CryptoCurrency - CryptoCurrency Scam
A description of the events that occurred including the date(s)
November 3rd, 2025 - Started watching a reel on Facebook regarding Crypto Investing and found Coach JV. Started following his reels. Later that evening I received a Facebook messenger message from someone claiming to be Coach JV. The conversation moved into what he did as far as investing. Here is the Facebook Messenger Thread
11/3/25, 4:02?PM
Coach JV: Hey there I appreciate you're engagement on my content. How's the crypto space treating you?
Me: Hey I’ve been enjoying your posts. I have been doing ok in the crypto space. Don’t have much to put in but just invested some in xrp. Trying to keep ahead of the game
Coach JV: Are you familiar with the concept of copy trading?
Me: I’m not. Relatively new to trading in general.
Coach JV: What this copy trading does is that it gives individuals access to set up a brokerage account and once the account is set up and funded, a trading process will run on the account so every time l'm on profit, you also earn
Me: Oh Nice
Coach JV: I can guide you through a solid process where you can make ROl weekly. I'll handle the analysis and strategies for your first few trades so you don't take any losses. After that, I'll coach you to start trading on your own with confidence. I don't charge anything upfront just a fair 5% cut from the profits we make together.
Me: I’ll have to give it some thought. Right now funds are tight as I’m part of the govt shutdown
Coach JV: Okay, I get too many messages on Facebook so I may not see all your messages I'll like us to continue elsewhere Are you on iMessage? Or just send me your number I'll text you
Me: Sure my number is ***-**-****0
Coach JV: Just sent you a text: Let me know if you got my message
Following that i received a text message from him where we continued the discussion
I told him that funds were a little tight during to current funding issues at work
He proceeded to push that now was the best time to start as XRP had been doing good
He started to talk about the program he offered and that he used Mirror Trading and offered to provide me with his code to allow my investments to minic his profits. He urged me not to share his code with anyone.
I delayed in giving him a response until the next day
11/4/2025
I requested that he provide a link to the trading platform he was using so I could setup my account and get the process rolling. He provided a link to https://www.centraltradekeplr.com/ and provided his copy trading code
at this point he guided me through the setup of the account and requested I fund it with the crypto I had available. I proceeded to fund the account using the BTC, XRP, and ETH I had in my account and he started performing trades. I was seeing gains immediately in my account and eventually was starting to grow to double and even triple what I started with.
11/6/2025
He recommended that try to invest $20000 into a new trade. He told me that it would be worth it and I would make huge gains. I told him that I couldn't come up with that about of money and that I needed to go out of town to attend a family funeral. he continued to invest while I was out of town and my account continued to grow.
I proceeded to ask him about the withdrawal process and asked what a COT code was. He said that it was a security authenticator code to prove I was the one making the withdrawal. He said I should reach out to the Trade Platform Support on obtaining my COT code
11/14/2025
I reached out to the Trade Platform Support Chat to get the process rolling on my COT Code purchase. Said I needed to complete the KYC Verification process which required a copy of my photo id ( drivers license ) Then the support team said the purchase of the COT code would cost $3500 and that the $3500 would remain in my trade account as part of my balance. I requested the wallet address to make the COT code purchase in BTC. They provided me with the wallet address bc1q89ax22fuzyhf59x3mks36wa3vf24sfmt354x73 and I submitted payment for the COT code. Support said it would take 5 hours to generate the code. I received my COT Code and then proceeded to request a withdrawal
11/17/2025
I was notified by the Trade Platform Support Team that i was required to pay a required tax payment of $8000. Received an email from the Trade Support Team with the following message:
Hey there!
We are reaching out and clarify an important step regarding your withdrawal process since you applied for your COT code.
In order to successfully complete and process your withdrawal, there is a mandatory tax payment from the Internal Revenue Service IRS. of $8,000 that must be settled beforehand.
This is a crucial requirement that needs to be fulfilled to avoid any delays or complications. Once you’ve taken care of the tax payment, we’ll be able to proceed immediately and ensure your withdrawal is completed smoothly and without any further issues.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or if you need assistance with the payment process. We’re here to help and want to make sure everything goes as seamlessly as possible for you. Looking forward to your prompt response so we can get things moving on your end!
11/19/2025
Submitted $8000 for IRS tax payment. And was then instructed to download crypto.com onChain wallet to setup a wallet for the funds to be transfered to from the Trade Platform. Funds were transferred to the onChain wallet but i was unable to move the funds from the onChain wallet to my cold wallet. When I asked how i could transfer the funds I was told that I needed to pay $7500 to setup the crypto.com account which included a $5000 activation fee and a $2500 activation code.
12/5/2025
I was told that I needed to pay another $4500 to get a secret key generated for my crypto.com onchain account so that I could have full control of my account. Payment was submitted and the Trade Support proceeded with the private key generation. Then I was told that due to a delay in payment I needed to pay and additional $4000 due to a price change.
12/8/2025
Completed the $4000 payment to get the private key generated and was told it would take 24 hrs to complete.
12/9/2025
Followed back up on the Private Key generation and was told that it was still in process. That there appeared to be an issue with the key generation that they were working on it. At this point Coach JV had suggested that I request the trade platform transfer the funds from the onChain wallet back to the trade platform to allow him to continue performing trades. He said that he wanted to help me make more money to compensate for the added expenses. I reached back out to the Trade Platform Support about performing the transfer and was told there would be a $5000 gas fee in ETH to perform the transfer back to the platform.
12/15/2025 - 1/31/2025
Paid the $5000 gas fee and funds were transferred back to the platform. And was told by the Trade Support Team to remove the onChain app so they could complete the transfer. Once the funds were back on the trade platform Coach JV started trading again. My account balance grew to over $119,000 over the course of the next few months all the way into February 2026. He told me that when i was ready to withdrawal the funds again I would be required to purchase a new COT code
2/13/2026
Request COT code to allow me to perform the withdrawal of the funds in my account. Told the fee would be $10000 for the COT code. I make the payment and receive my COT code
2/14/2026
Submit request for Bank Transfer of my funds from the Trade Account to my Bank. Don't hear anything.
2/15/2026
Submit a new Bank Transfer Request, assuming that the previous request didn't go through. Didn't hear anything regarding the status
2/16/2026
Reach out to the Trade Platform Support for the status of the Bank Transfers and was told that the bank rejected the transfer request and was provided with the following details
First Attempt Request ID: WD17*********674EZUQ
Amount:$119,874
Method: bank
Status: pending
Date: 14/02/2026
Second Attempt Request ID: ******************** Amount: $119,874
Method: bank
Status: pending
Date: 15/02/2026
At this point the Trade Support suggested an alternative way to perform the bank transfer by opening up an online banking account using their banking system ( https://finance.goldfortx.com/) .
I looked into the site and a lot of the links went to "Page Not Found" that made me leary to use it. So i opted not to.
2/17/2026
Contacted my bank to ask about the transfers that the Trade Platform said were rejected to see if I could get the issue resolved. The Bank told me that they had no record of a transfer being performed. The bank teller asked me to reach back out to the trade platform to get the IMAD number associated with the transfer so that they could dig into it some more. I reached out to the trade platform about the IMAD number to which I was told that they didn't have an IMAD number for the transaction because the transaction didn't go through.
2/18/2026
Spoke with Coach JV and he suggested going with the Crypto Transfer route to perform the withdrawal. I reached out to the Trade Platform Support for getting that process going and was told there would be a gas fee to perform the transfer of $18,950.
2/19/2026 - 2/23/2026
Worked on getting the funds together to pay for the gas fee.
2/25/2026
Paid the $18,950 gas fee to get my funds transferred. The Trade Support Team said they were processing the transfer and that it would take some time to complete
2/26/2026
Get an update from the Trade Support Team that due to recent fluctuations in the market and network conditions that there would be an additional payment of $10000 to finalize the transaction. I acquired the additional funds and submitted the payment. I provided them with the ETH wallet address to transfer the funds to and they said they were processing the request and that it would take roughly 10 hours to complete
2/27/2026
Get another update from the Trade Platform Support Team that due to the recent changes in the Ethereum market and structure. To ensure service remains uninterrupted and to protect me from any further fluctuations, a payment of $15000 is to be made, and that they had structured this payment to pre-emptively cover upcoming price changes. This last payment of $15000 has not been made yet and I was told that i wouldn't recevied any tax documentation until after the withdrawal process was completed. Which lead me to file the Fraud case.
Last response from the trade platform site was
Good morning,
Wanted to add an update to my report. I received another email from the trade platform this morning
Hello Troy,
Please be advised that the required fee of $15,000.00 remains outstanding and has been pending for an extended period due to the delay in payment. To proceed and maintain the current terms, the fee must be completed by the specified time.
Kindly note that this fee is intended to mitigate the risk associated with market volatility. To ensure your service remains uninterrupted and to protect you from any further fluctuations, If the payment is not finalized before Monday, 16th March the amount may become subject to fluctuations caused by volatility, which could result in an adjustment to the applicable price either higher or lower.
We therefore request that the payment be completed no later than [Monday, 16th March] to ensure stability of the current rate and to avoid any potential changes.
The payment of $119,874.00 will be made to the submitted wallet address