Scam Type

Crypto Investment Scam

Red Flag

  • Extremely large initial investment with vague rewards.
  •  Direct wallet theft after initial investment.
  • Follow-up demand for an even bigger sum to “recover” already lost money.

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 scam started with a high-stakes offer dressed up as an exclusive reward. Once the victim was financially committed, they escalated it by draining her wallet directly and inventing a recovery requirement—demanding even more investment with a false promise of payback.

Potential Lost Funds

$290,000

Final Outcome

The victim lost the original $250,000 investment and $40,000 more through wallet theft. No funds were recovered, and the additional $310,000 demand served only to deepen the scam.