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The Dinari Scam - Episode 7

Anyway, I'm so glad to be doing this again, even if I don't know how long it'll last. A lot has gone on since my last episode. After an equally-long hiatus, I finally have started blogging again. I've done 2 entries for the month of November so far, and I hope at least to continue doing that. As much as I enjoy podcasting, I enjoy writing even more, although sometimes it's a struggle to be able to get in as much writing as I'd like in the time I have allotted to it. Another change is that I have sold all of my chickens. Actually, I think at the time I stopped the podcast I probably only had about 12 of them. During the time after, those numbers swelled to almost 60, then dropped down to 27 when a dog the neighbors across the road were keeping for someone else broke into 2 of my flocks and totally annihilated them. That was just before New Year's Eve at the end of last year, and I was devasted for a long time after. I, of course, received no compensation for all those chickens from them or the dog's owner, which should have been around $500. But, you know, that's just how it goes. After that, I took some fertilized eggs from one of the remaining 2 flocks - the one that had a rooster - and hatched out 11 mixed chicks. Four of those turned out to be roosters, but that was ok. I had given one rooster away, and then there were a couple of deaths with the other chickens, so there were about 34 of them when I finally got myself to do it.

There were some troubling times back in August. I won't go into detail about them or what they concerned, but I did go a little crazy at the time and started purging personal items. That's also when I decided to sell the chickens, but it took over 2 months for me finally to do so. I ended up purging nearly three quarters of my clothes as well as about 15-20 per cent of my household items. I still have more things I need to go through and decide if I'm keeping or purging them. The only thing I will say about what happened in August is that I almost became very single. And I do not refer to my boyfriend as "the hubs" or "my hubby" anymore like I used to. Now I only refer to him as my boyfriend, not any other terms. But that's really neither here nor there.

I also, around that time, lost interest in plants. I used to love plants, but at the time of the purge, I got rid of almost all of my porch plants and mowed over a couple flowerbeds. A switch flipped off within me and I just couldn't care less about plants anymore. Which does leave me in a bit of a dilemma. One of the chicken pens was built from pvc pipe and chicken wire, covered with tarps. I had always said if I didn't have the chickens any more, that I'd turn that into a greenhouse - remove the tarps and cover with clear plastic. But I hadn't anticipated my antipathy towards plants ever happening - so I've no idea now what I'm going to do with it. Unlike the other 2 pens, I can't very well sell it, so I'll either have to tear it down or come up with another plan for its use. I do still have some indoor plants, include the giant peace lily that Steve gave me, I think for Valentine's Day. And there are a few on the porch still, although I neglect them terribly. Hopefully one day my interest in plants will return, but until that time, I've pretty much left every plant - and chicken of course - group on Facebook that I used to be a part of.

Other changes are more positive ones. I am now the manager of the upscale liquor store where I work. Honestly, it doesn't seem very different from what came before, since I've been doing some managerial duties for the past 18 months or so. Actually, there is one very important change, haha. I went in for nearly 3 hours this morning to do some things and it was on my own dime rather than on the store's. Before becoming manager, I'd be compensated for something like that, but it's now built into my salary. Which is fine, what I did this morning needed to be done and it couldn't be done while waiting on customers. It's all part of being manager! So absolutely no regrets or complaints there! And I'm looking forward to seeing how my role and focus there will change as I step more into the actual managerial work and take on more responsibility. These are exciting times!

Ok, now that you, gentle listener, are all caught up, that is if you're still listening and haven't turned this thing off (insert laugh) yet, let's get to the topic of today's podcast episode. Today's topic is something I have become very passionate about because it is holding a dear friend hostage. It's evidently holding many people hostage who keep throwing good money after bad. Many years ago, a scam was born. This scam involves people purchasing worthless foreign currency and preparing for a so-called "Global Currency Reset". What is this reset, you may ask? Well, the scammers have promulgated that finances around the globe are going to be reset to make the worthless ones worth huge sums of money. The currencies involved are the Iraqi Dinar, the Zimbabwe hundred trillion dollar note, and many more I'm sure. A dear friend, let's call him Jerry, has been a victim of this scam for well over a dozen years. I've only know him for almost 3 years, and he not only is a victim of the scam, but he promotes it as well by getting his friends involved in the scam. In many ways it's very much like a Ponzi scheme, in that new money comes in that then goes to the old investors, making it look like the scheme is authentic. However, the Ponzi comparison breaks down in that the new money doesn't go to the old investors, it instead goes directly into the pockets - and pocketbooks - of the people behind the scam. And the new money doesn't always come from new victims. The people behind these scams constantly demand more and more money from their ongoing marks as well.

So where do these victims think this money is coming from? At least one myth behind the scams, as it was told to me, is that this wealthy Chinese family has foreseen the Global Currency Reset centuries ago, and they have been amassing huge sums of money with the express purpose of distributing this wealth to all the people who have purchased the foreign currency. Now, if it were JUST purchasing the currency, the scam would probably break down there, but it's not just that. The people that purchase the currency are then asked to send it to the scammers in Reno, Nevada (one example), and then are asked to keep buying it. Of course the currency they are buying are simply the same ones they've already sent to Reno, and they're just buying the same currency over and over, but since they don't have it on hand, they have no way of actually knowing that. And that's not all! The scammers then tell the victims that they need more money for "parts" that are never specified, or to get the money rolling through the bank system, or who knows what other reasons! Jerry has asked Steve and I for money on several occasions. "Give me $100 and I'll give you $100,000!" "Give me $100 and I'll give you $500,000!" Or the most recent one, from last weekend, "Give me $200 and I'll give you $2,000,000!" And that's because these scammers keep asking him for those amounts of money. And they've pretty much bled him dry. He can't afford to keep his house in repair because he's sending off this money with the false promises that he's going to get millions, even billions, of dollars when these "investments" pay off. For over 12 years he's been victim of this scam and refuses to see it for what it is. So honestly I don't think "victim" is the proper word for him, or the over 700 other people in south Mississippi that he's personally pulled into this scam.

When he requested the $200 from us last week, I finally just came out and told him how it was, spending at least 20 minutes trying to make him understand that this is just a scam. And of course I may as well have been talking to the wall behind him for all the good it did. He insisted that money would be "flowing" through the banks that coming week - which would have been last week - and that some people would start seeing payouts. Of course they didn't, and now that has been pushed up to this coming week. As the Forbes Magazine article I read about this scam, which was from 2012, said, "In the words of popular comedian Ron White, "You can't fix stupid." That phrase, as elegant in its simplicity as it is frankly true, applies with special fervor to those who continue to believe that they are about to make millions, billions, or even trillions by investing in Iraqi dinars." It also says "[These people are] waiting for the day when [the Iraqi Dinars] finally re-valuate. Which is never."

This article, as I mentioned, is from 11 years ago - and people are STILL believing in this fairy tale! You can't call it a "get-rich-quick" scheme since Jerry's been doing this for 12 years, although they certainly promise that the windfall will be "any day now", and even give specific dates for when it'll happen - all of which pass by without it ever happening! Honestly, by this point, it's their own faults for believing in the absurdity of it all. Jerry countered one of my points last weekend by saying "There are rich people in this. They certainly wouldn't be involved if they didn't think it was real! Rich people are smarter than that!" My retort was that, "Just because they're rich doesn't make them smart. Look at Donald Trump!" Surprisingly Jerry, a trumper, actually laughed at my little joke there. When I asked, "So, when this money doesn't actually start flowing, and these people don't get payouts, will you still believe that this whole thing is true?" And his answer to me was yes, he would continue to believe in it, because 700 people just can't be wrong! [Insert rolling eyes here.]

Circling back to Jerry's mention that he has gotten over 700 people involved in south Mississippi, do these 700 people truly believe they are all going to become billionaires? And that's 700 people in south Mississippi. I'm sure there are others in the rest of the state, not to mention in the other 49 states. And this wealthy family in China, of all places, is going to distribute their wealth to all of the people, and they have enough wealth that ALL of these people are going to become billionaires and trillionaires? Jerry even talked Steve into buying one of the 100 trillion dollar Zimbabwe notes from one of the companies he deals with, for $300, having it shipped to Jerry, who then packaged it up with the notes he himself had bought, and sending it overnight to Reno because it HAD to be there within a certain time frame for it to "work". Steve was leary, but he could afford $300 on the offchance it might actually prove real, but then when those people started wanting his social security number and bank account information, he refused to participate. He then "signed over" ownership of the note to Jerry, who then would put the "millions of dollars from it" into an account for Steve. When Steve originally balked at giving out his social security number, Jerry's response was, "Oh, I have a woman here who's invested, and she used to work for Social Security, she says it's fine to give out that number." I mean, what the fuck? That is a HUGE red flag right there, not only asking for that information, but then claiming that someone within Social Security says "Oh, it's fine." Bull fucking shit. I mean, yeah, that's a huge red flag, but this whole deal is covered with so many red flags that it's the only color you can see!

One of Jerry's arguments last weekend was that if it were a scam, the government would be stopping it. Yet at the same time, he tells us that the whole thing is very secretive, that you can't tell anyone about it (oops - what have I done?), and that the whole thing is put out by a humanitarian organization that is both Christian and Trump-supporting. In fact, the group was going to be instrumental in getting Trump "back in power by November" - that "November" being 2 years ago. And he still believes it hook, line, and sinker - so much so that last year he went to Florida for 3 weeks to get the money, and of course came home empty-handed. The reason? "Oh, someone talked about it, so they couldn't distribute the money because it wasn't secret any more." What the actual fuck? And he STILL believes in this shit! One other thing from last weekend, I mentioned the Zimbabwe notes, and he said, "Oh, those don't matter anymore, this is about the Dinar now." I wish I'd really caught that when he said it so I could have brought up Steve's "investment" in the Zimbabwe 100 trillion dollar note and asked, "Oh, so his investment is worthless now?" Just to see what he would have said. He probably would have said something along the lines of, "Oh, no, it's not worthless, that money will come through in December!"

So, dear listener, you may know someone who is a victim, if we can really call them that, of these scams. Or maybe you yourself are! If you are, I urge you to stop sending money to these people! Get professional help if you must! I mean, it's got to be some form of mental illness to believe in these bogus fairy tales! My father, the last 2-3 years of his life, fully believed he had won the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes and that they just weren't sending him the money. He also had a form of dementia by then, but this foolish belief that Jerry has about this scam just sounds so much like by father's delusions about the Clearing House. I hope he'll get help, or at least stop sending these people money, before he completely loses everything! Ok, well I'm going to conclude this episode now. I hope it was interesting and eye-opening, and that more than 2 people will listen to it haha. I can't guarantee when the next episode will come out, or if there even WILL be another episode, but I do hope I'll get back into doing this. I have had thoughts on doing a completely different podcast, one that follows my current spiritual path. For over 30 years I considered myself Pagan, although I am Christian now - well, more accurately I call myself a Christ follower to distinguish myself from American Christianity, which has gotten completely out of hand and is as far from the teachings of Christ as you can get - but I've been feeling a pull towards the Christopagan spiritual path, which is a blending of Christianity and Paganism. And honestly it probably more appropriately aligns with my own beliefs right now. But don't tell Steve, he'd probably freak out! Haha, just kidding, he's going to be one of the 2 people that listen to this episode. Anyway, until next time, be safe and be happy!

George