Scam Type

Romance Scam, Pig Butchering Scam, Fraudulent Trading Platform, Advance Fee Scam

Red Flag

  •  Group manipulation claims.
  • Sudden account freezes and external wallet transfers.
  • Maintenance excuses.

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

Leveraged fake expertise, built trust with accurate predictions, guided group to scam platform, showed fake profits, blamed losses on leaks, and pushed more deposits after system freezes.

Potential Lost Funds

$147,686

Final Outcome

Funds transferred out; no recovery; scam reported.