‘I felt powerless’: how a crypto scam cost a finance boss £300,000
Posted: October 10th, 2023, 5:43 pm
A senior manager at a UK investment firm has told how he was conned out of his £300,000 life savings by cryptocurrency scammers.
Matthew Thomas* says he was “probably blinded by a mixture of greed, curiosity and stubbornness” when he was ensnared by the elaborate and complex scam which took place over six months.
The details of his experience, which he has shared in an attempt to stop others getting stung, emerge as tough new marketing rules for crypto firms aimed at providing better protection for UK consumers came into force on Sunday.
The scam that ensnared Thomas began in January when he was contacted by a friend who had started using a crypto trading app that he believed was based in the US.
By July he had lost more than £300,000, some of which (about £60,000) was money he raised by borrowing on his mortgage, with a further £20,000 obtained via a loan from work which he intends to pay back over the next couple of years.
“It started off seeming very legitimate,” he says. But gradually, over time, the scammers “pull[ed] various levers” to get more money.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/oct/10/crypto-scam-finance-boss-fraudsters-savings
The above article ends with the following Financial Conduct Authority warning -
For its part, the City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, says it “continues to remind people that purchasing crypto assets remains high-risk and that they should be prepared to lose all their money”.
Cheers,
Itsallaguess
A senior manager at a UK investment firm has told how he was conned out of his £300,000 life savings by cryptocurrency scammers.
Matthew Thomas* says he was “probably blinded by a mixture of greed, curiosity and stubbornness” when he was ensnared by the elaborate and complex scam which took place over six months.
The details of his experience, which he has shared in an attempt to stop others getting stung, emerge as tough new marketing rules for crypto firms aimed at providing better protection for UK consumers came into force on Sunday.
The scam that ensnared Thomas began in January when he was contacted by a friend who had started using a crypto trading app that he believed was based in the US.
By July he had lost more than £300,000, some of which (about £60,000) was money he raised by borrowing on his mortgage, with a further £20,000 obtained via a loan from work which he intends to pay back over the next couple of years.
“It started off seeming very legitimate,” he says. But gradually, over time, the scammers “pull[ed] various levers” to get more money.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/oct/10/crypto-scam-finance-boss-fraudsters-savings
The above article ends with the following Financial Conduct Authority warning -
For its part, the City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, says it “continues to remind people that purchasing crypto assets remains high-risk and that they should be prepared to lose all their money”.
Cheers,
Itsallaguess