Well, personally, I took my lumps and suffered my consiquences. I'm on the sidelines now, but I keep watching. I really don't think the ones you imply in your post are guilty of what you implicate. However, I must state that I did not follow the Yahoo boards. Apparently there is more activity over there and I have no clue what is being said by who on that message board. But, in the context of this board, I don't think there was any "trickery".
As I alluded to in an earlier post. I am pretty sure there was a time when paid promoters were scabs on this board. That was when I was told "I thought you were someone else" in PM's. That was disturbing to me. I still had optimism that this company would work, but I think that was my first realization that these were desperate times for Skins.