According to UK Finance, Authorised Push Payment scams had risen by 5% during the COVID-19 pandemic. Scammers preyed on victims during a time which was challenging and isolating for many, including Helen, a client of ours.
CEL Solicitors recovered £12,000 for Helen who fell victim to a Cash FX investment scam.
How the scam occurred
Helen was in the process of moving to a new house when she found that her brother was severely unwell and had to undergo chemotherapy.
Helen decided to reduce her working hours so that she could support her brother during his treatment. Due to the loss of work, our client became interested in investing her money as a way of making extra cash during the pandemic, a time which was financially constraining for many.
After a friend told her about Cash FX, Helen began to investigate it. She came across the scam website which in fact appeared legitimate and professional. It included client reviews, a Canary Wharf address, and live trading stats.
Read more: Is EverFX, which has been linked to CashFX, a scam?
Upon pursuing the ‘investment’, our client was required to upload photo ID documents which further convinced her that the trading platform was genuine.
Helen was advised to send money directly to the scammers account so that they could upload it to her trading account. She saw her funds rising by 24% and asked to remove them. Our client was then blocked from the account and was unable to reach out to anybody to retrieve her funds.
The emotional effect of the scam on our client was profound as she still had the responsibility of caring for her brother through his chemotherapy treatment.
Tell CEL
Helen contacted CEL Solicitors to assist in complaining to her bank, who we believe, with further intervention, could have done more to prevent the scam from occurring.
CEL Solicitors’ specialist fraud and scam team successfully recovered £12,000 for the client.
Commenting on the case, CEL Solicitors’ fraud paralegal, Alexander Jenkinson said: “With Bitcoin’s unpredicted surge in 2017, people seemingly became millionaires overnight. As a result, many people have seen the interest and attraction in investing in crypto to replicate the success people had with Bitcoin.
“Unfortunately, the crypto market is complex, and it is not easy to trade independently. Therefore, people seek third party account managed investment firms to assist in trading their hard-earned savings. Sadly, scammers have become extremely wise to this method and have taken full advantage of people’s trust.
As this case proves, CEL Solicitors understands that with investment scams becoming more prevalent and sophisticated, financial institutions need to do more to protect their customers and we are happy to assist innocent victims of investment scams in recovering their money.”
