The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division has received a series of complaints appearing to operate similar to Crypto Scams by Self-Proclaimed 'Professors' in WhatsApp Groups. For all three entities, complainants report very similar experiences. They were introduced, via social media, to an “institute” designed to teach students about investing. Shortly after engaging with the social media advertisement, each investor was directed to a Whatsapp Group where the investors received “lessons” about various investment topics. Eventually, they were introduced to a separate cryptocurrency trading platform where the transactions occurred.
These entities include WT Finance Institute (“Wealthtutor”) and the platform LENCOIN Tech Corporation, DAF Finance Institute (“Dreamadviser”) and the platform OPACOIN, and FB Finance Institute (“Fortunebuild”) and the platform MALCOIN Tech Corporation. MALCOIN, OPACOIN and LENCOIN were all incorporated in the State of Washington in April 2024 and investors have stated that these entities made representations about operating in Washington. In review of these entities, a legitimate place of business has not been identified.
Wealthtutor / LENCOIN
Associated Websites: https://www.wealthtutor.com and https://lencoin.net
All investors who submitted complaints regarding Wealthtutor and LENCOIN said they were introduced to the “institute” through an advertisement online. The investors were then added to a Whatsapp Group with “Professor” Lysander Clark and advised to download a trading app on their phone. There were several variations of phone app names including LNN-GO, LNO-GO, and LNOCoin. The investors received “free” cryptocurrency to test the platform before investing their own funds. One investor invested a total of $900,000 and the other investor invested approximately $57,000. Both investors signed nearly identical contracts called an “Ai Wealth Creation 4.0 Strategic Partnership Investment Agreement” with “Party A” Wealthtutor Corp and “Party C” LENCOIN Tech Corp. After the investors generated significant purported profits from their investments, they were told they needed to pay commission with outside funds before any profits could be withdrawn from the platform. Neither investor has been able to withdraw their investment. Another investor was offered, and accepted, a “loan” from a C2C merchant in the amount of $500,000. When the investor generated profit on the platform and attempted to withdraw, he was told he needed to pay the loan back with outside funds. The investor paid the loan back and is still unable to withdraw any funds from the platform.
Dreamadviser/OPACOIN
Associated Websites: https://www.dreamadviser.com, https://h5.opacoin.top and https://opacoin.vip
DFI received a complaint from an investor that invested approximately $50,000 with Dreamadviser and OPACOIN. Another investor invested approximately $83,000. One investor signed a contact called an “Ai Profit Algorithms 4.0 Strategic Partnership Investment Agreement” with “Party A” Dreamadviser Corp and “Party C” OPACOIN Tech Corp. The second investor transferred Bitcoin and USDT from their Coinbase account to the OPACOIN platform. After losing approximately $70,000, the investor attempted to withdraw the remaining balance from the platform but was told a $10,000 commission fee needed to be paid before the request would be fulfilled. OPACOIN also froze the investors account for what they claimed was money laundering concerns.
Further investigation into Dreamadviser revealed that they have obtained an active Exempt Reporting Adviser (ERA) status with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) using the CRD number 330534. Due to this filing, Dreamadviser Corp does appear in the search results of the FINRA BrokerCheck tool and the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database on sec.gov. An entity that has an active ERA status does not mean they are registered with the SEC.
FortuneBuild/MALCOIN
Associated Websites: https://www.fortunebuild.com, https://malcoin.vip, https://malcoin.ltd and https://globalmalcoin.net
Two complaints were submitted to DFI regarding MALCOIN and FortuneBuild. One investor interacted with an ad on Facebook which directed them to a WhatsApp group called “FB Financial Group.” Initially the investor received lessons about the stock market, but eventually began receiving information about cryptocurrency and “daily trade signals.” The investor was given $500 to test the MALCOIN platform before investing their own funds. The investor was able to withdraw funds several times in small amounts which gave them additional confidence in the platform. After investing approximately $10,000 of their own funds, the investor was unable to withdraw anything from the platform. When they questioned the withdrawal process, the investor was removed from the WhatsApp group. The investor is now being told by MALCOIN that a contract agreeing to deposit more money needs to be signed before the withdrawal can be completed. Another investor reported a similar experience after being introduced to FortuneBuild. The investor was added to a Whatsapp Group called “FB Finance Institute V680” and they invested
$5,000 into the MALCOIN platform. The investor is unable to withdraw funds from MALCOIN. Complaint Similarities:
- All investors have been asked to pay a fee in order to withdraw
- Investors were all added to a Whatsapp group, and some were referred to Telegram to communicate with a “C2C Merchant”
- These entities offered “loans” to investors
- Some investors were asked to sign “partnership agreements” involving some form of AI technology
- Some of the complaints involved a phone application rather than a desktop login. Although an application may be offered through a legitimate source such as the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, the app itself could be fraudulent.
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 also appears to be a common fraudulent scheme involving individuals claiming to be “professors” or “schools” use social media, such as WhatsApp, to guide or teach a group of investors on cryptocurrency trading strategies. The purported trading usually occurs on fraudulent trading platforms.
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 formal complaint with the Securities Division.