Scam Type

Romance/Trust Scam, Pig Butchering Scam, Fraudulent Crypto Trading Platform

Red Flag

  • Too-good-to-be-true trading profits.
  • Fabricated security and tax demands.
  • Unfulfilled withdrawal promises.

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

Used LinkedIn to gain trust, created a charitable backstory, pressured large deposits using fabricated bonuses, imposed multiple fake fees, and manipulated trust through offers of shared contributions.

Potential Lost Funds

$740,000

Final Outcome

Website is offline, no funds recovered, and victim doubts the account balance was real.