The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division received a complaint concerning a Washington resident regarding luckymultitradefx.com (“Luckymultitradefx”), a website claiming to be a “Revolutionary Money Making Platform.” The website also claims that Luckymultitradefx is an international company engaged in “Binary investment business [sic]” that operates “in [sic] MLM binary plan.” Luckymultitradefx offers up to eight different plans to choose from, which will purportedly earn the referring member a five to sixteen percent commission, depending on how many member referrals are made to the platform.
The investor was introduced to Luckymultitradefx by an individual on Instagram purportedly named Amber Bianca (“Bianca”). Known Instagram screennames for Bianca include “amberfx_miner,” “coach_amber_32,” and “amber_bianca_bitcoin_miner_696.” Bianca represents herself as a mining coach, crypto investor, mentor, and “Professional Account Manager.” The investor believed Bianca was an old friend from high school. The investor later learned that her friend’s Instagram account had been taken over by someone representing herself as Bianca.
Bianca was very vague about how the investment was supposed to work and the investor did not know anything about investing in crypto, or about crypto mining. Bianca provided directions to the investor, including what crypto wallet to use, which was likely a wallet controlled by Bianca. Bianca directed the investor to the Luckymultitradefx website, where the investor established an account. The Luckymultitradefx website did not allow the investor to use her credit card to buy crypto, so Bianca told the investor to use a Bitcoin cash machine. The investor withdrew funds totaling approximately $26,000 from her savings account and used a Bitcoin cash machine to deposit the money to the crypto wallet designated by Bianca.
Within a short period of time, the investor believed that her $26,000 had grown to a value of approximately $40,000. When the investor tried to withdraw her purported earnings from her Luckymultitradefx account, the company required the investor to make tax payments and to pay various fees, including withdrawal fees, insurance, and commissions. Fortunately, the investor did not pay any of the advanced fees, although the investor was unable to withdraw her funds and has lost her entire investment. These allegations have not been verified by DFI.
This appears to be what is commonly called “Advance Fee Fraud”, which can take many forms. Learn more about advance fee fraud.
This complaint has several of the red flags of an online investment scam, including:
- The Luckymultitradefx website has numerous typos and grammatical errors.
- The Luckymultitradefx website is a recently registered domain with an administrative contact located in Nigeria.
- The Luckymultitradefx website lists an address located in California that appears to belong to an unrelated, legitimate business.
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.
If you believe you are a victim of an Internet Crime, you may file a report to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
Additional Resources
Virtual Currency, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Assets Information for Consumers