Consumer complaint received 2024-05-12
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: Block, Inc. (GA)

Below is the synopsis that was sent to the FTC : This is an update, addition, clarification and correction to the previous submitted report. 

To begin with, I was in a stock market trading group called XXXX. XXXX is a stock market trading online instructional provider in XXXX. An individual named XXXX XXXX is/was the group leader and coordinator in XXXX. Her contact information XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX ). The user ID is XXXX, channel ID is XXXX. 

XX/XX/XXXX this person contacted me to join in a come back community promotion for a day trading course. The individual ( hereby referred to as HER/SHE ) stated in order to join the class i would need to open an account in XXXX to use for study purposes, which I did so. I was instructed to to send the money to her partner XXXX XXXX XXXX CashApp, which I did through our personal checking account on XXXX in the amount of {$1000.00}, in total. 

During this transaction I was reluctant/suspicious, however, when CashApp verified the transaction I assumed it was legitimate due to the verification process CashApp has implemented. 

After logging back into my XXXX account I saw that she had transferred in total {$1000.00} into my XXXX which further gave me confidence in the legitimacy. 

At this point she told me that in order to start the day trading I needed to fund the account to {$5000.00}. I informed her that I did not have {$4000.00} to invest. At this point she said she would invest {$2000.00} of her own money if we could provide the other {$2000.00} to reach the total of {$5000.00}. Again the {$2000.00} 'appeared ' in the 'account ' further adding to our trust in the legitimacy. ( In hind site, we realize there was no 'account ', just coding. ) She told me that the trading class could not start until my account balance reached {$5000.00}. For the additional {$2000.00} from our side, we used a cash advance on a credit card for the balance. 

At this point, She told me to create an account in XXXX XXXX so I would be able to withdraw funds from XXXX as they came available. She 'sends {$1500.00} from CashApp XXXX XXXX XXXX. She contacted me to ask for confirmation of receipt of the {$1500.00} in XXXX XXXX. As soon as I confirm, the total {$1500.00} was withdrawn, I assume by her, and was therefore a XXXXXXXX XXXX 

At this point I go back to the XXXX site at the total funds in this 'account ' is {$9400.00}. This is a 'profit ' of {$4500.00} and a total amount deposited of {$4900.00}. I tried multiple times to withdraw differing amounts but every time the site 's message was " sorry, the minimum amount you can withdraw is {$10000.00} ''. 

At this point it became abundantly apparent that all of this was a scam, further evidenced by her completely blocking me from all messaging apps. We contacted CashApp regarding this as we assumed that CashApp would vet its users. We filed a dispute with CashApp with request for a refund, case number XXXX, however, they ultimately denied the claim. We are further pursuing CashApp for resolution, as we stated, we feel they failed to properly vet this client.