CEL Solicitors secured a full refund plus interest (£23,670) for a 69-year-old retired mother who fell victim to an investment scam.
How the scam occurred
Catherine, a 69-year-old retired mother, came across an advertisement for an investment company called Bit Tech on Facebook. She became intrigued at the idea of investing after hearing countless success stories in the media.
Eager to help her daughter purchase her first home, Catherine signed up to the fraudulent investment opportunity. Prior to this, our client carried out due diligence by looking at online reviews and observing that the company’s website looked plausible, instilling confidence that the investment opportunity would be legitimate.
Catherine was eventually contacted by the scammers, who claimed that they had strategised a plan to help achieve her investment goals as long as she paid a start-up fee of £200. Given the low value of the initial payment and the professional correspondence she had received thus far, Catherine believed that the company would act in her best interest.
A second scammer reached out to Catherine, claiming to be a financial advisor. She helped Catherine set up her online trading account, a Revolut account, and crypto-wallets. The fraudster also asked Catherine to download AnyDesk, a screen-sharing software frequently used by scammers to take control of their victim’s devices remotely.
Read more: Screen Share Scams Warning
The scammer pressured Catherine into investing thousands of pounds into the platform, advising her that the more she invested, the higher the profit she would yield. The remote access Catherine gave to the fraudsters allowed them to manipulate her screen so that it appeared as though her profits were slowly increasing when this was in fact a façade.
Within a period of just a few weeks, Catherine was pressured into investing over £15,000, including a £3,500 alleged withdrawal fee. She attempted to withdraw her funds but was unsuccessful in doing so. Eventually, our client realised that she had been scammed.
Tell CEL
After suffering such great financial loss, our client was understandably, in a state of shock. She didn’t contact the bank until the police advised her to do so. After speaking with Revolut, our client was told that they would not be able to assist in recovering her funds.
Disappointed with the minimal support that Revolut offered her, Catherine decided to contact CEL Solicitors who are experts in fraud and scam recovery.
After speaking with CEL Solicitors’ fraud team, Catherine was able to recover all of her lost funds plus interest; £23,670 in total.
Commenting on her experience, Catherine said:
“I am more than happy with the service [CEL Solicitors] provided and even more pleased with the final outcome.
“Thank you for everything you did for me during this horrendous time in my life.”
