Sorry - re-replying because I didn't answer one of your questions directly.
I'm also as suspicious of people who are calling people like payb.tc scammers, for exactly the same reasons.
Umm, how do you figure? You don't agree that they paid Pirate to fraudulently transfer other people's money to them?
I don't believe payb.tc paid Pirate to fraudulently transfer other people's money to them. Personally, I hope that the money is generated in some high, risk, high reward scheme. 3400% is just too good to believe and that's where we differ. I believe it's more likely to blow up than to work out. I've made some high risk investments (run by me) that if they'd worked out would have made me very wealthy but they didn't work out.
I think this lies at the heart of our disagreement. You rightly believe that if someone were going into an investment knowing the money was being used in a Ponzi that they're implicit in the wrongdoing. I agree with you but we differ in our belief that Pirate is a scammer (currently anyway).
If you're a rational person who can think for themselves, how can people who operated passthroughs be considered scammers?
Because they knowingly participated in a scam and tried to profit from it. Duh.
Some have said that they're scammers because they helped legitimise Pirate... how? Am I a scammer because I gambled? Did I legitimise him?
You are a scammer because you knowingly participated in a scam, paying Pirate to make you the beneficiary of fraudulent transfers of other people's money. Sorry, but that's the truth.
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I agree with your conclusion but I disagree that Pirate is a scammer (with the existing evidence).
True or false: Pirate induced people to invest in him by claiming to have an actual business that turned a legitimate profit. You knew, however, that he was probably using new investments to pay off interest on previous investments. You knew or should have known that by investing with Pirate, you were in fact paying him to transfer some of those funds that others were lead to believe would be invested to you, which is in no way an investment of those funds.
How can you say that doesn't make you a scammer? How long until reality sinks in and the cognitive dissonance stops?
False. I disagree completely but if I did believe Pirate to be a scammer, yes I'm with you 100%.