We live in Australia and our nightmare with TopTenCoin formerly known as CryptoTrader has been ongoing since September 2018.
Our first contact was with a Steve Lacazette. Steve instilled confidence and recommended we start by depositing $10,000 that we had set aside for trading. Steve advised that the next step would be a written contract for us to sign and then a dedicated Account Manager would contact us to discuss a Trading Strategy that would be mutually acceptable. This all sounded genuine and just what we were looking for. However, once we forwarded our $10,000 it all changed. We got a call from a Shawn Wells who said he was our designated Account Manager/Trader and we needed to start trading by following his instructions.
Within our first 8 days of trading our account showed an impressive profit of $4,341.54.
However, Shawn kept insisting and eventually convinced us that he couldn’t continue to work with such a small account and we needed to invest more money. Shawn claimed he is the company VIP Trader with 18 year’s experience. Shawn ASSURED us that our additional funds would not be at any risk as he would continue to trade the $10,000 limit and the extra capital would be there as a backup to allow more progressive trades. He wanted $100,000, but we reluctantly forwarded an extra $50,000 which has caused us untold stress, as this was not part of our original intention.
Within the next 7 days, Shawn’s aggressive trading strategy was risking our entire $60,000! We were going into a weekend and Shawn claimed the trading platform could wipe our entire capital because of a potential margin call and we needed to urgently invest a further $25,000. He made an EMPHATIC PROMISE that we could withdraw that $25,000 on the following Monday 15th October when we had our next phone session with him.
On this next call Shawn claimed that the $25,000 never arrived and we needed to send a replacement $25,000. Obviously, we did not forward the extra funds, but did obtain bank details showing that the funds were delivered to the designated bank details. Even after we sent this proof to Shawn, he still continued with his claim? This compounded our doubts and growing fear about the validity of TopTenCoin.
On 16th October, we saw a potential trading opportunity, and without Shawn’s input, we made a number of rapid and successive trades yielding us a profitable return of $301,920 bringing our account balance up to $391,638. We then attempted to make a $90,000 withdraw to retrieve our capital, plus a small return. That was the beginning of our ‘TopTenCoin Nightmare’ of unrealistic excuses (lies). Shawn refused this withdrawal application because of the $25,000 that he claimed did not arrive.
Then on 24th October, again without Shawn’s input we made some more very successful trades bringing our account balance to $4,243,314. Shawn then rang us and claimed the trades were invalid as the platform had a ‘trading glitch’. The entire profits were deducted from our account PLUS an additional $64,236.09 that I cannot figure and TopTenCoin refuses to address? This bought our supposed account balance back to $345,650.74.
We continued to make withdrawal requests (ALL DECLINED) as a return of our capital had become our priority as our faith in TopTenCoin was rapidly deteriorating.
Because our account was now over $250,000 and without any discussion, Shawn moved our account to what he claimed was a VIP Trading Platform. Shawn’s next ‘story’ was that we needed to start trading again as we now had no trading volume on the new platform and this was a requirement of the finance department before we could expect a withdrawal. Shawn refused to name a contact person in finance and would not transfer our call. So, we reluctantly set a further two trades with his instructions that he claimed would make $20,000 to $30,000 within the next 24 hours. They were spectacular loosing trades (which I now suspect was intentional to wipe our account balance to zero.) I closed them out at a loss of $186,012 within 24 hours reducing our account to just $159,638.
Shawn was annoyed and became aggressive that I was concerned about preserving our capital instead of following his aggressive trading strategy. He hung up the phone on me and had his supposed Manager, a Brian Smith call me. Brian claimed the substantial losses I had just taken were also related to the supposed ‘trading glitch’ and within the following week he was going to restore our lost funds and expediate our withdrawal that we had been repeatedly trying to do for several months. Sounded good, but proved to be yet MORE LIES!
On the 30th November Shawn moved our account to yet another trading platform called Sirix. The amount now showing in our account is just $75,004.48. We have NOT done any trading on this platform. When I questioned Shawn where the $84,634 had disappeared too in this last transfer, his crazy explanation was that this was the difference between the margin rate of the two platforms?
This seems further proof that the amounts showing in our accounts AND the Trading Platform are all FAKE! We suspect that the given names of the people we have been spoken to are also most likely fake.
Around this time, we were also contacted by a John Anthony who is a supposed ‘very busy’ Company Director. John told us that we were 1 of 56 clients who were affected by the supposed ‘trading glitch’. John claimed he was negotiating with the company for a special contract offering us a handsome compensation package. This was supposed to be sorted by end of December 2018, but just like other ‘promises’ it just dragged on and on with all sorts of non-sensical stories. John messaged me via Telegram on 30th April 2019 questioning if we had received our contract. I replied that we had not. Then on May 6th John sent another message saying that he was investigating why we had not received our contract. We have not heard or received anything since and we can no longer contact John and he has not contacted us but has ‘mysteriously’ changed his phone number and wiped his Telegram Account?
John also claimed on more than one occasion that he was travelling to Australia to meet with his Australian clients so that we could have even further confidence in the company. Also lies as he has not arrived and always avoided specific dates and places when questioned.
The entire company’s method of operation is such that it is very difficult to make a phone connection, extremely difficult to get a return phone call and to get anything confirmed in writing is impossible.
In the time we have been involved with this outfit, we have also dealt with Anna Polotsky, Max Miller who both had the supposed title of Head of Customer Support and Compliance, yet all they could do was pass on messages… what a joke! Emma is the current Customer Support person?
On Shawn’s most recent phone conversation he claimed that the $75,004.48 currently showing in our account is his ‘Bonus Money’ and blames John Anthony (not finance this time) saying that we cannot do a withdrawal as we owe the platform too much money? I have asked him to clarify the amount we supposedly owe and as expected, he does not know and just insists that we need to start trading OR add more funds? Then we will be eligible to withdraw?
To add to this, I have now spoken with 2 fellow Australian's who have also lost money to this outfit. One has sent me documentation that virtually ‘mirrors’ our experience, with the false claims and promises. Trusting this detailed explanation will save others from this vile outfit and ultimately have the perpetrators brought to justice!
Our first contact was with a Steve Lacazette. Steve instilled confidence and recommended we start by depositing $10,000 that we had set aside for trading. Steve advised that the next step would be a written contract for us to sign and then a dedicated Account Manager would contact us to discuss a Trading Strategy that would be mutually acceptable. This all sounded genuine and just what we were looking for. However, once we forwarded our $10,000 it all changed. We got a call from a Shawn Wells who said he was our designated Account Manager/Trader and we needed to start trading by following his instructions.
Within our first 8 days of trading our account showed an impressive profit of $4,341.54.
However, Shawn kept insisting and eventually convinced us that he couldn’t continue to work with such a small account and we needed to invest more money. Shawn claimed he is the company VIP Trader with 18 year’s experience. Shawn ASSURED us that our additional funds would not be at any risk as he would continue to trade the $10,000 limit and the extra capital would be there as a backup to allow more progressive trades. He wanted $100,000, but we reluctantly forwarded an extra $50,000 which has caused us untold stress, as this was not part of our original intention.
Within the next 7 days, Shawn’s aggressive trading strategy was risking our entire $60,000! We were going into a weekend and Shawn claimed the trading platform could wipe our entire capital because of a potential margin call and we needed to urgently invest a further $25,000. He made an EMPHATIC PROMISE that we could withdraw that $25,000 on the following Monday 15th October when we had our next phone session with him.
On this next call Shawn claimed that the $25,000 never arrived and we needed to send a replacement $25,000. Obviously, we did not forward the extra funds, but did obtain bank details showing that the funds were delivered to the designated bank details. Even after we sent this proof to Shawn, he still continued with his claim? This compounded our doubts and growing fear about the validity of TopTenCoin.
On 16th October, we saw a potential trading opportunity, and without Shawn’s input, we made a number of rapid and successive trades yielding us a profitable return of $301,920 bringing our account balance up to $391,638. We then attempted to make a $90,000 withdraw to retrieve our capital, plus a small return. That was the beginning of our ‘TopTenCoin Nightmare’ of unrealistic excuses (lies). Shawn refused this withdrawal application because of the $25,000 that he claimed did not arrive.
Then on 24th October, again without Shawn’s input we made some more very successful trades bringing our account balance to $4,243,314. Shawn then rang us and claimed the trades were invalid as the platform had a ‘trading glitch’. The entire profits were deducted from our account PLUS an additional $64,236.09 that I cannot figure and TopTenCoin refuses to address? This bought our supposed account balance back to $345,650.74.
We continued to make withdrawal requests (ALL DECLINED) as a return of our capital had become our priority as our faith in TopTenCoin was rapidly deteriorating.
Because our account was now over $250,000 and without any discussion, Shawn moved our account to what he claimed was a VIP Trading Platform. Shawn’s next ‘story’ was that we needed to start trading again as we now had no trading volume on the new platform and this was a requirement of the finance department before we could expect a withdrawal. Shawn refused to name a contact person in finance and would not transfer our call. So, we reluctantly set a further two trades with his instructions that he claimed would make $20,000 to $30,000 within the next 24 hours. They were spectacular loosing trades (which I now suspect was intentional to wipe our account balance to zero.) I closed them out at a loss of $186,012 within 24 hours reducing our account to just $159,638.
Shawn was annoyed and became aggressive that I was concerned about preserving our capital instead of following his aggressive trading strategy. He hung up the phone on me and had his supposed Manager, a Brian Smith call me. Brian claimed the substantial losses I had just taken were also related to the supposed ‘trading glitch’ and within the following week he was going to restore our lost funds and expediate our withdrawal that we had been repeatedly trying to do for several months. Sounded good, but proved to be yet MORE LIES!
On the 30th November Shawn moved our account to yet another trading platform called Sirix. The amount now showing in our account is just $75,004.48. We have NOT done any trading on this platform. When I questioned Shawn where the $84,634 had disappeared too in this last transfer, his crazy explanation was that this was the difference between the margin rate of the two platforms?
This seems further proof that the amounts showing in our accounts AND the Trading Platform are all FAKE! We suspect that the given names of the people we have been spoken to are also most likely fake.
Around this time, we were also contacted by a John Anthony who is a supposed ‘very busy’ Company Director. John told us that we were 1 of 56 clients who were affected by the supposed ‘trading glitch’. John claimed he was negotiating with the company for a special contract offering us a handsome compensation package. This was supposed to be sorted by end of December 2018, but just like other ‘promises’ it just dragged on and on with all sorts of non-sensical stories. John messaged me via Telegram on 30th April 2019 questioning if we had received our contract. I replied that we had not. Then on May 6th John sent another message saying that he was investigating why we had not received our contract. We have not heard or received anything since and we can no longer contact John and he has not contacted us but has ‘mysteriously’ changed his phone number and wiped his Telegram Account?
John also claimed on more than one occasion that he was travelling to Australia to meet with his Australian clients so that we could have even further confidence in the company. Also lies as he has not arrived and always avoided specific dates and places when questioned.
The entire company’s method of operation is such that it is very difficult to make a phone connection, extremely difficult to get a return phone call and to get anything confirmed in writing is impossible.
In the time we have been involved with this outfit, we have also dealt with Anna Polotsky, Max Miller who both had the supposed title of Head of Customer Support and Compliance, yet all they could do was pass on messages… what a joke! Emma is the current Customer Support person?
On Shawn’s most recent phone conversation he claimed that the $75,004.48 currently showing in our account is his ‘Bonus Money’ and blames John Anthony (not finance this time) saying that we cannot do a withdrawal as we owe the platform too much money? I have asked him to clarify the amount we supposedly owe and as expected, he does not know and just insists that we need to start trading OR add more funds? Then we will be eligible to withdraw?
To add to this, I have now spoken with 2 fellow Australian's who have also lost money to this outfit. One has sent me documentation that virtually ‘mirrors’ our experience, with the false claims and promises. Trusting this detailed explanation will save others from this vile outfit and ultimately have the perpetrators brought to justice!
