Consumer complaint received 2023-09-06
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: NY
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Towards the end of XXXX, XXXX I was contacted on XXXX XXXX by a scammer, pretending to be a single woman on XXXX. " She '' went under the profile name, " XXXX XXXX '' from XXXX, Florida and used the profile picture of a XXXX model by the name of XXXX XXXX XXXX. Of course, had I known about doing a reverse XXXX XXXX search, I would have discovered the fraud and avoided the scam. Unfortunately, I was naive and gullible. 

So anyway, " she '' wrote to me saying that she was single, just like me, and that I seemed like a good guy, who she'd like to build a relationship with. I was enamored by " her '' picture and took the bait. 

So, in the beginning we made small talk and got to know each other. She made up a story of how she was married to an abusive, monstrous husband in her hometown of " XXXX, XXXX '', and that all she wanted was to find a nice guy like me. Eventually she told me that she moved to XXXX, Florida and got reunited with her father, who had been living there for a while before. 

Then after a week and a half of getting to know each other, she began telling me that " her father '' taught her how to invest in Crypto currency. She told me that she got so good at it, that she was making over {$3000.00} daily by bidding on Crypto currency in an NFT platform. She showed me professional looking data and fake numbers to convince me that she was making easy money. Then she wrote to me saying that I should also invest in the same platform. She told me that my daily gains would make it a " Win-Win Situation '' for me. When I expressed suspicion of her being a scammer, she used psychological tactics to satisfy me. She said that she was aware of these despicable human beings, who present themselves as the opposite gender and scam people. She wrote to me " We are all God 's children! I wouldn't have the heart to do this to you! I would get satisfaction from teaching another human being how to thrive with Crypto investments! '' So, I fell for it and let her teach me. 

So on XX/XX/2023, we switched our correspondence from XXXX XXXX to XXXX, and we got down to business. She patiently took the time to walk me through the process of making a XXXX account, a XXXX XXXX account, and an account on her fraudulent website platform. Her websites name was XXXX. She walked me through the process of creating an account on her phony platform as a bookmark link in the XXXX XXXX app. She also patiently walked me through the process of transferring money from my Chase Bank checking account to XXXX and then to her fraudulent XXXX  platform. I kept sending her screenshots of the page that I was on and she made circles or arrows where I should click. She had me copy and paste her block chain address to XXXX to send the money to her phony XXXX website. Her block chain address was as follows : XXXX. So I kept copying it and pasting it. 

Another tactic she used in order to bamboozle me was the way I set up my wallet account. They gave me 12 key words for me to write down and keep in a safe place. She told me that with this I could rest assured that no one would have access to my funds except for me. This made me feel that the website was safe and secure. Little did I know that these 12 key words were all fake. 

Then she began getting very pushy with me. She said " You're only making {$100.00} daily, wouldn't you rather make {$350.00}? Don't you have more money to invest? '' I told her that this is all I have. So she put a lot of pressure on me to borrow money. I told her that all I could do was take out a {$22000.00} loan from my 401K retirement account. She pushed me to do it and I did. 

I, therefore, transfered a total of {$34000.00} from Chase to XXXX and then to XXXX. 

When I ordered these alarmingly large outgoing wire transfers from Chase, Chase told me that I would need to speak with a representative on the telephone and give the authorization. I got frightened and told the scammer that I didn't want to get involved. She went back and gave the argument that with the 12 key words, no one could steal my money. So I naively gave Chase Bank my authorization for the huge outgoing wire transfers. 

So every day I did my platform bidding with the money that I supposedly had in the account, and everyday the fraudulent platform showed me that my gains were over {$300.00}. 

Then on XX/XX/XXXX, everything came to a head. She asked me if I would be interested in taking out a {$50000.00} pledge loan on the platform. She explained that I would make about {$1500.00} profit and pay back the {$50000.00} anytime. It sounded good to me. So she guided me into applying for the loan. I gave a couple of clicks and then I was TRAPPED. I had taken out a {$50000.00} IRREVERSIBLE pledge loan. She told me that I had seven days to repay the loan with money from OUTSIDE the platform account! I told her that I had no money! When I panicked, she sent me a link to their " customer service representative ''. The representative told me that if I didn't come up with {$50000.00} plus interest within seven days, then my account would be locked forever and I wouldn't be able to get my {$34000.00} out. 

The next day, " She '' began sending me love messages, trying to get me to come up with more money, in order to supposedly unlock my account. She offered to " pay '' {$30000.00} and I would just need to come up with {$20000.00}. I explained to her that I wouldn't be able to come up with a penny. So my family advised me to " ghost '' her and take my {$34000.00} loss. 

Later I was advised that the XXXX platform was fraudulent to begin with, and that " she '' stole my money right when I put it in. The numbers that the platform showed me regarding my daily gains, were all fake. I was also advised that the XXXX website was created very recently, had a XXXX % confidence analysis, and was reported as spam. 

So this is where I stand. My Chase Bank wire transfers give me a net loss of {$34000.00}. I used the consulting agency, XXXX XXXX to guide me and help me recover my stolen funds. They wrote an initial " protocol letter '' on my behalf, describing how Chase could have easily protected me from fraud, but chose not to. The letter requested a reimbursement of my stolen funds into my account. So Chase wrote me a letter DENYING the request. Then XXXX XXXX wrote a second letter to Chase on my behalf, called a " rebuttal letter ''. XXXX, one of the Chase case workers at the executive office in XXXX, Ohio, told me that she rejected the rebuttal letter as well. I asked her if she could put her decision in writing, but she apparently refuses to do so. So all I have to submit to you is Chase 's letter rejecting the initial " protocol letter '', but no rejection letter for the second " rebuttal letter ''. 

XXXX also rejected my request for a reimbursement. 

So I'm including the following documents for you to see :. The ombudsman letter that XXXX XXXX has written to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection on my behalf. The initial protocol letter that XXXX XXXX has written to Chase on my behalf. The rejection letter from Chase of the protocol letter .The second rebuttal letter that XXXX XXXX has written to Chase on my behalf. The Chase Bank statements for XXXXXXXX XXXX  and XXXXXXXX XXXX with the relevant transactions highlighted in yellow. 

Please see what you can do to help me recover my stolen funds. I would really appreciate it. 

XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation