Bitcoin Scam & Bank refusal to help

wiltsandy01

Hi everyone, not really sure if this is anything more then a last ditch attempt at getting a different perspective on a very concerning issue but here goes. In as condensed format as I can make it:

Friday night, came home from work and the wife was transferring some money to someone. i quizzed her about it and it turns out (& yes, this isn't a joke, this actually happend) a family friend had contacted her asking her to make some payments via facebook, if they put some money into her account as "our bank isnt working'. Foolishly, yes i know, she then allowed a screen share and the family friend logged her into a crypto currency site and my wife made some debit card payments. When i got back and stopped her, she had made a series of substantial payments to buy bitcoin on koinal.io & Simplexcc.com. It turns out, that it wasn't a family friend, but the family friends account had been hacked, and my wife was obviously the victim of an elaborate scam. Her cards were used to buy coins into someone elses wallet. As I understand, this is not traceable and as such i fear the money is gone.


So far we have:
contacted the bank
Contacted action fraud
contacted the police
contacted both simplex.cc and koinal.io

The bank fraud team have reviewed the case and wont help. We are yet to hear back from AF, the police & the subsequent complaint to the Financial ombudsman

Im just wondering if anyone has come across this in their travels and could offer some (hopefully not sarcastic) advice.

many thanks

DCFC79

wiltsandy01 wrote: »

Hi everyone, not really sure if this is anything more then a last ditch attempt at getting a different perspective on a very concerning issue but here goes. In as condensed format as I can make it:

Friday night, came home from work and the wife was transferring some money to someone. i quizzed her about it and it turns out (& yes, this isn't a joke, this actually happend) a family friend had contacted her asking her to make some payments via facebook, if they put some money into her account as "our bank isnt working'. Foolishly, yes i know, she then allowed a screen share and the family friend logged her into a crypto currency site and my wife made some debit card payments. When i got back and stopped her, she had made a series of substantial payments to buy bitcoin on koinal.io & Simplexcc.com.

So far we have:
contacted the bank
Contacted action fraud
contacted the police
contacted both simplex.cc and koinal.io

The bank fraud team have reviewed the case and wont help. We are yet to hear back from AF, the police & the subsequent complaint to the Financial ombudsman

Im just wondering if anyone has come across this in their travels and could offer some (hopefully not sarcastic) advice.

many thanks

What action do you want AF, the 2 websites, the bank and the police to take ?


Do you even get a reply form action fraud ?



Your wife did it on her own.


How much are we talking here ?

Ben8282

Did the family friend actually transfer the money into her account before she made the payments to buy the bitcoin from the site that your post has advertised and made us all aware of?
If yes, what is the problem as there doesn't appear to have been any comeback from the bank? (ie her account has not been blocked). From what you have said there does not appear to have been any fraud and your wife does not appear to have suffered any loss.
If no, suggest she gets in touch with this family friend and demands her money. Obviously your wife trusts this friend or she would not have lent them the money. The fact that she was asked to use the money to buy Bitcoin is rot relevant. It would be exactly the same situation if she had lent the family friend the money to buy something else.

wiltsandy01

DCFC79 wrote: »

What action do you want AF, the 2 websites, the bank and the police to take ?


Do you even get a reply form action fraud ?



Your wife did it on her own.


How much are we talking here ?

Apologies, please read again, missed out a crucial part of the issue in that it wasnt a family friend, it was a scam.

wiltsandy01

Ben8282 wrote: »

Did the family friend actually transfer the money into her account before she made the payments to buy the bitcoin from the site that your post has advertised and made us all aware of?
If yes, what is the problem as there doesn't appear to have been any comeback from the bank? (ie her account has not been blocked). From what you have said there does not appear to have been any fraud and your wife does not appear to have suffered any loss.
If no, suggest she gets in touch with this family friend and demands her money. Obviously your wife trusts this friend or she would not have lent them the money. The fact that she was asked to use the money to buy Bitcoin is rot relevant. It would be exactly the same situation if she had lent the family friend the money to buy something else.

Sorry, i missed a crucial piece of info in that the family friends account was hacked, and my wife was scammed.

[Deleted User]

It's highly unlikely that she'll see any of the money again.

At least you managed to limit the damage and hopefully can advise her not to fall for it again.

wiltsandy01

Deleted_User wrote: »

It's highly unlikely that she'll see any of the money again.

At least you managed to limit the damage and hopefully can advise her not to fall for it again.

My gut feel is you're correct. Unfortunately during the ordeal they asked her to photograph her ID, which presumably was used by the scammers to verify ID/Address at some point.

We have a young baby so a few hours of absent mindedness have caused the loss of our savings!!

DCFC79

wiltsandy01 wrote: »

Apologies, please read again, missed out a crucial part of the issue in that it wasnt a family friend, it was a scam.

Hi yes I wondered if that was the case but didn't want to assume it was, when you mentioned Facebook it was a clue it was a scam.


Now that you have mentioned it I understand your concern but the problem is proving she was scammed, could she reason with the bank eg explain she hasn't bought bitcoin before and that it was out of character, its a long shot.

wiltsandy01

DCFC79 wrote: »

Hi yes I wondered if that was the case but didn't want to assume it was, when you mentioned Facebook it was a clue it was a scam.

Yep, unfortunately we've really been hit on this one. I cant believe how stupid she was. Unfortunately momentary lapse of common sense has cost us everything weve been saving for. were both sick to our stomachs.

Ben8282

How much exactly are we talking about here? How much did the scammers get?

wiltsandy01

DCFC79 wrote: »

Hi yes I wondered if that was the case but didn't want to assume it was, when you mentioned Facebook it was a clue it was a scam.


Now that you have mentioned it I understand your concern but the problem is proving she was scammed, could she reason with the bank eg explain she hasn't bought bitcoin before and that it was out of character, its a long shot.

Exactly. as i understand it, tracing bitcoin payments is highly unlikely so we stand little chance. its always worth asking in case someone has experienced this before!