Updated December 27, 2023: The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, Securities Division received an additional complaint after posting this alert. The individual known as Qingqing Zheng in the original complaint is now going by the name of Anne Smith and the website used is https://firephoenixfx.com/platform.html.
The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division has received a complaint from a Washington resident regarding Sundell Limited/Sundell-fx (“Sundell”), a website claiming to be a cryptocurrency trading platform. The website has since been disabled.
The investor learned of Sundell from an individual, Qingqing Zheng (“Zheng”), communicating through LinkedIn and WhatsApp. Zheng convinced the investor to make a small investment to test the waters. The investor was happy with the gains in their account and was able to withdraw funds when they wanted, so the investor decided to invest more. The investor invested a total of $55,500 through the Sundell website.
When the investor decided to withdraw their funds, they received messages from Sundell stating that their website is in maintenance. The investor was also told that their investment account was frozen and that they would need to pay $3,500 in fees in order to withdraw their funds. The investor remains unable to withdraw their funds. These allegations have not been verified by DFI.
The investor sent their cryptocurrency investments to the following wallet addresses:
- 0xD767cAC955056AE4B9D287a0e960E3dC0066Fa65
- 0x19b4012BDB7B9CFF13C6e28c75fCf69FE8349F87
This appears to be what is commonly called “Advance Fee Fraud”, which can take many forms. Learn more about advance fee fraud. It also appears to be a Pig Butchering Scheme.
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.