The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division has received a complaint from a Washington resident regarding Elite Share Broker (https://elitesharebroker.com/). The Elite Share Broker website states they are the “world’s leading multi-asset alternative investment firm with approximately $649 billion in assets under management.”
The investor was introduced to Elite Share Broker from an individual over Discord. The investor believed the individual was a reputable trader and the Discord channel owner for a trading education group the investor was a part of. Later, it was discovered that the individual impersonated the trader, using the same profile picture as the trader. After introducing the investor to Elite Share Broker, the individual changed their Discord name to “Doger” and their screenname to “Doger#6241”.
Doger claimed to be a professional trader who offered a service called “copy trading” where the investor’s account would mirror trades made in his account. Doger claimed that they managed more than 100 member accounts who make an average weekly return of $8,000 to $10,000. Doger showed the investor purported profits from their account resulting from trading on Elite Share Broker.
After their initial investment of $3,000, the investor’s Elite Share Broker account grew in profit, making purportedly hundreds of dollars a day. Shortly after investing, Doger pressured the investor a number of times to invest more money in order to participate in weekly withdrawals, engage in more products, and to accommodate more trading software which would improve account earnings.
After investing $6,000 of USDT (Tether) on Elite Share Broker, the investor’s account grew in a short period of time to a purported balance of $19,000. When the investor attempted to withdraw funds, they were told they needed to deposit additional funds to pay commission fees. The investor was unable to pay the commission fees using profits from their account. Doger told the investor that for $1,000 worth of USDT, the investor would be allowed to transfer profits to their trading account, to increase its size and use some profits to pay commissions and fees. After paying $1,000 in USDT, the investor was unable to withdraw funds until they paid an “SEC fee” that was 20% of the profits in their account or $3,800. The investor did not pay the fee and is unable to withdraw funds from their account. The investor lost a total of $7,000. These allegations have not been verified by DFI.
The investor was told to send their cryptocurrency investment to the following Elite Share Broker cryptocurrency wallet:
0xbA88B35486E57bAbAdeCa92fe23fEBaE601a8298
This appears to be what is commonly called “Advance Fee Fraud”, which can take many forms. Learn more about advance fee fraud.
This also appears to be a Pig Butchering Scheme. Learn more about pig butchering schemes.
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.
Additional Resources
Virtual Currency, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Assets Information for Consumers