<p>so much for the Iraqi dinars thread. I hope the OP realized we were trying to prevent him and his family from getting scammed AGAIN. Like one of the other posters said, the easiest target for these criminals is someone they have already scammed.</p>
<p>It breaks my heart that so many unsophisticated people fall for these scams, but then when you try to reason with them, they refuse to listen. They hold onto hope that their investment is going to make them rich right up until the end. You simply could not shake this kid of his belief that he was getting rich off of Iraqi dinars.</p>
<p>Hey, I’m standing in front of a mansion I want to buy. To make the numbers work, I need to grow my money forty-fold, and quickly. I’ve heard middle eastern currency plays are a sure way to make a lot of money fast. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of investment?</p>
<p>Oh, never mind. Some guy in a high-end Ford Edge just drove up and and bought it.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why they don’t just lock the threads if they violate the TOS and actually state why they are doing so rather than just making them go “poof.” Or is that thread just closed and hiding a few pages back?</p>
<p>It’s a shame, because it could have served as a good lesson to all. :(</p>
<p>Does anyone know where it went wrong that it would be taken down? Maybe we had gotten too close to being able to identify exactly who this individual was?</p>
<p>If the OP is reading this, please listen to us. You probably can’t do anything about the money you have already lost, but you can stop yourself from being victimized again. If something sounds too good to be true, it is. Many well-educated, very bright people who understand a great deal about currency markets have to go to work every day to make a living to pay their bills. If it were really as easy as you say it is to make money off of Iraqi dinars, these people would not only know it, they would be doing it and would be able to retire.</p>
<p>Recently, I read that ATTORNEYS in Hawaii & CA had fallen victim to the wired money order scam–you know where you deposit the money order or check into your account and then send them the balance from YOUR check, keeping a big hunk of change for yourself, “for the inconvenience.” </p>
<p>I was saddened that ATTORNEYS, of all people would fall for that scam, but I guess there is always someone who believes that they can see better and are chosen to make money quickly. I understand unsophistocated students and our seniors falling for these scams, but really, I expect more caution and prudence from attorneys. Hopefully there weren’t that many of them, but enough that they wrote about it.</p>
<p>My links to this thread (with the messages posted) didn’t show anything particularly scandalous before the moderators decided to eliminate the thread–not just close it–rather poof!</p>
<p>I don’t know much about currency trading scams, so maybe someone could explain how it is that the scammer makes money on this? Do they buy the Dinars at price X and sell them to the “investors” at a higher price? Is that how it works?</p>
<p>“how it is that the scammer makes money on this? Do they buy the Dinars at price X and sell them to the “investors” at a higher price? Is that how it works?”</p>
<p>Yes, they sell them for more than they buy them for AND charge all kinds of fees.</p>
<p>The Iraqi dinar is an extremely illiquid currency - there is no open market for it. There is no where to exchange it for dollars except for the Central Bank of Iraq and a handful of banks in the middle east. And if you have a large amount of dinars to exchange, there is no where to exchange them for dollars because of the dollar reserves that the Central Bank of Iraq must keep in order to maintain a fixed exchange rate. So pretty much all you can do with a dinar is sell it to others who are willing to buy it or use it in Iraq as currency and even in Iraq, the dollar is preferred as currency.</p>
<p>This is how the scam works. The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) determines the dinar exchange rate by selling or buying 1170 dinars per US dollar. The CBI has pegged the value of the dinar to the dollar for the last few years and has publicly stated it has no plans to change that. Because of the CBI’s ability to print new dinars and otherwise maintain the dollar peg, the dinar can’t appreciate against the US dollar.</p>
<p>Since there are only a handful of banks that will exchange dinars for dollars and all are in the middle east and since even those will only exchange small amounts, the currency dealers can buy dinars at an even lower price than the published exchange rate from people who want to sell them but can’t exchange them for dollars. So they can buy them for less than the published exchange rate.</p>
<p>They then turn around and sell them to unsophisticated buyers for more than they bought them for (and usually more than the published exchange rate) and charge them all kinds of fees on top of that. The unsophisticated buyers don’t understand all of the intricacies of currencies - such as a currency peg vs. a floating currency, hyperinflation and devaluation as well as demonitization. They believe that they got “in” on a currency that is about to appreciate hugely because this is what they are told by the currency dealers and they want to believe it and aren’t knowledgeable enough about this subject to be able to discern hype from fact.</p>
<p>My bet is after they shut down the P & E forum they stated that no threads would be allowed if it was not college related, and this issue is not college related so expect it to go poof too!</p>
<p>I am still looking for those darn dinars Bullet brought home 5 yrs ago.</p>
<p>Was also bummed that the thread went <em>poof</em>. Intermixed with the funny comments were useful links to information on investing, the foreign exchange currency scams, etc. I’d planned to read some of those links when I got home, but now cannot. I’d also posted a few links on how to determine the true cost to drive a car, and compared the cost to own/drive the Ford Edge with some similar vehicles. Now I’ll have to go find that link again when I need it, though hopefully we won’t be in the car market again any time soon (just got a new one for DH after his driving DS’s car for the past year). Agreee that it would have been helpful to have been able to access a closed thread thant have it vanish, especially when the thread was over 200 posts long and had a lot of interesting info in it, but… c’est la vie. </p>
<p>Atacom, your explanation of the trading scams is very interesting. Might just make a copy of your post # 11, … just in case…</p>
<p>Most of the threads on the parent cafe have absolutely nothing to do with college. That’s actually the purpose of the cafe-to provide us a place to talk about ANYTHING BUT college.</p>
<p>Atamom - thank you for the great explanation!</p>
<p>Bulletandpima - lol, I don’t think what type of dog food your dog likes is truly college related - unless the OP is planning to feed it to her college student to save on those boarding fees ;)</p>
<p>The new car/social issues seemed to have started with what appeared to be a thinly veiled, moderately (?) legit college-related concern. It evolved, twisted and turned, as many threads do, and I learned a lot about this latest get rich quick scheme, and about the road that connects Central Wash with E Wash U.</p>
<p>Threads in the Cafe don’t have to be college related, but anything political has to be, and has to stay on the topic of the college connection, not the greater political topic, IIRC.</p>
<p>Interesting - I wouldn’t have really labeled it a political thread. I did think there was a possibility that the OP was using the thread to push some kind of agenda. I couldn’t help but notice that he wasn’t going to divulge the nature of the investment, but that went out the window pretty fast. If that’s the case, the thread deserved its fate.</p>
<p>Please note that off topic threads are allowed on CC. That is what the Cafes are for, after all. Political topics are not allowed unless they are directly related to college/education.</p>
<p>The Terms of Service does not allow for discussion of moderation on the forum itself and so please refrain from discussing it here. </p>
<p>I will note in general, and not specifically to the thread in question here, that often it is not obvious to members why a thread has come down and the speculation is often in error. One reason a thread (any thread) may come down is if the OP of the thread which is active has permanently lost posting privileges due to numerous TOS violations over time (not just on that thread) or in some cases, if the OP is a return of a previously banned member. In some situations, when a member no longer is a member due to TOS violations, their thread also is removed, even if the thread itself is not the issue. This is generally speaking. </p>
<p>Just as a note, the thread being discussed was not political. Feel fee to discuss the topic but not the moderation, which is speculative, and against the TOS to do on the forum. Thank you.</p>