While humans keep looking for easy way out of their financial woes, there is a high tendency they will keep failing prey for lack of financial intelligence and their unwillingness to learn. The blockchain industry is a bit technical and the basic of bitcoin transactions can be taught in a simple way and be digested by any willing mind.
It happened last year that my former course mate saw things about bitcoin on my status, he decided to pay me visit for some tutorials, I gave him an introductory class with some notes, since I was not going to help him invest his money on some money spinning machine with a daily or weekly payout, he never show up again.
In the early hours of today he dropped two messages on my whats-app as follows:
1. How long does it take bitcoin wallet to transfer bitcoin before it gets to the receiver?
2. And what is the highest a beginner can transfer out of his wallet?
At the introductory class, he was thought the 2 above and what a custodian and non-custodian wallet is all about.
Long story short, himself and his friend bought bitcoin using bitstocksFx, never heard of this broker before, besides, I don't need any third party to buy me bitcoin. They claimed to be a bitcoin broker, they had initially purchased $500 worth, the suppose brother told them it was too small to be transferred out because they were new, they deposited additional $500, the next day they saw an imaginary $15k which they couldn't transfer out, they were told the money was invested for them and they need to deposit more in other to withdraw both the capital and the interest. When he suspected some foul play, he remembered me. I told he had rejected a free training class and that his friend and him have been scammed. I just recommended where he can legitimately buy bitcoin.
People hate to hear the truth, and the price they have to pay for short cut is been victim of scammers. I am waiting for him if he still wants to learn the basics of bitcoin, this I will still do for free.
The situation of your friend is a great example that "Knowledge is Power." People tend to neglect what they think are unimportant because they think they know most/everything already. In real life situation, especially in Bitcoin, you really need knowledge, experience, and advice from people. Even those with higher rankings admit that they are not at the peak of learning yet. They constantly learn through discussions and peer to peer relations, as well as from experiences like these. It's good that you tried to lecture them about Bitcoin. However, at times of transactions, especially when we think we can get easy money (which most people think about Bitcoin), we should be very cautious. We must first refer to people that has experience already or has prior knowledge especially at Bitcoin transfer (where most people are scammed). If one thinks or has a sense that the transfer might be a scam, especially if the broker isn't a legit one, stop it already.
When we educate more people, we can stop frauds like this and even help Bitcoin gain trust from people.