Crypto novice - am i being scammed? 29 June 2022 at 8:16PM in Cutting tax 9 replies 248 views

mabeybaby6670

HI All

I'm looking for some help and advice as i'm very new to the world of crypto and in all honesty i dont really fully understand it. My situation is this - i invested a small amount of money about 3 months ago, in response to a social media advert. The amount was small and i thought it was worth a try.

So over the course of the following months, the amount has increased substantially.... what i would call "too good to be true!" and i am always wary that if something appears to be too good, it usually is.

Long story short, the platform i used was Terra-markets.com who have recently changed to Terra-markets.net...... i've felt at various times that things weren't quite right. However after a month of requesting a withdrawal of funds, I was told they were sending the funds to blockchain and i would receive an invoice from blockchain. Today an invoice arrived via email stating that there is an amount of £10,000 to pay in capital gains tax because this is 21% of the profit. Firstly, there is no reference to my own personal tax situation and no mention of my CGT Allowance  (i have no other gains) so not sure if this is correct? Does HMRC talk to Blockchain or other exchanges?

Secondly, the invoice is stating that i need to pay the amount requested first before they then release the funds, rather than it being deducted from the funds and them sending the difference - does anyone have any experience of this? If its a scam i dont want to lose £10,000!

Lastly, on the invoice it states this: "All funds are stored cold wallet, under the conditions of a smart contract. Smart contracts are programs stored on a blockchain

that run when predetermined conditions are met. The smart contract is used to automate the execution of this agreement, so

that all participants can be immediately certain of the outcome, without any intermediary involvement or delay. Your

payment will be confirmed after 3 confirmations on the Blockchain network, and you will be invoiced for your payment."

This sounds like extra protection but as i dont currently have an account with blockchain i'm concerned any monies paid to this wallet will just disappear never to be seen again.

Any advice or relevant experience in this field would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

purdyoaten2

I would be concerned I am sorry to say.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/terra-markets.com

sienew

Unfortunately this is 100% a scam. Do not pay them anything. Sadly they've stolen your money and are now attempting to get more.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Today an invoice arrived via email stating that there is an amount of £10,000 to pay in capital gains tax because this is 21% of the profit. Firstly, there is no reference to my own personal tax situation and no mention of my CGT Allowance (i have no other gains) so not sure if this is correct? Does HMRC talk to Blockchain or other exchanges?

They may get information from them but it's upto you to declare and pay any CGT due.  Direct to HMRC.

You have no doubt lost your original "investment", don't throw good money after bad.

stig

100% scam. Forget the crypto element - anyone  that claims they have lots of money for you but need you to send them some  money first to get it is a scam. Think about it - why would this ever be needed when they already have your money they could take any genuine costs from? 

And NOTHING is ever paid net of CGT, as you’re aware working out CGT depends on your personal tax circumstances and there’s no CGT equivalent of ‘interest deducted at source’.

you’ve lost your original investment, please don’t chase it with more money.

GhibliFan

There was a very similar story on that BBC1 Scammers show last week.  Don't send any more money.  The lady on there not only lost her original investment but also paid several extra payments of thousands of pounds, of the type you have described in your post.  Scam.

tightauldgit

Absolute 10,000% scam. 

Never invest in things you don't understand, never invest in things on the back of social media advertising. Never send money to people who promise to give you more in return. 

I'm afraid this is just a prime example of what NOT to do. 

mabeybaby6670

Thank you everyone for your honest replies. This is exactly what i was thinking so you've clarified this for me. They recently changed their web address to terra-markets.net..... so that was another red flag. Luckily the original investment wasn't very big so although its annoying we thankfully havent lost very much. Its just really scary how easy it is to be sucked in and scammed very quickly. There really should be some kind of come back against these scammers!

stig

Unfortunately the best comeback against the scammers is for their potential targets to educate themselves. No single national legal system will stop this, the scammers operate across borders and there simply aren’t the international resources, or the will, to track money voluntarily paid out around the globe and return it to the payee. Tightauldgit had the best advice - don’t invest in things you don’t understand. 

sienew

mabeybaby6670 said:

Thank you everyone for your honest replies. This is exactly what i was thinking so you've clarified this for me. They recently changed their web address to terra-markets.net..... so that was another red flag. Luckily the original investment wasn't very big so although its annoying we thankfully havent lost very much. Its just really scary how easy it is to be sucked in and scammed very quickly. There really should be some kind of come back against these scammers!

Yeah. This is actually a really easy scam to fall for. You invest a relatively small amount, they claim it's increased massively in value and then ask for more money to cover taxes... most people probably wouldn't hand over another £10,000 but will gladly hand over that amount so they can get access to the £50,000 that they believe they have in their account. It's quite a smart scam and it's easy to see why people fall for it. 

You could report this to the police (probably through action fraud?) but honestly I'm not sure the success rate of these investigations is high at all. I'd probably just count myself lucky I didn't send them another £10k.