The Double Rip

Hi Scott,

I need you to look into a company for me.I was on the phone talking with a "Financial advisor" from a company called TradeMote. I first encountered this company in March this year when I saw a clip on Facebook. It was of an interview on Sunrise (Channel 7). They were interviewing an average bloke who happened to invest in a Bitcoin company and in a very short time had amassed a small fortune.

I am 62 years old and had recently retired and had withdrawn my Superannuation. I thought I would try this investment because it was only around $200 investment. I was contacted by a lady who sounded quite genuine. She asked me what my financial goals were and I told her a figure I made up on the spot.

In a very short time the investment she required from me turned to $5000 to "secure" my position. A few days later another $5000 was required to "secure" my position. I was able to log on to my TradeMote account and saw how fast the account was growing. Then they wanted a $20,000 investment to "secure" my position.

When I tried to transfer the funds my bank (Westpac) contacted me and said they weren't going to allow the transfer as the account I was transferring to was on their watch list. When they contacted me again to see why I hadn't transferred the money I told them about the banks response and I also said I wanted to take the profit out. They eventually said I could do that but they needed a copy of my Passport and a bank statement.

I told them there was no way I was going to supply those documents and why couldn't they just transfer the funds to the account I had sent the funds from? I stopped answering their calls and in a very short time my account was virtually zero!

Then, I was contacted a few days ago by another advisor who said he was concerned that I had lost that money and for an investment of $10,000-$20,000 he would work to get my money back. I haven't been able to find this company on any scam lists but their website certainly looks real?

If you can check this company out I would be very grateful.Kind regards

Dennis

The number of people who contacted me in a similar situation to Dennis was frightening.

I call this scam the ‘double rip’:

The same scammers contact the victim (posing as a different company) and offer to help get their money back … as long as they deposit more money.

Another version of this is where the victims are contacted by official sounding lawyers (also the same scammers) who say they are conducting a class action on behalf of victims, and they require seed funding to take them on and get back their money.

This scam works because they’re targeting victims that easy targets (they’ve already been duped once), and in many cases they’re highly emotional and are intent on chasing their painful losses.

Scott

The Day My Dad Got a Viral STD

Hi Scott,

Recently I noticed my elderly father had gone downhill, was very quiet and was looking a bit depressed.

When I asked him, he told me that he was on a website he ‘probably shouldn’t have been’ on when the screen started to flash “YOUR COMPUTER HAS BEEN INFECTED WITH A VIRUS — DO NOT SHUT DOWN AS YOU WILL DAMAGE YOUR COMPUTER PERMANENTLY”.

He was directed to ring an overseas number to remove the virus. When he rang, they sounded professional and said they could certainly help him. He gave them remote access to his computer and requested his credit card. They charged him around $800 for the ‘virus removal’ and a further $1,200 for ‘repairs’.

Naturally he was distressed. The next day on reflection he decided to cancel his credit card. For a couple of days thereafter he was suffering from guilt and worry about any further money he might lose. Luckily, Commbank were great — they got the bogus charges refunded and gave him a new credit card. We also got his computer checked over. I always feel sorry for the oldies that don’t have someone to protect them.

Lisa

I wonder what website he was on that he ‘probably shouldn’t have been?’

Maybe collingwoodfc.com.au? Though on second thoughts, I reckon he was looking at birds ... but maybe not magpies.

I included this question because of the sheer number of people who wrote to me who’d been caught out on similar websites. (Another version of this scam happens via email, where you’re instructed to deposit a substantial amount of money to a bitcoin account within 35 days or they would release video of you watching porn, to your entire contacts list).

This scam exploits the emotion of shame and humiliation. The scammers hope you’ll pay the money, and never speak about it again, which I assume some people do. After all, can you imagine how embarrassing it would be to tell your daughter you’re a Collingwood supporter?

Scott