The case of the Stanford Group, based in Antigua a money haven it seems, has just made news in the New York Times. It involves $8 billion certificates of deposit which were supposedly high-yielding investment instruments.

It seems the business is under investigation now by federal authorities and about to be shut down due to “massive ongoing fraud” perpetrated world wide. One imagines that this will not be the last one to see the light of day.

This is not a new con. It’s the same one where a piece of paper gets sold to investors. The paper could show shares in non-existent mines, contents of ships coming from distant shores apparently laden with fabulous goodies or in this instance non existent assets or deposits.

With the fraudulent piece of paper comes an entire bunch of folk that perpetuate the illusion of an honest business. Reminds me a bit of the traveling shows where healing water was sold in a bottle. There was always somebody in the audience on crutches who would miraculously be well after taking a gulp of the cure.

Stanford Group had the set up to do just this. It had a bank pretend that all was above board. Surely a bank is an institution one can trust. Well it certainly was so until September 2008. Not anymore.

As with all previous frauds, going back through history, the one common denominator has always been the fulfillment of an outrageous promise. This could be getting ones health back, looking young for ever or in the case of the Stanford Group, offering higher interest returns than most other forms of investment.

That’s the crux of the matter isn’t it. We get caught up in the promises and we buy into the lie. We buy copious quantities of rejuvenating creams to keep looking young. We pop pills to keep ourselves from getting heart attacks rather than eating a healthy diet and exercising.

And then we buy pieces of paper that are worthless because we are promised extraordinary returns. How gullible are we? Constantly and over centuries, we humans have bought into cons at a drop of the hat. Anybody heard of Madoff?

It seems probable that we will continue to do so. The piece of paper will change, the principle will be the same. We just don’t seem to be able to learn the message that if it sounds too good to be true, it is just that - not true at all.