An individual alleges that they lost $310,000 to a potentially deceitful cryptocurrency trading platform after being introduced to it through an unsolicited connection request on LinkedIn.
According to a consumer advisory from the Securities Division of the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) on June 13, the investor had engaged with a platform called “Ethfinance.”
The DFI disclosed that the investor came across Ethfinance via a spontaneous friend request on LinkedIn. Subsequently, the investor transferred $310,000 from their “DeFi wallet” to the platform with the expectation of generating profits from cryptocurrency trading.
Upon attempting to withdraw their initial investment and reported earnings, the investor was informed that they needed to inject more funds to fulfill the “smart contract” before being able to withdraw any funds.
Despite these requests, the investor refrained from sending additional funds. Consequently, they have been unable to retrieve any funds from their account, which has now been locked, as per the DFI.
Although the DFI has not substantiated the claims, it suspects that this case resembles an “Advance Fee Fraud,” a form of deception where victims are promised substantial sums of money, products, or services in exchange for a small upfront payment. In many instances, once the payment is made, the perpetrator either coerces the victim into sending additional fees for various reasons or simply vanishes.
In a related incident, a California resident reported a loss of over $165,000 after engaging with a stranger online who purported to teach them how to profit from trading cryptocurrency options. The Washington DFI’s crypto scam tracker reveals that this platform was mentioned in a previous complaint as well.
The investor recognized the scam when the “CEO of Crypto Customer Service” on Telegram requested they send 25% of the profits as “taxes” to facilitate the withdrawal process.
On the same day, the Washington DFI issued three additional alerts, two of which pertained to purportedly fraudulent crypto exchanges, while the third was related to a deceitful investment management platform.