Old lady scammed into taking out loans - Bullexo Wixi Ibinex

[BillyS]

Hi All,
Hoping this is the right category but none seemed to fit directly... 

 

Bit of a long one but hoping someone might be able to give us some advice. 

 

We recently found out my MIL (lives alone remotely) followed a link online to sign up to online crypto trading that MrEMusk recommended. 

Having clicked the link she started getting a lot of calls from the company (Ibinex, Wixi / Bullexo) to persuade her to invest money into crypto,

 

these guys worked her softly softly, making sure she didn't tell anyone, would get any money she put in back within a couple of weeks from the profits, they persuaded her to let them connect remotely to her laptop to set things up for her.  

 

She has no income, very very little by way of pension and struggles to meet her living costs each month.  

 

Even knowing this, they further persuaded her to take out over £20k in loans to put into the account, with the promise it would be repaid within a couple of weeks to settle the loans. 

 

They logged on to her device, and coached her through the application processes, giving her the answers to ensure the loans were approved, then moved the money into the Bullexo trading platform.  Two of the loans were for £10k and then a further one with a payday for another £2k. 

 

An idea of her finances

- a couple of months earlier she had enquired with Barclays to borrow £500 to get a small run around car, they turned her down having completed an affordability check (correctly so, she has no spare money)

 

After a few weeks, they tried to persuade her to get more money to invest but she got nervous and finally mentioned it to the family. 

 

We tried to withdraw the funds already deposited, but Bullexo (account manager, same guy who took the cash) say they won't release any of the funds without a huge pile of personal information, which in our view would put her at even higher risk of fraud. 

 

We have obviously put a stop to any further loans, have spoken to the loan companies to put things on hold for the time being, and reported to the police and Action Fraud, though the last two have already said they are unable to do anything apart from 'log it'.  

The loan companies say they did all they could (tick box) to ensure the money wasn't being taken by scammers and therefore the loans will have to be repaid in full, though she clearly can't afford this, we are obviously worried sick and she has turned from a strong confident woman to being left broken and unable to face anyone.  

While I don't blame the loan companies specifically, I am angry that there appears to have been little or no genuine affordability checks which would have stopped this whole thing in its tracks. 

 

Apparently a credit check and a tick box (saying are you sure this isn't a scam!) is enough according to them. 

Can they really absolve themselves of responsibility this simply? 

Is there any way that we might be able to get these loans cancelled / reconsidered?

 

Has anyone had any dealings with Wixi / Bullexo? 

 

I have read that some genuinely have managed to withdraw funds, either by good fortune, or by way of threatening letters of some kind, however as they are not regulated I'm not sure who would have any clout?

All in all a bit of a nightmare.  If anyone has any thoughts or advice it would be very much appreciated.

 

TIA

[dx100uk]

shouldn't be too difficult to eventually resolve this but some basic steps to protect her going forward need to be implemented now.

 

i would immediately go open a parachute account online with say the co-op and get all her legit income paid into that A/C now

 

i will guess all this scamming is linked to an existing bank accounts she has in some way.?

 

i will also guess (well no its 1000% know) these ads are zero to do with musk but scammers

 

there is little anyone can do to her

 

most of these originate from abroad so resolve themselves out our jurisdiction.

 

other than 'being scammed' is she out of pocket on her UK bank accounts?

 

also dont forget our very strict irresponsible lending laws if these are UK based bitcoins scams

 

 

 

[BillyS]

Absolutely, no suggestion MrMusk/Tesla (or any of the other faces regularly used in these ads) is involved or aware.  Sadly, these scams are 10 a penny, the operators being extremely skilled, well versed in their social engineering techniques, and exceptionally successful at persuading, even the most tech savvy, to part with their hard earned.  All this despite years and years of advice from Technologists on how to keep yourself safe online.

 

None of her main bank accounts were involved or linked in this process, £250 from her day to day funds initially used to get going.  Recently prior to this, her bank had outright refused a £500 loan, having properly conducted checks, due to her lack of disposable income. 

 

Beyond that, it was new loans were taken out with institutions she hasn't used or looked at before (a big pool since she had no debt at the time), and suggested to her by the scammers as likely to lend to her.  It is these of the greatest concern at present, particularly as they have started pushing for repayment and not accepting any wrong-doing in relation to the lending as they believe they did 'all they could'.

 

 

 

Edited January 21, 2023 by BillyS
grammar

[Ethel Street]

Are the loan companies in the UK?

 

Have you checked the list of authorised financial organisations in to see if they are authorised to carry out a loan business in the UK?

 

I ask particularly because you said they suggested by the scammers.

 

Also the victim gave the scammers direct access to her computer. Has she now blocked direct access?

[dx100uk]

if her PC had no access to her existing bank accounts what was the point of them hacking it?

have you copies of any agreements?

 

we need to know what she has actually signed upto and as above,

 

if these are UK companies,  i suggest an immediate irresponsible lending complaint goes off to each UK company involved and to contact FOS/FCA etc etc.

 

if they are outside the UK. she is most probably in a position to simply ignore everything there is little they can do as our legal system will be out of jurisdiction to them most probably, and again, they wont want to be exposed in our courts anyway as its all a scam.

 

you say she is not financially at a loss?, there are no direct debits against her existing bank accounts?, she was simply used as a front to scam.

 

 

 

[Kyosanto]

Try make a complaint to the FCA
Report a scam to us | FCA

 

 

As a sidenote they are already aware and warning that Bullexo is a fraud:

Bullexo | FCA

 

There's a possibility that the "banks" who issues the loans are in with the scammers.

 

You might get further calls from scammers claiming to be the police or then bank, telling your MIL to move the money in a "safe account". No matter what don't follow any instructions you receive from anyone on the phone, ever.

 

I'm sorry for your MIL and hope you will manage to get some justice. I guess the silver lining is she didn't have an entire account worth of live savings to scam, because the way she handled this, it would all have been gone by now. 

[BillyS]

The lenders are all UK companies, Zopa (mentioned in first post),  Creation Finance and Drafty.  Unlikely any of these are directly linked to the scammers, more likely they are known to them as having lax lending processes.  We do have the loan agreements, they are standard UK regulated companies, the paperwork is all broadly correct and legitimate. 

 

Quite the opposite, i've said she is definitely at a financial loss, to the tune of around £22k, the value of the loans she has taken out.

 

There is no suggestion her device was hacked, she was persuaded to willingly give remote access to enable them to 'help'.  I am very well versed in Cyber security techniques, and have ensured her devices are certainly secured against further access.  There is no money to move.  She has been well coached on how to handle future calls.  

 

"if these are UK companies,  i suggest an immediate irresponsible lending complaint goes off to each UK company involved and to contact FOS/FCA etc etc."

 

Thanks, we have had little joy from the lenders (not our problem guv).  I will take a look at what the complaints process entails and work out the correct order to handle this.  

 

[FTMDave]

49 minutes ago, BillyS said:

Quite the opposite, i've said she is definitely at a financial loss, to the tune of around £22k, the value of the loans she has taken out.

Yes, but the money was not 22 grand that she originally had, it's money from these loans.

 

The simple fact is that there is no point in suing someone who has no money.

 

That's apart from this mess being the fault of the lenders themselves with their lax, to put it mildly, checks.

 

54 minutes ago, BillyS said:

There is no money to move. 

But presumably she has her pension paid into her account, right?

 

I agree with the others that it would be a damn good idea for her to open a new account where she can put whatever small income she has and where it is safe from any action by these loan companies.

 

[BillyS]

Her cyber security, funds and wider banking are secured, all usual steps taken, and far more beyond.  

 

I am following dx advice and writing to lenders today, then looking at FOS/FCA, looking for appropriate wording and order of process at the moment.

 

 

Edited January 22, 2023 by BillyS

[dx100uk]

the loans might be in her name but she saw and still has no access to the sums, simply lumbered with their repayments.

i dont know if its the correct route, but its the only one i can see of use at present, that being IRL complaint to each lender.

 

Zopa,  Creation Finance and Drafty.

 

just tie up loose ends, she did not, be it over the phone nor online physically herself actually takeout these loans, it was done electronically using her computer, email, online sites>? if so there must be trace of this on the PC. that evidence will be very useful.

 

there is an IRL template here.

it was successful on numerous PDL cases over its time a few years ago.

 

poss will help you.

 

 

 

[BillyS]

Thanks for the doc, looks fairly straightforward, will have a read through and keep the thread updated.

 

To clarify, she received the funds, then transferred the same to the Bullexo platform, again, under instruction.  Similarly, I understand there was a confirmation call on at least one of the loans which she confirmed the information that had been given.  Unfortunately her detailed memory is not great, even less so with all the stress of this hanging over her the last couple of months.

 

Edited January 22, 2023 by BillyS

[dx100uk]

could it be said that they were controlling what she typed/did on the PC or even doing it themselves by remote access? you said they had control of it?

 

was there a sign of such an installation to allow this?

get as much responsibility of her shoulders, see was simply being the mouthpiece on the phone when told too and what to say through fear of lossing a financial gain or backhander or the whole thing going tits up and shed make nothing from it all?

 

what i cant understand is what she stood to gain from this all?

or was it the your bank account has been hacked we need you to do this?

 

how did they initially rope her in ??

 

dx

 

 

dx

 

[BillyS]

They had promised that it was being invested into crypto currency, for her benefit.  They would do the trading for her, and she would be guaranteed huge profits!!  The loans to be taken out would be paid back in full within a couple of weeks from the profits.

 

They had a short term access, using "screenleap" I believe, to control her device and to help her.   She was hooked by an online ad featuring MrMusk/Tesla offering to help everyone to benefit from the crypto boom.  Unfortunately she is very naive, particularly online.  It has genuinely shocked her that there are really people out there that would do this kind of thing.

 

She's definitely very fragile, though she describes her relationship with the account guy as 'he was like a son to me', he had been working the softly softly angle over 6-8 weeks building up trust before the big bucks.  His attitude changed massively when he'd been found out and realised she had him on speaker, with us listening in.  They still continued to phone her regularly afterwards, trying to catch her on her own.  Tried to extract a lot more detailed PII in order to withdraw funds, but which are entirely unnecessary, and would leave her open to even more serious identity fraud.  Fortunately it didn't get that far.

Edited January 22, 2023 by BillyS

[Kyosanto]

On 22/01/2023 at 20:03, BillyS said:

she describes her relationship with the account guy as 'he was like a son to me', he had been working the softly softly angle over 6-8 weeks building up trust before the big bucks.  

 

Sadly this is textbook scammer stuff. Have you refered this to the police?

[stu007]

Just for info Screenleap is a Screen Sharing and Online Meeting Software.

 

Just type into your search engine:

 

Screenleap and have a wee look she wouldn't need to install the software as the individual she was dealing with can simply send her a Share Screen Code for her to enter 

 

 

 

 

[BillyS]

On 26/01/2023 at 18:00, Kyosanto said:

 

Sadly this is textbook scammer stuff. Have you refered this to the police?

Police are a low priority, only for reference really (as with Action Fraud), there is little they can do so it is pretty much logged and filed in these type of cases. 

 

I deal with similar cases fairly frequently, mainly for businesses, though from the technical recovery, prevention and forensics side, even at times direct dealings with perpetrators (ransomware keys).  Cash recovery, and dealing with UK financial institutions for the same (in terms of protecting an individual and ensuring they are not out of pocket) is not my forte.  
 

[BillyS]

On 27/01/2023 at 02:49, stu007 said:

Just for info Screenleap is a Screen Sharing and Online Meeting Software.

 

Just type into your search engine:

 

Screenleap and have a wee look she wouldn't need to install the software as the individual she was dealing with can simply send her a Share Screen Code for her to enter 

 

Agreed, fairly standard software.  While there is no need to install software, there are ALWAYS traces left on the machines.  These have been identified and preserved as evidence if needed later.