Romance-Driven Crypto Investment Scam with Fake Tax and Unlock Fees
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.
She leaned hard into the emotional connection, using trust and affection to get him to invest. Once the money was in, she shifted to claims of huge profits to string him along, then brought in tax and fee barriers to bleed him dry. When he couldn’t pay anymore, she disappeared and the site cut off access.
$84,000
He never got any money back, lost both the funds and the person he thought cared about him.