There was logic to his actions, he stole their ad revenues and kept the money while dangling a carrot of big investment to keep them from noticing. Scammy bullshit artists still have goals.

Something relevant to keep in mind is the scammer is not obligated to have a one track mind. He has 25K of their money, as far as I can tell still has it and based on the guys history has run this many times. He can run this scheme in parallel perhaps 10 companies and for 9 he disappears and the tenth he spends 250K and owns a chunk of a "4M company". Note that he ran for the hills when he got in over his head and figured out that giving a "4M company" that folds when it loses 25K is probably not a good use of 250K. Some other company will be getting that 250K.

I think he is asking how that guy cashed in on this.

And I believe the answer was that these guys basically displayed affiliate links that gave him cash when clicked.

No, I don't think "Simon" meant to cash in at all. As the parent post said: probably mental issues. These nutjobs aren't looking to get to rich, as much as pretending/be perceived to be rich.

yeah, hence

> lucky he didn't try to steal money from them directly