Selected Cases

Crypto Scam Victim Recovers $8K Loss

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This case is one of the recent successful fraud recovery cases handled by our firm. The case involves online investment fraud / fake cryptocurrency trading platforms / telecom-induced fund transfers. Through cross-border legal cooperation and blockchain fund tracking, we successfully identified the flow of the involved funds and assisted the client in recovering the majority of the losses.

Williams & Connolly is committed to providing victims with professional, fast, and efficient legal support to safeguard our clients’ legitimate rights and interests, helping them regain trust and financial security.

Loss 1: Investment Scam

Looking for ways to make money after retirement, Mr. Jones searched online and stumbled upon a promising investment company that ranked highly on Google. After filling out his profile, he received a call from someone calling himself "Patrick Webster," who identified himself as a managing broker at the company.

Patrick introduced Mr. Jones to an investment opportunity offered by a company called Stark Markets, explaining that even with a small investment, he could earn a certain amount of money.

The entire onboarding process seemed professional and compliant, and Mr. Jones quickly believed their legitimacy, partly because the account manager seemed financially savvy and easy to like. The setup was done through software called Anydesk, which allows one person to access another's computer. More information about screen-sharing scams.

The caller inquired about Mr. Jones's family situation, and upon learning he had a granddaughter named Emma, claimed his daughter was also named Emma.

These tactics help scammers quickly build rapport with their targets, gain trust, and exploit the victim's goodwill.

Withdrawing Funds from the Scam

After about a week of "transactions," the scammers suggested Mr. Jones withdraw some funds. Mr. Jones withdrew £800, which gave him confidence in the investment scheme. That same day, the scammers persuaded him to invest another £3,000.

Over two months, Mr. Jones made 13 payments to the platform, investing nearly £60,000.

When he later tried to withdraw his funds, he received conflicting information, such as his account manager being on holiday and needing to be present, or that they believed the payments were complete and they would investigate.

Mr. Jones eventually spoke with someone who identified herself as "Rosa Kaufman," who claimed she could help him close the account and withdraw his funds. Again, she facilitated this through Anydesk, seemingly closing all his transactions and claiming she would refund his money.

After waiting a week, Mr. Jones tried to contact his account manager but was unable to reach him. By this time, he had clearly fallen into an elaborate scam.

Loss Two: The Fraud Recovery Scam

About a year after losing money in an investment scam, Mr. Jones received a call from someone claiming to be "Peter Bancroft," who said he worked for a company called "Global Fraud Recovery." Having almost given up hope because his bank refused to help recover his losses, Mr. Jones believed that working with them wouldn't cause him any further loss.

Again, the caller appeared very friendly, sociable, and trustworthy, stating that they had obtained Mr. Jones's email address from a list of people scammed by Stark Markets.

They already knew Mr. Jones's name, email address, and the amount he had invested and lost, making their claims even more credible.

Having already been scammed once, Mr. Jones searched online and found positive reviews for Fraud Recovery Global, which also claimed to be backed by another company. A person claiming to be Peter Bancroft assured him that he wouldn't need to pay any upfront fees, only after his money was recovered.

To investigate the case, Mr. Jones was asked to provide a photocopy of his photo ID and sign a contract—all as proof of the company's credibility. Fraud Recovery Global told Mr. Jones that they had recovered his funds through the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and transferred them to Coventry Global Bank.

Unfortunately, according to Fraud Recovery Global, to receive the money, Mr. Jones needed to make an upfront payment in cryptocurrency. Over two months, he made 19 payments totaling £80,000 through Localbitcoin.com.

After all the payments were completed, Mr. Jones was told the funds had been transferred to his bank account. A week later, when the funds still hadn't arrived, Mr. Jones went to his local bank branch to inquire if there were any pending transactions.

The bank quickly confirmed there were no outstanding payments and warned him that he had likely been scammed again.

Recovering the Scammed Money

After discovering this multi-part scam, Mr. Jones felt extremely frustrated and desperate, as his bank chose to ignore him and refuse to provide assistance.

For over a year, he had been struggling to sleep, walking approximately 10 miles daily to try and forget his predicament and the worry of spending small amounts of money.

It was then that he sought help and support from CEL Law Firm. After listening to Mr. Jones's story, we understood that it wasn't his fault; his bank had failed to protect him, and we would work to help him recover his money.

We successfully helped Mr. Jones recover over £80,000 in losses, alleviating some of the financial distress he was experiencing daily.

Beware of Fraudulent Recovery Services

Elle Yates, Team Manager of CEL Solicitors FOS, is dedicated to recovering client funds and offers the following advice:

Scammers will use all sorts of tricks to steal money from hardworking people, even retargeting previous victims with new, more ruthless scams. We often see examples where scammers use personal and financial data stolen in one scam to provide credibility for more sophisticated and convincing scams months or even years later.

This highlights the difficulty of conducting investigations independently. Scammers always find ways to evade regulation, whether it's creating a new fraudulent company, changing an old one's name, or simply lying to clients. The best advice is: if something seems too good to be true, it's likely a scam—especially if they contact you unexpectedly.

As a fraud recovery firm, CEL Law Firm will never contact you without your explicit consent. If in doubt, contact the firm through their official channels, such as the phone number on their website, their official contact email, or even their verified social media accounts. Any legitimate fraud recovery firm would be happy to verify whether the person you speak with is a real employee or someone impersonating you.