MAN THOUGHT HE WAS INVESTING £250, ENDS UP LOSING OVER S$100,000

I was the victim of a type of fraud known as an investment scam. It’s when victims are conned into handing over money to people offering fake, but often very convincing, investments with the promise of big returns.

I was watching videos on YouTube, saw an advert offering the chance to invest in stocks and shares and filled in a form requesting more information.

The next day I got a call from someone who called themselves a customer service agent and paid £250 to start trading. The day after I was called again, this time by someone who described themselves as my account manager and given a username and password for an extremely convincing trading website.

I made this first payment last week and as soon as I made that first terrible step the fraudsters had me.

Then it was a case of them engaging me with more deceit, more lies, promises of bigger returns – which soon turned to promises of getting his growing losses back, and each time tricking him into transferring them more and more money.

By the end of the week i’d been tricked into paying £18,000 and 2 bitcoins – worth more than S$56,000 at today’s exchange rate. Totalling over $100,000

I still can’t mentally recall how I’ve been suckered into this scam, but I will appreciate any help I can get. please I cannot lose my money, I need help fast.

Here are what netizens think:

• There is nothing you can do. Your money is gone. You’re going to be getting DMs from people claiming to be “ethical hackers” or “forensic investigators” saying they can get it back, but they can’t. They will just bleed you even more.

• You will not be able to get your money back. Ignore people who promise otherwise.

• Fake cryptocurrency websites controlled by scammers are becoming more and more common. Sometimes the scam begins with a romance scammer who claims that they can help the victim invest in cryptocurrency. Victims are told to buy cryptocurrency of some kind using a legitimate cryptocurrency exchange, and then they are told to send their cryptocurrency to a website wallet address where it will be invested.