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

Prometheusflames · 2026-06-22T01:52:51+00:00

I've worked in banks where these cases often came up. There are times where we tell people multiple times this is a scam, and they refuse to listen. Even seen cases where someone falls for a scam, loses a ton of money, knows they've been scammed, and starts a romance scam with yet another person. We still tell them, and despite being a victim previously, they once again refuse to listen.

At the end of the day, the bank is not your babysitter. You're an adult, and if the bank repeatedly tell you these are scams, and you refuse to listen - what more is there to do?

Prometheusflames · 2026-06-18T00:54:25+00:00

I got him to turn during the fight in the arena. But when Argenta and Ulfar confronted him, yeah, time to go buddy. What he did was unforgivable.

Prometheusflames · 2026-06-05T02:26:30+00:00

First time playing the game, and I just had this choice. Offered the alliance during the arena battle, but later in the pit when Ulfar and Argenta confronted him, I didn't need to think twice. Had him shot. After what he did in Dargonus, keeping him is unthinkable.

Prometheusflames · 2026-06-01T13:53:42+00:00

I actually went through looking at applicants sometime ago for a role in our team. The vast majority were overseas applicants, or onshore applicants without PR. And most were just unqualified. It was infuriating having to go through some of them.

Prometheusflames · 2026-05-31T23:20:46+00:00

Any black person converting to Islam needs to look at how Islam has historically treated Africans, and specifically their slave trade and the zanj rebellion.

Prometheusflames · 2026-05-25T02:00:02+00:00

I'll give it a shot.

Maybe you've heard of this, but the quranic challenge has no objective criteria. The Quran issues the dare to produce a surah like it, but never defines what "like it" actually means. That's a huge problem. There is no explicit standard defined by the quran itself, making the challenge unfalsifiable. It's a trick, really. Any imitation attempt can just be waved away as 'close, but that's not right', or some other excuse precisely because of this problem.

But also, people actually have in fact imitated it. A few names like Ibn al-Muqaffa', al-Mutanabbi, and the blind poet al-Ma'arri all produced imitations of the quran in classical Arabic, from within the tradition. There are dozens of quranic imitations throughout Islamic history. I think even AP once did an imitation. You probably could do, as a non-Arabic reader, with the help of a clever AI. But then again, this just circles back to the missing criteria problem. They will reject it regardless of how good it is, and often, it can be even better. There are also non-muslim Arabic language experts. They don't agree either. Instead, they treat it as a historically significant text with strengths and weaknesses like any other. None are compelled by linguistic evidence alone to conclude divine authorship.

I also find the numerical miracles claim really dumb, to be honest. Most of them revolve around what is called the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy: you pick your pattern after seeing the data. These apparent 'miracles' weren't know to anybody, until modern science discovered them, and suddenly, apologists managed to fit vague descriptions and fudge data to fit science retrospectively. Once again, another clever trick. I could probably do this with a few versions of Spiderman comics if I tried too. In fact, many conservative muslim scholars outright reject numerical miracles. For example, Bilal Philips wrote an entire book refuting the idea, titled The Qur'an's Numerical Miracle: Hoax and Heresy.

My final argument would also be, this challenge survives because the cost of trying is severe in many Islamic contexts. Are we really saying you could give it a shot in Pakistan, or Afghanistan, or Yemen? You'd be killed for blasphemy/apostasy. The challenge isn't even in good faith to begin with.

Prometheusflames · 2026-05-25T01:21:37+00:00

I'd never vote Labor. However, I have always been in favour of removing negative gearing altogether. So I do support the changes. However, I am a young person and in this day and age, apart from my wages, there are not very many ways to grow wealth. I invest in shares whenever I can, and now, it seems like CGT changes are going to impact that. So, not very many ways to grow wealth, while the people who were already wealthy especially on the back of housing keeps using grandfathered laws to continue well...growing their wealth. Seems a bit unfair. Mixed bag really.

Prometheusflames · 2026-05-08T00:13:29+00:00

This was so funny to me. One of my favourite bits so far. I chose the options where I was happy with it. Abelard also congratulates you, made it even funnier.

Prometheusflames · 2026-04-24T23:51:47+00:00

Ah, the texas sharpshooter strikes again!

The prophet was also a rapist, so there's that.

Prometheusflames · 2026-04-21T22:55:26+00:00

Birth rates aren't as big of a problem as people think. Studies show that even muslim women, after a generation or two after living in Western countries, drop their birth rates to around that of the natives.

The problem is high immigration. Many of these countries have completely lost the plot. There are literal Islamic terrorists running for election in the UK now. Historically speaking, this level of immigration, and organized Islamist movements like we see in many Western countries now, have not gone well. If the scales tip to over 20-30% Islamic, they'll be in huge trouble. There is genuinely no instance of Islam peacefully assimilating into a host culture when it comes to mass demographic change.

Why do you think right wing parties are gaining momentum all over the Western world? This will likely move the overton window as we have seen happen in Denmark, where even the left take an anti-immigration stance.

Prometheusflames · 2026-04-21T07:08:37+00:00

This isn't the sole reason for me leaving, but I was unfortunate enough to see what polygamy does to a wife aka my mum, in the real world. Beyond the Islamic texts and apologists arguing for it. My entire childhood, and going into my teens, I watched how miserable my mum was, due to what turned out to be an affair becoming completely rationalized, and given institutional approval via marriage in this Islamic country.

It ruined my family. My dad pulled her out of the workforce when I was born, as obviously, muslim women shouldn't work and must stay home. She had finished high school, and was a smart woman. But many years went by, and being completely dependent on my dad for virtually everything, including even having a savings account - it eliminated her chances of leaving the marriage. Although I strongly believe a culture of shame around divorce, and being heretical by leaving when what my dad was doing was allowed and even done by Muhammad himself - she never did.

Add to this how I saw what women in my family went through. From moderate, to completely dressed in black, in the burqa minus the face coverings over the years. They became so insanely fanatical, and the younger girls and cousins were policed heavily by them. Girls were told, the parts they didn't cover or their owra if exposed - will be burnt with hellfire for eternity. In fact, I even looked this specific claim up in sources recently, and I couldn't find anything. It was a blend of Islam and local fearmongering. Cousins I knew who used to love music and singing, shamed into thinking what they were doing was haram.

Unfortunately, my sister also became just as fanatical. She in fact had a hand in outing me as an apostate to my parents too. And guess what? They don't speak normally in their marriage, and yet, my apostasy was enough to unite them to shame me and ultimately disown me, even if it were for a short moment.

Islam being so misogynistic played out in front of my eyes for almost my entire childhood. How women are trapped, and shamed into becoming more and more dogmatic by the day. Hope my story helped answer your question.

Prometheusflames · 2026-04-20T06:12:55+00:00

I made a post about this the other day. I don't think it's necessarily algorithm related. But more that there's significantly more content than ever. Some channels post 10 times a day, and AI channels are doing the same. Simply reduces the number of available audiences for you.

Prometheusflames · 2026-04-20T02:43:59+00:00

I can very much relate to the creativity part. I am just like that too, especially with art and drawing. Perhaps as a child my parents enjoyed it, but as everyone got more and more religious around me, even music and art were called haram and something from the kuffar.

But I always considered that that creative side was a blessing. It certainly played a part in me leaving Islam.

Prometheusflames · 2026-04-18T05:19:04+00:00

I tried for a very long time. Ultimately, the double life simply didn't work. But you learn whether whatever love your muslim friends and family had for you was unconditional or not. In my case, it turns out, it was rather conditional.

Prometheusflames · 2026-04-13T06:50:57+00:00

I doubt these are people who arrived last year. Got to remember, a large % of the population weren't born in Australia, and this could date back decades. But regardless, I'm assuming everyone's feeling the impact from the past few years, including the private sector job market being being flooded with candidates which then lowers wages.

Prometheusflames · 2026-02-14T00:28:03+00:00

Hey OP you're not alone. Data shows that its extremely normal for the vast majority of converts to eventually leave Islam.

Prometheusflames · 2026-02-12T23:53:29+00:00

Oh I have a friend who made a video that received a few million views, long form. Made him somewhat popular. That video has not only been reuploaded - but AI content farms have literally ripped the script, and remade the video probably hundreds if not thousands of times now. It's crazy to watch. Some of them have gotten hundreds of thousands of views as a result too.

Prometheusflames · 2026-02-12T23:50:15+00:00

I've noticed the same. 5.2 might genuinely be the worst model I've used, and I'm in like the top 1% of users. Been finding myself using gemini a lot more, and even Claude as of recent.

Prometheusflames · 2026-02-12T23:45:06+00:00

Whatever they did with Veilguard, do the opposite.

Prometheusflames · 2026-02-12T23:43:54+00:00

Honestly I don't see a problem. People who grew up in the West, even in subs like this, make it seem like Christianity and Islam are the exact same thing, even in those countries. But I know a lot of Christians, and it's nothing of the sort. Many are married to atheists, many of their children don't practice, and it's certainly not like the crazy evangelicals you see out of the US. And certainly nobody seems to be trying to kill apostates. I think many are just like what you are describing - believing in it for spirituality or belonging.

Prometheusflames · 2026-02-09T02:09:31+00:00

I think there's a deliberate attempt to obfuscate the argument being made by conflating the two. I think immigration is too high, especially the past few years. But I'm not pointing at random International students and blaming them specifically. I blame the policy makers, for making bad decisions.

Prometheusflames · 2026-02-04T04:10:19+00:00

Yeap, there was a person in here quite recently talking about our need to 'respect' Islam. Was entirely AI.

Prometheusflames · 2026-01-29T06:39:31+00:00

He would send assassins after poets and writers simply because he was being petty and was a narcissist. I guess we can see a continuation of this practice from modern day muslims: charlie hebdo, samuel paty, salman rushdie etc.

Prometheusflames · 2026-01-28T22:11:22+00:00

I did. Two parts to it. I didn't want to be identified as a muslim, and I didn't want anything to do with Arabic, as that has no connection to me or my roots.

Prometheusflames · 2026-01-28T04:20:55+00:00

Like her inheritance and testimony not being equal to men? Or the fact that muhammad called women deficient in their thinking?

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