Anyone use The Linden Bank?

Has anyone used 'The Linden Bank?'

The notecards says:

The highest intrest for CD accounts are as follows:

50k deposit for 30 days = 8%
100k deposit for 30 days = 10%
250k deposit for 30 days = 12%
500k deposit for 30 days = 15%
1,000k deposit for 30 days = 20%

Is this for real or is it a Ponzi scheme/scam? How can they do this? Their web site http://www.thelindenbank.com/ does not have an English 'About Us' section, so I don't know how to evaluate risks with this bank. No numbers (assets, liabilities, etc.) either. Are they transparent in what they do? Doesn't say how long they've been in business.

Curious to know if anyone has used this bank and had any bad experiences with them. The 30-day lock is very risky and promises very high returns to match. Scam or speculative opportunity?

Have people used this and gotten their money + promised interest back? Thanks.

If it sounds too good to be true...

Also, if LL cared anymore, naming an in-game business in a deceptive way to make it look "official" would be shut down.

This sounds like a scam

For this to be legitimate banking, it would have to look like this on the loan side to break even:

borrow 50k for 30 days, pay 8% (96% annual interest!!!)
borrow 100k for 30 days, pay 10% (120% annual interest!!!)
...and so forth.

Of course, conversion from RL funds means you can borrow at standard banking rates, say 5% annually instead of 96% annually or much much worse.

So... just as a spot poll here, how many are willing to borrow at 96% interest? Actually, that's just breakeven. For this bank to profit, the rate would have to be far, far higher...

* * * * *

Now, say it isn't banking at all and instead, some kind of investment. This investment would have to be:

1. So GOOD it could return 20% interest on $L 1000k in just 30 days!

AND...

2. So BAD that it can't dig itself out of the need to borrow money at 96% or worse!




So... I'll let all the financial geniuses out there explain to slow-witted Desmond just how such a scheme works...

The ONLY bank I trust is the one called my wallet.

There's an hole in it.

A quick WHOIS lookup on the advertised domain name indicates that the reference is completely opaque ... just another (Florida-based) company listed as contact.

So, no matter whether this is a sustainable business or not, the fact remains that anybody doing business with them will have no recourse whatsoever if problems ensue. The best you could do is IM the names given on the website and hope for a response.

Caveat emptor.

There is no way I'd trust returns like that in real-life, where there is far more accountability and legal recourse.

In SL... forget it.

Heh... I looked at the web site. Did you see the name of the chairman?
"PaydayLoan Lindman"

If you've ever seen one of these payday loan places, the interest rates you cite above are just about right.

So who borrows money from a place like this?

Well, here's what bothers me:

ALL their "branches" are in the same sim? A little backup/redundancy would be nice.

I can't read any of the "about" info, and all their past news stories link back to the "about" page!!

There is no info on their "services"!! On the main page it has various numbers in a table titled "Rate of Exchange". Is that what they are paying on deposits, or what users would pay on a loan? I would use the term Rate of Exchange to indicate a currency conversion, like dollars to euros; is that a European term?

Interesting, but I won't be putting any large sums in any SL banks just yet.

Max

PONZI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi

LMAO Its a scam and not a very good one at that. As soon as I looked at the web page something stuck out like a soar thumb. Well two things really....

1.) The so called copyright notice... ITS NOT FILLED OUT! LMAO Look...
2005 © Copyright Company Name.
All rights reserved.

3.) Their whole web site is nothing more then a TemplateMonster template they picked up for $50.00 bucks.

NOTE TO SCAMMERS: If your going to attempt to scam people AT LEAST fill out your web site template before running the scam... *ss Clowns. LMAO

Oh and the other thing.... TemplateMonster does alot of their templates in something other then English because they use designers from over the boarder.... Thats why most of the site is in what ever that is and the rest is in English... They never changed some of the sample text! LMAO

Desmond and I agonised over another well known Second Life bank.....I will leave the more knowledgeable of you to guess the name.......

We both came to the conclusion there could be eventual "issues" although there is one thing I cannot completely discount and that is it is VERY well known in the first life media and the web site owners name and address was in the public domain when last I checked.

The interest rate was much less and even Desmond figured there "might" just be one or two ways in which it "could" be done. I will let him explain if he chooses to -

But here the old English saying words such as "Barge Pole" "Don't" "Them" "Touch" and "With a" spring to mind. Please arrange these words in such order you all see fit

Gotta love their ABOUT US page. I mean, it doesn't exactly inspire confidence when your bank can't be bothered to change the Greek Text/Dummy Text to something as simple as "coming soon."

I don't know if I smell a scam, but I do smell a bunch of rank amateurs I wouldn't trust with a single Linden of my money.

Kam

Every scam artist has to start somewhere.

All the good Scam Universities have gone online only and the quality of education has really slid.

You may laugh at how poorly the scam is set up.

Scams are not created for people who do things like checking the credibility of an institution before investion, or who pause to say to themselves, "This is too good to be true."

Scams are created for people who think, "I'd better get in on this great deal right away, before it goes away!"

By investing as little as possible in making the website look nice, profits are increased.

You know, we may not be able to find contact information. But internet fraud is highly illegal, and investigated by the FBI, I believe. I bet the FBI can track them down better. Anyone who has actually seen the website think of reporting them?

Instead of making fun of scammers, turn them in!

OMG Amity I do that ever day when I get those, "Look at this" $96,000 for you things. The major problem is that most of these scam artists live in a different country and are never to be found. Would be nice if something could be done with them though. Like blow them the hell out of SL at least.

These people just never lose a chance to take advantage of someone do they. They must be sad individuals. Someone that has been to their website, might want to report them to the Lindens at least. I am not going there, no cookies for me please. Unless of course they are peanut butter choclate chip and I have made them myself.

Mmm... yes I did mention this in a private conversation between John and I; I'm not sure it's actually legitimate per se.

It's possible that such "institutions" could take advantage of user churn.

User churn being: the number of people that visit second life just long enough to give them money, but then abandon the game (and their money) permanently a few weeks or months later.

I don't have access to the grid's user churn stats, and it could be that it's a very foolish strategy - what if ten people come back after five years, demanding their huge percentage returns?

How many of us have abandoned adena, Therebucks, Warcraft gold pieces, Entropia dollars and so forth in other games? I'm guessing these are schemes designed to vacuum up the leavings; in this case, $L.

In essence, such a strategy would be little more than a modified Ponzi, using user churn for a boost effect.

That's possible. But such a thing would honestly be legitimate to do, and this company would not have needed to take steps to hide identity.

I think if someone were doing what Desmond described legitamately with the churn, Theyd offer only a small interest, and pay out unguaranteed Dividends based on proffits.

Wouldnt they also have some clause that if they dont hear from you for 90 days your account is cacelled?

Oh, thank you Malachi! I had forgotten that it was the 'type template' and had spent a few minutes actually trying to translate the bull....

I'm thinking that it is a scam. Call it instinct, but if they can't at least get creative with their 'lingo' then that means they don't expect to be around long enough to make it worth while.

There is a really big risk that any business like this is a scam, but to be fair there is some chance that any given SL "bank" is legit. To return 20% in 30 days doesn't sound nearly as outlandish when you think of it as buying something for $100 and selling it for $105 a week later. The profits are even higher if you can buy for $100 and sell for $101 every day, which seems within reason. The smart money may be on the side of this being a scam, but considering my recent slingo addiction, "smart" is not a word that is often associated with my money. I've got some spare cash sitting in one of the SL banks for now, and have never had a problem when I've tried to do a withdrawal, but I realize that there is a big chance that my balance will go to zero with no notice.

20% in 30 days sure sounds outlandish when you look at yearly return of 240%