Consumer complaint received 2023-04-01
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: CO
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
I'm a XXXX XXXX XXXX and I was approached by an " investor '' who worked in XXXX XXXX, who claimed to have $ XXXX to invest in a rental property. The first communication was via a phone call then after that it was all through XXXX. 
He said that he worked with a network of investors around the world with account balances in excess of $ XXXX and they all worked together to trade and move the market. Foolishly I tried investing {$1000.00}. I sent it to XXXX via wire and there it was exchanged for crypto currency and from there it was transferred to a XXXX XXXX where an exchange named XXXX was accessed through a " XXXX XXXX ''. After a few deposits he had me switch to from XXXX to XXXXnow it is obvious that XXXX had XXXX out the scam and shut them down. The first investment went so well that I decided to invest $ XXXX and of course the gains were astounding ( 30-50 % ). At that point I told him that I needed to be able to withdrawal funds and of course he helped me with that. This went on for a while to the point where I had invested app $ XXXX. My account balance at that point was {>= $1,000,000}. He directed me into a trade for $ XXXX and it happened very quickly. I made the trade which was open for 48 hours. Immediately after placing the trade he called me to say I had to deposit another $ XXXX to protect the option trade. I told him that wasn't possible and we would just have to wait until the trade closed ( 48hrs ) to see what happens. At that point he deposited $ XXXX into my account to boost the balance to $ XXXX to help " protect '' the position. Just before the trade was set to expire he called me and tried once again to get me to get the $ XXXX and or trade the last $ XXXX in my account and I told him no I was done. 
The trade finished and of course it was bad and I lost the $ XXXX. In retro spec I'm certain that the XXXX trading platform which was held inside my XXXX wallet was fictitious and there were never any real trades made. 
The next step was to try to withdrawal the remaining $ XXXX in my account. I submitted a withdrawal request with XXXX and waited for about 4 hours then I contacted their tech support through the app. The response I received was that since this was the first large withdrawal from my account I had to provide a 20 % deposit to " prove funds '' within 3 days or my funds would be frozen on the block chain for 90days. I was desperate for the funds so I made the deposit. At that point they said I was number XXXX in the que for withdrawals and I had to be patient ... of course for a fee of $ XXXX I could achieve super account status and receive my withdrawal in 15 mins. I did not make the final $ XXXX deposit it became obvious at that point that it was a total scam. I have screen shots of all of this that I am glad to share. This was an amazingly well organized scam. I lost $ XXXX ... ..my life 's savings

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation