Investqhub

gelato_cat

timborules said:

Yes re: relative of relatives (sorry, trying to protect some anonymity - though good thing is that this thread is one of the first that comes up in google when you search for investqhub so I’m hoping it’ll be helpful for many others). 

Relative of relatives was pure stupid, ignored and overruled his banks warnings that it was fraud, as well as other trusted people who warned him. That’s all on him. But this person coerced my relative in the latest in a long and complicated history of emotional abuse to make the investment, for whom I have more sympathy. 

Thanks, yes, I was trying to get my head around which one of them was having doubts and which one was still 100% convinced.

This is definitely something of a chain of questionable behaviour.  People never cease to amaze me (in good ways and in bad).

timborules

Update for advice: I was told that my family member transferred £20k to them directly via Kraken. Transpires that it was sent to the other family member who was sending it either to an unknown person ("another investor") in Scotland, or I found out today that the other family member (who is of retirement age) let the scammers take control of his phone and computer to "manage all the transfers for him as he's not good with computers".

I'm now concerned that as the scammers had/have access to my family member's relative (the large investor, still denial) phone, computer - and being careful to keep confidentiality - is a position of trust with vulnerable people through their work - that further peoples' contacts may now also be at risk, and/or the risk is now beyond the relatively simple wilful "investment". 

gelato_cat

timborules said:

Update for advice: I was told that my family member transferred £20k to them directly via Kraken. Transpires that it was sent to the other family member who was sending it either to an unknown person ("another investor") in Scotland, or I found out today that the other family member (who is of retirement age) let the scammers take control of his phone and computer to "manage all the transfers for him as he's not good with computers".

I'm now concerned that as the scammers had/have access to my family member's relative (the large investor, still denial) phone, computer - and being careful to keep confidentiality - is a position of trust with vulnerable people through their work - that further peoples' contacts may now also be at risk, and/or the risk is now beyond the relatively simple wilful "investment". 

Your family member who took out a loan of £30k has now sent another £20k to their relative who had previously sent £150k to the scammers?

It does sound like it's gone a step further now they've had control of his phone and computer. He needs to disconnect those devices from the Internet and get the remote access removed. But if he believes the scammers, I think this is easier said than done. 

timborules

Apologies for being unclear. My family member has only taken a loan and invested £20k. This has gone to the other relative, the one who has previously sent £150k. 

He still believes the scammers. My concern is now for other likely vulnerable people who may be sold into this scam via the £150k person. 

gelato_cat

timborules said:

Apologies for being unclear. My family member has only taken a loan and invested £20k. This has gone to the other relative, the one who has previously sent £150k. 

He still believes the scammers. My concern is now for other likely vulnerable people who may be sold into this scam via the £150k person. 

It certainly seems possible that he could influence others, or even the same people again. I'm not sure what the answer is, other than getting the law onto him given he's dragged others into this scam. However, I get that it's difficult to do this because of the hold he's had over your relative since before this scam began.

Malthusian

timborules said:

I'm now concerned that as the scammers had/have access to my family member's relative (the large investor, still denial) phone, computer - and being careful to keep confidentiality - is a position of trust with vulnerable people through their work - that further peoples' contacts may now also be at risk, and/or the risk is now beyond the relatively simple wilful "investment". 

I'm a little unclear on who is who because you are quite rightly keeping the personal details vague; but is an anonymous letter to your relative's employer an option, warning them that the employee is involved in a scam which aggressively targets new victims, and you are worried that they may attempt to persuade their vulnerable clients to "invest"?

gelato_cat

Perhaps we can say:

A = the OP's family member, who has taken out a £20k loan on the insistence of B, and sent that £20k to B along with £10k they already had.

B = A's relative, who has sent £150k of their own money to the scammers and has now given the scammers remote access to his phone and computer.  B has also been mistreating A (including financially) since before this current scam began.

@timborules would that be OK with you?

timborules

Good shout @gelato_cat - thank you! Exactly that. 

Interestingly, Person A shared their logins with me and behind a VPN and firewall I took a look. Its a very compelling site dashboard that essentially pipes in a lot of convincing genuine FOREX feeds. 

Here are some screenshots - I've redacted the sensitive info. Also note the stock images used for supposed other traders making 900%+ return.

gelato_cat

timborules said:

Good shout @gelato_cat - thank you! Exactly that. 

Interestingly, Person A shared their logins with me and behind a VPN and firewall I took a look. Its a very compelling site dashboard that essentially pipes in a lot of convincing genuine FOREX feeds. 

Here are some screenshots - I've redacted the sensitive info. Also note the stock images used for supposed other traders making 900%+ return.

The "invite a friend" menu option makes my skin crawl.  As does the "withdraw" option.  And the "verification centre".  Have they uploaded any personal docs to "verify" themselves?

It would be interesting to do a reverse image search on those Woman and Man photos...

timborules

Not uploaded, but have sent to them over WhatsApp. Of course, they have access to Person B’s devices so it’s a pick and mix.

I did a reverse image search but nothing came up, they don’t work too well on headshots unfortunately.