Online friend sent money to me to trade on the forex market and lost it now threatening to call police

[parkinghelp1]

Hi,

i have been trading on and off and i met someone online and we been talking for a while 8 months + they said they would be interested in sending me money to trade and hopefully split the profit. 4 months went by and i was losing bad, i never had the guts to tell them as i was trying to recover it for them.

But kept getting worse.

They then asked if it goes down to the stop loss if around breakeven can withdraw at the end of january. But by that point i already lost all of it. I have finally told them it messed up and its all gone. And of course they are very angry and threatening me to call police for theft.

I never forced this person to send me money i never ever met them in person.

They are 30+ years old and a successful business person.

They sent the funds via crypto.

They knew the risks it can of course go good or bad!

But i am worried is there anything i should do or could do?

I have no way of recovering the funds. 

Both me and this person are from the UK

[honeybee13]

What evidence is there of your agreement with this person? Emails, texts, letters and so on?

How much money are we talking about please?

HB

[dx100uk]

civil matter police wont ever be interested.

if he was really that confident and knew what he is was talking about he'd realise he needs to raise a county court claim.

ignore him until/unless he ever does.

he doesn't stand a chance.

dx

[BazzaS]

What was your agreement with them?

Were all your “trades” within the terms of the agreement (and any “stop loss “)

Or did you go outside of any agreement when you were “trying to recover “ it ?

[parkinghelp1]

On whatsapp there was messages, it initially started off him losing a bet on a game which was for £10,000 but he said just trade it for me instead.

The messages on whatsapp also just show him sending screen shots of his confirmation of sending bitcoin crypto to my crypto wallet which is just a code. The amount was initially £10,000 total of then later sent 5k so total £15k. No emails, no letters. 

there are voice recordings of calls him saying to me “if its not done anything and 3 months have past and gone down to the stop loss by the end of jan ill just need it back it as it hasnt done anything is that doable or possible”

i said previously in whatsapp messages wont close it till the trade is done as expect it to go up alot more.

In the voice recording to him saying is it possible i said “probably not if it goes down then not really” as i said it was going to most likely going to go back up alot more.

i will ignore from now on!

Just worried i didn’t expect to lose anything lesson learned never do business with “friends” 

There was no real clear agreement, just to trade it and split the profit 30/70% 

I did say at times stop loss is at breakeven at worst but at that point it was already at a loss

i was trying to keep him calm whilst trying to recover it.

I did say it was up alot at one point when it wasn’t.

I did ask  if he could add 1k more so i could hedge against it and try recover but he didn’t.  

[honeybee13]

Thank you for the extra information.

As dx says, it's not worth worrying about unless this person actually starts a court case. Even then they might not have enough of a 'paper trail' to back it up. I'm interested to know how you know they're in the UK because online they could be anywhere.

There are plenty of online scams, who knows if he's a scammer or thought you were one when you lost money.

HB

[parkinghelp1]

Spoke to this person for a while, british accent also they are well known verified on instagram

. I was only trying to make us both money but failed.

When you say paper trail what do you mean? 

would the whatsapp messages he sent me of screen shots of him sending the bitcoin to be enough?

[dx100uk]

just type no need to keep hitting quote.

whatapp msgs containing screen shots are not a papertrail. i'e written physical documentation.

he hasn't a leg to stand on.

dx

 

[Ethel Street]

Did you at any point say or imply that you were an investment professional and/or you had any formal qualification in investment or that you had any particular expert knowledge about investing in forex markets?

If not why didn't he invest his money himself? Why did he ask you to do it for him?

[parkinghelp1]

Dx- Ok thanks! You guys are so helpful! Appreciate you majorly.

 

ethel - no i never said i was a professional or had any formal qualification just said i have had success in trading in the past

[Ethel Street]

If he lets a (online) friend who isn't a professional and isn't running an investment/trading business invest his money in inherently risky forex trading and he loses it all that's just tough luck. That's what can happen with investments, you can lose the lot. So he has no claim against you. Ignore him unless he starts court proceedings or appoints a solicitor.

Just in case he tells the police you never invested his money but stole it make sure you keep records of all the transactions. Print them off now in case online records disappear or you get locked out of them. Then you have a hardcopy paper trail to show what happened to all the money and that you didn't steal it.

FWIW I thinks he's fool to give £15,000 to someone he's never met in Real Life. You were honest but unlucky. But you could have been a scammer for all he knew.

[parkinghelp1]

Thank you all for your advice, what is the likelyhood this person will take it to court?

Im sure they will get advice from a solicitor.

What would the solicitor even say would they just tell them not worth it as sent it off your own back

[Ethel Street]

20 minutes ago, parkinghelp1 said:

 what is the likelyhood this person will take it to court? 

How long is piece of string?  Your question can only be answered by your online friend. If he's got any sense he won't. But if he had any sense he wouldn't have given you his £15k in the first place!

[Grotesque]

2 hours ago, Ethel Street said:

FWIW I thinks he's fool to give £15,000 to someone he's never met in Real Life. You were honest but unlucky. But you could have been a scammer for all he knew.

He doesn't sound like a particularly smart opponent. He literally sent someone he never met 15K in crypto - untraceable and unidentifiable currency! - and then wonders why he's lost money down the line? @parkinghelp1, had you wanted, you could probably have sold this guy a bridge.

2 hours ago, dx100uk said:

he hasn't a leg to stand on.

Sums it up completely

[dx100uk]

14 minutes ago, Grotesque said:

you could probably have sold this guy a bridge.

[parkinghelp1]

But dosent the fact i sent the wallet code via whatsapp which is connected to my phone number stand for anything? 

[honeybee13]

How do you think it helps, PH?

HB

[parkinghelp1]

Yeah i guess it wouldn't, he still sent it willingly so i guess it irrelevant 

[parkinghelp1]

Hi! I completely forgot to mention this.

could this be a real police phone call?

but i got a call on saturday 3rd feb from a no caller id. I cant remember exactly what was said but along the line of..

hi, this is pc xxx from xxxx station, there has been allegation made against you for theft and false representation.

I at that point just said i dont know what you are talking about and hung up.

They then tried to call back i didnt answer and they left a voicemail which said this in the exact words…

“ hello sir i believe you just put the phone down on me, its the police again, if you can make your way to xxx police station on thursday between 10 oclock i can deal with you then,

if not im sure you know the person whos made this allegation if you can get back the money to them, what ill do ill give u till thursday if not ill be applying for a court warrant and ill see you then

[BazzaS]

Call the police station, ask for pc xxx, tell them you’ve had a call & you are wanting to confirm it was legitimate.

 

If it was legitimate you can arrange a time to be interviewed and have lost nothing.

If it wasn’t legitimate you’ll know they are bluffing (& the police may be interested, not in you, but in them!).

Edited February 8 by BazzaS

[dx100uk]

FAKE CALL go report it !!

take a copy of the tape with you.

police/court warrant?? what!!

for a supposed crypto investment loss..

either this plank has told the police some very very serious lies about you which he'll get in trouble for or it was a scam call by his mate which is just as bad for him.

dx

[parkinghelp1]

I don’t remember the name of the police officer that apparently called but the name of the station they stated is in the voicemail.

so should i call the police station mentioned and ask if its legit?

or do i go to my local police station straight away and report it?

[dx100uk]

its a scam call

the police wound NEVER EVER leave a msg without quoting their name, their badge number and a case ref number . and they would NEVER say what its about, nor the supposed pitfalls if you dont .

privacy and GDPR prevails

[parkinghelp1]

im so appreciative of you guys.
in the first call he did mention a name which i can not remember, but its so true they would of left a case ref number in the voicemail if it was legit

When i report it, do i tell them the whole situation about whats happened? About me winning a bet with someone i met and became friends with online and saying ill trade it on the forex market for them though..

and they sent it to me via bitcoin (crypto) and it got lost and now I'm getting these threats?

And people impersonating the police.

[BazzaS]

Hang on : if you “won it as a bet “ :

Why isn’t it Your money you have lost (not theirs) … at least for the first £10k

Edited February 8 by BazzaS