A retired civil servant lost nearly £8,000 in a cryptocurrency scam.
Chris Lowe, 73, from Malmesbury in Wiltshire, invested in what he believed to be a legitimate cryptocurrency opportunity after being introduced to it by a business acquaintance, only to later discover it was a global Ponzi scheme.
Mr Lowe said: “You automatically feel annoyed with yourself for falling for something like that, because at the time it seemed like a reasonable investment.
“It was going to be an investment you are in and out of in 12 months, and that would have been it.”
He first invested £5,000 in Euro bonds, followed by a further £2,975 in Bitcoin.
He said: “I got some instructions and read up about it, and thought this sounds quite good, I’ll have a little go at this one.”
He was given a login to monitor his investments, but after 12 months without any returns or updates, Mr Lowe grew suspicious.
His acquaintance provided him with the organiser’s email, who said the scheme was “going through a few problems”, but it should turn around in about three months.
Mr Lowe said: “There was not much I could do, so I thought OK, fair enough, let’s hope it does work out.”
He continued to receive reassuring messages from the organiser for two years, but nothing materialised.
He said: “When you look back on it, there were all sorts of excuses.
“The messages just kept kicking the can down the road a bit, and suggesting that things were virtually sorted and you’d see something out of it.
“But nothing ever materialised from that.”
Eventually, communication ceased and it became clear that the scheme had collapsed.
Mr Lowe said: “He never admitted to the fact that no-one’s going to get anything.”
He is now working with National Fraud Helpline solicitors, a trading name of Richardson Hartley Law, to try to recover his funds from NatWest, his bank.
For fraud prevention and scam recovery advice visit: http://www.nationalfraudhelpline.co.uk
Charlie Quail, a lawyer at National Fraud Helpline, said: “This was an incredibly convincing scam in which investors were personally introduced to the scheme.
“The fraudsters sold the scam to investors as an exclusive off-market opportunity to make it seem more attractive.
“The reality it that this was a global Ponzi scheme where we believe millions of pounds were lost by victims.
“We are determined to get our client’s money back.”
Mr Lowe said that recovering his money would “be a great relief.”
