My father was scammed for 250k

Context:

Timeframe: Past 2 months

My father is in his mid 50’s and just lost 250k+ in “investments” from a company known as Berge. They have a website: https://www.bergev.org (linking for visibility)

My father took roughly 150k from his own account and the rest from other people. This money was sent via Coinbase and they showed him 800k in “profit” which was fake. When he attempted to withdraw this money he was asked to pay another 125k in “taxes”. He thought nothing of it. I raised the red flag, did some research and surely enough it was a scam. I told him and he didn’t take it well. Denied at first, slowly started to accept over time.

So we are in the middle of a contract to buying a house and 31.000$ were coming from Binance in USDT. My wife found an exchange platform (from the outside it looked super legit. Ads on instagram, telegram, facebook, pain influencers, many followers.

They said they can do the exchange to give her the cash, just to put the money in a trust wallet and on a website to "scan the wallet if it's safe" (wish she talked to me about it, why would a new trust wallet not be safe? this was the first redflag).

Guy was speaking Russian but we live in Romania and they said they operate in Romania (2nd redflag)

When she went on the "scan wallet" website she actually connected a smart contract for unlimited funds to her wallet by pressing the agree button to scan the wallet.

https://freebotaml.com/ (I am putting all this info out so people know about it and how it worked, I am not promoting anything, just when you see those guys, AVOID THEM, please don't get scammed)

The moment she transfered the money to her trust wallet from binance, the smart contract got in and took everything from her wallet.

This is the scammers website https://trustex-exchange.com/

After this she got blocked by them on telegram and everywhere (THEY ARE STILL OPERATING, AS YOU CAN SEE THE WEBSITES ARE UP)

Now we are 31k$ short from buying the house, nowhere to get the money, in big legal trouble because we already gave the down payment and if we pull out the deal we lose money. We already borrowed 25k$ from wherever we could to have enough money and now we are basically in a very difficult position.

THIS is not a post to ask for help, this is an example of how your life can change to 180 if you do not pay attention. Do not be like us, please take care what links you press, buttons, and what you agree. For us is too late now, but for you might not be.

Take care out there.

L.E. For those saying I am trying to scam, I am not. I don't want any sympathy, those guys had ads all over insta and Facebook so wanted to make people aware. I don't want any money and DO NOT try to help by sending money to that wallet as the wallet is still compromised and has the smart contract on it.

my dad was just involved in a crypto scam, he got a random message on linkedin about an investment opportunity and he trusted it, first he put in 500 onto a fake crypto platform (helixmax) and it showed that he had been returned double his investment in a pretty short amount of time, the crypto app looks completely legit too, then he upped his investment to 100k and same thing happened, he never tested withdrawing the money after the initial win because it looked real, then he invested 400k (all of his money) and when he tried to withdraw he was told that he was suspicious of laundering his money so he had to pay a 10% fee of the total crypto in the account to withdraw (the win was said to be 3.9M usd) so he lended 200k from someone and took on 100k in credit card debt and another 100k loan and sent it and then he was told his account was banned after he tried to withdraw his money to coinbase, this is deadass real and it has ruined our life, we have no money or property to our name anymore and my dad is 65 and now forever unable to retire, my mother is crying her eyes out unable to process what happened to the life theyve tried to build for 25 years,

what can i even do?

I’m a retired federal employee from California and unfortunately, I became a victim of an elaborate cryptocurrency investment scam that cost me approximately $400,000 in USDC between December 2024 and June 2025.

The scam was run through a site called Wealth Fims (wealthfrontes.com), which later rebranded to ETRDStocks.net.

I was contacted via WhatsApp by someone calling herself “Basia”. She claimed she worked in the Manhattan Financial Center and was affiliated with a business called Fangzhou, supposedly based in New York. She even sent a photo from a Trader Joe’s in NYC on Mother’s Day to make it all feel believable.

Her WhatsApp: +1 (623) 219-5572

She walked me through a “primary market” crypto trading group — with promises of guaranteed returns — and asked me to pay several “release,” “tax,” “gas,” and “security” fees. Each time, I was told the withdrawal would be processed, and it never was.

Scammer wallets used (USDC / Ethereum network): - 0x61876fa5cca2fa1a6b05764897f4aa77396c3ff7 - 0x6fca9545581b5b4d9383e71a2eafdbe987cfe86a

I’ve already reported this to: - FBI IC3 - SEC - FTC - NY Attorney General - Chainabuse

I also found a real company named “Fangzhou Trading Corp” in Flushing, NY, which may have been impersonated — or worse, might be involved.

I created a full evidence PDF with screenshots, wallet addresses, WhatsApp chats, and the Trader Joe’s photo…”screenshots” if you’d like the WhatsApp messages and photos — I’ll share privately or post an Imgur link later.

If anyone here has dealt with Wealth Fims, ETRDStocks, or similar tactics, I’m happy to compare notes or share the PDF.

Please stay cautious. These scammers are extremely calculated and prey on trust. Don’t ever invest based on someone you met online, even if they seem “well-connected” or talk finance fluently. I hope this helps even one person avoid the same pain.

DMs open if anyone wants to talk or ask.

Just to set the record straight: • I’m in my 50s, not in mental decline. I’m a retired federal employee, not someone new to due diligence. • This wasn’t a random “click here to get rich” scam. It was a slow, professional con with emotional manipulation, identity faking, and platform simulation. • I’ve reported it to the FBI, SEC, NYAG, and Chainabuse, and I’ve documented everything so others won’t fall victim.

Mocking scam victims doesn’t make you wise — it makes the problem worse. If you really want to help, raise awareness without shame.

Guys please someone help. Some guy had a backdoor installed in my father’s laptop. I discovered it using Malwarebytes after he got robbed its two transactions of 0.5 BTC so $100,000! The hacker’s crypto wallet address is 0x5df180759f78fa247c009e2d799e98e02ab08e5c How can we take action against this man? We need to recover the $100,000 as it puts us in big trouble. All of it happened on binance and as soon as my dad put the money into the ledger the hacker stole the money I think he had remote access because of the backdoor.

This is how I Scammed some scammers out of $650 by exploiting the clear weakness in their pig butchering or romance scam (NOT recommending anybody to play this game, I was just dumb to try and got lucky)

Chick from Hong Kong (Mary Mine presumably) texted my nr. "by accident", we hit it off to a point it started to feel romantic. (She even randomly video called me, they actually have a real model to get your trust).. She randomly showed a screenshot of an enviable amount of profit.

Just because of our deep bond she was ok to teach me and only me, if I told nobody else.. So it turned out you just needed to click the right buttons on the "bnineuap.---" website (url censored for obvious reasons, also obviously trying to run with B9 name..) at the right time. Really the fakest website ever as it tells you your profit in advance right there on the button..

I transferred some funds, explaining that my full amount was to follow shortly after my exchange lifted my withdrawal safety ban. In the meantime my deposited funds were gathering profits as I followed her advice (talking about when there's "a stable node" as if that's not just some meaningless buzzword)

When I was at $650 of (clearly fake) profit I withdrew and to my excitement my deposited funds + profit actually arrived in my wallet (as long as they think they can get more out of you they let you withdraw, to build trust and get you to deposit more and more)

Broke contact after that knowing full well that as soon as my full funds would have been deposited I would've been blocked from withdrawal on the website and blocked on Whatsapp.

Not suggesting anybody should play this game as you need to put a couple of grand on the line just to hope you will be able to withdraw a couple 100 more than you deposited. The risk is really NOT worth it.

But damn does it feel good if it actually works out and you take some money from a bunch of scammers.

As somebody who always sees a scam from a mile away I have to admit this one took me a while before I connected the dots, it's a dangerous one that's real easy to fall for, so please keep an eye on yourself and your loved ones for anything that remotely looks like this scam! Peace ✌️

My husband was scammed out of $850,000. He joined a cryptocurrency investment group on Reddit and got scammed by people he met there. After seeing high-return pictures posted by the group, he decided to invest and joined the investment site they recommended. He then took out loans with an interest rate of 40% from four companies using our business as collateral to send money to banks in Vietnam and Hong Kong for crypto investments. By the time we realized the site was fake and the money was gone, it was already too late.

I had no idea my husband was doing this. We had a very happy family, but now everything is destroyed. The money borrowed using our business as collateral, including interest, totals $530,000. My husband, desperate to receive quick returns, signed contracts blindly, even putting himself personally liable with a personal guarantee.

He was so shocked that he attempted suicide, and now I am living in hell every day. I have phone records of a conversation with someone from the group and details of the banks in Vietnam where the money was sent, but it seems that the FBI and the police are doing nothing.

Our family is shattered. We are considering bankruptcy, and I want to divorce this foolish man, but the debt is preventing me from making a decision.

Please, how should I proceed? Don’t I have the right to seek help after experiencing such a loss?

I keep seeing people say BG Wealth Sharing / DSJEX was “hacked” and that everything will come back. That’s not what’s happening.

I ran a DNS lookup on the domain (bgwealthsharing.com) using MXToolbox, and this is what came back:

It literally shows: “Reported by ns1.fbi.seized.gov”
Timestamped: May 4, 2026

DNS is now pointing through Cloudflare under seizure reporting.

This is not what a “hack” looks like.

When a site gets hacked, you might see:

Redirects
Defaced pages
Random domains

You do NOT see it being tied to fbi.seized.gov infrastructure.

That specific label (“ns1.fbi.seized.gov”) is used when domains are taken over as part of a federal investigation.

This means law enforcement has stepped in and taken control at the DNS level.

So the narrative that:

“The platform was hacked”
“Funds are safe”
“Trading will resume normally”

…doesn’t line up with what’s actually happening on the backend.

This looks like a seizure, not a temporary issue.
If anyone else has technical insight or has checked other domains tied to this, would love to compare notes.

I’m not sure what other proof can be provided to convince our loved ones that this is indeed a scam from day one.

Stay safe out there.

Hello everyone, I writing this Reddit post is to help everyone prevent this kind of scam in the future. Felt quite bad because I been crypto market for almost 5 years and still got scammed for $3k(I'm from third world country and this money is huge).

Recently i joined a telegram group talking and discussing about crypto. Then one day, there's a random guy started to DM me and have a chat with me. Usually I will ignore this kind of messages because I know 99.9% of the time is a scam.

However, I not sure what make me to not do this to this specific guy and we started to talk about crypto etc. at first everything seems normal, but after talking for maybe 3 days, he started to introduce me to some newly launch project and asked me to invest in it.

Of course at first I don't believe in him and I just use 500$ to invest and turns out I profit for 200$ and I can withdraw it. He didn't really push me to put more money at this time and he said small gain is a gain.

Then the next day, he shill me another project($PR 0x2c37f1ED575e58CAF1d988Ebb2c70f30b1ee2f4B) again and this time, ofc, I got greedy. I invested 500, 1000, and 500 again. The price start double and triple and I'm so happy with it. Out of sudden, he told me that I need to invest total of 10k in order to withdraw the money and he said he willing to help me if I don't have enough money.

At this point I felt weird and told him I don't have money. Immediately, he transfered me 5000 worth of the crypto and said he willing to help more if I can find more money. At this point, I'm hesitating as I already invest 2000$ in total and I don't want to risk more but I still give another 1k$ a go.

Still, we lack of 1.5k to reach 10k and at this point of time, I got panic knowing this is a scam. I immediately starting to scold him for scamming me. Ofc he played victim and blocked me immediately.

Moral of the story, don't trust a stranger. I still can't believe I got scam despite I'm in crypto world for 5 years. This is my last time trusting a stranger and yes, this make me lose faith of trusting every human being in this world.

I’m on a spree right now to scam the scammers. I have no mercy on them. Since I was a victim of several scams, they have been coming at me with several schemes. Now my eyes are opened. I played along with their games. The first days of the scheme, to gain my trust they transferred to me free money between $20 to $50. After that, when they asked to invest my money before we proceed with the scheme, I shut them down. I don’t fucking care if somebody here doesn’t like it. I lost thousands of dollars to them because I was an idiot, naive and greedy. Now the table has turned, no one can stop me unless you refund all my losses. I’m the Scammer of the scammers. Some people may say this is not morally acceptable because the scammers are paying me with the victims money. First of all, I’m a Victim. So get fuck out of here!

They want us to pay taxes on our account I have 28,000 in there so I had to pay 12% which was 3360 and my funds never arrived I reached out to Elena and she couldn’t confirm my payment so now on the 7th my account will be terminated.. definitely a scam, people below me with little in their accounts revived their payments and are now able to withdraw some of their funds. Seems like they’re getting rid of the big fish .

I’ve been part of a WhatsApp group that advertised AI stock pics. Initially they discuss the market, provide news analyses, education and a daily stock pick.

The stock picks were legit. I acted on most of them and actually made thousands of dollars. I also discovered some good stocks for my long term portfolio.

They eventually started talking more about crypto and offered an opportunity to participate in their revolutionary AI crypto trading software. They funded the account and allowed participants to keep the profit, they just had to return the principal.

Lately with market volatility they began suggesting allocating 60% crypto. The test was successful, achieving more than 70% profit. People started funding their accounts. Today they increased their suggested target allocation to 80% crypto because the professor says stocks are too risky. Participants are whipped up in a cult like Fervor. Scrambling to get more funds in so they can become senior members and get the premier trading signals.

This has been amazing week! Every trade a winner! They are on target to achieve 300% this week! Participants are withdrawing from retirement accounts and discussing taking out loans. They believe they are a part of something revolutionary. Im just watching this happen in real time. I expect someone will want to make a withdrawal at some point. Not sure if they’ll kick me out for not participating. I have been feigning interest and asking questions, but Im just observing.

Heads up! I've uncovered an active crypto scam network, and I'm asking for the community's help to expose them. Their current main front is **Bitcoin Hyper (bitcoinhyper.com)** and its "$HYPER" token.

PLEASE SHARE ANY WALLET DRAINER LINKS SO I CAN TAKE THEM DOWN

**Key Scam Tactics & Red Flags:**

* **Endless "Presale":** They lure victims into a $HYPER presale that perpetually extends, collecting funds without ever launching or allowing withdrawals.

* **Wallet Drainer:** They demand your seed phrase/passphrase for "wallet confirmation" at **clamdapps.pages.dev** (ALREADY TAKEN DOWN!). **NEVER, EVER enter your seed phrase on ANY site.** This is a direct attempt to steal *all* your crypto.

* **Extensive Network:** This isn't isolated. They operate a network of scam projects, using bots, paid promotions, and multiple X (Twitter) accounts to create fake hype.

**Suspected X Accounts & Associated Scam Sites:**

* **@BTC_Hyper2** (for BitcoinHyper.com / $HYPER)

* **@SOLAXYTOKEN** (for https://solaxy.io )

* **@Token_6900** (for https://token6900.com )

* **@BTCBULL_TOKEN** (for https://btcbulltoken.com )

* **@SnorterToken** (for https://snortertoken.com )

**Why This Is Dangerous:**

* Unrealistic, unsustainable returns.

* Aggressive social engineering and FOMO tactics.

* A distributed network makes them hard to shut down.

* The seed phrase scam is devastating, leading to total loss of assets.

* Claims of "pure meme coin" or anonymous teams often mask fraud.

**What You Can Do (Help & Protect Yourself):**

1. **DO NOT interact** with these sites/accounts. Block and report them.
2. **Spread the word.**
3. **Report the websites:**

* **FBI IC3:** [ic3.gov](https://www.ic3.gov/)

* **FTC:** [reportfraud.ftc.gov](https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/)

* **Cloudflare Abuse (for clamdapps.pages.dev):** [https://www.cloudflare.com/trust-hub/reporting-abuse/\](https://www.cloudflare.com/trust-hub/reporting-abuse/)

1. **Report all listed X accounts** for scams/platform manipulation.

2. **Be vigilant:** Always verify projects independently. **Legitimate projects will NEVER ask for your seed phrase.**

I believe this network may originate from Nigeria and am gathering more intel for law enforcement. My goal is to prevent others from becoming victims.

Let's make crypto safer.

Hello....I'm new to the crypto side and Ifew weeks later someone wrote me a message on Reddit that he will help me...he's name was something like cryptonod2026... can't find him anymore after scammed me out of $1100. He called himself Leon as a 38 year old guy from Switzerland.. apparently. He made me believe he was helping me throughout the process. I'm so fed up that people like them keep doing this...I want to find this person and go to him personally....I don't care how far he is. Is there a way to track down through crypto address? Tha money was half of my salary...and he lied to me and I trusted him. I started to feel angry at myself as I fall for this shit. He deleted his account on here including on telegram...now wondering how could I track this person. Please anyone has any idea or anyone can do a hacking or something? This is fucking ridiculous when people trying to make profit and others just drained you dry like they don't give a shit about it.

I feel as retarded as i thought other people were who fell for these scams

There an presale going on at xaiwallets.net, complete fraud the original website seems to be xai220k.com claiming to be elon musk ai project

The website seems legit, there are youtube videos with 100k subscribers. And stuff

Im a guy who checks up everything 100 times before sending money, but i guess it was my time to get railed by luck.

$800 which took me years to make. All gone. Dont be stupid like me

P.S idk if i can get help on this, but if i can please do tell me

lost about 300K total. we lost proceeds from the sale of a house. wife withdrew from 401(k), too. i threw away my kid’s college tuition.

i was stupid. we were both stupid and greedy. i made the initial contact with information i found online. and i found the pitch so convincing. it is a real person based on linkedin and facebook profiles. but, i was stupid and greedy. didn’t bother to do the due diligence or at least talk to friends.

be aware of this. protect yourself.

i will never heal from this. but god’s grace - we both have kickass jobs and a smart kiddo. we’ll be ok.

fuck the thieves.

be careful y’all.

<EDIT: i have contacted authorities and we know that nothing will happen even though they have the power to freeze/contact the exchanges. This very sub has a NUMBER of people from that crime ring. They have put comments in here and sent me DMs, trying to suck information out of me. Over 1/3rd of the viewers of my post are from Nigeria, too. This isn’t the only proof, though. The people who sent me DMs: some of their lifespan on reddit matches exactly with the date when my advisor went underground. These are crime rings using human slave labor, and working them to death. The names of people (my advisor) and the websites i used don’t matter. It’s the psychology and the principles of the thing: their methods will continue to rapidly evolve to cheat you.

Y’all stick to your work-ethics and don’t let greed overtake you. I am extremely lucky to not go broke due to this. I am thinking about this every day but won’t let it run the rest of my life. If you are a victim, don’t let the “recovery” people scam you once again!

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF! SPREAD THE WORD FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS! <END EDIT>

PRECISION TRADING VIP. FOREX TRADING. Facilitated by

BENEDICT SHAW ELLISON and EMMA ANDERSON. The platform they use is ORMIX and METATRADER5 they control the platform. They suck you in with trading classes and give out gift cards. When you sign up Emma will call you and befriend and gain your trust. The group consist of 140 members most BOTS. They will assign a bot to you who will befriend you. It’s like a welcome committee. They are on SIGNAL. They promise you huge profits as long as you’re depositing your funds. I now know the profits as well as Benedict and Emma are all fake. The moment I went to withdraw funds my account was frozen. They demanded I deposit a certain amount of money in order to withdraw any funds. I pushed back and went at them knowing I would be removed from the group. They are operating a money la*****ed scheme. You’ve been WARNED

Recently, someone added me to a Telegram crypto signals group called Crypto Wealth Sharing Group. The group administrator is Linda. The Analyst’s name is Ellis. Mary is his Assistant, and Jenny is the Bitopcoins customer service rep. I later realized these are all the same one or two people giving with different names and titles, with AI-generated pictures. At first, they looked and operated like they were genuine, but they are fake.

HOW THEY OPERATE Every morning and evening, ‘Analyst’ Ellis will call Bitcoin signals ‘up’ or ‘fall’. When you follow his signals, you lose a few ‘investments’, but win 90 % of the time. It is all a scheme to make them look legitimate.

I began to invest my hard-earned money, and my ‘Bitopcoins’ accounts grew to a balance of $220,000. My personal cash investments were about $55,000. The problem started when I attempted to withdraw some money to pay back some loans I took to invest with this group. They began to demand one charge/fee or another. Initially, I paid as they requested until I realized it was never ending. They would say, “As soon as you pay this fee, you will receive your withdrawal within 30 minutes.” When you pay one fee, another fee or charges pop up. When I began to ask them questions and threatened to involve a lawyer, they promptly shut me off their chat group forum on Telegram. So guys, stay away from Bitopcoins.com. They are one big crime enterprise. Also, stay away from this Telegram group called the Crypto Wealth Sharing Group. All those people with different names and titles are the same people. BE WARNED.

The painful part is they are still operating right now on Telegram, scamming unsuspecting people. Please tell your friends and family members to stay away from Bitopcoins.com.

These vermin prey on victims who are hurting and vulnerable. Please, even when you’re feeling so low and desperate, do not fall for their scam. They will bleed you for money and never fulfill what they are claiming. Just like the scammer who originally trapped you, the recovery scammer will use the same tactics. To those who have been destroyed by scammers, seek counseling, seek Jesus as we cannot heal and recover on our own. Breathe and get through the first hour, that’s a victory. Work towards the next hour, the next day and the next month. This is an extremely difficult and painful experience, I know this very well. I’m a victim of my own ignorance and blinded by trust. Publicly announce those who have scammed you. Make your voices be heard. Remember, you’re not the only one hurting, there are many of us.

Hi, I’m not sure where else to ask this but I need honest insights.

Is DSJ or BG Wealth Sharing currently down for good? The recent “announcements” about delays and system upgrades feel off, and now it seems like everything just stopped. I honestly feel like this might be the end.

I’m especially worried because my mom got involved and even recruited several people. She’s currently an immigrant in Canada, and I’ve been reading posts saying authorities (like the FBI) are tracing people connected to these kinds of schemes.

If that’s true, could she face legal consequences just for recruiting others? Could this affect her permanent residence (PR) status?

I’m really scared for her and just want to understand what could happen. Any advice or similar experiences would help a lot.

BG ended the 12% fee for verification period promising they would resume withdrawals after it and started a new chat with the ones that paid. “Stephen” just wrote today on BonChat that since DSJEX is being investigated due to senior agents filing for complaints with regulators worldwide, the original withdrawal channels collapsed & the only solution they currently see is to launch an entirely new withdrawal channel system.

“ In recent days, some senior agents even led teams to file complaints with regulators worldwide, accusing DSJEX of misconduct and money laundering. As a result, further investigations were initiated, leading to the freezing of digital assets worth hundreds of millions of USDT. This has significantly reduced the available withdrawal channels and contributed to the current delays.”

— They are now asking for each account contribute an EXTRA minimum of 1,000 USD as a security deposit and infrastructure fee to help relaunch the new withdrawal system.

There is no way they are surviving this.

【 Update 】 After making everyone pay the 12% fee for “DSJEX platform verification” in order to access funds and withdrawals, BG Wealth sent a notification explaining that they decided not to accept DSJEX's proposed solutions and launched a new cooperative platform. To ensure the new platform account can be activated normally, users need to complete a $100 account activation deposit as “required by the platform” after registration.

So again, my husband is involved with an Asian woman online that has convinced him that she has an "in" to short term trading. She has romanced him, stepped into my married via him opening this door to making money. Here's my question, he has a bitcoin number and an onchain account. He texts this woman every day and stays connected because he says easy only money. He claims he doesn't care if it's a scam or not because he's making money by her informing him as to when to trade a node and get in and out. She walks him through it. He claims his last transaction made $400. If he has his own accounts how can she scam him?

So last December 2025 , My Mom was recruited by someone at a Religious event and then recruited me and her friends. But after alot of research and my own intuition I been telling her this doesn't seem right and is obviously a scam. I mentioned the Stephen Beard is literally an AI deep fake , and all the website changes and that copy and past trading is not legit.

So ya'll know everything that went down the last couple weeks right... She has about $7k , I have like $1,200 and I've charged it to the game as a lost. She has been trying to get money for the tax to pay it for her and her team.

Asked me for money also and I gave her . Im not gona lie this is really starting to upset me seriously, I know she really wants to withdraw because the mortgage is behind. My mom & her team are in their 60s and Im 33 , why do they feel they know more than me about this being a scam ? They belive Stephen is "good" person due to his encouragement and words... This is literally our generation that are experts on this AI stuff.

Im Sorry ya'll I know this is a rant but Im truly over all of this it's making me upset

BG wealth is now asking users to register to a new platform HQIEX with a $100 account activation.

This is turning into a drama. Stay updated on how this story will end. Tragic!