Problem I can't withdraw from penzo limited

[TinyBaozi]

Hi, I was trying to withdraw from the broker named Penzo Limited, they declined and said I need to pay the capital gain tax before I can withdraw anything. Then they send me the crypto wallet address for IRS, claimed that make the payment and send the transfer vouncher to them, after they finishing audit and approves this, then I can withdraw the money. First of all, I cannot find anything that is says Penzo is authorized take tax, and second, they said I cannot use the money in the account to pay tax, has to be external. What I did so far is, I called the Secret service, made the claim, filed the FBI IC3 complaint, and econsumer.gov, what else can I do, Please help. I lost $170,000 so far.

The website is penzolead.com/en/index

 

[Pharaoh]

You're way ahead of most people. You've reported it to 3 places so far. If you go to my book here:

It looks like you've been scammed. Are you going to help the scammers or fight back?​

you'll find some more ideas on where to complain. Since they claim to be involved with FINRA in paying taxes, that would be a great place to start. I don't have a page for FINMA, but your own experiences so far should make it easy. You can also drop off complaints with the CFTC and NFA while you are at it.

If you are in the US, there are some state resources in the book. If you are overseas, you'll want to also complain to your country's financial regulators. Don't forget to look up the Hong Kong Police and Regulators, since PenzoLead.com's contact page lists a phone number and address in Hong Kong.

Here's some other information about PenzoLead.com for you:

The domain name was created on 2022-05-27 and expires on 2023-05-27. Those dates don't exactly inspire confidence of this being a long term operation, at least under that domain name. Its also at odds with those awards from 2019 claimed on their website.

It's on the 8 websites hosted on IP 23.225.194.51. The full list is:

1. amtopltd.com
2. amtoprofx.com - Looks like clone site of FXTM, but the claimed Cysec license belongs to oneroyal.com
3. decodcfx.com - Looks just like penzolead.com
4. decodfx.com
5. fxtmcorp.com - Looks like penzolead.com and FXTM fell into a blender. Looks like a badly done clone site.
6. jdrsecruirties.com - The REAL site is jrdsecurities.com. The misspelled version appears to be a clone site.
7. penzolead.com
8. v5forex.com

This means you can also notify oneroyal, FXTM, and JRD Securities about someone using their information to try to scam clients. This should improve the speed of these clone sites being shut down.

Penzo and several other of the pages on that server claim to be tied to Unicef, Champion for Children. I don't know about you, but I take a very dim view of fake companies falsely claiming to be involved with charity. You can forward screenshots of all of this to the Integrity1 address at https://www.unicef.org/auditandinvestigation/report-wrongdoing

 

[The Punisher]

Hi, I was trying to withdraw from the broker named Penzo Limited, they declined and said I need to pay the capital gain tax before I can withdraw anything. Then they send me the crypto wallet address for IRS, claimed that make the payment and send the transfer vouncher to them, after they finishing audit and approves this, then I can withdraw the money. First of all, I cannot find anything that is says Penzo is authorized take tax, and second, they said I cannot use the money in the account to pay tax, has to be external. What I did so far is, I called the Secret service, made the claim, filed the FBI IC3 complaint, and econsumer.gov, what else can I do, Please help. I lost $170,000 so far.

The website is penzolead.com/en/index

Brokers and Crypto companies DO NOT collect taxes from investors but instead individuals must file their own tax return annually (at least in the US). Asking victims to pay taxes to the broker is part of the Pig Butchering Scams. DO NOT pay any taxes or fees to try and get your money back because the scammers are trying to steal more money from you.

You can also report to FINRA and the Attorney General for the State you live in.

This website is less than one year old and it was likely setup for the purpose of scamming only. Most of these scammers are in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

Website IP

 

[TinyBaozi]

Brokers and Crypto companies DO NOT collect taxes from investors but instead individuals must file their own tax return annually (at least in the US). Asking victims to pay taxes to the broker is part of the Pig Butchering Scams. DO NOT pay any taxes or fees to try and get your money back because the scammers are trying to steal more money from you.

You can also report to FINRA and the Attorney General for the State you live in.

This website is less than one year old and it was likely setup for the purpose of scamming only. Most of these scammers are in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

View attachment 82100

Website IP
View attachment 82099

Thank you, I have not send any money to them after they want me to pay tax through them, I called secret service, and today got a reply that, they are already tracking the wallet. Hopefully I can get some back, pray to the God.

 

[Pharaoh]

You may also want to inform the IRS that these people claim to be collecting US taxes. The IRS doesn't like companies that try to steal in their name.

 

[ForexTime (FXTM)]

You're way ahead of most people. You've reported it to 3 places so far. If you go to my book here:

It looks like you've been scammed. Are you going to help the scammers or fight back?​

you'll find some more ideas on where to complain. Since they claim to be involved with FINRA in paying taxes, that would be a great place to start. I don't have a page for FINMA, but your own experiences so far should make it easy. You can also drop off complaints with the CFTC and NFA while you are at it.

If you are in the US, there are some state resources in the book. If you are overseas, you'll want to also complain to your country's financial regulators. Don't forget to look up the Hong Kong Police and Regulators, since PenzoLead.com's contact page lists a phone number and address in Hong Kong.

Here's some other information about PenzoLead.com for you:

The domain name was created on 2022-05-27 and expires on 2023-05-27. Those dates don't exactly inspire confidence of this being a long term operation, at least under that domain name. Its also at odds with those awards from 2019 claimed on their website.

It's on the 8 websites hosted on IP 23.225.194.51. The full list is:

1. amtopltd.com
2. amtoprofx.com - Looks like clone site of FXTM, but the claimed Cysec license belongs to oneroyal.com
3. decodcfx.com - Looks just like penzolead.com
4. decodfx.com
5. fxtmcorp.com - Looks like penzolead.com and FXTM fell into a blender. Looks like a badly done clone site.
6. jdrsecruirties.com - The REAL site is jrdsecurities.com. The misspelled version appears to be a clone site.
7. penzolead.com
8. v5forex.com

This means you can also notify oneroyal, FXTM, and JRD Securities about someone using their information to try to scam clients. This should improve the speed of these clone sites being shut down.

Penzo and several other of the pages on that server claim to be tied to Unicef, Champion for Children. I don't know about you, but I take a very dim view of fake companies falsely claiming to be involved with charity. You can forward screenshots of all of this to the Integrity1 address at https://www.unicef.org/auditandinvestigation/report-wrongdoing

Hello Everyone.

Please note that the following websites: amtoprofx.com & fxtmcorp.com is not affiliated with FXTM in any form whatsoever and are SCAM websites, illegally using our Trademark in order to illicitly obtain funds from clients.

We have received numerous reports about these websites and have taken the needed actions to report and take them down.

Please be aware that our official website is: https://www.forextime.com/

 

[TinyBaozi]

Updates: the penzo limited has change their website domain to penzo-trade.io. and they updated the wikifx as well.

 

[The Punisher]

Thank you, I have not send any money to them after they want me to pay tax through them, I called secret service, and today got a reply that, they are already tracking the wallet. Hopefully I can get some back, pray to the God.

This scam company registered in HK. You should also file a report with the HK Police and the Securities Commission of HK.

e-Report Centre | Hong Kong Police Force

Hong Kong Police Force - FAQs: General Enquires

www.police.gov.hk

Lodging a complaint

www.sfc.hk

 

[Pharaoh]

Updates: the penzo limited has change their website domain to penzo-trade.io. and they updated the wikifx as well.

Be very careful about WikiFx. Read this thread. Note the signaturee the FPA appended to WikiFx's representative (now banned) as well as what a broker had to say about them not posting accurate regulatory info.

I do see that WikiFx gives Penzo good marks for being listed by the NFA. The fact is that the NFA record for Penzo Limited says it is "Not an NFA Member - Non-Member not subject to NFA oversight." This makes the NFA one more place to complain. They also say it's "regulated" by FinCEN. FinCEN registration is for a company to report suspicious transfers by clients in order to prevent the clients from laundering money. It does NOTHING to protect the clients from scam brokers. This makes me wonder how much Penzo paid WikiFx for these creative misinterpretations.

Penzo-trade.io has some live links pointing into penzo-trade.com. For example, click About on the .io site and it takes you to penzo-trade.com/#/about/aboutUs

Also, the Penzo-trade.io site says "Prime Ash Capital Limited is an investment dealer authorized and regulated by the Mauritius Financial Services Commission (license number: GB21026568). Prime Ash Capital Co., Ltd., with the consent of Global Finance Co., Ltd., conducts transactions in the name of this site under a white label agreement." Maybe Prime Ash is fictitious. If not, maybe this is yet another case of Penzo stealing credentials from a registered broker or maybe they just made up the license number. No matter what, it would be a good idea to ask the Mauritius FSC about this.

Penzo may jump domains again or could edit its site. Be sure to get screenshots of everything.


One small question - how did you get lured into depositing with Penzo in the first place? Was it someone who alledgedly wanted a date and then told you about a great opportunity to make profit or was it some other way?

 

[TinyBaozi]

One small question - how did you get lured into depositing with Penzo in the first place? Was it someone who alledgedly wanted a date and then told you about a great opportunity to make profit or was it some other way?

Yes, that is exactly what happened. I didn't trust her at the beginning, but then I lost it.
This article is a brefie of what happened.

Cryptocurrency broker Penzo Limited appears to be engaged in fraud against California consumers | The Department of Financial Protection and Innovation

Cryptocurrency broker Penzo Limited appears to be engaged in fraud against California consumers

dfpi.ca.gov