The Largest EVE Online Ponzi Scheme Ever, Told by the Perpetrator

I found this to be endlessly fascinating. Even though it was all for a pretty niche online game and not for real money, the psychology and preparation and strategy is all highly relevant for real-world Ponzi scheme detection and avoidance. It's also pretty unusual to hear about such a scheme from the actual mastermind, explaining how they thought about it from the beginning and how it evolved over time. It's not obvious from first principles what sorts of things would turn out to be most risky/problematic for the perpetrator, but it all makes total sense when you think about it.

Anyway, it's a really riveting account. If you enjoy it, you might also want to check out this thread on a now infamous Bitcoin Ponzi scheme (stole 500k Bitcoin, an insane amount of value today, but fairly modest back in 2011). The Bitcoin one is exciting because you can trace through as it actually unfolds and see how people were thinking and talking about the situation and the perpetrator. It's revealing in many ways, like in how unwilling victims can be to recognize that they have been fooled, and how the perpetrator is able to deflect and parry attacks through irony and sarcasm and bravado:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50822.0

From 2008: http://www.geocities.com/currintrading/