Resolved - Scam Alert bitsmexclm.com

[MintyJaz]

I'm sharing my experience with a scammer that I recently encounter.

Way of Contact: Instagram.
Account Name: Norikogalanos
Scam name: William or Zhen Hui
Profile: Runs a winery trading business in Xiamen. He claims that he's from Hunan, but holds a Singapore passport. His parents are living in US.
Whats App: +33 681 078 707
His Story: He talked about how he and his wife was madly in love, then 1 day she died in a car accident (5 years ago).
Character: He does English pretty well, except some mistakes here n there. Sweet talker. Doesn't request for photos or send photo, mainly texting.
When he made the move: 6 days after talking to him, he started to talk about crypto investment.
URL provided to install app: as per the thread title.

Attaching his IG profile and his chat luring me into crypto.

 

[MintyJaz]

His Tactics:

He ask me to 1st top up 500USD to trade. He thought me how to buy/sell quickly. Ask me any questions. Of course I sent him a whole load of it and he answered it and send me back.

He thought me to purchase EOS, DOT. Made some money from there.

After teaching me how to buy and sell, he thought me how to withdraw money. This is to convince me that withdrawal is possible. I withdrew 100USD.

We did another purchase of BSV. Again short term trading for quick gains.

Then he propose that I should purchase some ETH, e.g. 3-5 for better gain. I top up another 2000USD, but he says that's too little for even 1 ETH. We laugh about it and I said it's OK, then we can buy something else. He says not everytime has a good trading node, and the amount is too small.

I was preparing to transfer more funds 10,000USD, when he suddenly changed his plan. he says lets do BTC, and ask me how much I have. He's willing to topup the difference.

I told him I don't have so much, at most 20,000USD. So he said OK, he will transfer 20,000 USDT to my account. To which he did.

But I started to suspect something is wrong.

 

[MintyJaz]

How I find out:

I went and check the whois.net of the URL he shared and found that the website is only 2 weeks old. It's quite appalling.

I googled for the REAL bitmex, and found their website. I contacted them online and send them some screen shot of the bitmex app I've installed, to ask for confirmation if that is their app.

In fact, when I was at bitmex website, I tried to login, but it require 2FA authentication. That was when I discover I'm done for. But of course, I still try and deny that the scammer try to cheat me.

I didn't alert the scammer and play along with him even I discovered this.

Then I found the global anti-scam website and they talk about the exact same thing Sha Zhu Pan (殺豬盤), Crypto Romance Scam (CryptoRom), Romance Baiting. It was exactly how they work!!!

 

[MintyJaz]

What was my action:

I quickly try and withdraw (empty the bitmex account), then I realised it got frozen and the money didn't get transfer to me. As I was doing this, I was reading this forum post then I realised if I empty it, they will suspect. I must withdraw the money in smaller chunk. Hence I went back to bitmex customer support and told them to cancel the transaction.

After they cancel it, the account was unfreeze. I request USD900 withdrawal, it was approved after 4 hours.

I continue talking to the scammer and when I told him I withdraw USD900 he was rather upset and started slandering. I gave him some excuses and said sorry.

Nevertheless, I managed to convinced him by telling him a big lie that I was flying over to meet him (I work for Aviation industry, so getting a ticket is a jiff). But I need to quarantine 14 days, so we will meet later.

He then top up 20,000USD to my account as he promised earlier, and chase me when my 20,000USD will be ready?

I buy time and told him bank clearance, need 4 days cause it's weekend, and it's a big sum I transfer from HK to MY, bank is asking me for documentation to confirm it's not money laundering.

Since I had 20,000USDT (from him) + my own 2100 USDT, I wanted to tell him some story before I withdraw. I was actually at the police station, trying to make a police report, then the police say, if you can still withdraw, why not you take the money out before they freeze it. Hence I did a 2100USD withdrawal and 2 hours later it got approved!!

I am so bloody lucky to have gotten away with the scam, manage to withdraw all my principle back with an extra RM10 LOL..

 

[MintyJaz]

Aftermath:

I was talking to him nicely. It was all nice and dandy. Then he told me there's a node to trade at 11PM. He remember that the total in account is 22,000 USDT cause I sent him a screen cap yesterday.

I told him I withdraw 2,100USD from there, so there's only 21K left. That was when he went ballistic and crazy. He say we have trust issue and so many other things.

I told him that's my money, I can withdraw anytime, but he say why I didn't tell him, cause he already plan the node for 22K, now it's 2K short. I'm like, that 2K not gonna die right.

So I ask him for his UID and transfer the 20K back to him.

He said alot of nasty things, which of course it hurts. He makes you feel like you have sinned so much that you never gonna be able to repay it. It's all psychology thing I tell you. I just kept saying sorry and so on. He even said that he knows I lied to him, I didn't fly in to Xiamen. He's smart as well, but I guess he took time to plan after he find out, so he didn't blow his top in the past 2 days.

I confronted him and told him about the things I read, then he deny it. He says it is a platform for underground trading to avoid tax bla bla. I don't know all these...

Whatever, it's the end of a sweet dream. Time to wake up and face the real world.

Here's some excerpt of conversation after he found out.

 

[MintyJaz]

I hope and pray that with this sharing, everyone is on full guard and knows what to do in case you fall into the trap. The key is to keep calm and act upon it. I'm just 1 of the few lucky soul that managed to get all my money back, not many are like me.

Of course I hope that you don't fall for it as they prey on us using our humanity and weakness.

I am contacting my bank today to discuss with them the next course of action. At the same time, the money they have deposited back to my account, I've moved it to another account just in case.

 

[MintyJaz]

oh before I forget, this is the selfie he shared.

Mark this face and be on alert.

If he wasn't a scammer, he's like the perfect man in the world, but too bad..we all gotta know nothing is perfect!!

 

[MintyJaz]

This is the screenshot of the scam app, bitmex.

 

[FxMaster]

I'm sharing my experience with a scammer that I recently encounter.

Way of Contact: Instagram.
Account Name: Norikogalanos
Scam name: William or Zhen Hui
Profile: Runs a winery trading business in Xiamen. He claims that he's from Hunan, but holds a Singapore passport. His parents are living in US.
Whats App: +33 681 078 707
His Story: He talked about how he and his wife was madly in love, then 1 day she died in a car accident (5 years ago).
Character: He does English pretty well, except some mistakes here n there. Sweet talker. Doesn't request for photos or send photo, mainly texting.
When he made the move: 6 days after talking to him, he started to talk about crypto investment.
URL provided to install app: as per the thread title.

Attaching his IG profile and his chat luring me into crypto.

The website is not working.

 

[Petezaa]

I'm sharing my experience with a scammer that I recently encounter.

Way of Contact: Instagram.
Account Name: Norikogalanos
Scam name: William or Zhen Hui
Profile: Runs a winery trading business in Xiamen. He claims that he's from Hunan, but holds a Singapore passport. His parents are living in US.
Whats App: +33 681 078 707
His Story: He talked about how he and his wife was madly in love, then 1 day she died in a car accident (5 years ago).
Character: He does English pretty well, except some mistakes here n there. Sweet talker. Doesn't request for photos or send photo, mainly texting.
When he made the move: 6 days after talking to him, he started to talk about crypto investment.
URL provided to install app: as per the thread title.

Attaching his IG profile and his chat luring me into crypto.

From the very start it seemed a bit dodgy tbh - did you approach them, or did they approach you?

Anybody who contacts you first, it's usually a scam.