Who's Lost the most Money in SL Investments & Banks?

We all know ginko took our bucks.. WSE claims to have lost millions... there's also 50 other banks and fake stock exchanges in SL.

My question is, who's lost the most money?

Double... you forgot to put an option for people who put money in and managed to get it all back.

Good point.

No matter how scammy the scam is, AT least one person always makes money in it.

I'm surprised that some people actually answered this poll (besides the "none of my money was at risk" crowd). Nobody likes to admit they were stupid.

No, no...that came out wrong. I don't mean to call those who lost $L, or at least have it locked up and unavailable, stupid. Might not have been a wise choice, but then hindsight is always 20/20, yes? I'm sure it looked a lot smarter three weeks ago, with the interest being paid and all.

I only meant that, I bet a lot more people lost money than will admit to it in this poll. Statistically suspect.

Heh. I turned L$5,000 into a little over L$11,000 on the WSE a few months ago, at which point I began to question the integrity of the whole setup and pulled my money out. The return was just so large, and I had so little experience that it set all kinds of alarm bells ringing. I only bought L$5,000 of shares in the first place because (i) a friend's business had floated and I figured I could show my support with a flutter, and (ii) I wasn't going to lose sleep or slit my wrists if I lost an amount as insignificant as L$5,000.

I returned last week to see if the 0.73L remaining in my account had gained any interest but apparently not. So I invested it and turned it into L$1.38, but when I sold my share I was paid in something called WIC$ or something so I couldn't cash out the rounded L$1 . I was mortified, obviously. Robbed of L$1!

I have 1L stuck in ginko when the ginko bonds depreciate enough I'm gonna take his suggestion and buy a "bond" through the wse and come back in 10 years and cash out my 100L or whatever its supposed to be at in 10 years...

I made big money on WSE...like US$60.00 or so. The trick? I bought a ton of stock in the company that owns the stock market when WSE was starting up(funny how that works). Then I ignored the place for about 6 months while they figured out what they're doing.

Had I paid attention that whole time I probably could have made more because the stocks had seen better days than the one on which I sold my stocks...but it was still a lot of money!

Ginko always seemed shady to me. At least with WSE you can see where your money's going and it's not all going into the same pocket.

I talked to LukeConnely when he was starting up the WSE and he seemed like a good guy. Still does. I think he actually believes in what he's doing and wants to be legitimate.

What's interesting is that this totally wouldn't have happened to Ginko and their customers if people didn't go for the knee-jerk reaction and make a run on the bank. Isn't there some sort of protection that RL banks have that makes it so they can't get run on like this? I'm not a super banker but I'm pretty sure there's something in there other than being insured and actually knowing what the hell you're doing with investing.

Sure it showed what kind of operation the place really was but these people complaining about how they can't get their money out kinda burst their own bubble.

The problem is, SL is a game and you're better off thinking of it as one for a while. Sorry guys. This kinda proves it.

well the do carry insurance as you say

banks are also required where I come from to have the funds invested in such a way that it can be liquified very quickly and the investmenst must be LOW RISK

plus a minimum reserver of "real money" is required actually in canada its pretty low its 10% I think its higher in the US

the other parts of it there is a time limit they have if someone makes a large withdrawal to fill the withdrawal and its not long (I forget i think its 48 hours)

but when it comes to the money in the accounts they are expected to be very very careful with it and the most they can do is invest a set percentage in low risk things not fly by night ventures.

the rest the gic's and bonds etc the money is supposed to be totally detached from the bank and banks are only supposed to be doing it as a sideline as an added service and not using money other then that specifically earmarked by people wanting to invest their money for long term investments and they are required to give you a portfolio of tell you the risks of the investments.

If I recall correctly, and it's been a long while, banks are required to keep x% of investments liquid and X% of investments easily liquidated, the sum total of those two being enough to cover a big chunk of any run on the bank (50-75%? of investments? like I said, it's been a while). Real banks also generally deal in assets with very specific market-verifiable values. There's a certain amount of speculation, but it's generally limited to loans for *other* people to speculate, with specific fines and penalties if the loans are defaulted on. Remember, real banks give interest to investors and charge interest from loaners. I don't recall Ginko having a loan program, but that might just be my slippery memory.

Most Real Banks also have excellent credit ratings and can Borrow money from other Banks when they need it.

In addition they can borrow money from the Federal Reserve in an emergency.


(in the US anyhow ..)

Actually, that was me in fact. I put it in, rode ginko's high interest rate and got all my money back... so yeah, there should be an option for that... I'd say just pick option $1L-1000

From reading the website's poor quality FAQ.. they did at one time do loans, but they haven't in a long while.

Also, this was my understanding of RL banking too, as a friend tried to explain things in deeper detail. They made their some of their basic money in the difference between loan interest and the interest applied to savings/checking accounts. I'm shaky on the rest.

Biased much?

I've never put any money into any in-game investment "banks" or "exchanged" (except Lindex ), and even with the advent of more credible regulatory committees or agencies I doubt I ever would.


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Even US banks go bankrupt, we had a local bank that heavily invested in the local real estate market by loaning money to the buyers of said property. When the local real estate market tanked about 10 years ago it took the bank with it. I have no idea how much the depositors got back but you could pick up the fire sale real estate real cheap.

Here is a list of recent failed US banks. http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html

The problem with this poll is that it groups both legit losses in the markets (like WSE or AVIX etc...) and losses due to theft, I've lost money on both AVIX and WSE but only because I made some poor decisions.

Err... Gordon... in the forums you're not supposed act oh-so-grown-up and admit that your losses were due to your own decisions. Otherwise people might get the idea that their money couldn't be "taken" when it was they, themself, handing it over and thus they'd have only themselves to blame.

I'm curious who lost over $500K