Scam Type

Romance Scam, Pig Butchering Scam, Fraudulent Trading Platform, Imposter Scam

Red Flag

  • Fake profit displays and network maintenance delays.
  • Disabled accounts, vague asset transfer claims.
  • Platform tax demands and suspicious wallet addresses.

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

First: Built trust via unrelated pretext, showed fake gains, stalled withdrawals with maintenance excuses, and claimed untraceable asset transfers. Second: Used wealth displays to lure, showed fake profits, demanded platform taxes, and attempted further theft via emails.

Potential Lost Funds

$2,61,000

Final Outcome

No funds recovered; site offline; scam reported.