Scam Type
CryptoCurrency Scam
Business Name Used
Max Core
Date Reported
Sep 22, 2022
Victim Postal Code
93535
Total Dollars Lost
30000
Scam Description
I am a victim of the pig-butchering scam,
I was initially contacted by text message , someone was inquiring of a fitness class, i am assuming the person dialed the wrong number, so i replied to let them know , they kindly apologized and carried on , the next day or two they said perhaps our aquintance is an arrangement of god, im guessing to me this was a way to lower my defenses as being skeptical of a stranger texting me , we chatted about and she says she has a 5 year old and it divorced , sends me a photo, i say i am married. after introduction, i am guided to carry on conversation through telegram app as i was told the phone number was used primarily for thier communication with thier friends. i created the telegram and the conversation continued at somepoint cryptocurrency was brought up 2 times, and i myself have read about it previously and even tried it once before on coinbase.com but lost interest because i did not know how it worked, i expleain this to the person and they said they would offer to help teach me how to invest and make trades on thier platform after they have shown me profits screen shots form thier trades. so i said ok if your willing to teach me i wont mind learning.
later on after conversation i am given a link to thier platform called Max Core, which i tried looking up and for some odd reason is not in the google play store, i figured maybe the app is not updated for something so i go ahead and i install it to my phone i am then greeted with a account creation screen which only needed my email and password oddly, i then go into the app and it seems unfamiliar to me as i am just a novice, and i am thinking maybe this is just a wierd app like most others look somewhat familiar i suppose.
so then she teaches and guides me through the entire process how to setup the accouints and wallets and even wire money to coinbase and how much needed to start off , i believe it was $1000 at first , i was able to make 1 withdrawl after a trade or two basically to gain my trust into this platform, so it went back to my coinbase and then back to my bank, after that i was told i needed to raise my capitol position for a better profit or return while trading, i was guided how to make my first wire transfer to coinbase.com from my bank it was 10k before fees and transfers to thier platform. i have made 3 wire tranfers of the same amount totalling 30k before tranfser fees during the process of this scam within a few weeks altogther as i was tol there would be a new coin launching and that i needed to preapare and raise funds for this opportunity, after doing so we made more trades and after that on thier site my assets reach about 60k and then they tell me that i need to ask for a loan of 150k on thier platform and to ask thier customer service if i am eligible, at the same time i am consulting with coinbase.com of this coin called “GAE” they look it up and say it doesnt exist, i am now thinking mayb this may be something from a different region as when i speak to customer service on the max core i notice the the tab has chinese letters before changing to english.
so monenets later i am accepted and they approve me for the loan only requiring me to take a photo of my identfication front and back and then me with a photo of it and then printing out a paper and signing it but that was only on my part which was odd as well, so they supposably approved me and then credited my asset account with the loan funds of 150k, i also consulted with coinbase at the same time how a loan process is done and how long it takes and they says that it take longer and more information is needed, so i figure this is begining to make me feel like something is not right and i already have this money invested, and i am supposed to make more somehow on this platform with this person by guiding me and teaching me,anyways i have already transferred this money and we are now waiting to purchase this new coin “GAE” , and we follow through and then eventually sell it after a day or two if i can rememmber correctly and now my account has a whopping 500k+ i am shocked by this and am beginig to try to process this and think to myself wow now i can pay off my house and maybe look for another home and all sorts of ideas i can think of and then this hits me when she says, oh i have to tell you, you cant use the fund from the profits to pay the loan, and i am like why not , how so if the money is there why not ?, so i tell her and ask for help saying if she helps me then i could repay you since you already have the funds and are the only person i may know , and then she tells me that i could go ask for a loan from the bank and that i need to pay the loan to unlock the funds, by this time i have 10 or 9 days left i had to consult with family and my spouse only to figure out that i was potentially being scammed, so i left it alone and let the time pass and then i went to the page where the wallet was and i looked at my coinbase transaction and noticedsomething really odd, the wallet number was changed and i am like what is goin on here if i open and accoutn online with my name it doesnt chaneg on its own to another wallet , so i start looking up the app online and try to find resources of information and i ran into this scam with fake apps called pig butchering, and the more i read about it i realized i was being manipulated to believe what i was seeing on the app was not real it was fake and the asset number is probably programmed somehow to make me believe that i have those fund but the wallet number was changed therefore wherever the wallet was now is not there.
so i have found a way to locate the wallets myself after a few days of reading and online resources i soon found others that were affected by this same scammer, and its sad that now as technology has advanced so do the ways of scammers finding new ways to steal our money, they lie to us and make us believe in something that is not real, in the meantime reaching into our wallets.
i have religiously checked and have been tracking the wallet and found that there is also millions of dollars located into it following from my wallet that i was given to deposit funds into which was 2 different wallet numbers now that i have checked my coinbase account i learned that it was not right at all if it was my wallet it would not change on its own for any reason, so it makes me wonder how many other people have been lied and cheated out of thier hard earned money to feed the wallets of these scammers this needs to stop and be put to an end.
