Claimed to be NYMEX

Scam Type

Crypto Investment Scam Impersonating the New York Mercantile Exchange

Red Flag

Impersonatiion of NYMEX.
No actual website or public support channel.
Unrealistic account growth ($650,000 to $10 million).

Details

The victim joined a trading blog on social media, where he met two individuals—“Mr. Charlie” and “Tina”—claiming to represent Fitbela Epro Limited, a UK-based Forex trading firm. They persuaded him to open a Forex trading account on the Meta 5 Trading platform and promised high returns. The victim initially invested $10,000 and was told the account had grown significantly, prompting him to invest even more. Following their direction, he eventually sent a total of $92,000 via wire transfer. Later, they claimed his account was now worth $200,000. When the victim attempted to withdraw his funds, he was told he needed to pay $87,000 in taxes before any money could be released. At that point, he recognized it as a scam.

Scammer Behaviour

The scammer exploited the reputation of NYMEX, a real commodities exchange, to create an illusion of legitimacy. Using personalized contact and a fake platform, they gradually extracted over half a million dollars from the victim. Once the victim's balance appeared to be substantial, they disappeared—typical of high-value exit scams.

Potential Lost Funds

$650,000

Final Outcome

The victim never recovered any funds. After the platform cut contact, it became clear that NYMEX was impersonated and the entire setup was a professional crypto scam.