A woman was left "devastated" after losing £25,000 in a cryptocurrency scam ad that claimed to include advice from money-saving expert Martin Lewis.
Nhipa Rawal responded to a promoted post on Facebook promising huge profits. He then logged into a fake, but professional-looking website, which apparently showed his investment growing in his account.
The scammers set her up, forcing her to invest more and more, and it was when she was told she couldn't access her money until she paid another £19,000 that she realized it was a scam.
The website Nhipa turned to, currentcoins.net, has now been taken down by authorities.
Refundee, a claims management company that is helping the 52-year-old woman, says that Revolut did not carry out strong enough security checks and should refund her in full. Revolut admits that it was eight days after the transaction that she sent him a text message warning him that she might be being scammed.
Facebook admits it hosted the now-removed ad, despite being sued by Mr Lewis in 2018 for failing to stop more than 1,000 get-rich-quick scam ads featuring his name and likeness on its platform, which has caused ads to crash. vulnerable people lose thousands of pounds. . More fake ads featuring the financial journalist have appeared on Facebook this week.
The social media giant has not offered an explanation for Yo as to how these unauthorized companies have been allowed to advertise, given that it undertook to check that "all" of its UK-based financial services advertisers are FCA-licensed.
Nhipa, an assistant manager at a GP practice, wanted to earn some money to help pay for her son's wedding this summer. The scam left her feeling suicidal.
After Yo got involved, Revolut offered Nhipa a partial refund of £8,000, but this still leaves him £17,000 out of pocket. Last month, in a similar case, Yo Helped a woman get her money back after she lost £100,000 due to fraudulent Martin Lewis adverts.
Consumer group Which one? has called for all victims who are tricked into sending money to scammers to be reimbursed by their banks, saying they are facing "a lottery" to get their money back. Other fraud victims have also had difficulty getting refunds from Revolut, reports the bbc.
'She brainwashed me'
The announcement that lured Nhipa into handing over his life savings in January linked to an article headlined "Special Report: Martin Lewis's Latest Investment Has Experts Amazed, Big Banks Terrified," variations of which have been spread across Facebook in recent years.
After she contacted the firm, a man called Nhipa and initially suggested she invest just £200. She was promised her own "investment manager", a woman named Izzie.
“I could see on the screen that within a few days the £200 had turned into £270,” he said. “It seemed so genuine, they made me open an account and log into the website with a password. He brainwashed me, he was so believable."
Also featuring an image of This Morning's Holly Willoughby, the advert falsely used media brand logos in a bid to add authenticity (Photo: Nhipa Rawal)
Nhipa was subjected to a typical scam gang trick: after gaining her trust, the criminal convinced her to invest larger and larger sums. After getting her to hand over her £15,000 life savings, 'Izzie' persuaded Nhipa to apply for a £10,000 personal loan.
The criminals make people believe they are making a good profit (Nhipa was told he had made £16,000 in a week) before the communication stopped and they realized their money was gone. “She told me that she had to pay this large sum to release my money,” she said. “That was when I realized that this was not right.
“When they told me, 'You lost your money,' I wanted to commit suicide. I wanted to go and jump off a bridge because I had created more problems for my family."
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has received 100 complaints about currentcoins.net, which is registered on the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Action Fraud, the UK's national fraud and cybercrime reporting center, confirmed that the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) removed currentcoins.net. He says the police are not investigating the gang, but the information has been passed to the FCA, which has the power to initiate criminal proceedings.
Many Facebook investment ads are from unregulated companies, research finds
Facebook has pledged to verify that all of its financial services advertisers in the UK are authorized by the FCA.
but soon after Yo informed the firm about Nhipa's case, three more fake ads featuring the name and likeness of Martin Lewis appeared in Facebook's ad library.
Caption: Fake ads featuring financial journalist Martin Lewis appeared in Facebook's ad library after I modified the company to a similar scam ad (Photo: Facebook)
Last year, citywire reported that parent company Meta was implementing processes that ask potential advertisers for their FCA firm reference number and check if it matches any organization on the FCA registry.
However, in December, the consumer group Which? examined 1,000 ads on Facebook and Instagram and found that half were investment-related, and of those, about half were investment products, including cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens, which are unregulated.
Following action by consumer advocate Martin Lewis in 2018, Facebook launched a fraudulent ad reporting tool and established a specially trained team to investigate user-issued alerts and remove infringing posts.
A Meta spokesperson said: “We do not allow fraudulent ads and the ad in question is no longer on our platform. We are sorry to hear about this situation. [Nhipa’s] and we would encourage anyone who is a victim of crime to contact the relevant authorities.”
Gareth Shaw, deputy editor at MoneySavingExpert.com, said: “Unfortunately this is similar to scams we have been seeing for years. Please note, and spread the word if you can, that neither MoneySavingExpert nor Martin Lewis endorse any products or investments."
The Online Security Bill, which is currently before Parliament, will place new obligations on online services to protect their users against online fraud and scams.
Scammers preferred Revolut account
The scammers convinced Nhipa to create a Revolut account to transfer his savings and loans from his existing Santander and Monzo accounts. From the Revolut account, he made card payments to Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. From there, the scammers managed to get her to move the money into her account.
Santander and Monzo say they are not required to reimburse Nhipa because he transferred funds directly into his own bank account with another UK company.
Scammers would have wanted to avoid Santander due to its £1,000 per transaction limit for sending payments to cryptocurrency exchanges (£3,000 in any rolling 30-day period). Monzo says it is cryptocurrency friendly, but cautions that it may block a small number of transactions from time to time based on risk.
Revolut said it has controls that would freeze accounts when its systems flag a high-risk transaction, with an alert sent within the app. However, Nhipa says he did not receive an alert and that the company admitted the scam warning text was sent on February 2, eight days after Nhipa sent the £25,000 to the scammers.
It says they would have sent a 3DS authorization check, which asks the customer to prove they are the rightful owner of the credit card used for the transaction, usually by entering a password associated with the card or a code sent to their phone.
Revolut is not a UK bank, but rather an e-money company that offers digital banking services. He applied for a UK banking license in January 2021 but is still awaiting the result.
Experts say scammers target certain banks with weaker checks. TO Recent Money Mail investigation found that scam reports from Revolut customers skyrocketed 80 percent last year. Fraud investigators say criminals are taking advantage of the simplicity of moving money in and out of Revolut and the speed of opening an account, the newspaper reported. Their website features how you can "open an account in minutes." This can be done on your phone; You don't have to visit a branch or fill out extensive paperwork.
Refundee says he regularly sees the same banks being targeted by scammers. “They make their victims open bank accounts at specific banks and ask them to buy cryptocurrency through them,” a spokesperson said. “They tell their victims that these specific banks are cheaper, faster or more efficient, yet we see that these same banks are also asking far fewer questions. As a result, scammers know it's easier to get money through those banks, which means the scam is less likely to be exposed."
The Binance website says: “Blockchain transactions are irreversible and anonymous. This means that despite our best efforts, it is unlikely that we as an exchange will be able to recover the scammed funds."
What does the law say?
Most major banks subscribe to a voluntary code, which says victims of app scams must be reimbursed, unless the customer was grossly negligent. This applies to authorized automatic payment (APP) scams, in which the victim is tricked into making bank transfers to an account posing as a legitimate payee.
However, the contingent reimbursement model (CRM) does not apply in the case of Nhipa because the fraud was through card payment and not bank transfer.
However, William Ayles, co-founder of Refundee, said banks are required to provide "effective warning" with all types of payments when there is a high risk of fraud.
He explained: “These payments should have been questioned. UK regulation says that if payments are out of order and appear high risk, banks must provide effective warning. When you make large payments, say £10,000 for a house deposit, you expect your bank to block it and step in and ask questions."
If eight weeks have passed since the complaint was filed and the money has not been returned, victims can take their case to the Financial Ombudsman, who Refundee will assist Nhipa with.
