I feel really sorry for this guy, but ......

axisus

How monumentally stupid do you have to be to hand over £400k like this?!?!?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56402378

A moment of pure greed and it is gone ...

DefaultM

What on earth? If Elon Musk was sat there giving out free bitcoin, why would he need to take yours first only to give it back again?

If I had close to half a million pounds in bitcoin I just can't imagine pressing a couple of buttons and sending it anywhere other than my own bank account. Why would his brain approve this? Haha.

Musicwolf

DefaultM said:

 Why would his brain approve this? Haha.

Because he's a gambler.  That's why he had bitcoin to start with.

Haych

DefaultM said:

Why would his brain approve this?

Greed

Simonh

A fool and his money are soon parted, in fact they were lucky to get together in the first place...

thecolourbox

This won't be his only loss of money I reckon. To slap €40k on bitcoin in the first place suggests he tends to do that kind of thing anyway. At least he had the sense to pull out his original investment at the time so he's only lost his gains, not all of the money

skunkwerx

I still dont know wtf bitcoin is. 

Is it like the new gold or something except digital? How does that even have any worth whatsoever? i dont get it. 

I suppose it keeps me safe from losing £400k on the internet though. 

Sassafras

I don't feel sorry for him.
He's a greedy idiot who's ignored the first rule of bargains:
If somethings sounds too good to be true, it is.

not_the_dj

“He and his wife watched a series on Netflix, before she went to bed and left him on the sofa messing about on his phone”

Pornhub and a w**k would have been a much better idea. 

Kittyfrisk

I feel sorry for him.
Not everyone can be as lucky as I was when I was able to help out a long lost relative in Nigeria to leave me his not inconsiderable fortune. Which was nice.

russpm

What a complete tool

Sassafras

skunkwerx said:

I still dont know wtf bitcoin is. 

Is it like the new gold or something except digital? How does that even have any worth whatsoever? i dont get it. 

I suppose it keeps me safe from losing £400k on the internet though. 

I don't understand Bitcoin either.
I think it's intended for illegal transactions.

AK99

"Dude, you want some free money ? Then click here..."

Um - nope.

Haych

I do wonder if alcohol was partially making the decision for him.

He's hardly going to admit to being half cut at the time though, is he?

ICBM

Nearly as foolish as this unfortunate woman...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-56984844

DefaultM

Yeah no explanation other than greed. If you've got half a million it must be so easy to turn it in more through 'normal' means, just because money makes money and you can spread it around investments etc. You should know Elon Musk doesn't appear and double it for you in an instant though.

MrTee

I'd assume someone buying/owning bitcoin must possess some level of tech awareness. To fall for a 'classic' scam, is therefore crazy!!

Danny1969

Sassafras said:

skunkwerx said:

I still dont know wtf bitcoin is. 

Is it like the new gold or something except digital? How does that even have any worth whatsoever? i dont get it. 

I suppose it keeps me safe from losing £400k on the internet though. 

I don't understand Bitcoin either.
I think it's intended for illegal transactions.

Well the idea is it's basically a decentralised currency, and blockchain in construction. This means no one controls it and no one can fiddle it ... since it's a public ledger forging any entry isn't possible as the chain wouldn't add up afterwards. 

So in fact it's actually the most honest currency there is but yeah, it's untraceable and the proof of work mining consumes a huge amount of energy. 

Block chain is more than currency these days though, it can be applied to loads of things

axisus

ICBM said:

Nearly as foolish as this unfortunate woman...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-56984844

Yeah, I felt bad for her when I saw that, pretty darned stupid. She'd never even met the guy. Romance fraud is particularly cruel.

The bottom line is that there are some really sh*t people in the world doing stuff like this.

rogd

But how the effing hell do you spend it or turn it into beer/guitar/nosebag etc tokens?

ICBM

axisus said:

The bottom line is that there are some really sh*t people in the world doing stuff like this.

It actually makes you wish for some form of real-life The Equalizer, since there's very little chance they will ever get any retribution otherwise. They're no doubt finding it hilarious that they're sitting on a pile of cash that most decent people would take years to earn, for no more effort than just stringing someone impressionable along for a while.