About
This case stemmed from a romance scam where the investor was approached by someone called Cathy Roos (“Roos”) on Telegram. Roos introduced the investor to “WEB3,” a purported cryptocurrency trading platform. WEB3 was associated with two URLs, khfthouk.com and krahrakennus.com, which are no longer active.
The investor wired a total of $488,100 to a third-party Bitcoin platform, through which he deposited the funds to digital wallets designated by WEB3 customer service. In addition, Roos purportedly loaned the investor $109,000, which was directly shown in the investor’s WEB3 account as investment funds.
The investor followed Roos’s trading advice and saw purported profits received in the account. When the investor tried to withdraw funds from his WEB3 account, WEB3 refused to release the funds before the investor made significant additional payments. WEB3 used various inconsistent or vague justifications for advanced fees, including “guarantee fees” to satisfy anti-money laundering requirements and “transit fees” to pay international transit banks. The investor made several additional payments and refused to pay more. WEB3 then blocked the investor’s account. The investor has not been able to withdraw any of the investment or purported profits.