tell you here we’ll help you out in the future. So what about a week, two weeks ago, maybe a I found out that I had been scammed by an ICO pool from reddit. Pretty awesome. Going to be upfront about it all and hopefully by me telling you all this, you can avoid the thing that happened to me and some people will be like, you’re stupid. You’re dumb. Why’d you let that happen? What didn’t let it happen? But I knew the risks. So it’s just, it’s something happens. Whatever. Um, and really I’m not, I’m not really that upset. Yes, I a little bit. Um, but really I’m, I’m just, I’m honestly disappointed the most that that’s really.
[01:10] At first I was angry a little bit, but the Kinda got over that because I knew what I was getting into and then the more I thought about I was just disappointed and not even so much in myself that I thought had happened because I knew it could go into it, but just that one of the biggest issues with the crypto industry is the ICO scams and it keeps a lot of people from entering this space. That’s all they hear about ICO scams, they’re scams and it is, it’s kind of overwhelming. And I, I obviously do a lot dealing with crypto and it happened to me. I’m kind of went after the gold and probably shouldn’t have a. But can you imagine people who don’t really have any idea what’s going on? I mean, it could weigh more easily happen to them and you know, we want more people to come into Crypto, new people, new money, uh, we want continued interest and people being scammed is just not, not the way to do it.
[02:16] So let me, let me tell you how it happened. The way it started. A person actually contacted me on Reddit and asked if I’m interested in joining an ICO pooling group. I said I would. And uh, I, I asked how they had it set up so that that’s, you know, obviously the main thing to know how, how does it work because I’m in actually another ICO pooling group of that is legit. Uh, and this was just a different one. And uh, they sent me, the guy sent me a link to a discord group, which it’s basically like a chat group. Um, they hadn’t accredited investor, which is the main thing you have to be for most if not all of them, most ICO is you have to be encrypted accredited investor, which I am not. So anyway, went into the discord group and there was 10 members and the name of this group was ce pooling, which whatever, I didn’t know.
[03:13] I was skeptical going in very wary because I knew about ICO scams and some dude random dude, I have no idea who it is. Hit me up on reddit. I mean, come on the whatever. This is a little weird, but it did, it got weirder. So I got into the disk or group and they set up a time and a four of the members actually interviewed me, literally interviewed me over voice chat and they want to know my background and crypto the coins. I invested in some, like some of my strengths, how long I’ve been doing this. And uh, they told me about the group. Each member talked about each or each memory was there. The four people talked about them site and it went on for like half an hour. It was pretty in depth. And um, they basically said that each member had to, had to do their own, pull their own weight.
[04:06] Um, you know, some of them were good at researching, some people contacted the businesses, creating the coins, others had a lot of investing experience. And uh, because I researched that, that was what I was what they wanted me to do. So what I was supposed to do is just research. ICO is, and every couple of days send, send the info came up with to like the good ico is that I found send them to, to the group and, and we’d go from there. So that’s what I was supposed to do and I did that for a little over a week, um, and it still wasn’t sure if it was legit, you know, by them do an interview and having multiple people talk to me and doing all this and people were talking in the group and there’s more than one. It just, it seemed like a lot of effort to me.
[04:55] The fact that they did an interview kind of like at, that’s when I kind of think, well maybe it’s not a scam, you know, it seems like a ton of effort to get all these people together to do, to do this scam. So, but I was still still wasn’t sure. Um, so yeah, that I, I kept doing doing that for a little over a week. Um, and people are also doing research. They were talking in the group talking about other upcoming ICO things they’re interested in. So then about the second week they get back and there’s an ICO they wanted to get into, which was cork chain. Uh, apparently there is a minimum of what they said was there’s a minimum etherium and you have for almost all ICO is you have to use it theory for them. That’s just how they work. Uh, and the minimum commitment was you had to give them 10 etherium and there is no way.
[05:58] No way was I going to send 10 etherium that, that’s just not going to happen. So I told the, the main guy’s name is William. I told him, you know, I’m not, I’m not going to send 10 new theory and I’m just not going to do that, you know, I don’t know any of you guys. I’d like to see the results from one first. You know, we can start small. Let, let’s, let’s do that. Uh, if that’s not okay then. So be it. I, you know, I can send to, I’ll send to ether. I figured, all right, I’ll risk to ether. Could be a scam. Might not be. So the two ether to me was worth it. And I knew the risks and I weighed them against the possibility of what could, could come back. Um, and I thought it was worth it. I thought it was worth it.
[06:50] I’m kind of stuttered there, but yeah. So May 18th, I sent my to ether and every. And then what? The way it worked, actually there was 10 people in the discord group all talking at the same time. Um, and I, they went through each person in the group and each person said how much etherium they wanted to to commit for the ICO. And everyone had a different number and basically it came up to, they raised some apparently, but they said that they raised, if it would’ve been legit, there is like 500,000, but it wasn’t legit. But anyway, I was like the last one. And uh, yeah, so all 10 people or nine other people went through and, um, contributed. And then I did so that you know, that there’s like cheese, if this is a scam, you know, they’re really going to a lot of work, a really going into a lot of work.
[07:53] So starting to hope like maybe this is for real because it seems like so much trouble to go and especially just for to ether, like when you find out, I guess it’s free to ether, but it seems like a lot of work for just to either personally, but I guess if if they’re doing this to other people and getting 10 or more hell yeah, then it’s definitely worth it to have like 10 members working together so that that’s one thing you’ve got to be worried or really look at is they’re probably still doing this and they’re going after more ether. They took my two and then they probably just wrote it off as a whatever. But you know, if they’re going after somebody in someone commits 20, 30, 40 ether, then it’s well worth them to have 10 people together working together to make it look legit.
[08:45] That’s definitely something to think about. So anyway, May 18th, I sent my to ether and for the next two weeks actually can continue to send that, send them ICO, ICO information and people are still in the group talking about things that were up and coming. And uh, so that time I kept thinking, all right, maybe I might, maybe I’m in the clear maybe maybe this is going to be legit. And then one day I opened up the discord app to send more information about ICO and the group was not there. It was gone and right then, right then I knew it was fucked.
[09:35] You just know you’re like, I’m done, I’m done. Oh. And I cussed whatever, whatever they got they got right then I knew I was screwed. I was done. So yeah, my, the, my stomach kind of dropped. It was like, it was just like, shit, what do you do? What, what do you do? You know, if I was like pissed at first and then it’s like, well, I knew, I knew going in, I took a shot and whatever the day actually sent the etherium I was, I was sitting there thinking myself like, you know, if I wouldn’t have sent it, I would’ve probably been mad at myself not knowing, um, I, I’m a person that, that takes a shot. I just, I just do because the fact that I don’t know or in the future I wouldn’t know and be like, oh, what if that was legit?
[10:31] What if that would have made me a ton of money and I didn’t take the chance. That to me would have been worse than losing to ether, but everyone’s different. Uh, I took a shot at last. It happens that that’s just the way it goes. Uh, and that’s it, that, that’s how it happened. That’s the whole story. Um, do I feel stupid? No, no. People will probably call me that, but I knew there are risks. It’s just what it is. I looked at as a risky investment and you know, if it worked, that have been awesome. I took a shot that have been great, but it didn’t. So that’s, that’s how it is. And I really honestly, am I pissed at them. Yeah, a little bit, but I really can’t blame them totally because there is no regulation. It’s theirs. They weren’t breaking any laws other than being a moral assholes, you know, and, and stealing.
[11:24] So, and really the economy I guess, so can’t really be too upset about it. Um, you know, unregulate regulation is something that’s probably coming. They’re working on it to keep it from happening to more people. But honestly the regulation is not gonna address the real issue with this. And that is one of the main things that I took away from this and I hope other people do and it really gets looked at because this is super important. Um, regulation is not going to stop this. The reason is because to get into these ceos, at least most of them, I’d say like 90 percent or more, you have to be an accredited investor. And as long as that is in place, people are going to look for other ways to get into these ice o’s. And pools are gonna be the best way there. I mean, that’s just the way it is.
[12:24] So what does it take to be an accredited investor in the US? This is, this is what it takes in the US. It’s different other places. But here’s, here’s what you gotta do a one, you must have a net worth of at least a million dollars excluding the value of one’s primary residence or have an income of at least $200,000 each year for the last two years or $300,000 combined income if married. So again, you got to have a net worth of at least a million excluding your residents or have an income of at least 200 k each year for the last two years. So I’m not in that boat. I fuck, I wish. I wish. Give me a million dollars. I’ll take that. Uh, hopefully. Hopefully if everything goes well, I’ll, I could be an accredited investor here soon, but not now. And many people including me, are missing out on so many good investment opportunities because they do not meet the accredited investor criteria.
[13:32] And it’s not only in Crypto, but other investments, you can’t do like venture capital, you can’t get in more in some of the more riskier stocks, stocks because you’re not an accredited, you’re just missing out on tons of opportunity. And, and the reason they do that is they say it’s to protect people, protect us. It keeps us the nonaccredited and people or the people to poor. Uh, from what basically what they’re saying, it keeps us from losing money that we can’t afford to lose. Um, which is just. Yeah. Yeah. So basically the government is telling us where and how we can invest our own money. That’s basically what it is. They’re saying we’re too poor you, you guys can’t, you can’t invest your money in this. You can’t afford to lose it. And this is something. It’s gotta change. It’s gotta change. You know, there are financial advisors out there that do not meet these accreditation standards and yet they can tell us how and where to invest our money in that screwed.
[14:38] That’s just stupid. Know that that’s just not how it should work. And you know, if we know I don’t, but if we don’t make enough money to qualify as an accredited investor, it’s based. Are they saying that we’re not smart enough to invest their own money? I mean, that’s pretty much what they’re saying is now you can’t lose this amount and you’re probably not smart enough to do these investments. So forget about it. And if we can’t control and do what we want with our, with our own money, then who then who is in control, not us. Obviously I can’t, I can’t invest in this ICO because I don’t make an amount of money that, that they seem viable. Um, I know what I could lose and yes, they’re going to be people out there that, you know, invest too much, lose their ass. But there’s also people out there, they’re gambling too much, losing their ass.
[15:29] There isn’t a log ins that they can go to vegas and lose all the money they want. They can lose their entire life savings on a blackjack table. But yet I can’t invest in an ICO that I find amazing that I think is going to revolutionize the world. I could find the new apple and I can’t get into it because I could know for a fact I could have a crystal ball right here. I’m a damn table that’s telling me like, hey, this ICO is going to be worth a billion dollars if you put. If you put 50 grand in this, you’re going to be a billionaire for the rest. You never have to worry about money. Anyone in your family, nobody’s ever going to have to worry about money. I could know this for fact. And because I’m not an accredited investor, I couldn’t invest. It’s just, it’s not, it’s stupid.
[16:18] It’s just dumb. And we got to get rid of this. It’s, it’s outdated. Other countries don’t have things like this. Uh, and it’s, it’s just, it’s dumb. And if this accredited investor thing is still there, people are going to find ways to get into investments that are not allowed to them. If we can’t get into ICO is they’re always going to be the chances that people had scammed in these ICO pool groups because people want to be able to get into these ISOS and there’s not, you’re not going to be able to stop them is just not gonna happen. Uh, the only way to really use it to really not get scammed for sure is to not do these ICO is. And some of them are really good. They are, these, some of these ics are legit and I would like to have the opportunity to get into them and there are, there’s a couple of things I’m looking into that people are trying to solve that and I got to do some more research and see what it is.
[17:20] But yeah, hopefully this is something that gets changed. I hope you guys learned something from my mistake. It is what it is. I guess it’s better that happens to me than somebody new who just, you know, their first interaction with crypto would be to get scammed. That would be worse. So I’ll take the hit on this one. It is what it is and yeah, hopefully learn something from this. I’d like to hear every anyone’s comments on this as well. See if something like that. And most people probably won’t tell you if they have been scammed or not. I really don’t care. Whatever it happened to me, I’ve had worse things happen. It’s not really that big of a deal. Most people are just, you know, they’re scared, they’ll feel stupid, but whatever. Uh, yeah. So that’s that different kids. And I went to incredibles two today and it was, it was pretty good.
[18:21] It was good. Jack. Jack was funny. Um, yeah, you know, it wasn’t the best pixar movie I’ve ever seen, but it was, it was good. It’s, you know, I like going to these. I take my kids to as many movies as I can and there are some terrible ones out there that you just sit there and like, oh my God, is this ever a Peter Rabbit? Oh, I didn’t think that was ever going to end, but this, you know, this one you can sit and watch and enjoy it. And I liked it is good enough. So with that, would you kindly hit that subscribe button, thumbs up button, whatever you, whatever you would like. Doubt helped me out a ton and be aware of ICO pools and read it. Apparently. Great. Red. It’s red. It’s a little sketchy lately. Um, I actually don’t go to on his reddit as much as I, as much as I used to. I don’t care about memes. Seems like everything on there is memes. I’m looking for Info and Reddit has just turned into the meme factory lately. So yeah, I hope you guys are having a good evening day, whatever. Whatever time. Good time. Hope you’re having a good time. Yeah. With that, I’m going to go watch the staircase. She was damn good. Make sure you’re watching it on Netflix. If you’re watching it, hit me up on the comments. No spoilers and we’ll talk to you tomorrow.