The Ellis County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the fraud, but the veteran fears he may never get his money back.
ELLIS COUNTY, Texas — A U.S. Navy veteran living in Ellis County wishes he never responded to a message from an unknown woman on Facebook last December. The woman enticed him to take out loans and invest his savings, along with retirement funds, in an elaborate crypto scam that has placed him in dire straits.
The veteran wished not to be named or identified. Still, the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office confirmed they are actively working with him and investigating the fraud to make an arrest or recuperate the vet’s money.
Despite not knowing who he is or his background, his story is all you need to hear to protect yourself or someone you know from falling into the same trap fueled by counterfeit trust and reports of incredible, yet fictitious, financial gains.
The vet’s heritage likely drew the female fraudster/suspect into his life. She revealed to the vet that her family was also from the same corner of Europe as his, which started a conversation.
It also helped that several of the vet’s mutual friends had accepted the fraudster’s friend request on Facebook, signaling that maybe people he knew knew her.
“These people emotionally hijack you,” the vet said. “They build trust with you over a period of time.”
The woman shared a crypto investment opportunity with the vet that would lead to immediate and profitable gains. She asked him to convert cash to crypto on a legit trading website and then funnel it to a platform she was using, where short, fast investments would grow exponentially.
The vet was skeptical but invested a small amount to see if it was real.
“I started with $1,000 and did a couple of trades. I made about $600, made a withdrawal, and it made it to my bank, and I was like, okay, this was legitimate. But I’m afraid that was just a carrot to get me to invest more.”
The vet’s next investment went from $1,000 to $47,000 and they only grew from there. Each time, he was constantly shown a balance of profit from the ‘imposter’ platform the fraudster was using.
Those balances turned out to be fictitious.
“I took out several loans and about 80% from my 401k,” the vet said. “I made about $440,000 in one night and eventually got up to a million bucks.”
The vet tried making another withdrawal that never went through to pay off one of those loans and realized he was being scammed when the fraudster asked for more money to pay for taxes brought by the ‘Texas State Revenue Service,’ which doesn’t exist.
“At that point, I knew I was being scammed,” he said.
The vet said the fraudster had ceased business with him but was incredibly convincing. They spoke daily on WhatsApp about trades and had phone calls and even video calls with each other about investments.
“She would walk me through everything. I didn’t know anything about crypto before this — nothing,” the vet said.
An investigator within the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office who is a member of a fraud task force with the Secret Service is handling the vet’s case.
The sheriff’s office told WFAA that all leads are being investigated, but in these cases, the scammers are frequently hard to track down (and likely operating in a different country). Recuperating any money handed over by the victim can be challenging.
At the very least, the vet wants to share his story to inform others not to fall into the same scam.
“I didn’t ever think something like this could happen to me — it’s been rough. My faith in God and Jesus is getting me through, but it’s been rough.”
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