Consumer complaint received 2022-12-13
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
State: CO
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
In mid XX/XX/XXXX, I saw a message in XXXX ( an online chat platform ) to me in a group chat called XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
I read messages from a variety of members and it seemed to me that they are all happy making money. The group was apparently a collection of investors following trading direction from someone named XXXX XXXX ( aka. XXXX XXXX XXXX- XXXX. I XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX and It seemed legit. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I asked the group how to become a member. Someone who is the head of the group answered me back. Her name is XXXX XXXX last name unknown ). She told me there is no Membership fee. There is a 20 % commission from any profits made. So I said, I will try with $ XXXX. XXXX showed me how to open an account with XXXX, an online trading platform. This involved registering at XXXX XXXX XXXX # /register with an invitation code XXXX. Then she showed me how to transfer money from my COINBASE Account to XXXX. We boughtTether XXXX XXXX  worth {$10000.00}. I sent XXXX XXXX to this address. 
XXXX I started trading with XXXX XXXX. The first transaction I made was almost XXXX. I told her that it was easy. She said, but of course in every investment there is a risk. I was convinced to put more money into my account. She said that the following week is the big Layout meaning we can make more money. The more money in your account the more money you can make, XXXX XXXX XXXX helped me again to buy XXXX XXXX from my COINBASE account. Bought {$98000.00} XXXX for {$100000.00} I sent XXXXXXXX XXXX to XXXX Bought {$98000.00} XXXX for {$100000.00} XXXX sent XXXX XXXX  to XXXX On XX/XX/XXXX. I bought Tether XXXX XXXX for {$2800.00} from COINBASE. 
I sent XXXX XXXX to XXXX On XXXX XXXX I used my XXXX I bought XXXX  {$5200.00} XXXX sent XXXX XXXX to XXXX I also used my XXXX account, bought XXXX for {$10000.00} and I sent XXXX XXXX to XXXX My total loss of {$220000.00} ( that is not including the fake profit from their platform ) The website for the platform can be found at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  Or XXXX  Last Friday XXXX XXXX was our last trading day. XXXX texted the investment group through XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, You can withdraw all the funds in your account including the profit to your bank card, and then settle the club commission with me. 
My understanding was that we can withdraw all the funds in the account including the profit and then settle the club commission with her. 
So she helped me initiate a transfer of {$490000.00} ( which included my initial investment plus gain. ) from their platform XXXX  or XXXX account to my COINBASE account. Using XXXX XXXX address : XXXX I was waiting for the money to arrive in COINBASE, minutes later I texted her that the money was not in COINBASE yet and it was taking too long. 
XXXX told me that I have to pay the commission of {$53000.00} to her first before they can release the money despite the fact she described this account as my account. I told her I dont have additional funds in my bank and that I was planning on paying the commission from the earnings. She told me, That was the agreement that I pay the {$53000.00} before they can release my money to COINBASE. We had many text conversations that evening of Friday XX/XX/XXXX, the whole day Saturday XX/XX/XXXX and now Sunday XX/XX/XXXX. I requested that they release the XXXX to COINBASE to settle the commission on Saturday XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX responded on XX/XX/XXXX that my request was denied and the rules should not be broken. Anyone withdrawing funds is required to settle the commision first. 

I told her I have a friend who is willing to help me pay my commision. XXXX had texted me before that she is from New York. 
I told her that my friend lives in New Jersey and works in XXXX. She is willing to give you a cashier check and you release my money and I will be able to pay her back. She wants your address and telephone number and she can meet you tomorrow or Tuesday. XXXX did not agree. 

So, at this point they are holding my funds, requiring a commission payment be made through a cryptocurrency address. 
I believe that they have no intention in returning my money. 



I would like XXXX XXXX XXXX to refund my XXXX for defraudent me and wrong business practice. How can he be allowed to practice this false Investment firm. 
As seen in XXXX : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX is the founder of " XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX '' worldwide. 
His advocacy by forming the club is to share his knowledge and skills to all of the traders globally. 

He is a member of both the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX University XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX University. 
Born in an ancient family in XXXX, XXXX in XXXX. 
He studied at the XXXX XXXX University XXXX XXXX in XXXX and then eventually entered the Department XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX and obtained a XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
In XXXX, he joined the XXXX XXXX Bank as an intern as economic observer assistant. He began to work as an economic analyst in the XXXX XXXX Bank in XXXX, and start to participate in the foreign exchange reserve fund in XXXX. 
In XXXX, he participated in the management of foreign exchange reserve hedge funds that exceeded XXXX XXXX XXXX dollars. 

XXXX XXXX In his trading he found that XXXX XXXX and hedge funds were controlled by politicians and capital, and that the probability of profit could be greatly increased by having a strong enough capital to trade in the same direction at the same time, so XXXX became a tool for capitalists to harvest their profits, and he abhorred these actions. 
So more and more he yearned for the absolute freedom of the trading market, so with the help of his previously accumulated contacts, after a lot of understanding and testing research After a lot of research and testing, he used his contacts and experience to lead a group of his followers and traded like a fish out of water, increasing his capital like a snowball by a hundredfold in just XXXX year 's time. Since then, he has risen to fame in the foreign exchange market and has countless followers. 
In order to promote the globalization of investment in the foreign exchange market, after resigning from the XXXX XXXX XXXX, he started to prepare his own brokerage company and led investors to promote the popularization of foreign exchange investment together, set up a club for foreign exchange investors to exchange information and do basic general knowledge, professional knowledge training and trading skills training for beginners from time to time. 
Through the information and signals he shares in the club, more and more people have grown to become XXXX XXXX XXXX, with profits of at least 300 % in each special club training session, and club members have gained considerable wealth as a result of investing and trading XXXX XXXXs with him. Contact Info XXXX, New York XXXX XXXX XXXX My XXXX XXXX is using this fraudulent platform : As seen in XXXX : Is etismc.ltd Legit? 
website XXXX XXXX website IXXXX XXXX *Is this the right industry? website XXXX XXXX *Is this the right Sector? 
Is etismc.ltd legit? Nope. It has the lowest trust rating on our chart. Let 's take a look at it and its XXXX industry. We put to work XXXX XXXX XXXX to expose high-risk activity and see if XXXX is a scam. In this article, we have a review, take a look at alternative legitimate products/services and show you what you can do if you already lost your money. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX algorithm gives this business the following rank : XXXX You should know why XXXX is flagged - see below. 

Why would XXXX allow this Fraudelent InvesmenXXXX firm be exposed to the world. 
XXXX is also responsible for all the scams happening in the world. They should have a strict policies and have a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation