Scam Type

Romance Scam, Pig Butchering Scam, Fraudulent Trading Platform, Identity Theft Risk

Red Flag

  • Fake licensing claims.
  • Impossible profit growth.
  • Upfront tax payments from external sources.
  • Threats and sudden account deletions.

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

Built emotional rapport, encouraged increasing deposits with demo profits, allowed small withdrawals to gain trust, then froze accounts and imposed large tax demands to access funds.

Potential Lost Funds

$491,000+

Final Outcome

Funds unrecovered, accounts wiped, and website now offline. Washington State DFI issued an alert identifying Sundell FX as part of a larger crypto scam ring.