Description

We connected as friends on LinkedIn and chatted for a few days before moving the conversation to WhatsApp because we found that we both have common interests. His name is Daniel Phang, on DL is WeiDan Phang. From there, we talked about stock trading, and he offered to help me invest in cryptocurrency that guaranteed a great return because Trump approved it. We started with $1,000 and eventually added more, and now the account is over $500,000. He recently learned about my HELOC and asked that I also invest in it. I was suspicious of him, but he would say that we need to trust each other. We talked on the phone and had video conferences; he even sent me his driver’s license. I believe this is a scam because we were supposed to meet F2F, and he said that his daughter had an accident at NYU and that he had to be there; therefore, he canceled our meeting. However, while caring for his daughter, he still insisted that I wire funds from my HELOC, as a significant trade was scheduled to take place at the end of September. I continued to search and, finally, conducted a reverse image search, where I discovered that this scammer was using someone else’s profile—even including pictures of his family, mother, and nephews. The scammer is using someone's pictures on Instagram. I suspect that this person could be the scammer himself because we had video conferences, and I recognize his lips and eyes. Each time I refused to transfer the money, he would refuse to chat with me, saying there was no point because there was no trust between us. He promised that we could build a house together and that he would not betray me since we were both cheated on… and that God had a plan for us to be together since we both have many things in common. We were trading options using Semexbitny.com as the platform. He guided me through wire transfers to move my money to Coinbase Inc., then buying cryptocurrency on Coinbase Inc., and transferring that amount to my Trust or OnChain Wallet. And from the wallet, he guided me to this platform called semexbitny.com, where I performed option trading transactions. When I asked him to guide me through withdrawing my money from this platform, he did and said that I needed to contact customer service on the platform about the upfront 15% fee that I would need to pay. For me to withdraw my money, I will need to pay 15% up front in cryptocurrency in 10 days; otherwise, the system will freeze my account, where I cannot deposit, withdraw, or trade.