“Over US$8 Million Lost by 2,600 Investors in South Korea’s ‘Treasure Ship’ ICO” – wrote CCN.com yesterday, and other sources. “According to South Korean police, it has been tentatively concluded that about 2,600 people invested around 9 billion won or slightly over US$8 million in Shinil Group which claimed to have discovered a shipwreck containing gold worth US$130 billion” – continued.

Invisible investments

It’s a nice example of smart frauds: the object, the ship can’t be viewed, evidence, like photos, can be falsified easily, and the word “gold treasure” is a buzzword since several thousand years. (Even Bitcoin couldn’t delete it from the dreams of the people.) Reuters wrote middle July that the wreck was “disputed” by a government-run institute, and that warships are the property of their original governments:

“A war vessel is the territory of the state whose flag it bears regardless of the waters it is in. This status does not change even after it sinks” – told a Russian expert to Reuters.

Tell me a huge lie

But all this is nothing new. Some scientists claim we have anatomically the same brain as in the Neolithic era, we feel good or bad about the same things and have the same vulnerabilities as earlier. For example greed, treasures and “too-nice-to-be-true” stories. And some people are using this against us, offering sweet dreams to take our money. (I wrote about earlier: Beware Of People Promising Too Much)

This story with the shipwreck is a relatively tiny one. In possibly the greatest, most shameless and arrogant, at the same time a very tragic and deadly fraud of all times, somebody invented a whole country. A non-existing country, of course.

More than a hundred dead

Almost 200 years ago, a Scottish soldier, adventurer, officer of the British Army, general Gregor MacGregor invented “Poyais”, a fictional Central American territory that he claimed to rule as “Cazique”. (Something like a ruler or governor.)

Hundreds invested their savings in supposed Poyaisian government bonds and land certificates, while about 250 emigrated to MacGregor's invented country in 1822–23 to find only an untouched jungle; more than half of them died. MacGregor's Poyais scheme has been called one of the most brazen confidence tricks in history. (Source: Wikipedia)

Preserving his honour

He even printed money of this fictional country, see on the picture. (Also from Wikipedia.) The losses investors and settlers suffered can reach the billion-dollar category in today’s terms. But he was never convicted and “he died in Caracas in 1845, aged 58, and was buried with full military honours in Caracas Cathedral”.

Must have a Plan B

It doesn’t matter if printed bonds, fiat money, stock markets, dotkom-bubble garbage, ICO-s or shitcoins, there will be always frauds because there are always credulous and greedy people. Searching for the way to get rich, easily and quick. What you can do is learn, learn, think, analyse your investments, be healthily suspicious and diversify your money.

Missing a good investment is a smaller problem than lose all your money, right?

So, don’t believe in every luring opportunity, if something is to nice to be true, most likely it isn’t. Never put it all in the same investment, it doesn’t matter if it’s Bitcoin, Gold, Ether, Steem, Apple stocks, or US Treasury bills. You must have a Plan B.

Disclaimer:

I am not a financial advisor and this content in this article is not a financial or investment advice. It is for informative purposes only, or simply to make you think, entertain, increase testosterone and adrenaline level. Consult your advisers before making any decision.

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