[wolverine876]

> - Investing money in a friend's company - this was the most painful as it was perpetuated by our family members who lived here for a while that we trusted

I don't know your parents' experience, of course, but this method of losing money is one of the most popular for everyone. I once saw an expert who provides finanical education to new professional atheletes (known for being bankrupt soon after retirement despite millions in income). Loans to family/friends' businesses was top of their list of no-no's.

On the other hand, many successful businesses have started that way. Many more legitimate but failed efforts also have begun that way. Not everyone has access to VC capital, personal wealth, or a bank loan.

[brolumir]

Yeah, I should've been more clear: it wasn't really investing in a friends company. I agree it can be a source of funding when other sources aren't available, but in this case it was a total scam - the company was specifically designed to accept money and fold.

[adrianmsmith]

It's really a bitter pill to swallow that there exist people who would do this to their friends.

[TeMPOraL]

Or family members. MLMs and social media influencers are a plague.

[pessimizer]

Affinity fraud.

[Daub]

Here in Singapore there was a plague of such cases when China opened up. The main victims were ethnic Chinese Singaporeans being screwed over by long lost family members in China.

[delta_p_delta_x]

It's only getting worse[1].

There's so many tele-scammers from China nowadays and old Singaporean Chinese are ripe for the pickings. The usual ones I hear over the phone are MOH, IRAS, or SingPost, or some other authority impersonation.

[1]: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/record-scam-cases-singapore-2023-t...

[throwup238]

> On the other hand, many successful businesses have started that way.

It's called the triple F round: friends, family, and fools.