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Bitcoin Scam & Bank refusal to help

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  • AnotherJoe
    AnotherJoe Posts: 19,622 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic
    this Scam is very old doesn't have to be bit coin it can be "friends" asking to be bailed out of a foreign jail, pay for medical treatment a foreign hospital, and so on. The moneys long gone.
    What was the pretext used to get your wife to transfer the money ?
  • Ben8282
    Ben8282 Posts: 4,821 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Newshound!
    edited 3 December 2019 at 5:37AM
    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.
    Nor can I to be honest.
    Although you don't respond to the question of how much, we are obviously talking about a substantial amount of money here which just happened to be readily accessable to your wife in response to this facebook contact.
    Is this friend in the habit of making contact with your wife by facebook and asking for a loan of a large amount of money? I can understand that when your wife received a facebook message from her friend she would not have been immediately suspicious but did she not find anything strange in the way they were addressing her, their word choice, their failure to ask after you or the baby or other similar things?
    Why was your wife so willing to do this favour for them? Obviously the promised transfer of money into your wife's account never happened but your wife just went ahead and used what you imply were your life savings which just happened to be sitting there in a current account waiting to be spent through multiple debit card transactions.
    Or did your wife withdraw these savings from a savings account without any thought for what she was doing or thought of loss of interest and so on just because this friend asked her to?
    Now there are very few, if any, friends that I would be willing to lend a large sum of money to (my entire savings) and certainly not without a very good explanation of why the money was needed. It would have to be a very real and serious problem and even then I would have to think long and hard about it and, to be honest, probably wouldn't do it and in the unlikely event that I did it would be after a long face to face discussion and certainly not in response to a facebook message
    We are not talking about a friend asking your wife to help them out with a small loan until pay day are we? We are talking about a sudden request out of the blue from a friend for your wife to lend them a large amount of money to buy some Bitcoin. Is this friend a known Bitcoin purchaser/trader? Did your wife not find the nature of the request to be odd? Even if she still believed that she was communicating with her friend, did she not suspect that her friend was drunk or acting abnormally or something similar to be making such an odd request? If a friend of mine contacted me to ask to borrow a small amount of money for example to see them through until payday I would find that plausible. But if a friend of mine contacted me to ask me to lend them thousands to buy some Bitcoin I would find it very strange indeed, especially if the money was required immediately. Why would my friend even imagine that I had that sort of money readily to hand?.
    Did your wife not wonder why she had been chosen to be asked this massive favour? Did she not suggest a phone call so they could discuss it further? I also wonder why your wife never thought to ask why it was so important to make the Bitcoin purchases NOW rather than wait until they could regain access to their own funds or enquire exactly what was wrong with the friend's bank account that was preventing them making the transaction themselves. 'Our bank isn't working? That really requires further explanation. I would have replied with something along the lines of 'wait a couple of hours. I'm sure it will be working then.'
    Then we come to the part about your wife giving the friend access to her computer. That really is over the top. Is this friend the sort of person who would be asking for such access, capable of doing this? Is this in character for the friend? Then your wife was asked to make these purchases in her name and provide her ID. Presumably she photocopied and uploaded her ID willingly. She would also have entered her debit card details willingly. You say in one of your replies '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'. Why do you use the term 'ordeal' here. If it was such an ordeal she didn't have to do these things. She appears to have done everything quite voluntarily. She could have terminated the connection by turning off her computer and/or disconnecting the broadband connection at any time and waited for you to come home to consult with you about what was going on.
    Does the fact that she was asked to provide her ID mean that mean she was required to open a Bitcoin account in her name? Did she not find any of this just the slightest bit odd? What was she supposed to do with the Bitcoin after she had purchased it?
    I am also wondering why the fraudster selected your wife as the person to contact after hacking her friend's facebook account, How could the fraudster have suspected that your wife would have easy and immediate access to such a large amount of money?
    You may not like what I have written but it is only what the bank's fraud department will be thinking except that they will probably be thinking she is making it all up and she is the scammer and has the Bitcoin in some untraceable location for her own use.

    '
  • Jumblebumble
    Jumblebumble Posts: 1,993 Forumite
    Sixth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 3 December 2019 at 12:15PM
    Ben8282 wrote: »
    Nor can I to be honest.
    Although you don't respond to the question of how much, we are obviously talking about a substantial amount of money here which just happened to be readily accessable to your wife in response to this facebook contact.
    Is this friend in the habit of making contact with your wife by facebook and asking for a loan of a large amount of money? I can understand that when your wife received a facebook message from her friend she would not have been immediately suspicious but did she not find anything strange in the way they were addressing her, their word choice, their failure to ask after you or the baby or other similar things?
    Why was your wife so willing to do this favour for them? Obviously the promised transfer of money into your wife's account never happened but your wife just went ahead and used what you imply were your life savings which just happened to be sitting there in a current account waiting to be spent through multiple debit card transactions.
    Or did your wife withdraw these savings from a savings account without any thought for what she was doing or thought of loss of interest and so on just because this friend asked her to?
    Now there are very few, if any, friends that I would be willing to lend a large sum of money to (my entire savings) and certainly not without a very good explanation of why the money was needed. It would have to be a very real and serious problem and even then I would have to think long and hard about it and, to be honest, probably wouldn't do it and in the unlikely event that I did it would be after a long face to face discussion and certainly not in response to a facebook message
    We are not talking about a friend asking your wife to help them out with a small loan until pay day are we? We are talking about a sudden request out of the blue from a friend for your wife to lend them a large amount of money to buy some Bitcoin. Is this friend a known Bitcoin purchaser/trader? Did your wife not find the nature of the request to be odd? Even if she still believed that she was communicating with her friend, did she not suspect that her friend was drunk or acting abnormally or something similar to be making such an odd request? If a friend of mine contacted me to ask to borrow a small amount of money for example to see them through until payday I would find that plausible. But if a friend of mine contacted me to ask me to lend them thousands to buy some Bitcoin I would find it very strange indeed, especially if the money was required immediately. Why would my friend even imagine that I had that sort of money readily to hand?.
    Did your wife not wonder why she had been chosen to be asked this massive favour? Did she not suggest a phone call so they could discuss it further? I also wonder why your wife never thought to ask why it was so important to make the Bitcoin purchases NOW rather than wait until they could regain access to their own funds or enquire exactly what was wrong with the friend's bank account that was preventing them making the transaction themselves. 'Our bank isn't working? That really requires further explanation. I would have replied with something along the lines of 'wait a couple of hours. I'm sure it will be working then.'
    Then we come to the part about your wife giving the friend access to her computer. That really is over the top. Is this friend the sort of person who would be asking for such access, capable of doing this? Is this in character for the friend? Then your wife was asked to make these purchases in her name and provide her ID. Presumably she photocopied and uploaded her ID willingly. She would also have entered her debit card details willingly. You say in one of your replies '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'. Why do you use the term 'ordeal' here. If it was such an ordeal she didn't have to do these things. She appears to have done everything quite voluntarily. She could have terminated the connection by turning off her computer and/or disconnecting the broadband connection at any time and waited for you to come home to consult with you about what was going on.
    Does the fact that she was asked to provide her ID mean that mean she was required to open a Bitcoin account in her name? Did she not find any of this just the slightest bit odd? What was she supposed to do with the Bitcoin after she had purchased it?
    I am also wondering why the fraudster selected your wife as the person to contact after hacking her friend's facebook account, How could the fraudster have suspected that your wife would have easy and immediate access to such a large amount of money?
    You may not like what I have written but it is only what the bank's fraud department will be thinking except that they will probably be thinking she is making it all up and she is the scammer and has the Bitcoin in some untraceable location for her own use.

    '
    This whole story is more fishy than the London Aquarium
    Could I ask if you wife makes a habit of lending out your joint savings without contacting you
  • onlyfoolsandparking
    onlyfoolsandparking Posts: 1,779 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Third Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited 12 March 2020 at 2:22PM

    One wouldn't really think much of this, all I really wanted to do was invest and be part of it but the way I was misled by this brokers was terrible, to easily take money from all in the name of investment and when I wanted to make withdrawals every single attempt was fruitless with constant hassle to invest more I really can't say more than I have already said. I would really consider myself to be one of the very few lucky ones as I was able to have my funds recovered from this scam Binary option brokers, although it was through unethical means as far I am concerned but what can I care after how my hard-earned funds where taken from me, these guys are the best in less than 7days all my funds including bonuses had been recovered, If your broker lost your funds trading Binary options.  You can contact his mail 

    Email: We Will Scam You Too!!!!!!!

    NO UPFRONT PAYMENT, scam money taken later!!!!

    These scammers are relentless aren't they greghast242 (nudge nudge wink wink) 
  • jimbo26
    jimbo26 Posts: 954 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper
    The bank aren't going to suck up the loss due to your partners poor decision, probably not what you want to hear.
  • db2016
    db2016 Posts: 343 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper
    a couple of spaced lines in the reply above, would be great!
  • forgotmyname
    forgotmyname Posts: 32,922 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Every Bitcoin transaction is logged and traceable. Its not linked to a person like a named
    bank account but they know where every penny of it went.


    Censorship Reigns Supreme in Troll City...

  • I'm sorry but your wife knowingly gave your money away regardless of who it was on the other end..cardholder was present at time of transaction so no fraud dispute can be raised from a debit or credit visa/mastercard point of view and your wife received the service/goods that she paid for on someone else's behalf so that cant be raised either.
    Just learn from it and move on with your life everyone makes mistakes.
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