I got scammed... $45k - UPDATE - Help

[g3sz]

Hello!

I guess you could say that I f***ed up pretty badly.

I'm going to keep this as short as I can.

One day at the beginning of March, I "stumbled across" a guy on Facebook saying that you could get a massive return with binary options through Bitcoins.
Well, after a chat with him I made my first deposit and bought my first bot(With Bitcoins). The first broker "we" (Me and my "trading agent") used got hacked and we moved on to another one. There I had to make another deposit and pay fees and taxes. Fine, I thought... The account balance on the broker kept going up and it was time for a withdrawal. The withdrawal should be made through Bitcoins.($86k) BUT due to the large amount of money it had to be done through bank transfer. So I opened a bank account that he was referring to and had to make another deposit AND pay taxes at a sum of around $27k.

That didn't go as planned either and the bank said the money should be sent to me physically Fine, I thought. The package had to go through 2 countries before reaching mine. I could keep track of the package all the time and when it arrived at the second country I was required to pay taxes ($4k) and when it finally got into my country I had to pay $7k for taxes and another $5k for "legal documents".

This is the point where I'm right now.

I'm currently in a loss of around $40k

Is there ANY way to recover this? Or is totally impossible? All the payments are done through Coinbase

Thanks for replies in advance!


UPDATE! May 31

I've been able to come in contact with the scammer, so let's lose more money

No, just kidding. I found him through one of his testimonials on Facebook, he gave me the scammers number to WhatsApp.

How should I proceed from here? """Because I'm still waiting for the package with the money in it""", should I "play along" and see what he says?

Should I threaten him with going to the police and report him for international fraud if he doesn't give my money back?


Thanks for your help guys, let's get this scammer down!

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[TimeBits]

Clean it up


Bitcoin: A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.

You made the mistake of going through 3 of them.

"massive return with binary options" I loled real hard.

OP: sorry for your loss, you are up shits creek without a paddle, join the church of bitcoin or whatever you want to call it to avoid tax.

[eaLiTy]

Stop sending money to strangers, if you can post the details of the facebook account that convinced you and scammed the money and the accounts in which you sent the money, people here might help you in finding the person behind the scam .
The best thing you can do is to register a case and i presume it is an international fraud case and i am not sure how the authorities will be dealing with it and since you lost a fairly large amount of money the authorities might help you in identifying the IP address and other details but the possibility of getting it returned is really slim.

[g3sz]

Clean it up

Bitcoin: A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.

You made the mistake of going through 3 of them.

"massive return with binary options" I loled real hard.

OP: sorry for your loss, you are up shits creek without a paddle, join the church of bitcoin or whatever you want to call it to avoid tax.

Yeah, I know... I really messed up.

Stop sending money to strangers, if you can post the details of the facebook account that convinced you and scammed the money and the accounts in which you sent the money, people here might help you in finding the person behind the scam .
The best thing you can do is to register a case and i presume it is an international fraud case and i am not sure how the authorities will be dealing with it and since you lost a fairly large amount of money the authorities might help you in identifying the IP address and other details but the possibility of getting it returned is really slim.

The Facebook profile doesn't exist anymore, but I have the name and our conversation stored. (You can't read his messages though, since his account need verification according to Facebook)

Okay, do you have any experience with international fraud cases? Where should I start?

[DireWolfM14]

Is there ANY way to recover this? Or is totally impossible? All the payments are done through Coinbase

Gather all the evidence you have, documents, bank records, coinbase transactions, screen shots, the Facebook user, everything you can think of, and call the police.  It's a large enough chunk of money that the police will put some effort into it, maybe not much but some.  

If the scammer was dumb he may have made a mistake along the way that would allow the cops to track him down.  If the scammer was smart and covered his tracks carefully, you're not likely to see that money ever again.  

Oh, one last thing:  Move this thread to the Scam Accusations board.  There's a link in lower left-hand part of the page labeled "move topic."

[TravelMug]

.. snip ..

I'm currently in a loss of around $40k

Is there ANY way to recover this? Or is totally impossible? All the payments are done through Coinbase

Thanks for replies in advance!

Sorry for you lost bro, but I think you won't get any penny from those scammers. It will be hard to track those people because it looks like they really know what they are doing here. Or if you pursue them, most likely it will incurred big expenses again so that's double whammy.

Another expensive lessons to learn in the world of crypto.

[g3sz]

Is there ANY way to recover this? Or is totally impossible? All the payments are done through Coinbase

Gather all the evidence you have, documents, bank records, coinbase transactions, screen shots, the Facebook user, everything you can think of, and call the police.  It's a large enough chunk of money that the police will put some effort into it, maybe not much but some.  

If the scammer was dumb he may have made a mistake along the way that would allow the cops to track him down.  If the scammer was smart and covered his tracks carefully, you're not likely to see that money ever again.  

Oh, one last thing:  Move this thread to the Scam Accusations board.  There's a link in lower left-hand part of the page labeled "move topic."

Okay, I should maybe do so anyway. I was thinking that the police wouldn't do anything. But I will give it a try.

Sorry for not posting in the right board.

.. snip ..

I'm currently in a loss of around $40k

Is there ANY way to recover this? Or is totally impossible? All the payments are done through Coinbase

Thanks for replies in advance!

Sorry for you lost bro, but I think you won't get any penny from those scammers. It will be hard to track those people because it looks like they really know what they are doing here. Or if you pursue them, most likely it will incurred big expenses again so that's double whammy.

Another expensive lessons to learn in the world of crypto.

Thanks, it really sucks. I'm so embarrassed and I can't understand how f****ng stupid I was...

I will see what the police here can do, I will gather everything I have.

[harizen]

Broker. Trading Agent. Binary Options. Expected Profit.

The way you told us the story and if I'm not mistaken, you encounter a fake advisor.

The usual way of promoting the service of these so-called managers is thru recommendations by other users. They spread their testimonials throughout some of the Facebook crypto groups. Their fake clients will post something about getting a good experience by those managers. And that's it.

I've known others who got scammed by this scheme. Sorry for the loss but I think you will never see your money again but......

..as mentioned above, maybe there are "holes". Try to find it as much as you can even at low chance.

[eaLiTy]

The Facebook profile doesn't exist anymore, but I have the name and our conversation stored. (You can't read his messages though, since his account need verification according to Facebook)
Okay, do you have any experience with international fraud cases? Where should I start?

As DireWolfM14 mentioned collect all the evidence you can collect, including the facebook username in which he contacted you, even if he deleted his account it will have his fingerprints if he is not careful and that can be retrieved.

 Go through this website it will give you an idea on how to start your process. Assuming you are located in the United States.

[royalfestus]

These are scams that put bad names on the space, it will look like there are no good things they do here for newbies that fall victim of these, however, victims should learn how to protect themselves online even something different from cryptocurrency. It doesnt matter how legit it might look verify the process. I wonder how u got this site after the loss.

[andronikos]

Sorry for your losses. You need to be very careful when trying to invest, especially on something new for you (btc) .

[target]

Why did you believe a stranger to handle that for you and all for binary option which is always associated with scam. $40k is a big amount, I would track those scammers if I were you and expose them. I was surprise about paying tax

If you did post about your situation long before you send money, and advice from the users in the forum will definitely help.

[g3sz]

Broker. Trading Agent. Binary Options. Expected Profit.

The way you told us the story and if I'm not mistaken, you encounter a fake advisor.

The usual way of promoting the service of these so-called managers is thru recommendations by other users. They spread their testimonials throughout some of the Facebook crypto groups. Their fake clients will post something about getting a good experience by those managers. And that's it.

I've known others who got scammed by this scheme. Sorry for the loss but I think you will never see your money again but......

..as mentioned above, maybe there are "holes". Try to find it as much as you can even at low chance.

The Facebook profile doesn't exist anymore, but I have the name and our conversation stored. (You can't read his messages though, since his account need verification according to Facebook)
Okay, do you have any experience with international fraud cases? Where should I start?

As DireWolfM14 mentioned collect all the evidence you can collect, including the facebook username in which he contacted you, even if he deleted his account it will have his fingerprints if he is not careful and that can be retrieved.

 Go through this website it will give you an idea on how to start your process. Assuming you are located in the United States.

These are scams that put bad names on the space, it will look like there are no good things they do here for newbies that fall victim of these, however, victims should learn how to protect themselves online even something different from cryptocurrency. It doesnt matter how legit it might look verify the process. I wonder how u got this site after the loss.

Sorry for your losses. You need to be very careful when trying to invest, especially on something new for you (btc) .

Why did you believe a stranger to handle that for you and all for binary option which is always associated with scam. $40k is a big amount, I would track those scammers if I were you and expose them. I was surprise about paying tax

If you did post about your situation long before you send money, and advice from the users in the forum will definitely help.

Thanks for your replies guys. I appreciate it! 

I'm located in Sweden. So I don't know if I could start an International Fraud process?

I'm currently gathering all the useful information and I'm going to the police tomorrow or on Friday.

I can't understand how blind and stupid I was. He really got me... He had testimonials and everything seemed perfect, but I had so wrong.
But I am not going to give up easily, I will do everything I can to get my money back (or some of it).

[harizen]

I can't understand how blind and stupid I was. He really got me... He had testimonials and everything seemed perfect, but I had so wrong.
But I am not going to give up easily, I will do everything I can to get my money back (or some of it).

Those so-called managers do really have good testimonials and reviews. That was effort. You can even message their fake customers and they will respond as did by my mentioned known persons who fall on that scheme. They able to gather lots of fake accounts customers making them looks like a legit service. There are also videos of payment proofs. He got you by that especially the "promised profit".

Mind giving us the scammer's name here so that it can be served as a reference to those newbies who will encounter this thread. Even that person already blocked you, the message thread will still remain on your inbox.

I'm currently gathering all the useful information and I'm going to the police tomorrow or on Friday.

Good luck with that....

[game-protect]

1) If you are the victim of an international fraud, do not listen to signature spammers on bitcointalk! Legal experts for international frauds do not spam signatures for cents!

2) Based on our experience, the police does not do much to nothing in case of international frauds. Therefore you need to investigate and prepare the proof properly for the police to start the proceeding.

[g3sz]

UPDATE!

I've been able to come in contact with the scammer, so let's lose more money

No, just kidding. I found him through one of his testimonials on Facebook, he gave me the scammers number to WhatsApp.

How should I proceed from here? """Because I'm still waiting for the package with the money in it""", should I "play along" and see what he says?

Should I threaten him with going to the police and report him for international fraud if he doesn't give my money back?


Thanks for your help guys, let's get this scammer down!

[game-protect]

If you believe that signature spammers on bitcontalk have the qualification to help you in this case, you must be very naive! They spam signatures for cents and a legal expert for international frauds never would do this.

I was required to pay taxes ($4k) and when it finally got into my country I had to pay $7k for taxes and another $5k for "legal documents".

To who did you pay the taxes and fee for "legal documents"?

[nutildah]

Obviously you got conned at every step of the way. What package delivery service were you using? Who were you paying taxes to? You paid $27k in "taxes" in addition to losing your initial bitcoin deposit??

If you ask him what to do next, he will ask you for more money.

If you tell him you're going to the police, he will disappear.

There's essentially nothing you can do except for not be so gullible in the future.

Are you sure you're not just trolling us?

Unlikely that signature spammers on bitcointalk can help you in this case.

You're talking about yourself right? You have a signature and you are leaving less-than-helpful comments.

[g3sz]

Obviously you got conned at every step of the way. What package delivery service were you using? Who were you paying taxes to? You paid $27k in "taxes" in addition to losing your initial bitcoin deposit??

If you ask him what to do next, he will ask you for more money.

If you tell him you're going to the police, he will disappear.

There's essentially nothing you can do except for not be so gullible in the future.

Are you sure you're not just trolling us?

Unlikely that signature spammers on bitcointalk can help you in this case.

You're talking about yourself right? You have a signature and you are leaving less-than-helpful comments.

Yeah... The shipping company: www.alphab-logistics.com The site is badly done and they are using pictures from like google.

I was paying taxes to the trading broker country, and the banks country and the county that was "on the way" to my country via the shipping company.

Why would I troll? I have evidence of almost everything. Coinbase had actually started to investigate this. I'm still thinking about going to the cops with every evidence I have.

On the scammers WhatsApp account, he has a picture saying that he will do a trading seminar in the UK later this year

[game-protect]

I was paying taxes to the trading broker country,

What is the trading broker country and to who did you pay?

... and the banks country

What is the banks country and to who did you pay?

... and the county that was "on the way" to my country via the shipping company.

What country was "on the way" and to who did you pay?