The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division has received a complaint from a Washington resident regarding Eucoinotrade.com (“Eucoinotrade”), a website claiming to be “a private, legally registered online investment company with the goal of earning the greatest profit possible from Binary Options trading.” The Eucoinotrade website claims that you can make “150% daily profit” trading binary options.
The investor was introduced to Eucoinotrade by an acquaintance who claimed to have made a large amount of money trading on Eucoinotrade. The individual introduced the investor to George Alexanderal (“Alexanderal”) over Facebook. Alexanderal claimed to be an Account Manager at Eucoinotrade and a professional in Bitcoin mining, IQoptions, Forex, Crypto Investments, and Binary Options trading. Alexanderal claims Eucoinotrade produces large returns based on various “binary algorithms”. Alexanderal requested the investor communicate primarily over WhatsApp. Alexanderal helped the investor set up an account at Eucoinotrade and instructed the investor to purchase Bitcoin (BTC) through their Coinbase account and send it to Eucoinotrade to trade with. After each investment, Alexanderal would pressure the investor to invest more money.
After investing 5 or 6 times, for a total of nearly $50,000, the investor’s Eucoinotrade account purportedly grew to over $414,000. In one day, the account purportedly grew by $30,000 or $40,000. When the investor requested to withdraw funds from their account, Eucoinotrade “customer service” claimed that due to the large returns the investor was making, they were considered part of an elite group and demanded the investor pay for a $40,000 software upgrade in order to continue to trade binary options. Later, Eucoinotrade “customer service” waived the upgrade fee and demanded the investor pay a $14,000 processing fee. After paying the fee, Eucoinotrade “customer service” demanded the investor pay another fee, an IRS compulsory fee of $9,400. After refusing to pay the fee, the investor’s Eucoinotrade account stopped increasing in profit and when the investor logged into their account, the account only showed the balance of the fee that Eucoinotrade demanded the investor pay.
This appears to be what is commonly called “Advance Fee Fraud”, which can take many forms, as discussed here: https://www.sec.gov/oiea/investor-alerts-bulletins/ia_lookforaff.html.
This complaint contained several other red flags indicating fraud (which have also not been verified by DFI), including:
- The Eucoinotrade website claimed that the company is legally registered in Ireland. The registration number is 08418477. According to an internet search of the registration number, the number is registered to another company.
- On the Frequent Questions section of the Eucoinotrade website, Eucoinotrade claims one of the payment systems they accept is Payza. According to a November 12, 2020 press release (https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/two-canadian-brothers-and-their-company-payza-sentenced-conspiring-launder-money-service) from the United States Department of Justice, the founders of Payza were sentenced for “operating an Internet-based unlicensed money service business.” The article states that the defendants had to forfeit the websites they used to commit the offenses, including Payza.com. At the time the investor invested on Eucoinotrade, Payza was no longer operating.
- An internet search of text within the Eucoinotrade website, shows hundreds of other websites with the same text, indicating a possible template was used for the Eucoinotrade website.
- A search of an “IRS compulsory fee”, did not provide any results. It appears this type of fee does not exist.
How to Protect Yourself from Fraud
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 (https://brokercheck.finra.org) 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 (https://www.nasaa.org/contact-your-regulator/).
How to File a Complaint
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 formal complaint with the Securities Division. See: File a Complaint with DFI.
If you believe you are a victim of an Internet Crime, report it to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center.