Croc:
You are exactly right on all counts. I need to make sure it is clear that BW quickly recognized it was a scam and made sure he went public on it. Most VMC'ers were in the scam camp from early on including Hank and I who tried to convince the believers. We suffered a lot of misery for telling the truth.
That's one of the reasons scams work. People who initially believe are very reluctant to change their minds. After all, they already put their money where their mouth is. Their hopes, ego, reputation, etc are on the line, so they feel the need to defend it to the death.
Eventually, they all learn a lesson. For most of us, it only takes once. Unfortunately, I'm suddenly reminded of the P.T. Barnum quote. I changed the word (a) to (another). "There's another sucker born every minute." So, even if everybody learns it after one time, there's still a lot of money to steal at any given time.
Len
Rolling Stone: "We're fools, protagonists in a kind of gruesome comedy about the marriage of greed and stupidity ... something that was created by the group of psychopaths on Wall Street whom we allowed to gang-rape the American Dream."