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A woman in Australia who lost over a million in an elaborate scam eerily came face to face with one of the criminals while she was vacationing in China with her husband. The woman, who did not want to reveal her identity, runs a Chinese immigration and education business. Speaking to news.com.au, she said that she was distraught after learning that scammers had kept her on the hook for nearly a year through a fake online trading platform, before finally serving ties with her after draining her bank account.
It all started when the woman received a text message from a man called Wei Chen, asking her how she was. At first, she asked the man who he was, however, she didn't find the message alarming or strange as she runs a Chinese immigration and education business. "I thought my friends or clients introduced him to me," she told the outlet.
Later, the two ended up getting on well. They messaged each other over WeChat and WhatsApp about food and how they had both moved to Australia. Chen told her that he was a permanent resident who ran a furniture store and he lived in the expensive Sydney suburb in a house worth over $12,000,000.
Eventually, Chen mentioned that he staked his fortune on an investment trading website called SpreadEx. Notably, a legitimate company exists by that name in the UK as a sports betting and financial trading company, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Chen convinced the woman to put some money in. She had $191,215.50 in savings and over a period of time put all that in, and then some more. The woman also revealed that she encouraged her friends to invest in the scheme and also borrowed money from them.
Unfortunately, the company she was dealing with was actually run by a group of scammers. In December last year - six months after the woman had invested - the UK financial watchdog put out a warning, flagging that the scammers were using an extra 's', using the domain spreadexs.com instead of spreadx.com. The Australian government also put out a warning about the fraudulent site.
The woman had already invested all her savings on the platform. She even borrowed a further $286,823.25 from friends and redrew the mortgage she shared with her husband. Some of her school friends also invested as well after she encouraged them.
The woman told the outlet that when she went on a vacation to China she wanted to continue investing on the platform. This is when the scammers told her that she could directly hand over the cash to them while she was in mainland China. She met a man in what she described as a "remote dark place" and handed him over 500,000 yuan in cash.
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While overseas, the woman also left her SpreadEx trading account in the hands of Chen, who at this point she considered a mentor. But when she returned, she tried withdrawing some of her money but her trading account was suddenly suspended.
The scammers then told her she had to pay a risk fee for withdrawing cash. They also charged her a penalty because she had let someone else take over her account.
The woman said the last contact she had with Chen was in April, meaning he kept the ruse going for nearly a year. After multiple unsuccessful attempts to contact him, Roxy and her husband concluded it was a scam and alerted police in September this year.
The woman said she still owes money she took from her friends and the mortgage. Victoria police is still investigating the woman's case.