And Gog, when I was bidding it was long before I realized P-----r's completely and total lack of following their own business model. As you may have noticed, I no longer bid. 
I actually believed them when they said they had a collections agency working for them and I actually thought a company would VERIFY a customer claiming BK. You know, like a normal successful company would do. 
+1.
I trusted their verification process was similar to every other lender in the US. Why did I think this? I have taken loans out before, once with Quicken an internet based Loan Company. I had to get a notary to verify my identity before I faxed them back the paper work for getting a Loan. More importantly to me at the time was the identity theft guarantee they made. I actually thought they would attempt to ensure they would not have to pay out by Identifying who was actually asking for the loan, my mistake. I guess they did ensure that they would not have to pay out on identity theft. If it was not for that guarantee I actually would not have put money in the system. I would have taken that $500 bucks and spent it on myself.
I trusted the 5 star group rating system that they had. You will note many of my loans were for a specific group, my mistake.
I believed their quoted default rates were actually true. I followed their advice, bid at a percentage equal to what I wanted to earn plus the default rate for that credit grade, my mistake.
I thought collections would be handled better and there would be law suits chasing after the dead beats. There was a period in my life when I did not handle money very well, and I ran into this. Straightened up my act real quick, my mistake.
I knew there were risks to lending and if I was losing money and the majority of prosper lenders were not, I would definitely know it was entirely my fault. I admit I am not a financial wiz, let alone a financial professional. But even Financial Professionals got their ass handed to them. The majority of lenders with more then a few loans and loans greater then 3 months old, are losing or are starting to lose money.
I actually feel like Prosper stole my money. Oh they did not directly steal it no. They just CHARGED me so someone else could steal my money.
