Yes, Virginia, there is a stock exchange in Slovenia. [source]

The internet is crawling with scams but this has got to be the strangest one I’ve ever seen: Arin Greenwood, a graduate of Columbia Law School, got roped into doing financial research on Central European markets, including Slovenia, for two months before discovering she was being conned. She writes:

Most information about investing in, say, Slovenia, was not in English. I do not speak Slovenian. But I got up every day and answered the morning message sent out by an executive assistant—she’d e-mail and say, “This is your morning Roll Call!” and I’d reply “Good morning! I’m here!”—and then I’d spend eight or 10 or 12 hours on my computer trying to find out what a fixed-income investment opportunity is and how you’d know if Slovenia offered one.

Ten to twelve hours sounds pretty hardcore to me, especially since there do seem to be quite a few resources available: Slovenian Business Report, The Slovenia Times, The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, Slovenia Business Week, and Slovenia Partner to mention some.

For that matter, how long does it take to determine if Slovenia has a stock market? Just typing “Slovenia stock market” into Google settles that question in 0.27 seconds.

At any rate, the company promised her $28,000 (€20,000) for two months of work but then vanished into thin air on pay day. She writes that she suspected something was up but thought the work was too “ordinary” to be a scam. Greenwood:

OK, but still, I reasoned, let’s say it is a plan to cheat us: What’s the payoff? What would they do with all this research on Slovenia’s investment opportunities if this Web site weren’t for real? What could anyone do with all this work that would make it worth going through the trouble of cheating us?

I have to admit that this is pretty solid reasoning. I mean, cheating a group of 80 people to get information on how money markets work in Slovenia? It’s the worst scam in the history of scamming. The conclusion Greenwood comes to is certainly surprising and, ironically, very difficult to believe.

Read the whole article here: Wanted: Gullible Lawyers.

[via metafilter]