The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division has received a complaint from a Washington resident regarding etoro.zone, a website claiming to be a cryptocurrency mining pool.
The investor met a stranger on a Wechat social media messenger who showed how much they made on their investment on a website called etoro.zone. The stranger stated that this website is only accessible through Coinbase web browser. When the investor added etoro.zone to their Coinbase web browser, they were shown a mining pool. The investor noticed on the website that the etoro.zone mining pool had linked the investor’s Coinbase wallet.
A few days later, the investor’s Coinbase wallet balance of more than $63,000 in cryoptocurrency was transferred to etoro.zone without the investor’s authorization. When the investor requested to withdraw funds from their etoro.zone mining pool, the investor was told that they entered into a smart contract and the terms must be completed before they could withdraw funds from the mining pool.
The investor was told to deposit an additional $86,000 in cryptocurrency to the mining pool or forfeit all the invested money. The investor was unable to withdraw the money from the mining pool. These allegations have not been verified by DFI.
This appears to be what is commonly called “Advance Fee Fraud”, which can take many forms.
This complaint contained several red flags indicating fraud (which have also not been verified by DFI), including:
- The investor was introduced to etoro.zone by a stranger who showed off the returns she made with etoro.zone.
- The etoro.zone website is only accessible through the Coinbase application.
- www.Etoro.zone is on a list of potentially fraudulent websites issued by a Canadian regulatory agency.
- The etoro.zone website does not list any contact information.
- Etoro.zone accessed the investor’s Coinbase wallet and took over $63,000 in cryptocurrency without the investor’s authorization.
- The investor was told to deposit additional money or lose all of their investment.
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