Bitplus Capital .......think I have been scammed

Blencathra50

Hello MSE Forum,

I just wanted to ask advice on this and also to warn people who might be looking at this company. Basically, last year after seeing an interview about a celebrity doing well with Bitcoin, I considered trying it but I am a utter novice and wanted to be careful. I deposited a small amount £250 and after a few weeks it went up and down. Then one day it weirdly increased to over £90k.  I did not know why. The account page I had was over my head and I did not understand it. The rep that was dealing with me,(Removed by Forum Team), a Senior Account Manager said there had been a good trade with investing and that my deposit had gone up to that figure, I found him hard to understand. 

He then explained how the process worked. He said I had to pay a 10% fee (£9k) to them before they would deposit my 'profit' into a wallet on their portal. It would then I think go to my bank. I said hold on a minute, I made a small investment to learn with as a newbie and thought that their fee would be deducted from my 'profit' before passing me my profit. He said financial practices would not allow them to do it that way. I did not expect to have to fork out a big fee before seeing my 'profit' if I ever would see it. He waffled on with his pitch and I said I might not see the profit. I would need tax paying off it too with Revenue & Customs as I had googled that too. It was weird , his photo on his email signature is a white guy in a suit but when he was on the phone, he had a strange accent, could not work it out. 

The conclusion was I did my homework on this company and kept seeing negative reviews that they were a scam.  I had a call last week while at work and I said can they call me back. I was not taking that call sat in an office full of nosey people. They have not called back. I emailed Jeremy Myers this week and used my previous email thread to him to request the deposit back and I said they were  an unregulated  company and said I had been scammed . I also said I would report them on here . Funny I have now had a notice saying my email cannot be delivered. He received all my other updates to which he replied but seems this email has been blocked at their side ? 

I would welcome any advice on this as to what I can do now. It is a lesson learned . I am glad I did not deposit a larger sum. I do plan to call them again this week when I am WFH on Wednesday and I will tell them his inbox is not accepting emails. 

Thank you and kind regards
(Removed by Forum Team)

Brie

Scam.  As far as I'm aware no celebrities have done any adverts for bitcoin and there's been a lot of publicity about that.

Ayr_Rage

1. Yes, you have been scammed.

2. Suggest you remove your name from the post.

cymruchris

Very much a scam - edit your post to remove your name.

Brie

Sorry my previous post was so short and blunt.  

Looks like this is a basic bait and switch scam.  The lure is that you can make big buckets of money with just a small amount of money.  And, hey presto! you have made big buckets!!  Hurrah!!  But in order to get that money you have to pay some more!  

I know a number of people who have been very successful making money with bitcoin but frankly it's something I don't understand.  Admittedly I don't understand a lot about the financial industry - derivatives? annuities? bonds? - I struggle but get that there's a morsel of truth in there somewhere.  I don't get how there can be people looking for "coins" in data that they can then sell, trade, etc.  So I don't get involved.

The other thing is that if there was a way to make a lot of money why would people tell you about it?  They'd make the money themselves and then retire.  When someone says for a small amount of money you can make buckets well, frankly, I don't believe them.

Martyn_H

Stick with reputable high street names if you want to avoid being scammed again.

Albermarle

I just wanted to ask advice on this and also to warn people who might be looking at this company. Basically, last year after seeing an interview about a celebrity doing well with Bitcoin,

After reading the phrase in bold, you know its a scam without needing to read the rest of the post.

powerful_Rogue

Blencathra50 said:

Hello MSE Forum,

I just wanted to ask advice on this and also to warn people who might be looking at this company. Basically, last year after seeing an interview about a celebrity doing well with Bitcoin, I considered trying it but I am a utter novice and wanted to be careful. I deposited a small amount £250 and after a few weeks it went up and down. Then one day it weirdly increased to over £90k.  I did not know why. The account page I had was over my head and I did not understand it. The rep that was dealing with me,(Removed by Forum Team), a Senior Account Manager said there had been a good trade with investing and that my deposit had gone up to that figure, I found him hard to understand. 

He then explained how the process worked. He said I had to pay a 10% fee (£9k) to them before they would deposit my 'profit' into a wallet on their portal. It would then I think go to my bank. I said hold on a minute, I made a small investment to learn with as a newbie and thought that their fee would be deducted from my 'profit' before passing me my profit. He said financial practices would not allow them to do it that way. I did not expect to have to fork out a big fee before seeing my 'profit' if I ever would see it. He waffled on with his pitch and I said I might not see the profit. I would need tax paying off it too with Revenue & Customs as I had googled that too. It was weird , his photo on his email signature is a white guy in a suit but when he was on the phone, he had a strange accent, could not work it out. 

The conclusion was I did my homework on this company and kept seeing negative reviews that they were a scam.  I had a call last week while at work and I said can they call me back. I was not taking that call sat in an office full of nosey people. They have not called back. I emailed Jeremy Myers this week and used my previous email thread to him to request the deposit back and I said they were  an unregulated  company and said I had been scammed . I also said I would report them on here . Funny I have now had a notice saying my email cannot be delivered. He received all my other updates to which he replied but seems this email has been blocked at their side ? 

I would welcome any advice on this as to what I can do now. It is a lesson learned . I am glad I did not deposit a larger sum. I do plan to call them again this week when I am WFH on Wednesday and I will tell them his inbox is not accepting emails. 

Thank you and kind regards
(Removed by Forum Team)

Nothing.

You've been scammed. Luckily it was only £250 rather then £9000.

Esmeralda126

I can probably say that nearly 'word for word' i have been through exactly the same process with Bitplus Capital, although i (stupidly) paid £2800 after my initial £250 deposit. They got me to open a Kraken Wallet, which he talked me through transferring £50 in by using what i can only describe as an IP address, about 30+ characters long, just to show me how easy it was, but then once the funds increased considerably he asked me to open Atomic Wallet, which he had the 12word password. I still have £1800 funds in my Bitplus Capital account, but have no way of transferring it into 'hard cash'....
Out of the blue yesterday they rang me saying they were going to close my account and wanted to transfer the funds to me, but as soon as he asked if i had 'AnyDesk' on my PC... i told him to do one!!!!
Part of me is resigned to fact that i've been scammed, and part of me thinks there must be a way of getting my hands on the £1800 that is still sat in the Bitplus Capital account....
If there are an computer experts out there that can help, please get in touch

PHK

Esmeralda126 said:

I can probably say that nearly 'word for word' i have been through exactly the same process with Bitplus Capital, although i (stupidly) paid £2800 after my initial £250 deposit. They got me to open a Kraken Wallet, which he talked me through transferring £50 in by using what i can only describe as an IP address, about 30+ characters long, just to show me how easy it was, but then once the funds increased considerably he asked me to open Atomic Wallet, which he had the 12word password. I still have £1800 funds in my Bitplus Capital account, but have no way of transferring it into 'hard cash'....
Out of the blue yesterday they rang me saying they were going to close my account and wanted to transfer the funds to me, but as soon as he asked if i had 'AnyDesk' on my PC... i told him to do one!!!!
Part of me is resigned to fact that i've been scammed, and part of me thinks there must be a way of getting my hands on the £1800 that is still sat in the Bitplus Capital account....
If there are an computer experts out there that can help, please get in touch

The £1800 doesn’t exist. You’ve would never have got it.  You’ve been scammed I’m afraid. 

Troubled76

As with esmarelda126, pretty much word for word, I fell for it as well.
Totally out of character for me, but there you go.
Miraculously,  I convinced them to return my initial £250, leaving about £40, which I said they could keep and close the account. 
Weeks later I got calls saying it had matured to £40,000, and I needed to download Anydesk to recoup.
Needless to say  I declined, but have been getting a couple of calls a month from "blockchain help centers" about my "frozen account ".
I've started telling them it's not me, and I'm the new owner of the phone... considering just changing my number.

It's easy for those of a certain nature to get all high and mighty, and dismiss victims as stupid and gullible,  but that isn't very helpful. 
As scams get more sophisticated we all become more at risk, so genuine help and advice is what's needed.

Ask for your original deposit back.
 Often the front line staff aren't aware they work for scammers and, as in my case, may just acquiesce. 
 At worst, once you know it's a scam, be prepared to walk away from your deposit,  and maybe change your number.
Lesson learned. 
Good luck 👍