[mjfern]

Tell that to Theranos, Fyre Festival, WeWork, the counterfeiters on Amazon, the myriad of shady ICOs, and on and on. Unfortunately, scammers are rife in industry. Let's not fool ourselves.

[Lazare]

Your examples seem to support the point you were replying to. Theranos is a perfect example of a scam unravelling because eventually the scammer needs to produce results, and not just self-referential research papers that never quite go anywhere.

[catalogia]

I wonder how many more years it will take for uBeam to give up the ghost. Dave Jones has so thoroughly dismantled that one, it should have been over years ago.

There's a sucker born every minute and a skilled con man can exploit that unfortunate truism to keep a scam for quite a while. Moller's skycar is an example of a flagrant scam that lasted for decades.

[mjfern]

I provided several top of mind examples. It doesn't take long to think of entire industries that are shady, from payday lenders to cigarette companies.

[gundmc]

I think your examples help prove the parent comment's point. Each of those companies faced a reckoning when they weren't able to deliver on their promises.

[mjfern]

WeWork had its valuation cut and the founder walked away with $1B+. Where can I sign up for this reckoning?

[mkhpalm]

What is Elizebeth Holmes' net worth before and after Theranos? Are we sure she did any real reckoning?

[dillonmckay]

Not the Amazon counterfeiters, yet.

[rogerkirkness]

Citing legendary scams from the last 10 years is not exactly a way to show that an entire industry is fraudulent.

[jonathankoren]

Three more examples

The rideshare industry famously doesn’t make a profit.

Neither does the electric scooter industry.

The meal in a box industry has retention problems, because eventually their customers learn to shop and cook.

[mjfern]

The housing mortgage crisis, dot com boom and bust, payday loan industry, for-profit universities, fad diet companies, supplements with no scientific basis, cigarette manufacturers... There are whole industries and periods of time where large numbers of shady companies are rising and falling.

[campfireveteran]

You forgot Solar Freakin Roadways and the water from air bottle, but yes them and the billionaire banksters who nearly bankrupted most of the world who are the biggest scammers, like Dick Cheney, who didn't serve a day in prison for their crimes. (Too big to fail. -> Too big to jail.)