I have seen some posts on here already about Option500 and I am starting to see that I am not the only one that is dealing with this. This has been going on for almost a year now and I now need to get serious about getting back at them. Below, I copied and pasted the same report I sent to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC). This is pretty much my story in a nutshell with Option500.
"Opened an account with Option500 over the phone. Operator asked me to invest around $250.00 to start. After investing, received another phone call from same company except with different person saying that the old person had been "let go" as he had not been making their clients enough money. The new person I started speaking with was Jonathan Gable who said he had lots of experience. He had me deposit at least $4,750.00 USD in total and asked me if he could trade on my behalf. I consented without knowing what he meant as he promised me that my investment would be protected. Initially, I made money and was excited at the prospect of making more money. Asked me to deposit more but I refused saying I had no more space on my credit card. Then, the pressure began. I asked to withdraw all my money as he became very suspicious promising me over e-mail that he can make me over $20,000.00 over the next few months. I insisted to withdraw my money but he finally convinced me and started to trade on my account again. I was uncomfortable with the trades that were placed and e-mailed him as all the trades were losing trades which would wipe out my account. He said it was okay as he "applied for insurance on my behalf." When I e-mailed him back asking him what that means, I did not receive a response so I e-mailed their customer support centre and Amy Brown, their senior Customer Service Representative said that if my trade bears risk, I would get my initial deposit back. Unfortunately, this did not happen, and I asked for my money back but another individual phoned me by the name of Joey Walter. I asked what happened to Jonathan Gable, and Joey said that Jonathan had to go on leave of absence because he was having marital problems with his wife. Apparently, Jonathan had an affair with his 25 year old secretary and as a result could not work. Joey refused to give me my money back and in fact tried to take money off my credit card twice. I refused to give them anymore at this point and told him not to do it. I even called my credit card company and told them to block him from doing so. CIBC VISA were helpful and preventing any subsequent transactions. Even so, Joey still placed trades on my account. Not to mention that Jonathan and Amy's earlier e-mails which stated I would get my deposit back were not truthful as I did not get them back. My account went into an even deeper loss at this point and I asked them several times through e-mails refusing to pick up their calls anymore. After all this, another individual called from a Canadian phone number and his name is Carl Ericsson who also works for Option500. Carl was the most aggressive trying to take money off my credit card and he attempted to take of $5,000.00 USD. Fortunately, CIBC VISA prevented him from doing so. However, he was successful in taking off $1000.00 USD as he tried a smaller amount and then applied a bonus of $1,000.00 USD to my trading account. I believe the reason behind this was to lock up my money. Since he applied to bonus automatically to my account, I had to have a certain trading volume before I could withdraw anything. He then said the only way to get the money back now is if he trades on my behalf a volume of $24,000.00. Now not only is my account at a loss, I cannot take my money out and I am afraid they might shut down my account altogether and I might lose whatever is left. I have reported this to the police in the UK and they said they do not see the need for any criminal investigation. I hope this will help to spread the word about Option500 as a complete scam that makes money off of giving empty promises and dubious investment opportunities."
I also have e-mails and a voicemail (saved) which shows evidence of Carl Ericsson cherry picking "policies" about their bonus just to lock my money up.
"Opened an account with Option500 over the phone. Operator asked me to invest around $250.00 to start. After investing, received another phone call from same company except with different person saying that the old person had been "let go" as he had not been making their clients enough money. The new person I started speaking with was Jonathan Gable who said he had lots of experience. He had me deposit at least $4,750.00 USD in total and asked me if he could trade on my behalf. I consented without knowing what he meant as he promised me that my investment would be protected. Initially, I made money and was excited at the prospect of making more money. Asked me to deposit more but I refused saying I had no more space on my credit card. Then, the pressure began. I asked to withdraw all my money as he became very suspicious promising me over e-mail that he can make me over $20,000.00 over the next few months. I insisted to withdraw my money but he finally convinced me and started to trade on my account again. I was uncomfortable with the trades that were placed and e-mailed him as all the trades were losing trades which would wipe out my account. He said it was okay as he "applied for insurance on my behalf." When I e-mailed him back asking him what that means, I did not receive a response so I e-mailed their customer support centre and Amy Brown, their senior Customer Service Representative said that if my trade bears risk, I would get my initial deposit back. Unfortunately, this did not happen, and I asked for my money back but another individual phoned me by the name of Joey Walter. I asked what happened to Jonathan Gable, and Joey said that Jonathan had to go on leave of absence because he was having marital problems with his wife. Apparently, Jonathan had an affair with his 25 year old secretary and as a result could not work. Joey refused to give me my money back and in fact tried to take money off my credit card twice. I refused to give them anymore at this point and told him not to do it. I even called my credit card company and told them to block him from doing so. CIBC VISA were helpful and preventing any subsequent transactions. Even so, Joey still placed trades on my account. Not to mention that Jonathan and Amy's earlier e-mails which stated I would get my deposit back were not truthful as I did not get them back. My account went into an even deeper loss at this point and I asked them several times through e-mails refusing to pick up their calls anymore. After all this, another individual called from a Canadian phone number and his name is Carl Ericsson who also works for Option500. Carl was the most aggressive trying to take money off my credit card and he attempted to take of $5,000.00 USD. Fortunately, CIBC VISA prevented him from doing so. However, he was successful in taking off $1000.00 USD as he tried a smaller amount and then applied a bonus of $1,000.00 USD to my trading account. I believe the reason behind this was to lock up my money. Since he applied to bonus automatically to my account, I had to have a certain trading volume before I could withdraw anything. He then said the only way to get the money back now is if he trades on my behalf a volume of $24,000.00. Now not only is my account at a loss, I cannot take my money out and I am afraid they might shut down my account altogether and I might lose whatever is left. I have reported this to the police in the UK and they said they do not see the need for any criminal investigation. I hope this will help to spread the word about Option500 as a complete scam that makes money off of giving empty promises and dubious investment opportunities."
I also have e-mails and a voicemail (saved) which shows evidence of Carl Ericsson cherry picking "policies" about their bonus just to lock my money up.
