The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division has received a complaint from a Washington resident regarding sfnppro.com, a website claiming to be a cryptocurrency trading platform. The investor was introduced to SFNP by an individual they met on a dating website. Later, the individual contacted the investor through Whatsapp and introduced them to SFNP. The individual told the investor that they could make a lot of money through the platform.
The investor invested $30,000 in Ethereum through the SFNP platform. The investor took out loans and used some personal funds for the investment. When the investor made enough to repay the loans used for the investment and was going to withdraw funds, the individual told the investor to sign up for their VIP event. Unbeknownst to the investor, the VIP event would cost an additional $50,000. When the investor tried to cancel the VIP event, they were told that they would need to pay $17,980 to cancel. When the investor could not pay the $17,980, their investment account was closed. These allegations have not been verified by DFI.
This appears to be what is commonly called “Advance Fee Fraud”, which can take many forms. See: about advance fee 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 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