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.
Yes, I know this has been written about before. Fellow Forbes' contributor John Wasik wrote about this scam last January at http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwasik/2012/01/19/the-curse-of-saddam-iraqi-dinar-deals/ And even various law enforcement agencies are publicly warning about this scam, such as that of the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions at http://www.dfi.wa.gov/consumers/alerts/iraqi-dinar-scams.htm
Yet this scam continues to persist, and hardly a week goes by that some sucker or another doesn't call my office to inquire about asset protection planning for the untold riches that he or she is about to receive when the Dinar finally re-valuates by 100 times or more.
Of course, they can't pay my legal fees now for such planning because every last cent is invested in the Dinars. But they can pay me when they finally reap their great reward.
Which is never.
Scams involving the arbitrage of foreign currencies have been around as long as there have been, well, foreign currencies. In the modern age, many pyramid schemes have been disguised as sophisticated "FOREX trading programs" -- but in fact, the scammers weren't doing any trading at all, but simply paying old investors with the money from new investors. Charles Ponzi, the modern Father of such schemes, would be proud.
In fact, FOREX scams became so widespread in the 1990s -- playing on the speculation regarding the then-new Euro -- that the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission was compelled to put out a great deal of warnings about these scams. This collection is now found at http://www.cftc.gov/ConsumerProtection/FraudAwarenessPrevention/CFTCFraudAdvisories/fraudadv_forex and applies with equal weight to the Dinar scam.
There exists an entire army of FOREX scammers who spend their entire days looking for suckers, which unfortunately include the most vulnerable in our society such as the elderly. For those folks in or nearing retirement whose ordinary investments didn't quite get them where they needed to be, these scam artists are ready, willing and able to divest them of their remaining wealth with promises of high "risk free" returns trading in FOREX. But that money is just disappearing to banks in Belize or elsewhere.
The FOREX scams didn't involve any actual purchases of foreign currency, but simply scam artists running utterly bogus "statements" off their printers that showed huge returns, right up until the time that the scammers disappeared. Some of the Dinar scams operate the same way: You don't actually get any Dinars, but instead just a statement showing that you have Dinars or some sort of phony-baloney "Certificate" of ownership.
But -- and this is why the Dinar scam has been largely successful -- with the Dinar scam you can actually get the cold hard Dinars if you want them. Yep, suckers around America have their closets and garages full of bales of Dinars, just waiting for that glorious day when they will re-valuate.
Which is never.
To help sell the scam, the scam artists have set up all sorts of websites and bulletin boards and newsletter and social media and you-name-it to try to create the impression that the Dinars are valuable and are about to re-valuate at any moment. I've had people tell me that their Dinars are going to re-valuate "within the week" or "by the end of the month", and they've been telling me for years.
All of this reminds me of the "Magic Bean Scheme" which was a pyramid scheme run in my native Oklahoma by some creative scammers. The idea was that you could buy from the scammers a certain type of expensive bean that when left in a jar of water for a couple of weeks would produce valuable "bean juice" that could then be re-sold for a large profit. The key was, according to the scammers, you had to shake the jars every few hours to get the desired result.
Of course, the scammers threw some of their own money in to get the scam started. The first few people made some good money selling their bean juice, and of course they told their friends and family about this new sure-fire way to make a fortune. Soon enough many folks in Oklahoma were brewing "bean juice" in their garages, going out every couple of hours to shake the jars so that the bean juice would form faster. "Honey, it's 4:00 a.m., and you turn to shake the jars."
Then, one day after selling enough of the expensive beans, the scammers vamoosed and there were a lot of folks in Oklahoma with closets and garages full of jars of worthless beans and juice in them -- turned out the beans were just ordinary navy beans. My guess is that there are still people out there who have never given up on the beans, still turning them, and still expecting that bean juice to result in untold riches.
Ditto for the Dinars, the bales of which some suckers having in their closets and garages, taking up space and waiting for the day when they finally re-valuate.
Which is never.
Unfortunately, a bad thing about human nature is that once folks believe in a story, they refuse to believe they have been scammed. Often they are embarrassed, and figure that to admit they were wrong is worse than simply keeping their useless whatevers in the closet or out in the garage. But others are really, truly convinced that their initial investment was a good one, and no amount of proof or logic can dissuade them.
Even after Charles Ponzi died, some of his followers bought OUIJA boards and tried to channel his dead soul to find out when their utterly worthless investments would become valuable as he promised. Time and time again, I've watched as the victims of pyramid schemes continue to believe that they are about to get rich even as the perpetrators went to jail.
For me, after telling these folks they've been scammed and hearing their denials, I've been betting these folks who call me up to $5,000 in free legal work if the Dinar re-valuates in 30 days, against a gift certificate from a steakhouse. Suffice it to say that I'm going to be in good beef for some time.Which brings me back to Ron White, who is absolutely right: "You can't fix stupid."
And that goes for the Dinars, and the idea that they will soon re-valuate, thus leading current investors to great riches.
Which is never.
So, why is this a scam? It is a scam because the Dinar has no chance or significant appreciation, i.e., appreciation that would make buying Dinars worthwhile. First, there is the political uncertainty -- who would invest in the currency of a government that is still fighting a significant insurgency and might not be around the next year, any year? Second, and much more importantly, there are so many Dinars floating around that even if Iraq discovered the world's largest gold mine tomorrow, the value of the Dinar would not significantly appreciate.
The scam artists say, "But look at Kuwait!" After the first Gulf War, the Kuwaiti Dinar did show significant appreciation. But that is an Apples and Orangutans comparison.
First, Kuwait is significantly richer than Iraq with significantly larger oil reserves -- it is forgotten that the Iraq invaded Kuwait to get the latter's oil reserves, not because Iraq had enough of its own.
Second, the Kuwaiti population is much smaller -- 3 million compared to the 33 million living in Iraq. This means that Iraq has to take care of ten times as many people as Kuwait, as well as attempt to rebuild an infrastructure racked by a decade of civil war, with less money than Kuwait.
Third, and even more telling, the Iraq government even now has to borrow about $100 million per year to provide basic services. No country which is borrowing money is going to have an "imminent revaluation" (the term often used by the scam artists to sell Dinars) anytime soon!
Fourth, Kuwait had a stable government before the War that simply fled Kuwait until order was restored, and then returned to be a stable government. By contrast, Iraq's government is new and whether it survives is anybody's guess.
The point is that there is absolutely no reason to believe that the Iraqi Dinar will significantly appreciate in the long term, and it utterly insane to believe that the Iraqi Dinar will significantly appreciate in the short term, i.e., within 10 years.
And there is the scam: The scam artists sell Iraqi Dinars to suckers based on the false story that the Iraqi Dinars are about to become very valuable, when they are not. You might as well buy bags of sand, because they are going to appreciate more quickly than the Iraqi Dinar. Or just go down to the bank and buy rolls of pennies and hide them in the attic. Someday the U.S. government will get rid of pennies, and then the pennies will become rare and valuable -- in about two hundred years. That is about how quickly the Iraqi Dinar is going to appreciate too.
Which is never.
[End.]
This article can be shortlinked fromhttp://onforb.es/R1Tbec
Update 30 August 2012
After this article was published, I had numerous e-mails to the effect that I didn't know what the hell I was talking about, and that the Iraqi Dinar would absolutely, positively re-valuate within a few days and the buyers thereof would become fabulously wealthy. Well, here we are 30 days later, and . . . the . . . Dinar . . . hasn't . . . gone . . . anywhere.
If you think the Iraqi Dinar will make you rich, you must be listening to Baghdad Bob!
The only thing that did happen of interest is that Justin Rohrlich wrote this article:http://www.minyanville.com/business-news/editors-pick/articles/iraqi-dinar-scam-currency-investment-tampadinar/8/30/2012/id/43627
I'll update again in another 30 days, and for those of you who are still wondering, I don't suggest the Dinar will substantially revaluate by that time either.
Update September 30, 2012
Well, surprise, surprise, surprise, the Iraqi Dinar did not re-valuate upwards in September, but we did see some interesting news on the Dinar front.
Such as this article, "Prosecutor: Fake Iraq Veteran Sold Fake Hedge Funds" athttp://www.finalternatives.com/node/21635
Or this article, "2 Who Bought Iraqi Currency Bring Suit Against Indicted Sellers, Firm" athttp://www.toledoblade.com/local/2012/09/22/2-who-bought-Iraqi-currency-file-suit-against-indicted-sellers-firms.html
I'll update again in 30 days -- during which time the Iraqi Dinar will not have revaluated then either. But there will still be lots of suckers in denial at having been scammed sitting around thinking they are gazillionaires.
This article athttp://onforb.es/T1sOnq andhttp://goo.gl/GwfJM
Update October 31, 2012
Nothing new to report. The Iraqi Dinar is as far from an upwards re-valuation as ever -- you might as well wish for Jack's Magic Beanstock to take the Dinar upwards. But, lots of seriously deluded folks still continue to believe they are going to get enormously rich off the bales of Dinar's socked away in their attics and garages through America. My guess is that pretty quick you'll be able to buy as many Dinars as you want at garage sales.
Update January 31, 2013
Well, I must apologize to everybody for not updating at the end of November and December, 2012, but I got very busy with clients' year-end planning . . . and frankly nothing was going on with the Iraqi Dinar anyway. So let me take this opportunity to update you on what has been happening with the Iraqi Dinar through January 31, 2013, which is: Nothing, Absolutely Nothing.
I have noticed, however, that sellers of Iraqi Dinar are starting to offer "free gifts" to suckers who buy that currency from them, sort of like "Buy 1 Trillion Iraqi Dinar And Get A Free Pinata" or somesuch (the Vietnamese Dong, a currency of sorts, seems to be a popular give-a-way with purchases of Iraqi Dinar).
The Better Business Bureau warns about the Dinar Scam athttp://www.central-northern-western-arizona.bbb.org/article/iraqi-dinar-investments-opportunity-or-scam-34951
This expose of the Dinar Scam is pretty good too --http://www.learningmarkets.com/the-iraqi-dinar-scam/
Update March 29, 2013
And so we come to the end of another month, and find the Iraqi Dinar to be . . . falling in value. Now it's down to 1,260 Dinars to the U.S. Dollar, but hope spring eternal (in the minds of suckers). Some say that Iran is behind the devaluation, seehttp://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/iran-iraq-currency-devaluation.html but really who cares? Not only is the Iraqi Dinar headed in the wrong direction, but it is clear that there is not going to be anything like a huge re-valuation of the Dinar against the Dollar anytime soon. Probably most suckers have gone off to being scammed by some other currency by now anyway.
This investor in Jacksonville had his Dinar stolen --http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2013-03-29/story/millions-iraqi-dinar-stolen-atlantic-beach-home-police-said Well, that's another $7 million in Dinars about to hit the U.S. market, further driving down the Dinar's value. Enjoy.
Another good article about the Iraqi Dinar scam was published recently athttp://fayobserver.com/articles/2013/03/19/1243823?sac=fo.business
I'll check back again at the end of next month when the Dinar still hasn't revalued against the dollar, or even recovered its recent losses -- but there will still be folks with bales of Dinars in their garage and believing that they are on the cusp of making a gazillion dollars, that's the way scams go.
Update April 27, 2013
Here is an excellent explanation of the Iraqi Dinar Scam on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RThOACzuVw
Then, to get an idea of the mindset of the victims of the Iraqi Dinar Scam, watch the three YouTube videos of this poor guy who thinks the Iraqi Dinar is about to finally pay off:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEJVPm_NN_o andhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb0oAP59KCc andhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bmJeaeCKsY
Another good video --http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxtRnGndU2Q
Then there is this slideshow presentation where a victim of the Iraqi Dinar Scam claims that it is a worldwide conspiracy --http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQoCw21CLSMSorry, buddy, it's not a massive conspiracy; it's just a scam. But then victims of financial scams never like to admit that they have been taken, so they believe "the deal was real" all the way to their graves, much to the delight of the scam artists.
Update May 31, 2013
Another month, and another month where the Dinar did not massively appreciate but more suckers bought into the scam thinking that it would. But we are starting to approach the one-year anniversary of the date that I wrote this article, after which I received numerous e-mails from folks telling me to basically, "Just wait, you'll see! Within a few weeks I'll be stinking rich and you'll just be a sad commentator for Forbes." Well, at least they got the stinking part right, and so now own to the monthly update:
(1) As mentioned, the Dinar did not massively appreciate.
(2) There are no signs that the Dinar will ever massively appreciate.
(3) I did see that I had missed this article on the Dinar by John Wasik --http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwasik/2012/02/24/dinar-doubts-multiply/John is more diplomatic that I am; he can call folks "stupid" without using that word. As for myself, I have no patience for people who can't figure out that they were suckers.
(4) Self-Annointed "Dinar Guru" Blanche Bonet put out this "amazingly" list of Iraqi Dinar "experts" who predicted that the Dinar was about to soar in value. Trouble is, they were all wrong. The list does pretty much prove, however, that the "Iraqi Dinar community" is just a bunch of suckers trying to convince each other that they made good investments. As just mentioned, the trouble is that they are all just wrong.
(5) This video posted on YouTube discussed predictions that the Iraqi Dinar was about to appreciate upwards on May 11, 2013 --http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iunTQLI432w Those predictions were wrong.
(6) Meanwhile, back to the real world, news came out that the Iraqi government is struggling mightily to try to keep the Dinar from DEvaluation, i.e., going down in value --http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/05/baghdad-hault-dinar-collapse.htmlIn the words of Homer Simpson, "D'oh!"
(7) Yahoo Finance weighed in here --http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130507151558AASjt4B
(8) And finally, a new book has been released, "The Iraqi Dinar Scam: Why Buying The Dinar Is For Dummies" by John Jagerson athttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007Z9DFN8
Talk to you again on June 30, when the Iraqi dinar still will not have revalued upwards (but maybe has gone down, again).
Update 30 June 2013
Of course, nothing more has since happened with the Iraqi Dinar, other than more utterly baseless speculation that something might happen soon.
But to pop that balloon, Joseph Cafariello wrote this excellent article, " The Future of the Iraqi Dinar: Three Misconceptions" at http://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/the-future-of-the-iraqi-dinar/4424
Lake Worth, Florida, attorney Timothy McCabe, a sucker who apparently bought into the Iraqi Dinar Scam himself, disappeared for a couple of weeks before finally turning himself in, and then was sued -- see story athttp://therealdeal.com/miami/blog/2013/06/26/lake-worth-attorney-mccabe-sued-for-sham-iraqi-dinar-deal/
I'll check back in next month, when of course the Iraqi Dinar will not have RV'd, again. Suckers!
Update 31 July 2013
Welcome to the one (1) year anniversary of my article on Iraqi Dinars, where I predicted that -- despite about 200 billion e-mails speculating that the Iraqi dinar was about to re-value (RV) tomorrow, next Monday, or next week -- the Iraqi Dinar would not RV or anything close to it. I told you so ~ there I said it, even though it was a pretty easy prediction.
Now on to this month's news regarding the Dinar:
(1) It didn't RV.
(2) There were a bunch of rumors that it was about to RV, but,
(3) It didn't RV.
(4) The government of Iraq is apparently re-denominating its currency (which is very different from re-valuing it), by simply lopping off 3 zeros at the end. So, if you now own 1,000 Iraqi Dinars, you will thereafter only own one. While some thing that this will cause a re-valuation, most experts have debunked such suggestions, such as http://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/iraqi-dinar-reset/4511
(5) John Wasik wrote this thoughtful article about the Dinar at http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwasik/2013/07/31/dinar-like-dreams-can-be-nightmarish/ and how pretty much the same suckers (my term, not his) are now falling for Bitcoins. Research the history of cyber-currencies: It isn't good.
(6) The Wall Street Daily (not to be confused with the Journal) weighed in on Dinars with this article -- http://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2013/07/30/egyptian-pound-currency-scams/
See you again next month, when the Iraqi Dinar still will not have RV'd despite another 173 million e-mails between investors saying that is is just about to do so.
Update 31 August 2013
Well, here we are again folks! Another months with hundreds, if not thousands, of rumors of imminent re-valuation of the Iraqi Dinar against the U.S. Dollar . . . and it not happening . . . or even getting close to happening . . . or my OUIJA board even moving close to the letters "R" or "V". Hey, if you put your Iraqi Dinars into jelly jars and turn them twice a day, maybe that will do the trick. And now on to this month's update about the Iraqi Dinar:
(1) It didn't RV.
(2) There were a bunch of rumors that the Iraqi Dinar had RV'd, or was in the process of RVing, or was oh-so-close to RV.
(3) But it didn't RV, again.
(4) The President of the Better Business Bureau of Chattanooga threw this cold water on the Iraqi Dinar scam-http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/aug/23/biz-bulletin-what-watch-foreign-currency-investmen/
And that is pretty much it -- a painfully non-newsworthy month for the Iraqi Dinar actually. What if a country had a currency and nobody cared, except for the folks stashing bales of the stuff in their attic in anticipation of glorious future riches? I'll update again next month, when again nothing will have happened. Cheers.
Update 30 September 2013
A reader wrote me with a couple of questions:
Q: If it is a scam, why are their no prosecutions?
A: Many scams operate for many years without prosecutions -- Bernie Madoff got away with it for a couple of decades -- and the Sequester has substantially limited new investigations and prosecutions. Also, prosecutors and investigators have limited resources, and usually spend their time on cases where the victims complain the most. With the dinar, most of the victims are still "true believers" who haven't figured out that they have been scammed, and so are not complaining. Having said that, "Nobody has been convicted yet" has to be about the worst reason to invest in something that I have ever heard.
Q: Does the U.S. hold a large position in Iraqi Dinars?
A: No, the foreign currency reserves of the U.S. ending September 20, 2013, are found at http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/IR-Position/Pages/09202013.aspx and while the U.S. owns some small amounts of Euros and Yen, no significant holdings of Dinars are listed. That the U.S. government invests in a huge stockpile of Iraqi Dinars is just something that scam artists untruthfully recite to sell their suckers more Dinars.
And now on to updates . . .
The Iraqi Dinar did not RV against the U.S. dollar. There were another 20 Billion e-mails that the Iraqi Dinar was just about to RV against the U.S. Dollar, but it just didn't happened. What did happen was a bunch of articles telling folks to beware the Iraqi Dinar scam, such as:
http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/personal_finance/article_26cd85f0-23a6-11e3-bf48-0019bb30f31a.html
http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2013/sep/07/overseas-fraud-lurks-in-your-inbox/
Oh, yeah, and another great John Wasik article athttp://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwasik/2013/09/06/inside-the-dubious-dinar-revaluation-ruse/
But there was also this little tidbit from the Wall Street Journal, that hints that the Iraqi Dinar has this use --http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323665504579033083124357564.html
Apart from these legitimate articles, there was the usual junk from the scam artists and true believers, i.e., the Dinar is on the brink of RV'ing, and the only thing holding it back is that Cylons have infiltrated both the U.S. and Iraq governments and are blocking it from happening; as soon as the Cylons are destroyed, the Dinar will RV. Or something like that.
Update: 30 November 2013
I missed the update for 30 October 2013. I would like to tell you that it was because I had a big trial in October, which was true, or that I was very busy with ABA matters, which was true, or a bunch of other very true reasons why I might have missed the 30 October update. But the real truth is that I just forgot. That happens when nothing is going on with something, and there is a whole lot of nothing go on with the Dinar. And now on to the update, such as it is.
(1) Despite another 40 billion e-mail alerts from scam artists using stupid names that the Iraqi dinar was about to revaluate, or was in the process of revaluating, or that space aliens were going to descend on the U.N. Headquarters in New York and force a revaluation, the Iraqi dinar did not revaluate.
(2) There just wasn't any real news about the Iraqi dinar. No press releases, no nothing. While the scam artists will now say that it is the calm before the storm (or the RV), the more accurate appraisal is that it is the calm before the nothing actually happening, i.e., the calm before even more calm.
(3) I do note that the same scam artists who were selling the Iraqi dinars are now bundling them together with the Vietnamese dong (What a great name for a currency: "Hey, buddy, can you spare me a dong?" or "Give me a dong, and I'll pay you back later.") Make sense from their viewpoint -- if you are dumb enough to buy the dinar, you're probably dumb enough to by the dong too. The sad truth is that many people are recidivist suckers, falling to stupid get-rich-quick schemes over and over and over. Or in the words of Homer Simpson, "I know that I've fallen for a lot of get-rich-quick schemes in the past, but this time I'm going to get rich, and quick!"
Sorry for the lame update, especially one spanning two months, but there is only so much reporting one can do about absolutely nothing, and that's what is happening with the Iraqi dinar. Stay tuned for my special December 31st year-end "Nothing In Review" about absolutely nothing going on with the Iraqi dinar. And for those of you still harboring dreams of great riches with your jars of magic beans, well just keep turning them and good things will happen.
31 December 2014 -- Year End 2014 Update
Well, loyal dinar investors, we are finally here! We are at the place where you need to get your confidentiality agreements with your financial advisers in place, and start looking for expensive houses on the French Riviera. Yep, for you it is champagne and caviar from here on out. The latest rumors say that the Iraqi dinar is just about to RV. Heck, the Vietnamese Dong and the Melchizedekian Shekel are about to RV too. Plus, NESARA is about to be passed into law, and that means that Omega Trust & Trading is about to pay off. Bernie Maddoff is going back in business. Heck, even Charles Ponzi is coming back from the dead to pay off. It all starts right now!
NOT.
The sum total of all the activity regarding the Iraqi Dinar for 2013 could be summed up as Zero, or my Mexican friends like to say, Nada Grande.
And for all you True Believers in the Iraqi Dinar, please rest assured that 2014 will be exactly the same. There will be 30 million rumors of the impending RV so that they can sell more near-worthless Dinars to new suckers (and more to old suckers), but nothing will actually happen.
For you, that beautiful home on the French Riviera is not happening. The champagne and caviar is not happening, either. For you, the Riviera in Las Vegas is selling rooms at $35 per night, feel free to bring your own sheets, and there's a Quiznos in the food court.
Happy New Year.
31 January 2014
Another month, another million or so new rumors of imminent riches for Dinar investors. Where to these rumors come from? Scam artists mostly, either trying to sell Dinars to new suckers, or trying to keep the old suckers thinking they made a good investment. "Hey, just keep turning your magic bean jars, and soon you'll be turning over the ignition to a huge yacht!"
Heck, there's not even any real news this month about the Dinar, just rumors and more rumors. Some rumors on any given day say the Big RV will come tomorrow, while other rumors say that it is only coming "soon" without elaborating whether that term is to be measured in the human sense, or within the temporal relativity of the Universe. I'm guessing the latter.
Congressman Bennie Thompson has warned suckers not to buy the Dinar, read more here --http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20140204/BIZ/302040003/
There is also this cool new article, "Iraqi Dinar Revaluation Scam: Exposed" athttp://thetradingtraveler.com/iraqi-dinar-revaluation-scam-exposed/
And always a good site to visit --http://dinardouchebags.blogspot.com/
With that, so long until next month, when I will be able to report on absolutely nothing happening with the Iraqi Dinar, again.
28 February 2014
Welcome! I say that with much excitement, as this is IT, we are THERE, this is the day in regard to the Iraqi Dinar when . . . . well, OK, nothing, but it gets pretty boring just reporting that month after month after month. But, hey, that big RV is just around the corner, right?
Actually, the Iraqi Dinar did do something in January, as it made the Better Business Bureau's list of Top 10 Scams for 2013. Sal-lute! --http://www.wsaw.com/home/headlines/BBB-Top-10-Scams-of-2013-245427161.html
BBC News put out this excellent warning about the Dinar scam --http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-26187471
Meanwhile, Al Queda has apparently gotten tired of listening to the predictions of the gurus, and just printed and then re-valued their own Iraq Dinars --http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/02/11/al-qaeda-linked-group-reportedly-started-printing-its-own-currency-in-iraq-with-guess-whose-photo/
This guy had his Dinars stolen from his hotel room --http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/02/11/al-qaeda-linked-group-reportedly-started-printing-its-own-currency-in-iraq-with-guess-whose-photo/Hey, $4.65 million Dinar, that and $2.85 will get you a footlong hotdog at most greasy spoons.
That's it until next month, when nothing again will have happened. It's sort of like that old Chevy Chase line from his Saturday Night Live days, "And in other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead."
31 March 2014
Okay, nothing happened in March either. Deal with it.
Interesting article athttp://whnt.com/2014/03/10/tuesday-is-iraqi-dinar-investment-a-scam/
Some of the gurus, citing rumors, predicted that the Iraqi Dinar would RV on March 3, 2014. They were wrong.
Meanwhile, other gurus, citing the lack of rumors, predicted that the Iraqi Dinar would RV on March 12, 2014. They were wrong, too.
Face reality: The "gurus" are either scam artists trying to build up excitement to sell even more suckers into the Dinar, or they are suckers who are trying to reassure themselves that they made a really good investment (when they didn't). In other words, suckers too.
But meanwhile, the gurus keep making predictions, and believe-it-or-not some people actually believe them. Those latter people are suckers too.
Until next month.
30 April 2014
It really gets old updating this article. Look it folks, the Iraqi Dinar Revaluation or "Global Current Reset" or whatever you want to call it, is a scam. It was a scam last month, it will be a scam next month. It will still be a scam 50 months from now. If you still believe that the Iraqi Dinar is going to lead you to riches, then you need to sniff the smelling salts of reality that it is never going to pay, and dial 1-80G-ETA-LIFE.
What happened in April? The very same thing that happened in March. There were 30 million new posts about 14,000 new rumors of imminent revaluation, and none of them were true.
Yet another good article on the Iraqi Dinar Scam athttp://www.lawrefs.com/iraqi-dinar-scam/
Or try this --http://wakeupnowsite.com/iraqi-dinar-guru/iraqi-dinar-scam/iraqi-dinar-revaluation-scam
But of course, the "true believers" will keep believing, even as their Iraqi Dinars do absolutely nothing other than to exist as material proof-positive that investors are delusional suckers.
Until next month, when of course nothing will have happened.
01 July 2014
Holy Hussein, Batman! I completely forgot to update on June 1. Well, that's OK, since nothing happened, again, in Dinar fantasyland.
With Iraq devolving into a Sunni-Shia civil war of epic proportions, and a good chunk of the country overrun by ISIS, we can pretty much state here that the chances of the Iraqi dinar being RV'd anytime soon -- except maybe massively downward -- is between none and none. Iraq now has to fund its civil war, and that will cause the Iraqi dinar to slowly devaluate for years to come.
In other words, the Iraqi dinar was a bad investment. If you invested in it, you were and are a sucker. In fact, you're now a bigger sucker than ever.
InvestorPlace put out this article "Don't Be Fooled By The Iraqi Dinar Scam" athttp://investorplace.com/2014/06/iraqi-dinar-scam/
Until next month, when we'll see if Iraq even still exists.
25 September 2014
OK, well I totally forgot to update for August, 2014, because I was too busy taking money baths in Iraqi dinars. Yep, I filled the tub with them, the hot tub with them, and even my heated kidney-shaped pool (well, it isn't really kidney-shaped) with them. Every hour of every day, I'd jump in an take money baths in Iraqi dinars. De-lightful! With the upcoming Global Reset, all those dinars were going to translate into muy dinero Americano! But then, the neighbors started complaining because dinars were blowing all over the place, and the neighborhood started looking like a paper recycling center. Heck, bumbs started showing up with stacks of newspapers, and when the Boy Scout arrived with a truckload of old magazines looking for dough, well, that was that and I had to shut it all down.
None of the foregoing is the least bit true, of course, but then nothing else is in Dinarland either so what the heck.
Actually, I probably wouldn't have updated again at all, except that a reader (Thank You!) wrote me for a comment on the NEW Global Reset. You know, the NEXT Global Reset which is always the real one, not those other 373 previous Global Resets which were all false alarms.
You see, this NEW Global Reset ("NGR" -- I just made that acronym up) which is scheduled for October 1, 2014, must be the real deal. It has to be, because there are 18,000+ posts on the websites of those who sell Iraqi dinars that say it must be true. Never mind the fact that Iraq is totally broke, and their government teeters in existence from day-to-day. Tomorrow, er, October 1, is the day when it all turns around!
The story goes that because of ISIS, or ISIL (I get the two confused), the Powers-That-Be have decided that Iraq must immediately pay off its debts with Iraqi dinars. Not real, valuable money like U.S. dollars or Swiss francs, or even 20%off coupons for the two tacos and a drink combination at the 'Bell, but Iraqi dinars. These unnamed Powers-That-Be (i.e., the Rothschilds, Bildeburgers, Freemasons, Moose Lodge #416, and some would say Pauly Shore too) have decided that although Iraq is overrun with terrorists, has lost much of its Mosul oilfields to whoever, and whose army spends its time figuring out how to vamoose, is suddenly going to make a big comeback in a big way.
Yeah, and I would have had a delicious sausage biscuit this morning but for the pigs flying away. But, hey, I still get e-mails from folks telling me that I'm all wrong about the dinar, and that they'll be cruising the Aegean sea in their mega-yacht very soon. Sadly, many of these e-mails seem to be from older folks who have been taken in by the dinar scam, and who are well past their better mental years. They all want to leave their kids and grandkids something valuable, like bales of colorful but worthless script. "Here you go, son, your granddaddy left you this, and maybe you and your buddies can take it out to the river and have a bonfire or something."
Personally, I think dinars would be really cool to use as the paper for a homecoming float. Somebody please go out and decorate some old junker with dinars and send me the picture, ASAP. "And in the next care, here comes Ms. Sucker 2014".
Anyhoo, if you are looking for a update, consider these upbeat and positive links:
+ Investopedia came out with this cheerful article --http://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/090314/top-ten-reasons-not-invest-iraqi-dinar.asp
+ Wants some dinars? Invest through Eugene Drong --http://www.argusleader.com/story/news/crime/2014/09/11/colman-man-accused-scamming-investors/15479157/ andhttp://www.argusleader.com/story/news/crime/2014/09/16/two-men-plead-guilty-wire-fraud-charges/15734565/
I'll continue to update every so often, and if I go too long without updating, please drop me an e-mail and remind me to do so.
Update 5 October 2014
I really didn't intend to update for a while, and then somebody sent me an e-mail that said basically, "You're all wrong! The Iraqi government is about to knock off two zeros off the Dinar which means that it will then immediately appreciate by 100 times!"
No it will not. In the words of both Aunt Esther and Coolio: "Fool."
Sometimes currencies lose their value to the point where the mere size of the bills means they have become impractical. Thus, if you're having to pay for a pack of smokes with a Dinar-10,000 bill, things are obviously out-of-whack, and the government has to re-denominate the currency so that the folks using the currency don't lose all confidence in it and start trading in some other currency. That is what is happening to the Dinar.
But re-denomination of a currency does not, repeat NOT, change its value relative to other currencies. What actually happens with a redomination is that the government simply issues new bills, knocking a few zeros off, and then sets a deadline by which the old bills become worthless unless they are traded in by that date. So, the local resident might take in their old Dinar-10,000 bills and exchange them for new Dinar-100 bills.
The key is that if they don't trade the old bills in by the deadline, the old bills become utterly worthless.
So, what this means in real life, is that if you are holding on to bales on Iraqi dinars in your garage in the U.S., you will have to figure out how to exchange those old bills for new ones, or else totally forfeit their value.
The good news is that those bails will substantially decrease in size -- but they won't increase in value. The new bills will not trade at the same rate as the old bills, but instead will trade at the rate less the zeros that were knocked off.
Anybody who says that knocking a few zeros off the Dinar will make the old bills increase in values is either a liar, a fool, or more likely both. Don't fall for it.
Update 3 December 2014
Folks, another Thanksgiving has come and gone without the Iraqi dinar appreciating in value, so if you're holding onto bales of them then once again you're the turkey.
The good news is that two scam artists were sentenced for selling Iraqi dinars, seehttp://www.valuewalk.com/2014/11/fraudsters-jailed-iraqi-dinar-scam/According to the story, "The men, Bradford Huebner and Charles Emmenecker, were both convicted of fraud, and Huebner was also found guilty of evading reporting requirements andmoney laundering. Huebner received over 7 years in jail and Emmenecker almost 3." Here is another good story on the case, with pictures of the scammers:http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/2014/10/31/Local-men-sentenced-in-dinar-case.html
Otherwise, what do we know about Iraq? We know that it is a total mess, and as of today the entire government was fired. This is a failed country that is not making a comeback anytime soon, and the only thing you can expect of the value of your dinars is that they will keep going down.
Until next time.
Update 14 January 2015
Another year has gone by, and another year where suckers sat around look at their boxes of dinars and dreamed of vast riches, but only found another lump of coal in their Christmas stockings. But, hey, they still think they are going to get rich, and reality is a state of mind, right? Better to contemplate being rich, and the reality that all those dinars are worthless, which they are.
As for the dinar, it is not re-valuing anytime soon, at least upwards. The Iraq government announced an expected 23 Trillion dinar deficit just for 2015, and the country is still a mess with ISIS holding onto large swaths or real estate, including Mosul and the nearby oilfields and refineries -- the latter of which have apparently been blasted to bits by coalition forces. Oh, and with oil under $100 per barrel, it's going to be a very iffy thing if the present Iraqi government even survives.
But at least there is this story to warm your toes this winter --http://www.toledoblade.com/Courts/2014/12/20/3-ordered-to-pay-over-800-000-restitution.html
There are fewer and fewer Iraqi dinar stories in the media, mainly because the dinar scammers have since moved on to scams that folks have not heard of, and thus are easier to pull. But they all work alike, with promises of vast riches for only a small investment, and please keep it quiet. No doubt the recidivist suckers who fell for the dinar scam will fall for whatever new scam comes along -- fool me once, you can probably fool me again and again.
Until next time.
Update - 29 May 2015
The time is here! Everybody rent an armored car to take your cash from your local bank because the RV is upon us!
Not.
Apologies for not updating in so long, but nothing has happened of much interest on the Iraqi dinar front, other than that the country is on the brink of collapse due to ISIS, and thus the value of the dinar on the (real) world markets continues in steady decline.
Which is to say that for all you suckers with bails of dinars in your closet or garage, they are not only worthless, but they are (incredibly) more worthless.
Yet, some scam artists continue to hawk the dinar, although most now are running the identical Vietnamese Dong scam, mostly to keep their sucker from suing them or calling the authorities to turn them in for fraud. Thus, the real criminals in this deal, the so-called "dinar gurus" continue to put out update and promises of future riches for those folks who are short not just a few marbles in the head.
I do continue to get many e-mails (thank you) from readers to lament that their spouse, relatives, or friends have fallen for the dinar scam, and seeking ways to get them to admit the scam. Well, here's a secret -- most of them know in the back of their minds that they have been scammed, but they don't want to admit it for fear of looking stupid, and so they hope that you'll just forget about it and the whole thing will blow away soon. Plus, they're going to get rich anyhow, because a Nigerian Princess just randomly contacted them on the internet with a business proposal . . .
Actually, I think it would be quite funny for somebody to respond to some of the Nigerian scammers, and when the get around to asking for money, offer to send them dinars -- and make the pay the freight. A pallet-load of 100 dinars is probably now worth only $10 in U.S. money now, but it cost the scammer a few hundred bucks to get it shipped overseas.
And then maybe you could offer them some Vietnamese dong too.
Until next time.
Update 3 April 2016
I know, I know, I haven't updated this article in over a year, but truthfully there was nothing going on, other than thousands of folks guarding their closets full of Iraqi Dinars, Vietnamese Dong, and who-knows-what other what worthless currencies, all hoping for the big R/V ("Re-Valuation") when they get to be Super Mega Rich, and, oh, also can quit worrying about their stupid closet. By the way, the only R/V these investors may ever see will have four tires and an air conditioner hanging out the rear window.
But this article caught my eye, about John Scott Clark of Cache County, Utah (a/k/a the world's financial centre, not) who is headed to prison for three years after running an Iraqi dinar scam. His closet will be 5' x 10' until he is released, when he will probably run his next scam.
Until next time.