I dunno. I think this guy was a chaotic twat, short on both temper and common sense. But I don’t think this was any kind of a long con. He seemed ready and eager to rip people off on any single transaction, a potential criminal to be sure, but if he was orchestrating a massive rippoff like this, I think he would have put more effort into engendering trust? You could say he was poking here and there, probing for weaknesses in the system, and maybe he was. But if I had to guess, I’d guess he’s just a shady opportunist, who was attracted to a community where so much cash passes so freely, and then one day he just decided to grab all he could? I dunno, I just don’t want to credit this guy as a mastermind.
Its kind of a fascinating story, and it would be cool if somebody documented the whole thing - interviewed everybody who had an interaction with him and document it all in a long, cohesive narrative.
I mean no disrespect to the people who lost money - I’m sorry to sound cavalier; you have my respect and my sympathy. But it would make a good story and maybe would even help flag some behaviors and patterns that we can all look out for in the future.