Scam Type

Romance/Trust-Based Scam, Pig Butchering, Fake Crypto Trading Platform

Red Flag

  • Tax demands before withdrawals, using someone else’s ID number excuse.
  • Credit score claims tied to withdrawals, and requests for more deposits.

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

Created a false sense of trust through friendly chatting, instructed technical steps to onboard her onto a fraudulent platform, strung her along with claims of taxes and score-based limits, and pressured her into repeat payments.

Potential Lost Funds

$203,900

Final Outcome

No funds recovered. The platform and scammer vanished once demands were questioned.