The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division has received a complaint from a Washington resident regarding Bittrading.vip (“Bittrading”). The Bittrading website claims to be a “digital asset trading platform.”
The investor was introduced to Bittrading from an individual named Axel Hugo (“Hugo”) that they met on a dating website. The investor primarily communicated with Hugo on Telegram. Hugo’s username on Telegram is @Axel16899. The investor communicated with Bittrading on Telegram, whose username is @Bittrading2013.
Hugo claimed to be a professional trader who does short term contract trading on Bittrading. Hugo told the investor that if you invest for a certain amount of time on Bittrading, you are guaranteed a certain percentage return based on the duration selected. For example, if you invest for 30 seconds, you receive a 5% return, 60 seconds, a 10% return, or if you invest for several minutes, you receive a 20% to 25% return. Hugo told the investor that you never lose on the Bittrading platform. Hugo sent the investor a link to the Bittrading website, to start an account.
After starting an account, the investor invested a small amount, purchasing $500 worth of Ether (“ETH”) from their Crypto.com account and transferring it to the Bittrading wallet. The investor relied on guidance from Hugo on when to invest, how much to invest, and which cryptocurrency to purchase. After investing, the investor’s Bittrading account grew in value. Within days of investing, Hugo pressured the investor to invest more money. The investor purchased additional ETH and USDT from their Crypto.com account and transferred it to the Bittrading wallet. After investing all their savings, the investor informed Hugo they had no additional money to invest. Hugo sent the investor a link to SOFI.com and pressured the investor to obtain a loan, which they did. After obtaining a loan, the investor converted $100,000 of the loan proceeds to USDT and sent the USDT to the Bittrading wallet. The investor’s account purportedly grew to over $277,000.
When the investor attempted to withdraw funds from their Bittrading wallet, they were notified that they needed to provide a copy of their photo ID and debit card number. Once the information was provided, Bittrading demanded the investor pay a $25,000 advanced verification fee to verify their identity. The investor did not pay and to date, has been unable to withdraw their funds. The investor lost their entire investment, approximately $215,000, a combination of all their savings and funds obtained from a personal loan. These allegations have not been verified by DFI.
The investor was instructed to send all cryptocurrency investments to the following Bittrading cryptocurrency wallet:
0x1C64c9B65a84AeB76Ec4F4F281c76A99C040880C
This appears to be what is commonly called Advance Fee Fraud which can take many forms. It also appears to be a Pig Butchering Scheme.
DFI urges consumers to exercise extreme caution before responding to any solicitation offering investment or financial services. Investment professionals need to be licensed with DFI to offer investments to Washington residents. In addition, most investment products sold need to be registered with DFI. To check the licensing status and to find out if there are any complaints against an investment professional or investment product, please visit FINRA Brokercheck or contact the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, Securities Division at (360) 902-8760. If you live outside of Washington State, contact your state securities regulator.
If a consumer believes a person or company has violated state law or acted improperly regarding an investment product or service, they may file a complaint with the Securities Division.
Additional Resources
Virtual Currency, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Assets Information for Consumers