Consumer complaint received 2023-07-08
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: TX
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Incident 1 : I was contacted through XXXX by a person pretending to be a well-known XXXX investor from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. He offered to teach me how to improve and increase my investment odds. He offered to show me by conducting the trades himself to show me that it works and then he would show me how he did it for a fee. He then told me to go to XXXX where all chats took place. This involved some other scammers that I will mention below. 

After agreeing to do this. I was guided to a trading platform called XXXX. I was asked to create an account and then fund it. The scammer asked me to fund with {$500.00}. to start. I told him I don't have that amount at the moment. So he asked how much I can start with. I told him I can do about {$200.00} to start. He agreed. Using my XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX ) account I transferred the funds to my XXXX  to purchase the Bitcoin I needed and send it to the digital wallet address. After doing that he told me to wait and to check back in a few hours or so. He contacted me and told me to check the account. When I did I saw that it had doubled in a short amount of time. I was convinced that this is the real deal. When I was able to I added some more money to the account. I would verify that the money was there and it was. This was repeated a few times he would tell me to wait and then check back later. When I did, I saw the money keep on growing. Eventually, he contacted me and told me that he didn't expect this to happen. He told me that the amount had grown to {$15000.00}. I was excited and I thought I had hit it big and that this was going to be taught to me. Then I was hit with a story that because the account grew so large that I can no longer do trades. I would have to upgrade to a V.I.P. account. In order to do this I would have to pay XXXX a fee for this in the total amount of {$5500.00}. I did hesitate at first but I convince myself that this was XXXX XXXX and to trust him. I contacted XXXX to verify this and they told me yes there is a fee. I told the scammer that I didn't have that amount at the moment because I was waiting on a new debit card for another account that contained the amount I needed. This account is my XXXX account this account held the inheritance I received from my mother 's passing. Once I got the card I used my Chase account to make the Bitcoin purchase through XXXX for {$3000.00}. This put the XXXX account on hold while the transaction between XXXX and XXXX finished processing. During the waiting process, I paid XXXX to XXXX to pay down the XXXX. Fee. When the {$3000.00} was released from holding I paid off the rest of the XXXX fee. When I contacted XXXX if they received the fee they told me to check with the person managing my XXXX account. When all was done the scammer told me to hold on and wait. Again, he contacted me to ask me if I have checked the account recently. When I did, I saw that it had grown tremendously. It was over {$100000.00} in bitcoins. I was ecstatic man ; I couldn't believe it. Then a couple of hours later the money was suddenly I got an email from XXXX XXXX stating " Hello Your withdrawal of your pending profits from the investment platform has been transferred and is ready to process. To receive your profits contact the miner pending today 's payouts as scheduled daily ''. I went to XXXX as instructed. I couldn't find them on XXXX. I wrote them back in an email stating that I have a concern about my withdrawal, what is your number? I asked the scammer why was to money withdrawn without my permission and into a digital wallet I did not create, He ignored the question. Then the scammer contacted me asking have I talked to XXXX XXXX about the issue. I said I did and could not find them on XXXX. The scammer told me to hold on so I did. Suddenly I get a message notification from XXXX XXXX on XXXX. I spoke to them about the withdrawal and I stated how the money was transferred to a digital wallet I did not create. They informed me that in order to get the money out I would have to buy a private key. They told me it would cost me {$10000.00} to buy the private key to that wallet. I told them I did not have the money to pay for it. Suddenly the price dropped to {$5000.00} I told them I didn't have it at all and that I was being scammed. Instead of showing me how to put in a claim for fraud through XXXX XXXX. They instead started grilling me on how am I being scammed and who did it. I told them and I grilled them back on why haven't you sent me a link or told me a way to claim fraud on this person. Instead, they kept avoiding most of the questions and kept asking if I would pay the amount. When I asked them what if I couldn't pay they told me that after a certain time, there would be a {$50.00} maintenance fee added for every day that the money sat in the digital wallet. I chose not to pursue the payment after this. I was devastated about what had happened. 

Incident 2 : The second scam that also happened on XXXX I received a message from a person. It was a riddle contest. I answered the riddle and I got a message saying yes that is correct and that I have won the {$1000.00}. The name of the person used was XXXX, I did check out his XXXX and everything seemed to look legit. 

I was told that in order to get the money the company that sponsored the contest would have to verify my XXXX account. I was asked to exchange my XXXX email for one that the scammer provided. Feeling desperate from losing money already, I follow through with the request. When I did I lost access to my XXXX account. Even though I followed the XXXX fraud email I received it did not work instead it took me to a XXXX page, meaning that the page didn't exist or XXXX took that page down. When I asked the scammer why did he log me out of my account. He told me it's ok I will give you access again once you have verified the account with the company. Then I started getting text messages from the scammer under a different name. The scammer was posing as a woman named XXXX XXXX. I asked them about my XXXX account and why did you log me out of my account. I asked what happened to XXXX. I was told that in order to get the money I would have to pay the verification fee of {$100.00} dollars. At the same time, the money had grown to {$2000.00} all of a sudden. I asked the scammer, who is portraying someone name XXXX XXXX why is the money growing if I won {$1000.00} from the contest. I kept asking for my account to be released and I was told the same thing pay the {$100.00} and I would get my account. So, I used Bitcoin I bought using XXXX to see if the scammer would follow through. The scammer did not and suddenly the money had grown to just under {$10000.00}. I asked the scammer again why is the money growing so fast and why are you investing the money I won without my permission. I called him a scammer and suddenly I started getting pictures of XXXX XXXX trying to convince me that she is real. I even went to the XXXX account and saw that there is one but there were a couple of them and they looked fishy. I continued to message the scammer trying to get my account back that I don't care about the money I won or the {$10000.00}. I paid them again to see if there would be a limit to how much money it would take to get the account back after being told I would. I was met with the same result that I didn't do it on time and that it was too late. I asked them what is the name of the company. The scammer gave me the name XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I did my research on it and the site existed I did receive an email from them but the site was flagged as a scammer site. After hours of trying to get my account back, I got fed up and tried to get help. For the next few days, I started getting calls from friends and family, because the scammer started using my account to target them. I contacted XXXX from several accounts as well as asked friends and family to do the same. I received a message from XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX that replied to one of my accounts and it was an Automated statement that the reported account did not break any of the community guidelines and can not be taken down. At the end of the statement, it stated a disclaimer saying that this is an XXXX  response and that my response may not be perfect ( something similar to this ). This takes me to the third scam. 

Incident 3 : The third scam happened when I was fed up and I wanted to see if there was a chance to do something about this and recover my funds back. I searched on XXXX and XXXX popped up with an article talking about XXXX  scams. I started to read it when I read that I was able to recover my funds. I got a little hope and towards the end of the article stated that if you wanted to recover your funds you can contact XXXX Hackers at XXXX. So I contacted them. I wrote an email asking them if they could help me recover my XXXX. The person answered back and called himself XXXX XXXX. XXXX stated that he will look into my case. He came back a few days later stating that yes he could recover my funds and that I need to send him all the information on the scammers. After conversing with XXXX I was asked to make a payment of {$500.00}. I used my XXXX account to pay for the Bitcoin I used to purchase through XXXX to pay for the service. Then he asked me for more money. I was to pay a fee of {$300.00} for the services. After that, I was asked to send {$500.00} more to purchase a XXXX XXXX  Ignoring my better judgment, I sent the money via XXXX. ( All transactions were in XXXXXXXX XXXX  ). Because I was uneducated, I kept on and sent another {$400.00} for a logger. When he realized that I would not be able to pay. He then told me that he recovered the funds and it is XXXX to get the funds I would have to create a wallet using XXXX. Ok, I felt comfortable since this is my wallet and I made it. XXXX then asked me to fund the XXXX with {$5500.00} to get the XXXX because of the amount of the recovery. I told him I did not have the XXXX to fund the account and that all I had XXXX to fund the account. He told me to fund the account with that so I did. He then proceeded to give me a link to recover the funds here is the link they gave me XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX I followed all the instructions and send a screenshot of the XXXX code he requested. I tried for hours to see if anything would happen and nothing did. No money was transferred at all. I contact XXXX after that and told him nothing was happening and that I need help to see if I did it correctly. I didn't hear from him until the next day when he had stolen the {$1000.00} out of my XXXX. That's when I realized that the link, he sent me was to steal my 12-word passphrase to my XXXX giving him access to the funds. 

As I mentioned before because I didn't know any better and I got desperate I kept on going with it hoping for a different turnout. 

Incident XXXX : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Finally, the fourth scam, after being scammed by XXXX I did a little more research on finding a proper agency to recover my funds. I did my research and through reading about how to pick a company. I found a company called XXXX XXXX. I found them through the mention of XXXX while reading a scammer recovery thread that had to allot of people on it. I thought I could trust it since it was about people who were scammed. They didn't come up on any scam alerts and were recommended by a few people in the thread. The website looks legit as well as the services they offered. I reached out to them I was contacted by email. The email was XXXX. I explained everything to them as well. I sent the information they requested. The agreement was they would recover the funds for me and that the fee would be taken out of the recovered funds. So far everything was on the up and up they updated me until they recovered the funds over {$15000.00}, They told me that to recover the funds I would need to send them my XXXX XXXX address and that they would use that in parallel with something called XXXX. Sent them the wallet address from that wallet. The money appeared in there, I was excited, thinking finally something. Then like the scammers, there was suddenly an issue to withdraw the money. I was told that because of the large number of funds I would have to fund {$2500.00} into the account to start making a withdrawal. So I took out a loan from my bank to make this happen. I thought it was legit. I bought the XXXX and transferred it into the XXXX account. Again, since I created the wallet I asked no questions. Once they verified that I funded the wallet. They told me to make a withdrawal. I did and would get a pop confirmation saying it would take XXXX minutes to confirm the withdrawal. So I would wait and wait and check back in to see that the money I withdrew was refunded back into the account. I did this multiple times and got the same results I started to get worried now. I told them of the issue. That's when they told me to contact XXXX support. I did and I was contacted by XXXX by someone named XXXX XXXX and someone named XXXX XXXX He instructed me to send my XXXX address. I did that and that's when XXXX XXXX contacted me and told me that they are testing the address link and to make a withdrawal of {$50.00}. I did and the transaction went through after an hour or so. I was excited I responded that it went through. Like clockwork, I was hit with a long spiel about I am part of the XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX  Account ( XXXX ). Here is the pasted conversation : " I ran a check on your account, and the check is complete. You are operating a XXXX XXXX XXXX Account ( XXXX ) which is to run till XXXX. Its a fixed deposit. To withdraw from this account now, it has to reach the interest threshold. You can either wait for the interest to accrue to the point of withdrawal or you can deposit the balance to get it to maturity. From what I can see here, theres a {$3000.00} deposit to be added until XX/XX/XXXX and a {$1500.00} fixed interest to be accrued on the total investment. 

Its either you let it run through to XXXX or you deposit the remaining amount to reach an earlier maturity date and then withdraw your profit alongside. Your current balance is fixed, youve withdrawn the {$50.00} in your accessible trade account. '' I was highly upset and told XXXXXXXX XXXX that this is not what we agreed upon and reminded them that the agreement we made was to recover the funds and fees would be taken out of that. They responded and told me they would check into it and then they came back agreeing with the XXXX team stating that yes this is true and that is the way it is done. I called them out and told them that at this point you are a scam as well and of course, they tried to convince me otherwise as all the other scammers tried to do. 

After everything I tried to recover my funds. I finally got some help and paid for a legit service. With their help and support, I was able to get to this point. I contacted each XXXX of my banks to make a fraud claim and was met with either silence or it was quickly dismissed with little to no explanation. I sent each XXXX of my banks a chargeback letter. When I was denied I sent a rebuttal letter. They were ignored. The response to my fraud claim was met with very slow responses and very unprofessional agents. For example, I made a claim with Chase Bank. I told the agent that I needed to make a fraud claim, and he asked me what happened. He gave me his opinion about what the outcome would be but I told him I understand but I have some information as to why I am asking for the chargeback, please tell me how I can submit this letter to your fraud department. The agent told me that he would make the claim on my behalf and that if the claim investigators need anything from me they will contact me. So a week went by and another, on the third week I contacted Chase Bank again to get an update. I spoke with an agent and she told me that there wasn't a fraud claim filed on my account. I got very upset. The lady did file the fraud claim for me she gave me the information I need to fax the claim department the documents I need to get to them. The next issue happened as I was waiting again for a response to the claim, around XXXX I received {$3000.00} in my Chase Bank account. I got excited believing I won my fraud claim and was granted the money back. About a little over a month or so, the money was pulled back out of my account leaving my account over {$2000.00} negative. When I called to ask what happened they told me that they denied the claim and that the money was just a credit on the account. I explained to her that no one told me this at all and I had no idea I would get a credit on my account. I explained that if I knew that would be the process, I would have put the money aside and never touched it until this matter would have been resolved. I also asked her why I was denied and she told me it was because I didn't send enough information and also because I didn't do by the dates the money was taken from the account. I also explained how no one contacted me at all and I would have given them more information. I felt like I got punished for trying to fight for myself. They told me that I have no choice and that I would have to pay it back. When I started asking the agent what is the procedure to pay this back, the agent hung up on me. I called back and made a complaint with the next agent. I then sent them another letter to rebut the denial from Chase Bank. I was sent a denial letter again. I also visited my local branch and talked to a lady in the claims department. She told me the same thing as well. She also told me she would send me all the information including what information the XXXX  platform sent to them. I received the letter a few days later and all that was in it was the same denial letter I already had and did not include the documents I was supposed to get from XXXX. 

Another example is from XXXX. I contacted them about making a fraud claim. I made my claim and was met with the same situation as Chase Bank. I made a claim with the fraud department. I was told to send my documents over using email. I did so. Then I was told that I would receive a call from the claims department in a few days. Again, I would wait and wait. When I contacted them back, I was told once again that the claim was not filed. Once again more wasted time and effort. I reclaimed the fraud and sent the documents again. A few days later I got an email stating that I was denied the claim. When I contact XXXX, I was told why and they told me it was because I didn't make the claim when the transactions happened. I sent in a rebuttal letter about the denial claim. I was met with silence and no response by email or phone. 

I contacted all the platforms that were involved like XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I sent them a letter of my complaint about the fraudulent transactions and the scam that was being run. I requested that my accounts be closed because of this. They responded with little concern and my accounts are still active to this day.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation