Global FTI
New Member
By Adam Goldman
I came across this forum and notice the usual issue, the victims don't know what to do after they have been defrauded.
As a Private Cyber Investigator dealing with such cases for the last 4 years, I decided to share with you my article and knowledge, in order to navigate the victims in the right direction.
Unfortunately, money recovery is not an easy project, by any means. Sometimes you think the perfect masterplan is already inside your thoughts, but “What if the plan fails?”.
Let me give you some free tips. As an expert in the cyber investigations field, with four years’ experience, I want to let you know that those mentioned actions below will cause you more damage than any benefit.
So, here are the five reasons victims fail to see any success in reclaiming their funds after suffering a fraud or scam:
1) Not taking any action at all.
“Dreaming may only get you so far.” – Adam Goldman
The worst thing you can do is just sit there and do nothing. You’ve already heard that sometimes the loss from taking a wrong action is less than the loss from taking no action, right?
You can always look back and wonder how things could have ended up if you had just hung up the call in the first place. But this type of thinking won’t help you solve the problem. Facing the problem with the right knowledge, tools, and of course, attitude will put you in a better position on the way to reclaiming your stolen funds.
2) Operating or taking actions in the wrong country or continent.
Do you really believe that those crooks were calling you from Switzerland?
Fun fact, actually the crime level in Switzerland, which includes cybercrime, is very low, compared to most other countries, because of their strong regulations, law systems and firm policies.
You have to understand the fact that those people who defrauded you used an alias and gave you a fake address for one reason only. The reason is simple – THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO TRACK THEM DOWN. Shocking, right? Yea, the best way to hide is by giving out incorrect information and causing confusion among the victims. So, don’t bother engaging the Swiss or the Bulgarian police, because the crooks are not there.
3) Spending time on useless actions.
Going to the local police station and reporting the case will just make you look silly in front of those local policemen.
We receive hundreds of phone calls from people who have already tried to contact the local police, the Action Fraud, Israeli embassy, FBI…you name it.
Let me save you some precious time and unnecessary embarrassment. No official governmental body will help you, as they don’t have any authority or power over those fake trading companies.
If you still don’t understand why that’s so, just look at section 2 above.
Binary, unregulated Forex, and Crypto trading are well-planned fraud systems. Those crooks thought about everything beforehand, and they knew that eventually,
the victims would try to take actions against them. But by now you should already understand they did everything possible to hide their real identities and the country of operation.
4) Doing Chargebacks incorrectly.
Just as you don’t perform surgeries on yourself (unless you’re a licensed doctor), filing and launching chargebacks by yourself may be a huge mistake!
You have one shot to persuade your bank’s dispute team that the service you paid for was not delivered (or any other reason you choose). Don’t waste that one chance with a bad dispute.
Let an expert write down and fill out whatever is needed. Note, same goes for appealing to the financial ombudsman.
5) Suing the wrong guys.
You spent time, paid money and nothing. Taking on a good lawyer is maybe the most important thing, but without good intelligence, your case will be dismissed or worse – end up in the middle of nowhere.
As a victim, your number 1 priority is hiring an expert to track down the fraudsters behind the scam. No, a fake name and a virtual office address definitely won’t do the job. You need some real details like the identity of the company’s owner and his home address, the address of the call center in the country they’re operating from, and maybe even get a list with the real names of the employees. It’s not easy, but otherwise you are just wasting your opportunity to reclaim your money.
Now, a few important tips when considering a lawsuit:
· Suing your bank is useless, as they are not liable for your own decisions. Unless you have some anti-fraud insurance policy, suing your bank is a bad, bad idea.
· Suing the company that’s mentioned on the website or in the contract – the company who allegedly operates the website -- is just a straw company.
Usually, this straw company is located in offshore countries or basically countries where the authorities are shutting their eyes whenever financial crime, towards other countries, is happening inside their borders.
· Suing the so-called “broker” will get you nowhere! Your broker is not who you think he is; actually, nothing about him is true. Usually, the guy on the other side of the phone is not a financially educated expert,
but a well-trained salesman, whose only job is to make your life miserable while milking the cash cow as much as possible.
If you have any questions post it here as a reply, we will try our best to help.
Best wishes and stay safe,
Adam Goldman
Global F.T.I Team.
