Victim lost £22,000 to a crypto scam advertised by a fake Martin Lewis advert

The victim saw a professional-looking advert on Facebook, which displayed the image of Martin Lewis promoting a cryptocurrency platform and the opportunity to earn large returns.

Our client registered their interest and was then contacted by a “Financial Advisor” claiming they could earn substantial returns through crypto, and that they only needed to start with a small amount of £250. Our client agreed and saw their investment skyrocket through the platform.

They were then persuaded to deposit increasingly larger amounts, which also appeared to rise in value. When the victim wanted to withdraw their funds, the scammers claimed they needed to pay fees for tax purposes in order to do so.

Once our client paid, the scammers cut contact with them and they never received the funds. They realised they had, unfortunately, fallen victim to a crypto and recovery scam.

Recovery was possible

We conducted a thorough review of the case and submitted a bespoke report to our client’s bank (Revolut). The bank rejected the claim, stating that the money had gone to crypto and there was nothing they could do.

Banks regularly deny refunds for unjust reasons, and at Refundee, we specialise in helping to overturn bank decisions. We took the case to the Financial Ombudsman and received a positive outcome, recovering half of our client's scammed money.

We were also able to include the money they sent to the scammers to “recover” their funds, which they thought was lost for good.