An elderly stroke victim who was taken in by a ‘suspected Bitcoin scam’ felt harassed with daily calls from the group after he tried to get his money back.
84-year-old Jerry claims he first heard about the investment opportunity with a group called ‘Equitiz’ in an online news story.
After having a stroke in February, he was less alert to the potential dangers of such investment schemes than he usually would be. According to their website, ‘Equitiz’ claims to be based in Zürich in Switzerland.
Jerry thought he would invest an amount as a nice surprise for Alice, paying in an initial minimum amount of £200.
The investment grew at first and then Alice found out about the scheme when they had a call from a representative of the group.
She told Express.co.uk : “This man wanted to know all about us and seemed exceedingly friendly. I was taken by surprise and, as I’m a naturally friendly person, I responded in a friendly manner.
“He asked me to install AnyDesk on my PC and he took me through his website and my husband’s account, explaining that such a small investment could only be used for trading currency, not Bitcoin.
“He wanted me to invest the few thousand I have in Premium Bonds. I was very wary and rightly so.”
She asked Equitiz if they were registered with the Financial Conduct Authority. The group gave her a number to verify they were, but she claims when she checked this it appeared to be fake.
Her brother also alerted her to the fact the group’s website had only been recently set up.
With the false FCA verification code and her brother’s warning Alice tried to withdraw the funds but Equitiz asked for bank details to pay the money into.
She told them to pay the money into the account the funds had come from, but this has not happened to date.
Then the group started to bombard the couple with daily calls from a variety of different phone numbers, to try and get them to take action on the account.
Alice said: “Despite me blocking their calls, they keep phoning me from different numbers, always asking for my husband – even though I told them that he’s in hospital following another serious stroke.
“I contacted my bank and they refunded the money my husband had sent to this firm, thank goodness.
“Action Fraud told us not to respond to their phone calls so last time they phoned I told them this and hung up on them. This happened in July and the last call we had from them was a couple of days ago.”
She said the calls often come from London numbers but she has also had calls from Bradford numbers and other areas.
She said: “It’s a real nuisance. The fact is we don’t need them to reimburse us now because the bank did it.
“The bank was really good, explained everything that happened, and they could see the payment going out of the account.”
Express.co.uk put these allegations to Equitiz but we have not received a response at the time of writing.
Whilst Action Fraud said they would not be able to provide more details.
A warning on the Financial Conduct Authority website about Equitiz, posted on September 15, says: “This firm may be providing financial services or products without our authorisation. You should avoid dealing with this firm and beware of potential scams.”
When asked by Express.co.uk for further details of Equitiz, the Financial Conduct Authority did not comment further on their recent warning.
For the latest personal finance news, follow us on Twitter at @ExpressMoney_.
