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Comment by wpietri | Hacker News Reader

> Scamming people outside Israel was legal in Israel at the time.

My head just exploded here. I think I need to go lie down. Please nobody tell the Florida legislature about this.

Quite real, though. Until it became so embarrassing to Israel that the law was changed in 2017.[1] The Times of Israel: "The crooks are still out there. Some binary options firms have closed down. Others have relocated overseas, including to Cyprus and Ukraine. Some of the prime movers and shakers have already adjusted their focus to other fraudulent fields — in the fields of diamond sales, cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings and predatory business loans. Top scammers are still enjoying the vast overseas bank accounts, the yachts, luxury cars, exotic holidays and other profits of their ill-gotten gains." [2] That's a good article, and talks about the lobbyists, the political connections, and the refusal of the Israeli police to act.

The investigative reporter who broke the story, Simona Weinglass, frequently reports on how the Israeli financial scam industry has grown and changed. "Another 2 leading Israeli blockchain pioneers named as suspects in vast crypto scam"[3] A former Celsius CFO was one of them. Celsius, of course, denied there was a problem. That story was back in in March, three months before the Celsius collapse.

Somewhere, behind this new wrong-number/fake broker thing, there is probably an organized criminal enterprise.

[1] https://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Israeli-minist...

[2] https://www.timesofisrael.com/why-binary-options-ban-is-only...

[3] https://www.timesofisrael.com/another-2-leading-israeli-bloc...

Florida has been selling swampland to gullible retirees from other states for a long time.

"These are the new leads. These are the Glengarry leads. And to you they're gold, and you don't get them."

In Russia you can hack foregin countries too :)

The problem with Russia is not the law, but lack of willingness to cooperate.

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