‘I now know it was all bogus’

Online ‘trader’ swindles women in KZN

TWO Kwazulu-Natal women caught in a sophisticated online cryptocurrency and forex trading scam have appealed for other victims to come forward and lay criminal charges.

The first woman, an advocate who asked not to be named, said she had lost more than R1 million and was in serious debt after she opened an account with MGM-Markets, an online trading company.

“I saw an MGM-Markets advert on Facebook and went to have a look at the site. I opened an account and within a day a broker contacted me.

“I was trading for three months and it seemed I was getting great returns. When I asked to withdraw the first time, they let me withdraw a small amount. Then I invested more.”

When one of her trades started going down, her broker phoned and said they’d give her R300 000 credit. “I made the money back and then when I wanted to withdraw the profit, he became difficult. I became very suspicious and the next minute my account started going down.

“I’ve lost more than R1 million. I have blocked the broker and opened a criminal case, as well as reporting the matter to Action Fraud and the FCA authority in the UK because the number on the website is a UK number.”

When she had still been doing well, she told a friend, who opened an account with the same company towards the end oflast month.

Her friend, also a professional, said she believed she had doubled her money within the first week. She has since lost R100 000, saying it all fell apart last week.

“I thought I was doing so well, but I now know it was all bogus. When I got a WhatsApp message from the broker, Tony Levine, saying the stocks were crashing and I needed to put more money in, alarm bells went off because I had no trades open at that time.

“When I went to the site to withdraw, the links wouldn’t work,” she said, adding that the broker became intimidating when she questioned him about why she could not withdraw.

“Then my friend phoned me in a panic, saying she had lost everything. I realised it was a scam. I thought I was so canny, but in hindsight all the danger signals were there,” she said.

These included promises of returns that sounded too good to be true, such as she would be a millionaire within three months.

“He also accessed my screen to expedite a transaction, but in fact he was whipping the money out and paying it into his own account.”

The broker allegedly would call her every day at 9am.

“It’s probably not even his real name. He had an Eastern European accent,” she said.

When the Independent on Saturday tried to contact the telephone number for MGM-Market as provided on its website, a different company name was given by the automatic answering service.

No agent attended to the call and the number appeared to have a Manchester code.

MGM-Markets. com is the trading name for a company called Tube Global Marketing which could not be traced online.

There were also complaints about MGM-Markets on the Forex Fraud website and a number of reviews warning the public about the trader.

Valforex.com described company as “a brutal CFDs (contract for difference) and cryptocurrency scam broker ripping investors who sign up”.

It further states: “Landing on their homepage, it’s clear to see why newbie traders are falling for this faceless broker … It’s clear MGM-Markets is a bogus trading platform.”

Another review site, theforexreview.com, highlighted that “there isn’t a lot of information on the website of the brokerage regarding the company behind it. This straight out is a warning sign and inclines us to question the broker’s legitimacy.”

Yesterday police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Zwane confirmed two separate cases of fraud had been opened at different police stations and police would investigate.

The two victims asked that anyone who has been scammed should open a case at their local police station and add the case number to the Facebook page “MGM-Markets.com victims”.

I lost more than R1 million. I have blocked the broker and opened a criminal case SCAM VICTIM