Got scammed 20k with buying crypto for them to invest it for me

[Hello17378]

hi, I got scammed recently 20k from falling for a scam. At first they asked for little money then eventually kept asking for more for each “step” and it soon turned into a lot of money. I carried on thinking I can’t give up now because I’ve already lost a lot and I would miss out on the return they promised.

the bank I bought bitcoin with won’t do anything because it’s not a proper bank but I transferred money from my main bank to that one. I was wondering if my main bank would be able to help refund the money I’ve been scammed? And what should I say when I call them. Really stressed and worried about the amount of money I’ve lost and currently got no income because this is the money I got from a house sale and lost my benefits due to it being over 16k

Tbh I'd be very surprised if you did although I hope you do, obviously.

Warnings are very prominent and there aren't many circumstances under which the bank's going to take responsibility for your decision.

I slightly fell for something like this , on WhatsApp the immediate time I applied for a job , online I got a text from some recruitment agency for a second job to earn between 60- 150 a day.i thought it was in the finance industry and entertained it. Long story short I had to do some tapping into the phone and I got small sums, and then I'd go into negative balance and to would need to deposit in usdt the crypto usd and at first I did it and the balance when back into positive, at the end of the day I withdrew 150 pounds. Next day I bad to put in 300,I got suspicious but the lady on WhatsApp said I would get it all back.

I went to my bank Halifax to transfer funds and they stopped me , saying that a lot of people got into this by buying crypto.

I think I list £19 in total.
I guess if I had got sucked in It couldve been much worse

I’m really sorry this has happened to you but the only thing you can do is phone the bank where you sent the money from and explain you’ve been scammed and see what they can do. But I wouldn’t get my hopes up. I’d also contact action fraud and see if there’s any info from them that could help.

Clearly the suggestion is then OP would declare no savings as it would be in crypto somewhere, then the benefits would be restarted. Obviously

I don’t have any crypto I lost it all being scammed. I haven’t even thought about reapplying for benefits yet because I’m scared to let anyone know what’s happened. I’d rather keep the 20k than be on benefits but unfortunately I was stupid and fell for a scam. I wouldn’t be asking for advice on how to get my money back that I’ve lost if i was just trying to hide to get benefits.

A case like this was on tv not long ago. He had used revolut to buy bitcoin as well. Unfortunately he didnt see any of his money back because he had willingly moved the money from his bank to his Revolut account, despite the warnings like pp have shown.

I think it says more about the person suggesting it's benefits fraud as their first thoughts than anything else.. but sure.

I'm so sorry, that's awful. No advice but lots of sympathy from me.

Sorry this happened but you willingly transferred the money on multiple occasions presumably without doing sufficient due diligence. Report it to the police but I am not sure why you expect the bank to lose out because you gave your money away.

Call me cynical it does sound like you were trying to hide the money though.

Scammers are absolute scum notwithstanding the above.

Banks should also recognise suspicious activity and try and stop it or give warnings. Me sending high amounts of money in a short space is suspicious and out of character. What am I hiding? I’ve got no crypto. I bought crypto to send to the scammer. I’m not asking how to get benefits back. So why would I be hiding it for benefits? Just if there’s anyway I can recover the money I got scammed.
I’ve contacted the financial ombudsman anyway so thank you for everyone’s advice ❤️

Yep it's such a tricky one as you were sending money from your HSBC account to your own Revolut account. So nothing that looks inherently suspicious, just cashflow among your own accounts. Revolut doesn't have a banking licence in the UK and so presumably that's why you didn't get much joy from them about you sending money to a crypto scammer (I also note that they're in trouble with the FCA for allowing money to leave accounts frozen by the National Crime Agency recently).

What did HSBC say when you contacted them? The difference between your experience and the one from the Financial Ombudsman that I linked to earlier is that she was sending money directly to a crypto platform from her HSBC account.

I agree banks flag certain things as another poster has said, as far as HSBC is concerned you were sending money to another of your accounts. Nothing suspicious there. With revolut not having a banking licence I'm not sure if that makes things difficult, but it's not really a HSBC problem.

Is it actually a scam or is it just a poor decision?

Bitcoin scammers prey on people’s greed.
I suspect you transferred to revolut because hsbc either wouldn’t allow you to transfer to that account, or because you knew they might stop it.
This isn’t HSBC’s problem, I bet you’d have something to say if they were preventing you from transferring money to your own account for legitimate reasons?
Presumably your revolut account is already set up as a regular payee, so there is 0 reason for suspicion on their part.
I have 0 sympathy here.
People fall for these scams out of greed.

I am so sorry that you are going through this but kindly trying to force the bank to refund money that you willingly transferred to someone else is so entitled its unbelievable.
You need to understand that you are at fault here. You were too trusting and didn't do your due diligence. Crypto is not a get rich quick scheme.

My husband works in the crypto world and as a result of people being scammed the way you have is why he needs to physically go into our nearest branch whenever he needs to deposit funds into his crypto account. It's annoying and can lead to him missing out on some investments but it has become an extra layer of security that some banks have taken to prevent them having to pay back money to customers who make stupid decisions and expect the banks to clean up their messes. Again I honestly feel terrible that people are losing money to scammers but we need to be accountable for our own choices and actions.

Banks should also recognise suspicious activity and try and stop it or give warnings. Me sending high amounts of money in a short space is suspicious and out of character

If they had spoken to you about it though would it honestly have made a difference. Chances are you'd have said that you were happy for the transaction to go ahead

I dont see why you think your bank should reimburse you. You made a bad decision. You can't expect the bank to rectify it

"Banks should also recognise suspicious activity and try and stop it or give warnings"

They do. Are you saying neither HSBC nor Revolut have shown you any warnings about fraud?

Why didn't you try to transfer directly from HSBC to rhe Crypto company?

As an HSBC shareholder, I hope they wouldn’t refund! They have done nothing wrong whatsoever in this situation.

I am sorry for your predicament though OP. I don’t think the ombudsman will take your case on as you don’t meet the criteria. Your best bet, I think is police / fraud. Please do reapply for benefits asap if you need them?

What do you think made you do this?

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/beatthescammers/article-12827995/Im-retired-businessman-fell-online-bitcoin-scam-sell-house-pay-30k.html

was it just like this chap?

Did you not have to specify the type of payment it was and that it wasn't a scam?

So were you buying bitcoin and then giving the bitcoin to someone else? Is that the scam?

What reason did they give that you needed to give it to them? And you gave every penny that you had?

and you have no other income?

HSBC don’t need to stop you moving large amounts. It maybe out of character for you. But so is having that amount of money.

I think you should try to get it back. If it’s possible. But I am not what HSBC could have done. If they questioned you your answer would have been that you were moving it to another of your own accounts and they would have let it go through.

I'd be surprised if you got your money back but I guess you have to try. I'd just contact all banks involved and report the fraud. A very expensive lesson to learn

I am sorry this has happened to you. I wouldn’t have thought HSBC would refund you as you transferred the money from them to another account in your name.

report to action fraud

The banks have done nothing wrong.
There are plenty of warnings around.

Sorry it's happened to you but you cannot expect the banks to replace the money

Ohh OP… you’ll get little sympathy and the banks probably won’t do much about it but please do contact them asap and tell them what’s happened!

something similar happened my mum, luckily I drove over to her house in the middle of the night and stopped the payment just in time. They had initially sent her a WhatsApp message and then called her over several days and built up a friendship with her.

By the time I had discovered it she was about to give them full access to her bank account via an app that they could see her screens.

I phoned the emergency hours bank number and left a message then went straight into the bank the next day and reported it to the fraud team. I ended up taking away her tablet and deleting her WhatsApp from her phone as this wasn’t the first time… in fact it was around the 7th time!!!

Is there anyone like a daughter/son you can tell so they can help you?