Ridiculous FIL help crypto

[brokengate]

Please can someone advise.

My elderly father in law, without my knowledge, has invested in this. I'm seeing him tomorrow but will copy his message below. I have zero idea what he's talking about, or how it works. Is there anyone who can advise what to do.

He knows nothing about this, can barely turn on the computer. I actually had to double check the message was even from him. they were scammed last year, hmrc phone call, that's the level of understanding. From what I can see with a brief Google binance looks ok the other does not. What information should I get from him? Thank you so much if you can help. Need this like a hole in the head.

Message
Confidential , can you help me? I think the crypto currency team I invested in is a scam. Can you have a look. Binance and flexam are the platforms I've Been working on. They won't give me the money back unless I pay commissions and tax upfront.

Crypto itself is not a scam, however, it is also not appropriate for someone who can barely turn on a compute.

Binances is a recognised and know platform, and any deposits would have taken the charge up front, taking the money out should be a straight forward conversion to GBP from the currency, then a bank withdrawl.

That is however, if it has been invested in a recognised Crypto with sufficient liquidty to sell.

Flexam appears to be a different story.

I would request from your father how payments were made, and take it from there,

I made a substantial purchase of BTC from coinbase via HSBC. They called me up and undertook a 'risk assessment' and questioned my understaning of the risks and ensured that I was not paying an unknown company.

That would be a good starting point.
Also no tax is due on direct sale, his own tax liablity may be different with HMRC, however, you don;'t pay tax to the holder.

Thank you so very much. I'm so annoyed with him. I have two under two, husband is awol lambing and he lands this on me.

Oh don't worry I agree, it's absolutely not suitable. He said it was thousands. Not sure how manyI, actually beginning to think there's a bigger issue here with last years loss. They don't have a great deal, maybe twenty thousand savings total, half lost then.

Unfortunately, 95% of crypto currency is like the Wild West really. Especially with the recent exponential gains of some of the leading crypto currency, particularly Ethereum. If he's had a significant loss, it's easy to see how he might have been tempted to recoup the loss by the publicised gains of the better known currencies.

No advice, just sympathies. Maybe if he could exchange his current alt coin back into Bitcoin he might not lose everything? :(

Thank you.

Do you know I don't even understand what any of this is. How the hell he managed to set this up is beyond me. He just gets this stuff in his head. He says a lady from Bitcoin helped him set it up.

If MIL finds out she will hit the roof, she was so unwell after the HMRC scam, although that was her, not him.

After the HMRC scam he is probably on a scammers list of people likely to fall for scams and gets bombarded.

'A nice lady from Bitcoin' = scammer

It sounds like he has been scammed I am afraid.

A nice lady from Bitcoin, is like saying a nice lady from the Ten pound note helped set it up.

Setting up a coinbase account, and a wallet was quite a mission, even for a tech and finance savvy person like me.
Various codes, 2 factor authentication, talks with the bank, 12 word pass codes and a lot of youtube watching got me there.

I am afraid to say I think he has bought worthless scam crypto.

Ok so he says she was via bianance. He was struggling with the ID stage. She called and talked him through that. He has the binance app. He requested a call via the website. Allegedly.

So she didn't contact him, he contacted them. Jesus.

Will see him tomorrow. Even whatsapp is a chore

There is an article in the Telegraph about a scam like this. They used Binance and wouldn’t let them withdraw it without fees too.

I’m so sorry

www.telegraph.co.uk/money/katie-investigates/lost-63000-falling-love-bitcoin-scammer/

Oh dear
He obviously can turn the computer on if he's actually used their platforms

Not sure there will be much that can be done. Is crypto regulated by the FCA?

@Ostara212 - No, nor does it fall under FSCS protection.

It is buyers beware.

If it is on Binance, then that is a genuine and repuatble platform.
I would look to see if you could do an assited login in to his account.
It will show the holdings he has, and the amounts and type of Crypto purchased.

[quote FollowYourOwnNorthStar]There is an article in the Telegraph about a scam like this. They used Binance and wouldn’t let them withdraw it without fees too.

I’m so sorry

www.telegraph.co.uk/money/katie-investigates/lost-63000-falling-love-bitcoin-scammer/[/quote]
Well, she bought the bitcoin from Binance and then transferred it to another app. Not much Binance can do about that. That's like paying money into HSBC then being talked into transferring it from there to a fake PayPal, doing so, then complaining HSBC wouldn't give you the money back. You buy your bitcoin through Binance but can then store elsewhere basically, as happened in this story.

Agree though OP, he shouldn't be doing this with the level of knowledge he has.

I wouldn't even know where to start.. Going to have to see if he will let me ask around and see if any friends have knowledge.

Yeah I mean he's clearly turned it on and done something, but I'm shocked at that. Although the computer is generally just on. This is not someone with any finance or it knowledge.

Sounds like a scam again

Maybe Citizens Advice can help?

Can't stop crying. Just to much for me today.

Thank you all for your kindness.

Will see him tomorrow and update. He's going to freak when I tell him it's another scam.

One thing after another at moment, can't catch a break

Oh mate

This is NOT your responsibility OP.

Tell him you have zero knowledge of Bitcoin and tell him to contact citizens advice.

I would suggest before you write it off as a scam, see if he can log you into his Binance account.

There may be Crypto held on the patform that can be sold down?

Will have a look tomorrow and see if any of you about. To be honest I won't even know what I'm looking at. He will have seen something in a paper or news, thought oh I could make that lost money back, and away he has gone. Now he's told me and is expecting me not to tell anyone, just ridiculous.

@JustCatting

This is NOT your responsibility OP.

Tell him you have zero knowledge of Bitcoin and tell him to contact citizens advice.

I'm inclined to agree

You aren't able to help without getting advice

If he is hale and hearty enough to have done this, then surely he can get the advice himself?

Can his wife or children help?

Binance isn’t a scam, neither is crypto. It is possible he has legitimately purchased Bitcoin through the binance app (although the way you describe him this seems unlikely). Something you could do is download the binance app yourself on your own phone, that way you’ll know what it should look like and know your way around it - and you’ll then be able to compare the real binance app to whatever he has and see if it’s the same?

Is there any chance at all he might be starting to get dementia?

I know anyone can fall for a scam at any age and older people are more vulnerable. My DM has nearly gone for a couple but checks absolutely everything with me first.

However when my FIL had dementia he fell for these all over the place, and in the very early stages he just looked a bit stroppy and defensive rather than acting confused.

I agree with Dogoodfeelgood.

Until you see the binance account, it is impossible to tell.
When you are able to access it with him, you will be looking for the account balance and account holdings.

OP I mean this kindly, but why are you making this your problem? You clearly don’t know anything about it (and nor would I) so unless your idea of fun is spending the next week researching it tell him to sort it out himself.

Not sure really, he seemed scared and vulnerable. Wife no help, kids as bad as him. I suppose I'm the tech person, to the extent I fix the TV and turn the wifi on.

Thank you all, I will have a look and out the app on my phone as suggested. But will make it clear I have no idea other than that.

So let's say he did it legitimately, has he then done something else to get to this point. Like invested it somewhere else out with that? God.

Thank you. I suppose I just wanted to vent. I'm grateful for your time.