The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division has received a complaint regarding DBEX, a website claiming to be a cryptocurrency trading platform.
The investor learned of DBEX from an individual via her Airbnb account. The investor listed a property for rent and was contacted by a potential guest named “Olafur”. Olafur represented to the investor that he wished to rent her property, and was also looking for an investment property. Olafur spoke to the investor about how he invests his money in cryptocurrency, and what tools he uses to invest it in. The investor elected to invest in cryptocurrency based on her conversations with Olafur. The investor invested a total of approximately $100,000 in USDT (Tether). Initially the investor invested through Crypto.com and shortly moved over to the DBEX app for her investment activity. The investor invested through the DBEX app over a month timespan.
The investor chose to withdraw some of her funds. She was unable to withdraw her funds. A DBEX customer service representative told her that the app was down for upgrades. She was subsequently told that her account was locked and that she needed to provide additional documentation. The investor provided the documentation as requested. She was then told that she needed to deposit an additional $115,000, an amount equal to her balance, to unlock the account.
The investor did not deposit the additional funds and her account remains locked and she is unable to withdraw her funds. These allegations have not been verified by DFI.
This appears to be what is commonly called and “Advance Fee Fraud”. Learn more about advance fee fraud.
DFI urges consumers to exercise extreme caution before responding to any solicitation offering investment or financial services. Investment professionals need to be licensed with DFI to offer investments to Washington residents. In addition, most investment products sold need to be registered with DFI. To check the licensing status and to find out if there are any complaints against an investment professional or investment product, please visit FINRA Brokercheck or contact the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, Securities Division at (360) 902-8760. If you live outside of Washington State, contact your state securities regulator.
If a consumer believes a person or company has violated state law or acted improperly regarding an investment product or service, they may file a complaint with the Securities Division.
Additional Resources
Virtual Currency, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Assets Information for Consumers