The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division has received a complaint from a Washington resident regarding Coinfund.jzmhgf.vip, Otcarp.com, and Coincarpcr.com, websites claiming to be a cryptocurrency trading platforms.
The complainant matched with an allegedly Romanian woman (“Dottie”) on the dating app, Hinge. At her request they moved their conversations to Whatsapp. Dottie represented to the complainant that she was a successful investor in cryptocurrency and encouraged the complainant to invest with her. The complainant invested $30,000 on Coinbase that was then transferred to Coinfund.jzmhgf.vip (“Coinfund”). Dottie then convinced the complainant to take out a $150,000 loan from Coinfund that had to be repaid within 18 days. After paying off the loan, the complainant attempted to withdraw their funds, which had purportedly grown to $1.5 million, but Coinfund stated that they needed a 10% security deposit to withdraw. The complainant deposited the funds to pay the security deposit, but could still not withdraw from his account.
Around this time Coinfund’s website was taken down and Coinbase restricted the complainant’s account. Dottie then showed the complainant how to transfer their Coinfund account to Coin Carp Pro. Coin Carp Pro requested an additional $80,000 in “risk certificates” to withdraw from the account. The investor told Dottie they could not raise further funds to pay for the risk certificates at which point her attitude towards him changed. The complainant became concerned that this was a scam and filed a complaint with the department. These allegations have not been verified by DFI.
This appears to be what is commonly called a “Pig Butchering Scam” which can take many forms. Learn more about pig butchering scams.
Additionally, this appears to include a layer of “Advance Fee Fraud." Learn more about advance fee fraud.
This complaint contained several other red flags indicating fraud (which have also not been verified by DFI), including:
- The listed platform URLs no longer work.
- The complainant said that Dottie’s messages sometimes came to him in Russian or Chinese.
- On one occasion when the investor attempted to FaceTime Dottie, two Chinese speaking men answered the phone.
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 formal complaint with the Securities Division.
Additional Resources
Virtual Currency, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Assets Information for Consumers