‘Oneday,theywithdrewmymoney’

DR JUTTA Strake is a German business consultant with her own company and a PhD in food science.

She also lost nearly £12,000 to a binary options company while trying to secure enough money to be sure of a comfortable retirement.

“I was shocked,” she said. “I feel abused — it’s abuse, what they do.”

She felt “very deeply ashamed, because I was so stupid to believe these people” — but added she could have suffered a worse fate.

“All the other victims I’ve spoken to have had the same experience. I’m actually very lucky to have only lost £12,000, because some have lost more. I’ve heard of people in Saudi Arabia who have lost $1m (£770,000).”

She started small, as Swindled: Strake experts advise amateur traders to do, but it was not long before representatives of the company she was using — NRG Binary — came calling. NRG Binary is one of several firms that are being targeted as part of a class action lawsuit in London, on behalf of thousands of people like Dr Strake. “I got aggressive phone calls from an agent who rang me nearly every hour,” she said, “telling me I could open a ‘VIP account’ if I invested €3,000 (£2,500). “I thought, ‘I’m just starting; I don’t want to invest too much money too soon,’ but he kept telling me they could do the trades for me, because they were experienced.” Dr Strake eventually relented, and her gains and losses were initially realistic. She even gave the company another €350 for them to make “secure trades” which she was told would not lose her money. Every week she received an update via email which described her losses and gains, and after nine months of trading she had invested £12,000, with a profit of £4,000.

That was when, on a seemingly arbitrary day in October 2014, everything went wrong. “They withdrew my funds from one account and put them into another account, but I couldn’t access that account.

“I tried to convince them to send the money back to my previous account, but they never did.

“After that I did some research. I found out they were located in Tel Aviv, and I thought they would have legal status, but they didn’t. I felt stupid, but we have laws in Germany, and you trust that they are working.”

She said she was now determined to “help other people, to warn other people not to fall into the trap.

“No-one is doing anything — not the German police, the banks, the ombudsman or the credit card companies. Noone helps.”