You have heard a lot of stories about people becoming victims of scams and losing their entire life savings. What you don’t hear is about those recovering their funds from scammers through professional recovery specialists.

Paul’s crypto downfall- scam edition

Paul Newman, 45 (name changed), was an average security guard working for a mall. It had been 25 years of working diligently. As per his friend Freedy, he is a nice chap to hang around with and takes his work seriously. He has been careful with his finances and has never been known to spend them on trivial things.

It was during the pandemic that all hell broke loose. He was the victim of an elaborate scam and almost lost his home in the process.

Paul is a divorcee, and his kids live with their mother. The Divorce Settlement Arrangement had caused him a lot of pain, both mentally and financially. He had already parted with a lot of money in the process and had to pay child support.

Paul’s father, a true patriot, served in the armed forces, and war had a permanent effect on his mind. He has been advised to stay with Paul and even has to pay the medical bills.

During the pandemic period, Paul lost his job and was forced to stay at home. He had to fulfill his duties towards his father and his sons. With no income, Paul started to feel the burn.

From the beginning.. 

It was during this period that Paul got wind of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He thought that it would be a good bet to invest in the crypto market, as it was the only financial market that was promising good returns. He knew that due to the collapse of supply chain management, the entire economy had come to a standstill.

As he browsed through the news of cryptocurrencies hitting record highs, he thought that this was the break that he was looking for; as per him, Lady Luck had finally smiled at him.

With several crypto exchanges to choose from, he did not exercise due diligence while selecting them.

He felt odd that the written English on the crypto exchange website was so full of grammar and punctuation errors. He opened up another website, and again, the same glaring mistakes after browsing a couple more, the results were the same.

Where not following your gut feeling could lead you

He thought to himself, It must have to do with the latest trend in the crypto market. Using improper punctuation and grammar was a way to attract customers. And what did he know about cryptocurrencies anyway? His kids use words that may be hip for them but are confusing for Paul.

He finally settled on a crypto exchange and called customer service for further directions. He had trouble understanding what the agent on the other end was trying to say. Paul immediately knew that English was not his first language, and after a while, he got going.

The agent on the other end requested to download a crypto trading platform and was guided through the various features and functionalities that were within the app.

The agent was quick to ask how much Paul was interested in initially investing. Paul said that since these cryptocurrencies promise quick returns, he invested $1,000 in Bitcoin. Since Paul was new to trading in cryptos, he was given some basic training by the agent.

Paul knew that the idea was to diversify his portfolio to spread the risk and have different cryptos provide an excellent opportunity to make profits.

Sinking deeper into the scam

Paul has now spent a lot of time observing the crypto market. After a few days, impressed by the growth of cryptos, he started investing more and more. By the end of August, Paul had invested roughly $80,000.

Paul started patting himself on the back regarding his successful crypto trading venture. He thought to himself that he should have invested in these cryptos earlier and left his security guard job. He was confident that he would have become a millionaire or billionaire by now.

He would regularly get calls from his “crypto broker,” urging him to invest more and more.

It was in the second week of September that the broker suggested Paul apply for a personal loan and divert the money into cryptos. He even suggested that by applying for a loan, he would make a lot more money than his current crypto holdings.

Paul agreed to it.

Call it a stroke of luck or destiny that his father had a seizure the day Paul was supposed to call his bank for a personal loan. He required immediate money, so he thought of selling off a couple of his cryptos to pay for his father’s treatment.

Learning about the scam and recovery services 

To his horror, as he tried to liquidate his assets, they were locked, so he called his crypto broker. The broker said that he needed to call the relevant department to settle his claim.

Paul called several departments, but each refused to help him and provided a different number. It then hit him that he had been scammed.

While searching for crypto exchanges, he stumbled upon professional recovery specialists. He recalled their services and now started to search for registered and regulated financial recovery specialists.

After selecting one, he got in touch with these experts. They took detailed notes on the entire scam. They even asked them to provide them with the wire transfer and the crypto account details.

It took the financial recovery specialist six months to track down and recover Paul’s lost financial funds.

Paul was happy that he managed to recover his entire money; he also thanked his father’s illness for saving him from applying for a personal loan and losing his home in the process.

Paul’s father is recovering from the seizure that he suffered. Regardless, Paul still thinks there is a lot of money to be made in cryptos and has now invested $40,000 in cryptos on a reputed, registered, and regulated crypto exchange.

Final thoughts

It is interesting to know that Paul did not ask for advice regarding crypto investment and the threats that are associated with it. Although the crypto market has serious potential to make money, you should also be aware of the number of scams and fraudulent activities that scammers indulge in.

However, the faith in crypto remains unshaken, as Paul knows that there are unknown potentials that we still have to see in the crypto market.