Consumer complaint received 2023-10-30
Company: Block, Inc.
State: SC
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Provide a description of the incident and how you were victimized. Provide information not captured elsewhere in this complaint form. 
I feel I have been victim of an illegal copy trading scam. I was approached by a person on XXXX called XXXX that he is an equity trader and provides copy trading. This means that I open an account with his broker and deposit funds via XXXX and then mirrors his trades on my account and he gets 1XXXX XXXX of the proceeds. From XXXX to XX/XX/20 I deposited {$20000.00} into the broker XXXX. I have been working the trader, XXXXXXXX  and his/her partner XXXX via XXXX. I have included pictures of the XXXX chat window and the brokerages on the attachment In early XXXX the chainmarkets.net site address was not found but I was told from XXXX, the partner that not to worry, there was a hack and the site was being redirected. It later came back as XXXX. However, I never received any communication from the brokerage, and there is no phone number and emails have gone unanswered. Also I noticed on the site that there is not explanation of how this works, and many of the links did not work. Our goals was to increase my account to $ XXXX net the $ XXXX deposited, which happened in XXXX. Then I was told that I had to pay the 10 % fee or {$14000.00} in advance of getting my funds. This email is attached. I have emailed the broker and told them to take the proceeds out of the profits but I have not received an answer and am not comfortable paying the {$14000.00} to a bitcoin address, in particular since the website changed, names, there is no contact information, other information and most of the links don't work. Then I learned that the person doing the trading PBInvests on chainmarkets.online is not the real person that he represented himself to be on our virtual chats. There is a nice young man that goes by XXXX  on XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ) that has been successful	rading any many people I know vouch for him. I joined XXXX 's stock trading class on XXXX and let him know in a XXXX  chat that I was happy with his work on my copy trading account and he had no idea what I was talking about, so again this is suspect. Thus the person that is trading this account, with an image of the real XXXX is impersonating another individual. I now realize if it is too good to be true, it likely is so I want to verify this is a scam before I pay any more in these fees. I have screen shots of everything that I can provide as well. Can someone please tell me if this is a scam. I realize my $ XXXX is gone but I want to stop this from happening to anyone else. 

This is the only communication I received from the brokerage when the copy trading session was closed. 

Hello XXXX XXXX XXXX, Your copy trading session with XXXX has been closed by your expert trader. If you didn't initiate this request, please contact support. Status : Closed Profit : {$140000.00} Commission : {$14000.00} Account bal : {$160000.00} NOTE : You are required to pay XXXX XXXX of the total profits as commission and may proceed to make withdrawals to personal account. Your commission to be paid is a total fee of XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX AND XXXX XXXX DOLLARS XXXX XXXX ONLY. Payment should be made to the XXXX address below : XXXX Upload payment receipt to XXXX for confirmation. PLEASE CONTACT SUPPORT FOR MORE INFORMATION Regards, Team Chainmarkets Unfortunately CashAp should have known this was a scam and not approved my transactions. All attempts to have CashApp resolve this matter have not been successfu. 

Information About The Subject ( s ) Who Victimized You Name : XXXX  Business Name : XXXX & XXXX Address : Address ( continued ) : Suite/Apt./Mail Stop : City : Country : United States of America State : Zip Code/Route : Phone Number : Email Address : Website : XXXX XXXX XXXX IP Address : XXXX Other Information If an email was used in this incident, please provide a copy of the entire email including full email headers. 
There was not, it was XXXX and XXXX communications Are there any other witnesses or victims to this incident? 
I am sure hundreds if not more If you have reported this incident to other law enforcement or government agencies, please provide the name, phone number, email, date reported, report number, etc. 
Not as of yet Check here if this an update to a previously filed complaint : Who Filed the Complaint Were you the victim in the incident described above? 
Yes Name : Business Name : Phone Number : Email Address : Digital Signature By digitally signing this document, I affirm that the information I provided is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge. I understand that providing false information could make me subject to fine, imprisonment, or both. ( Title 18, U.S.Code, Section 1001 )

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation