[beachstartup]

there's nothing to "understand". you assume there is a logic to their actions. there isn't. the guy was a scammy bullshit artist, a wannabe business man who talked his way into others' confidence, and probably has mental issues. these people are out there, and you need to watch out for them.

on a side note, it takes guts to post a story like this. most people don't admit when they are taken like this. they're lucky he didn't try to steal money from them directly.

[gnaritas]

There was logic to his actions, he stole their ad revenues and kept the money while dangling a carrot of big investment to keep them from noticing. Scammy bullshit artists still have goals.

[VLM]

Something relevant to keep in mind is the scammer is not obligated to have a one track mind. He has 25K of their money, as far as I can tell still has it and based on the guys history has run this many times. He can run this scheme in parallel perhaps 10 companies and for 9 he disappears and the tenth he spends 250K and owns a chunk of a "4M company". Note that he ran for the hills when he got in over his head and figured out that giving a "4M company" that folds when it loses 25K is probably not a good use of 250K. Some other company will be getting that 250K.

[wingerlang]

I think he is asking how that guy cashed in on this.

And I believe the answer was that these guys basically displayed affiliate links that gave him cash when clicked.

[sedeki]

No, I don't think "Simon" meant to cash in at all. As the parent post said: probably mental issues. These nutjobs aren't looking to get to rich, as much as pretending/be perceived to be rich.

[beachstartup]

yeah, hence

> lucky he didn't try to steal money from them directly