£1.7 Million Recovered From a Collapsed Investment Scheme

Our client was targeted through social media advertisements on Facebook and Instagram. After seeing an advert for an investment company, they searched online and found what appeared to be a credible, legitimate investment company, complete with positive reviews.

The investment company claimed they were experts within trading and they could make high returns on the stock market.

A so-called 'financial advisor' contacted them, demonstrating apparent expertise and presenting a polished investment platform with consistent, visible returns.

Over the following months, our client was guided and gradually pressured into investing increasingly larger sums. Early returns were paid out on schedule, which created a false sense of trust and security. This is a deliberate social engineering tactic used in Ponzi schemes: use new investor funds to pay earlier investors, manufacture confidence, and draw in larger deposits.

Unfortunately, the returns stopped when the flow of new investors stopped.

How Refundee built the case for recovery

• Step 1 - Investigation: Our team conducted a thorough investigation to establish the fraudulent nature of the scheme, gathering evidence across multiple investors who had been affected.
• Step 2 - Utilising UK banking regulations for Authorised Push Payment Fraud, we constructed detailed arguments for why the sending bank should bear liability for the losses.
• Step 3 - Financial Ombudsman escalation: We escalated the case to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), presenting our evidence and regulatory arguments to make the case for full reimbursement.
• Step 4 - Recovery: Our client recovered £1.7 million in full - plus interest on top