About
The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division, has received a complaint from a Washington resident regarding Karopool, a purported cryptocurrency trading platform. The investor accessed Karopool at Imblaz.cc. Imblaz.cc appears to be a decentralized application (“dapp”) that the investor accessed via Crypto.com. It appears that imblaz.cc is no longer accessible.
The investor was introduced to Karopool by Chen Lin (“Lin”), whom they met on a dating website. Lin communicated with the investor over WhatsApp. Lin claimed to be a successful businesswoman. After a few weeks, Lin encouraged the investor to invest in cryptocurrency. After starting an account at Karopool, the investor followed the instructions of Lin and started trading cryptocurrency. The trades would last 2 minutes with a 30% rate of return.
Soon after the investor started trading on Karopool, the platform showed that the investor had received a return 24 times their original investment, with no failed trades. The investor was then instructed to withdraw their funds to their Crypto.com account. However, Karopool demanded the investor first pay a fee, a total of 10% of the profits in their account. The investor refused to pay the fee and has lost approximately $400,000.
How to Report
If you believe you are a victim of this alleged cryptocurrency scam:
- Report to FBI
- If you are outside Washington State: contact your local Securities Regulator
- If you are a Washington State resident: Submit a Complaint for statistical purposes.