Anyone lost L in Sl Bank or Ginko?

After few friends encouraged me to take risk on saving in Ginko I did.
I put in my first largest amount in the bank on 3rd.
Checked balance, it gone, only amount was previous one.
Yet my transaction history shows I paid them.
Not ever going to use another SL bank.
But I am curious has anyone else lost money using SL bank's or 3rd party atm related services?
Did you ever get the money back?

I'd used Ginko and know a few people who have and have always gotten exactly the returns that were promised and were able to withdraw at will.

Many vendors are having difficulty with sales not being recorded - or severely delayed - recently. This could be a manifestation of that bug. I'd talk to the Ginko folk, they're nice.

Disclaimer: no connection at all with Ginko or any other financial services firm; I'm no longer even a Ginko depositor.

Yeah I try to contact them Sunday afternoon.
I told them few hours later though no one responded if and when I get the funds back I will never use them again.
They lost my trust.
I have a friend/aquiantance who said they been very beneficial to his wife and him but either way I got bad feeling about the whole thing now.
A two day delay is rediculous. Especially when they had no problem recording 100 or 1000 earlier.
Either way it looks like I am 7150 poorer which is equivelent of 27.08 usd.

Did you try contacting the bank about it?

If the pay-in system is scripted it is possible for it to take the money and not "fire", it used to happen sometimes with GOM ATMs, now although the scripted system may have not correctly registered the deposit, the avatar that the bank use to take these payments WILL have it in their account history if you have also.

Its no good to get mad about it when what happened may have been out of the banks control and a simple SL glitch, the times it happened with the GOM one I just contacted them and they sorted it out straight away, it was a problem with the mechanics in SL with scripted pay systems and was not their fault at all.

edit - sorry since I started posting you posted again to say you did contact them.

Yes Gaybot, you do earn interest! Beats camping and no LAG! lol

You can find it in game and at https://ginkofinancial.com/

You tried to contact them less then 24 hours ago; I think a little patience might be reasonable.

You say "two day delay" but you didn't report it to them until "yesterday afternoon". Yes, it may have been two days since you made a deposit, but they may have not even received the L$ as other merchants have noticed and reported in these forums.

See my disclaimer above. I just don't like seeing firms disparaged here in the same way that Anshe Chung, Inc. hates seeing negative commentary on their services here.

hiya craig!! How ya doing?

What is GOM? never heard of them.

Have heard of ginko though, but never tried them... might give it a go, hehe

Getting an unbelievably good rate from a 'bank'? Ever wonder how?

Businesses making tons of profit don't need to borrow money from lots of small investors at loanshark rates to themselves, now do they?

Especially over years and years... Hmmm....

http://www.sec.gov/answers/ponzi.htm

http://www.fraudsandscams.com/ponzi.htm

http://www.psc.state.pa.us/investor/brochures/ponzi.html

Agreed. 100% Ponzi scheme. No other explanation.

If I wanted to, I could put in the work and get about a 50% ROI. I don't know if it would scale to the size of Ginko, but I do it with my money.

I am in no way endorsing or defending Ginko, I am just saying that people really don't know how Ginko works and that in of itself is what make people jump to the ponzi theory.

Here is my fav link about Ginko. So, lets see, so far we have Reuters saying Ginko is a scam, and a Law School, Anshe Chung, a few lawyers, a bunch of news sources, college profs, people who specialize in Ponzi Schemes and yet people still defend this "bank." Just like what happened in Eve Online before the guy shut down the bank and stole over $150,000USD. You had lots of people defending the bank and a few months later, the guy leaves a real life video of himself thanking all his supporters by name before giving them all the middle finger. LOL. Suckers. It all comes down to greed. Another "bank" just opened offering over 100% per year and what do you know? No real names or info on how they make the money. People just see the interest rate and so ignore the risks. In reality, the return is poor considering at any moment they can take not only any interest you've earned, but your initial deposit as well. What good is 100% per year if one day it is all gone, including your deposit? It makes you all "virtually blind."

http://virtuallyblind.com/2007/02/23/business-law-journal-analyzes-ginko-financial-as-possible-ponzi-ginko-annual-yield-down-60-in-16-months/

Yeah, I saw that video shortly after it happened - it was wild.

Eve Online is a different scenario than Second Life - the *point* of Eve Online is to capture your opponent's resources and "win" the game.

As horrific as it sounds, so long as he was dealing in ISK and not USD, the Eve Online fellow could be (abstractly) construed to just being good at playing the game, although in the most hateful, despicable manner possible.


But Second Life is different. There is no game here to be 'won'. I don't buy unsupported claims of 'investment' either - anyone can say that they have $L 1 or $L 100 million in 'investments' - who could know if it was the truth?


I would love to hear even *one* example of a legitimate business that is profitable, yet must borrow money from people at anywhere from 60% to 20% per year, for years on end.

Yea, I agree. And don't forget that there is a new "bank" now offering over .2% per day or over 100% per year and they pay sign up bonuses to you and whoever gets you to open an account AND pays people even more for having their ATM on their land. It is like a ponzi/pyramid combo! Here are some quotes from the links the last guy left. Sound familiar? LOL

"The essence of a Ponzi Scheme is investment. The Ponzi operator typically represents that he has some sort of "system" that is either incredibly complex, or a proprietary secret. His system makes it possible for him to pay incredible rates of return. The elaborate office, exquisitely tailored suits, involvement with the church, and generosity toward charitable organizations are all classic window dressing.

Ponzi schemes do not decline and fall; they are typically hugely successful until they collapse. Everyone is making money, everyone who wants their money out gets paid, and everyone is happy until the regulators shut it down or something precipitates a run on the bank."

They decline and fall not only because of 'regulaters shut them down'

they pay out the high returns to people using new people investments, and once ppl stop investing into it, they can not afford to pay out

but most sucsesfull ponzi operations (sucsesfull only to the person who steals all your money) shut down and run away with everyones cash once they get to the point where they think they made enuf money

Hmm, I was investing in this "new bank" that's interest rate is .2 % daily. I think I am going to go withdraw....


lol

I've made over 100% in a month in SL. It's not that far fetched for me to believe that someone else might be able to get 100% in a year. The big money traders in SL should be getting a better return than the SL banks are paying at the current Linden to USD exchange rates for limit buys and sells. Just because something looks like a scam does not necessarily make it one. Having said that, I could trust these banks more if they were backed by real world enforcable contracts with real world assets to go after in case of default.

I've made, well, gosh-golly, I started from selling a handful of chairs for $L 50 in Sept 2005 and now I've got a mini continent.

Scientifically calculating profit growth, well, that comes out to one point three five bajillion gazillion percent.

But at NO time did I ever need to borrow money at loanshark rates. Why? Because I *was* successful I didn't *need* to rape myself financially.

How can someone be so erudite of a money trader on the one hand, while needing to borrow money constantly at obscene rates that absolutely make no sense?

Gee, you could, uh, reinvest your own profits and cut a loss of 100% per year on all borrowed money!!!!!111

But I guess in spite of all my personal business dealings, I'm simply not smart enough to understand why anyone would need to flush their money down a high-percentage borrowing toilet for years on end.

Just call me a novice in business I guess...

I have about 190K in my ginko account and have been happy with it. There is always a risk to money that isn't REALLY there, but I would seriously say I haven't had any problems, thus far, with Ginko Financial. Sorry for your loss man...

Well they do decline and fall but typically these days they get shut down before they hit the decline and fall thing. Not sure where your quote from one person is starting and yours ends. But this part is true as typically it takes the government about 2 years to investigate them and shut them down these days sometimes maybe faster.

but at the same time i'm wondering if people mix ponzi up with pyramid. As pyramid schemes are legal still in many countries and often people even will say they are pyramid schemes outright. Its the ones that "dont reveal their investments secrets" that are the danger.

If your told your investing in a pyramid scheme then the only issue is the legality in the country you live in err and the country of origin. I put 1k into ginko and didn't get much interest out of them so i'm not sure what rate they have but I left if there and forgot about it for a year and i can't remember the quoted interest rate at the time. So based on what I saw it looked like a "bank" to me. That being said even if it was just a bank in SL its a risk ponzi, pyramid or not its all a risk because of the fact that your dealing with a person who you can't actually identify.

Honestly if anyone wants to make "interest" on lindens just use the lindex and do the buy sell thing your result will be the same although it requires you do actually think and monitor stuff that in itself can be kinda fun, but the result will be that your money grows which is the entire idea behind putting money in a bank that gives interest only in the lindex case your dealing with Linden labs which is a known entity so as far as second life goes its about as safe as its gonna get

If you want to experiment like many do "just to see what happens" then by all means take spare money that you are willing to loose and stick itin the system. I"m horrible for this I try everything if i were playing a PVE mmorpg with people in this game you would curse me to no end because one thing i always do is go around pressing all the buttons and opening all the boxes "just to see what happens". I use the same approach with SL stuff I take part in it "just to see what happens". In the case of Ginko my interest rate of return was well low like I didnt' even notice if i actualy made any money type low?

Not sure how the laws work in the UK, but in the United States one cannot benefit from unlawful transactions and get away with it.

For instance, if someone sells you a stolen car, guess what - the owner of the car gets it back when the Feds come. Regardless of how much you paid the crook.


If you are making money via illegitimate means and cashing out, be prepared to write a check for whatever you made. I can't think of anything more traceable than the $L.

Not technically US currency, so you are safe? Sorry Charlie. There's a money laundering task force too.

So it might be wise to know what's making all that wonderful interest for you. If your gains weren't lawfully made and the United States FBI can touch you, be prepared to get your checkbook out.




Oh, and for anyone who thinks the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation isn't watching: http://www.fbi.gov/cyber/cysweep/cysweep1.htm

Anyone doubt they have never heard of Second Life, now that DOJ spokespeople have made direct comments about the gambling here?

hehe that is if ginko is in fact what "some" peopel say it is. Remembe its against LInden TOS due to teh fact that they are on american servers and so would enforce it. Now as i only made 10L in a year off a 1k Linden deposit I would hazard a guess taht ginko is in fact not what some claim it to be based on my own findings.

Couple that together with the fact that people ingame putting their money in this bank actualy think its legit and if they are being scammed are in fact victims and that they may not even be in the same country as the servers you have a very very hard to deal with situation

But given that if this is an illegal scheme and the feds in the states come running to me in another country I will give them their 10 Lindens back AS CASH with interest.

Again since everything in this thread about ginko is in fact speculation and not proven fact the cart is being put before the horse here. You are assuming first that this is an illegal operation and that the people who are the victims of this so called illegal operation are KNOWINGLY taking part in a scam to further themselves somehow. Your also assuming that these things are illegal in the country they are investing from. Lastl your assuming they are making bucket loads of money when by the definitions of a ponzi scheme and the fact its been running so long they are NOT making a dime in fact they might even be loosing money at this point.

Since I see one case of someones transaction gettings lost (more likely an asset server issue) and I myself have made 10 whopping lindens interest andothers are making interest now still AFTER the usual time that something like this collapses AND that most ponzi operators skip town with the goods.. this does in fact NOT look like an illegal operation not from where I sit. I have NO binoculars to say otherwise. I can't see any books, proof or anything else I only have the word of like maybe 3 people in the entier game of SL who have said that they think its an illegal operation. I do have the fact that they have existed longer then I have in this game and are still afloat , have not taken off with anyones money and have not been shut down, removed and banned by LInden labs though

/shrug

Hell I only trust LindenX about 5% and have a hard enough time dealing with that. I really don't think I would trust anything outside of the company SL. The only one I think I would trust is SLExchange but thats it. Banks... No way. To easy to get scammed in here.