The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division received a complaint regarding the entity Lucent Trader (lucenttrader.com), which appears to be a fraudulent investment platform.
The investor opened an account by registering on Lucent Trader’s website and invested several thousands of dollars. The platform made it appear the investor was earning a profit on investment. The investor was unable to withdraw any of their investment nor purported earnings when they attempted to do so. When the investor tried to withdraw funds, they were informed they must make an additional deposit in order to withdraw from their account.
These claims and allegations cannot be verified by DFI.
This appears to be an “Advance Fee Fraud,” which can take many forms.
DFI urges consumers to exercise extreme caution before responding to any solicitation offering investment or financial services, or using an unregistered, or unverified, cryptocurrency trading platform. Investment professionals need to be licensed with DFI to offer investments to Washington residents, and cryptocurrency trading platforms generally need to be registered with DFI as money transmitters when providing services in Washington. 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. To check the money transmitter licensing status of a cryptocurrency trading platform, please visit DFI’s License Check or contact the Department of Financial Institutions, Consumer Services Division at 1 (877) 746-4334. 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