I Feel So Helpless And I Don't Know What To Do - I've Been Scammed Out of Money?

[Anonymous]

As a beginner in cryptocurrency investing, I have been relying on YouTube channels to learn more about it. One channel that I particularly enjoyed was Eddie Moon's, which prompted me to pay for his Patreon subscription and join his Discord community. Following his advice, I transferred my funds to but unfortunately, I'm now unable to withdraw them. I have tried contacting Eddie Moon about this issue, but he has been deleting my comments and not responding to me.

After consulting multiple attorneys, they revealed that influential individuals often induce you to deposit money into a fraudulent website, allowing them to easily profit.

I've reported him to YouTube, but nothing has been done.
I filled out the FBI's Fraudulent forms, but nothing has been done.
What else can I do?
How do I stop Eddie Moon from having people deposit money into a fraudulent website?

Updates

6 mo

The fraudulent website that I posted was deleted by this site in my question.
In order to withdraw any money from this site, they want me to make an additional deposit of $15,000 in Bitcoin before I can proceed.

[WindAtMyBack]

"As a beginner in cryptocurrency investing"

!) Crypto is NOT an investment. It is pure gambling.
2) Crypto itself is a big scam.

I don't know if the authorities can or will do anything about it, because I don't know if any laws have been broken. All you can do is let them investigate. Even if there was wrongdoing, it's unlikely that you will get your money back. That money is gone. Learn your lesson and move on.

I hate to be harsh, but you need to hear it. This was because of your own ignorance and stupidity.

Do NOT buy crypto - not from anyone. Just don't buy it. It is NOT investing. It is gambling.

Do NOT invest in ANYTHING just because someone says so. That's especially true with anything you hear on the Internet. Don't invest because someone says so. Don't invest because a big well known company says so. Don't invest because it's in the financial news. Don't invest because the analysts say so. Don't invest because the store or restaurant is always crowded. Don't invest because all your friends are buying a product.

Do NOT invest in anything that you do not fully understand and can explain the economics of how it will make money. Saying you think it will go up in value is not explaining the economics. As Peter Lynch used to say, never invest in anything that you can't explain using crayons. ( Peter Lynch is one of then most successful and consistent investors. )

Do NOT invest any money in anything other than basic bank accounts until you have enough saved to live at least a year without an income. Being forced to sell because you need the money is one of the worst things you can do. So never put yourself in that situation in the first place.

At your age and knowledge level, you should just be saving your money in a bank, and maybe short term CDs. Save 20-30K, then consider investing a couple K very conservatively. Conservative does not mean crypto. It doesn't mean stock either. Both of those are very high risk.

If you are not financially and mentally prepared to lose ALL of the investment, then you should stick with bank accounts, CD's etc.

[MrOracle]

I'm not sure if you are aware of FTX or Alameda Research, but these organizations scammed so-called "professional investors" out of many billions of dollars - much of it their customers' money that they were entrusted to manage responsibly. Instead, they gambled it on crypto that they didn't even understand. The founder, SBF (Sam Bankman-Fried), was just convinced of 5 counts of felony fraud, but just two years ago he was dining at the White House and speak at global economic forums.

The lessons here are these: you cannot rely on institutions to help you, especially with "low priority" issues like your money. People are getting rich from stealing from other people, and they will pay off the institutions (as SBF did) so that their illegal actions are ignored - at least until it is far too late for you.

Institutions also are VERY SLOW to get up to speed with both new technologies and new scams. If you are on the bleeding edge, you are out there all alone, with no one to protect you.

You also cannot depend on institutions to be moral. Of course YouTube *should* investigate and suspend that channel, but he likely puts in just enough disclaimers to protect himself. I would not be surprised if there is someone high up at YouTube who is being compensated by your scammer in some way, and running interference for him. This is especially likely if he supports left-wing politics, which is overwhelmingly true at Google/YouTube. Like SBF, he will be protected until the point that such protection becomes impossible (i. e., when left-wing big-wigs lose lots of money).

So, you must learn to be extra, EXTRA skeptical, especially when someone wants you to open up your wallet. If you don't understand everything about how it works, you need to be even more cautious.

You have reported it, which is the best thing you can do. Do not put in another cent. Keep on the institutions, even though they won't likely help you directly - they might eventually begin an investigation that helps others.

[Screenwriter]

This is high-end, professional scamming. Complain to whoever you can and don't forget to contact your state rep and senator, and Congress person and federal senator about these issues. You aren't the only one this has happened to.

Don't be tricked into to giving these thieves any more money. Post where ever you can about how this guy scammed you. How about a local TV or newspaper reporter or magazine reporter.

If you're in a big city, a city magazine might be interested in this tale, or a smaller weekly newspaper. Wired magazine or Fortune might be interested. Report this to Consumer Reports and AARP, which are two magazines always on the lookout for scams.

Broadcast as loudly as you can to prevent others from falling into the same trap, and make it VERY public. Facebook it, Instagram it, Reddit it. Put your story on every media site you have access to. Many people will be glad you did.

[EmmaMary]

Fools And Their Money Soon Part.

[EmmaMary]

Thank you for the MHO.

[RavVid]

I invest in crypto but don't think I know much. I took a look at his channel and he is persuasive.

I don't know how things are mean't to work in the US (i'm in Australia) but despite saying he does not give investment advice his channel seems to solicit investment from viewers. I expect he would need various licences for that and there could be some significant penalties.

I'd expect the appropriate bodies to be slow and not communicate well - sadly.

Are you able to see what you have invested is worth currently or is it that you have transferred money and there is no reporting at all. the money has just disappeared without any accounting of it?

I think you should screen shot your attempts to communicate to prove you have made those attempts. May be difficult to screen shot deletions but certainly do if you can.

Do you have categorical evidence you transferred money like web receipts. Get evidence from your bank for the transaction if you haven't yet. And screen shot the website. You need to gather evidence as a first step and it is most essential.

Happy to DM with you if I can help.

[Asker]

Eddie Moon had me invest money into webulltradingbot. com. When I try to withdraw funds, that site tells me they want $15,000 in Bitcoin deposited into their account before they proceed.

I did a wire transfer (USD funds) from Bank of America to Chase Bank. I contacted the Bank of America's Fraud department, and they researched it and said it was a scam website and tried to get the money back. However, after 90 days, I received a notice that they could not recover the funds.

[Asker]

I hired a "Crypto Recovery" Firm and they said they won't ask for any money upfront. Once they collect the money they will keep 20% and send me the rest. In their investigation, they said the account holder of Chase Bank took the USD funds and deposited into a Crypto Exchange and bought bitcoin. That person then took the bitcoin and transferred it to a secure crypto wallet. So they are unable to retreive the funds.

[Asker]

I asked that firm if Eddie Moon was the account holder and they said he wasn't, but in their investigation, they found he is associated with webulltradingbot. com.

[RavVid]

Webull appears to be a Chinese company and there are reddits on webull being a scam. It might be a good thing to post there and get input. Not wanting to be insensitive but it is best to deal with companies in the same countries on financial matters.

Not that confident on Eddie Moon. It is a fictional character in BBC's East Enders and I guess the name is a play on going to the moon. He seems to have a net worth of ~90K and youtube income of 60K.

He makes the standard statement that he isn't giving investment advice etc. Obviously his website lead you to webull and to make the investment. Without knowing much I am thinking he is the best angle of attack. He seems to be American citizen so would be easier than a chinese company.

I have only had a cursory look (late at night for me) and I haven't found anything yet that leads to webull. Is it on Patreon? What I am getting at is that if what lead you to investing looks like financial advice then his disclaimer might not get him out of it. That's the best angle I can think of.

[Asker]

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and responding. I appreciate your feedback. Someone told me that it's common for a person to hijack another's identity and pretend to be that person. When I joined Eddie Moon's Discord he reached out to me and advised me to invest in webulltradingbot. com. But now I'm wondering if a person hijacked his identity.

[RavVid]

Identity theft is not that common but where I am drug addicts were being paid to steal mail for that purpose.

I'm not familiar with Discord but I'm hearing that Eddie M messaged you or similar and was in fact giving investment advice to you. Is it possible for you to screen capture that at this point? I would expect his communication to be logged by Discord but difficult to get. If you can screen capture all communications and attempted communications and also document your recollections date times in detail. You will think you won't forget but you will and diarying is evidence to a degree.

Make a few phone calls and get to understand what licensing is needed to give financial advice and what penalties might apply if they are breached. Is SEC appropriate in the US or could the appropriate bodies be at a state level. I dunno.

Once money is in the hand it is hard to get it back. Fraudsters tend to rely on people walking away and writing it off to experience. My own view is if someone rips me off, I try to make them pay for it in some way.

So my tack would be to capture evidence I was given financial advice that contradicted the fiduciary duty that was owed to me and point out the penalties that might apply and give every reason to think I wasn't going away inside 20 years. I'd think about a lawyers letter but it may be difficult to establish a delivery address for Eddie Moon.

I'd forget somebody taking on his identity as that is speculation on speculation. In any case it is his liability if he has allowed a third party to run his discord.

I am very much being a bush lawyer here but all I can say is how i would set about it and hope it might bear some fruit for you.

[normalice]

Sadly, the only thing you can do is not fall for it in the first place. Cryptocurrency was an obvious scam from the start but what made it obvious is the last 30+ years of other popular pyramid schemes. Naturally, younger people would not be aware of most of that history - at least not enough to know it's signicance - so they are the prime targets for such scams. Sorry it happened but the only thing you can do is move on and, as a rule, never give money to anyone who promises they will give back more with no collateral. If that is ever true they won't need yours in the first place as any business or investment plan that they genuinely believe could succeed would be taken to a bank for a loan they're willing to put a promise in writing to pay back.

[Asker]

Isn't it illegal for Eddie Moon to tell people to deposit funds into a fraudulent website so he can make easy money?

It's at least highly unethical and YouTube should ban him from the platform but nothing is getting done. I reported him around 3 months ago.

[normalice]

Why would that be illegal? Telling people to do something is freedom of speech. They are supposed to know not to listen. I personally think freedom of speech should not cover scams but that will never happen as it would open the door for basically the entire republican party and probably a good tenth of the democratic party to go to prison. There is no way they would pass a law that would land themselves in prison.

[Asker]

Don't you think YouTube should investigate and ban Eddie Moon?

[normalice]

It would be the "right" thing to do, but YouTube makes money off of views, not integrity.

[BoopBoopBeep]

It's not illegal in whichever country he's actually doing it from. Where'd he say he was? Vegas? Nope. Try Singapore. They won't be extraditing.

[LiamJHayden]

1. Do not add more. They will keep that, too.
2. Report it to your state's Attorney General's office. I hate politics, but if you are in a purple state or, better, if the AG is from the state's minority political party you are more likely to get a lot of assistance.
3. Contact local television. A lot of them push stories like this.

[SunnyRS]

As someone who works in financial sector, I am going to be honest with you, that the chances of getting your funds back are very low.
Sorry for that.
But you can still reach out to the cyber crime cell of your state and tell them the description of the guy and his channel and how he scammed you in complete details, don't leave anything out. Maybe they will find something in the information that can help you.

[DannyUk2017]

I never Trusted these platforms, and i'll never will. When i hear someone that is asking me to Put Money in to something that is NOT PHYSICALLY IN MY HAND, i tell them to Get tf out, or they would get smacked!

[JacobJordan]

First mistake was trusting someone who tells you "I can make you money just send it here" or anything on those lines. As for what you can do? Not much because you willingly made the transfers.

[strateguy632]

first thanks for warning us all. it does feel powerless. the only comfort i know is "we were born with nothing" so at least we still have some.

[Billlewis]

I'd like to discuss this with you privately. Please follow me so I can message you. Thank you very much.

[The-Stud]

For God's sake.. She's serious Bill lol

[Billlewis]

@The-Stud I think she is, as well. So am I, in my desire to try to help her.

[The-Stud]

I know what you talk in DMs Bill LOL

[exitseven]

Think of this as a lesson. Hopefully if was not a n expensive lesson.

[Anonymous]

Crypto is a scam generally look at FTX
It the same with digital gold, remember the old adage 'if you don't hold it you don't own it'

[Joker_]

@Worst is a crypto expert and a professional scammer, so he may be able to solve your case

[Worst]

Crypto people are complete idiots lol (talking about op)

[Joker_]

yeah lol

[Anonymous]

What classy behavior from a member of the self-proclaimed model race.