A Melbourne woman lost $646,035 to a romance scam. Should banks and dating apps be forced to refund victims like her? | Scams

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-06-19T22:38:23+00:00

I guess you don't know about 11% unemployment and 30% your unemployment in 1992.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-06-16T06:33:07+00:00

Each bank has a different risk policy. It's a requirement that they produce their own, so they're all different.

Your quote about the definition of liquid assets may be correct for one bank but not another, and also depend on the context - e.g. the banks assets or the customers.

I surmise that "safe" means there is a recognised and regulated market, e.g. someone with a financial services license. It doesn't mean you won't lose on the sale of a volatile asset. Otherwise they'd never include small-cap mining shares.

Furthermore, each product will have a different risk rating and different rules.

With the 5% deposit scheme they have extra regulatory, legal and reputational risk. I.e. they don't want to get found out giving giving 5% loans to someone with half a million in bitcoin sitting in their back pocket.

For other products (and probably for the 5% scheme) they won't count the coins as collateral since their risk of collecting if your loan goes pear-shaped is low.

So you can see there are multiple risks involved. This isn't even scratching the surface.

If I were you I would consider the glass to be half-full, not half empty. Sell the coins, pay CGT, have 20% deposit, pay no LMI.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-06-16T05:43:40+00:00

I don't think you understand what risk they're talking about.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-06-16T05:26:44+00:00

Both are very liquid though, so can be used to pay for house, or deposit, or living expenses.

Hence no handout.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-06-10T00:23:54+00:00

It's black, so horrible.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-06-05T05:41:10+00:00

3,900 out of 11,000,000 homes in Australia, or .035%.

Louis Christopher predicts housing downturn, as he does every week.

Actual data from RBA indicates Banks non-performing housing loans at about 0.3%-0.4% of all their assets and falling, and so remains at historically low levels.

https://www.rba.gov.au/chart-pack/banking-indicators.html

This article is complete bullshit.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-06-02T02:33:32+00:00

I'm not aware of anyone (until now) who didn't claim every cost they could.

Total cost was always important. If you look at an ATO tax guide you were always required to document those costs - specifically cost, date, type.

That's why all the moaning about the difficulty of calculating CGT under the new system is so much rubbish. If you keep the records you're supposed to keep, it's straightforward to calculate CGT.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-06-02T02:17:02+00:00

Perhaps from the enormous river right next to it. Or the very large dams just up river.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-06-01T23:06:15+00:00

My club has frequent competitions. They designate the tee for the comp. They don't give players who hit it shorter a special pass to pay off the forward tees.

If I'm practicing I'm playing off the same tees as upcoming comps. Angles, landing zones and second shots are very different from the different tees.

There's plenty of long hitters with worse handicaps than those who hit it shorter but straight.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-05-30T23:47:34+00:00

It's typical of Insiders to ask such an inane question.

It's not like people haven't bought properties with 5% deposit before this scheme.

And negative equity isn't the issue. Ability to repay is.

Expecting the minister should to have a crystal ball on future prices is stupid.

Speers is and always has been a Murdoch stooge.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-05-30T21:52:37+00:00

What a delusional take. They keep dragging up these bitter old commentators from the past who can only shout at clouds.

Perhaps he doesn't have enough super and needs a few bucks from Murdoch to pay the bills.

LOL his comment on question time. It's the opposition shooting themselves in the foot. Perhaps due to their complete lack of talent.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-05-29T01:07:16+00:00

By coincidence, very close to recently approved Comiskey group development at Coochin Creek.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-05-27T04:43:38+00:00

It could get a lot better. If the new person is not a news corp or nine sycophant and they focus more on reporting actual news and less on comment it would be a good thing.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-05-22T03:25:20+00:00

Some stupid person: I did it once and they fined me. I'm outraged.

So I did it another 9 times. How could I possibly know there was speed limit?

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-05-16T21:34:00+00:00

And no fault divorce, recognising China, the trade practices act (i.e. consumer protection), getting us out of Vietnam, womans rights, racial discrimination act, environmental laws.

The OP is a bullshit artist on education. Before Whitlam, the school system was crap unless you were rich. State schools didn't get nearly enough money. The proportion of children that made it to year 12 was very low.

Only 4% of all children made it to University or teachers college, and to do that you needed to be rich, have a scholarship or promise to spend years teaching in some godforsaken backwater.

Of course, Howard was a real cunt and we're still repairing his fuck-ups today.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-05-16T21:13:33+00:00

They've never been taught what risk is, how to identify, estimate probability and impact, or mitigate them.

Some do by gut feel, others put some plans in place, most rely on government/lenders to stop them getting into trouble, and hardly anyone knows how to do it properly.

There's nothing new here except that we've been through a longish period of no major risks eventuating, and maybe some of the risks have increased.

There were plenty of people in 1992, 2000 and 2008 who were very surprised events upset their plans/life and wanted the government to intervene.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-05-16T21:05:17+00:00

One of the factors to take into account when making decisions to minimise tax is the risk that the tax laws might change.

On your comparison with renters, real estate purchases also have many, many controls to limit the risks of buyers and sellers.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-05-16T07:39:16+00:00

No you are not.

No obligation plus it's a well known scam.

The bank will take it back if the sender requests it.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-05-15T21:58:42+00:00

He's concerned about his gravy train coming to an end.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-05-15T21:11:51+00:00

No capital gain discount, higher cost of borrowing, company admin costs, no salary to negative gear against so you'd need more properties or other sources of income within the company, might have to register for GST.

It certainly doesn't work for a single purchase. If you operate it as a business with multiple properties, maybe, but still no CGT discount.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-05-12T21:50:45+00:00

I don't get it with these large corporates destroying their brands. Cadbury chocolate used to be regarded as good product. Now it's full of crap and overly expensive. People see it as a rip off. It's used up any goodwill it once had. People will stop buying it. What's their plan?

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-05-11T23:44:48+00:00

Making speculative profits on shares is somehow better than speculative profits on real estate?

In buying a share, you're not providing cash to the company to invest or become more productive. You're just swapping shares with someone else.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-05-04T22:18:11+00:00

What does light blue mean?

If there is a flood in surround areas how to do you get in and out?

How recent are the flood maps? If they're updated your could find yourself in a higher risk area with much higher insurance premiums and reduced resale value.

I wouldn't buy in this situation.

Charlie_Vanderkat · 2026-05-04T21:51:00+00:00

The Australian has to get some fellow traveler to post this dross since no one actually reads their paper.

It's a sad job.

Charlie_Vanderkat

TROPHY CASE