Description

Just to clarify, all involved here spoke Russian At the start of the year I was exploring crypto investments opportunities and received a phone call from a person named Dmitry, he said he's based in Maryland. This was at the end of January 2025. He said he represents a new Trading platform called United Trade Market and they invest exclusively in crypto. I was told that the minimum needed to open an account is $500 and from then on I will be assigned a financial advisor who will do the investment for me. I was told to download Cash app and transfer the money to the UTM account through Bitcoin wallet. Once that was done, I was transferred to the financial advisor Alex Schultz who said he will be working with me personally. I was included into a Telegram chat that described in detail the trades that have been made and the future trading plans. During this time on couple of instances the login page would say something like "This domain has been seized by FBI" but Alex would message in Telegram chat that it was a hacker attack and access will be restored. Then he'd send another link to log in. Eventually after a month or so my account grew from $500 to $1,988. When I asked Alex if it is my money and if I can have it back if I decided I want out, he said yes to both. However couple of weeks later he called again and said that my account was a "training" one and I need to upgrade to the next tier in order for him to work with me. He said I needed to put in minimum $5000 dollars. I said I am not gonna give them any more money and asked to close the account and give me back at least initial $500. He asked me to reconsider and said he'll call back. After that I was blocked from Telegram chat but my account was still accessible. I initiated a withdrawal and it was pending for couple of weeks but then was deleted. I tried couple of more times with the same result. Then I texted Dmitry asking to assist me with that and he texted back that he will refer my request to my advisor Alex. I texted and called Alex myself but got no response. Eventually I came to a conclusion that I will never get my money back and decided to take an L. But today, June 16 I received a phone call from someone from United Trade Market, telling me that my account has been inactive for quite a while and if I want to take out the money and close it. I said yes and then he said I need to pay a commission in the amount of $400 or so. I said that they can take it out of my account but he said its not possible and I have to wire them another $400 . I said that they will not get any more money from me,and was told that in this case all the money from the account will go to the company, pretty much what I expected. Immediatly after that I received an email that my account in unaccessible, so that is that.