The Billion Dollar Scam - BBC World Service Documentaries
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 พ.ค. 2024
- The billion-dollar scam: How companies used Premier League sponsorship to target unsuspecting football fans.
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Investigative reporter Simona Weinglass leads a #BBCEye investigation into a criminal network, believed to have scammed more than a billion dollars from victims across the globe.
The organisation sponsored a top-tier football club to promote its online trading platform, promising investors the chance of astonishing returns. But what lies behind the claims? The search - from a mansion in London, to a forest in Scandinavia and a call centre in Georgia - reveals a web of deceit. We hear from victims, undercover agents and police, in a bid to track down who’s in charge.
15/03/24: This programme is the subject of a legal complaint by Mr Kezerashvili, who says its contents as they relate to him are false and defamatory.
To watch more investigative journalism from our award-winning BBC Eye team check out this documentary playlist, perfect for the biggest screen in your home • All BBC World Service ...
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When your financial advisor calls you darling and promises a 90% return on your investment in one day, please hang up the phone and call the police...
this comment should be pinned
Do a search on "FX scams in Israel"
ANYBODY...
Who claims
"GET RICH QUICK"...
Do not believe them.
Absolutely. This is called hitting the nail on the head
@@satadruray9787 😅😅😅Exactly, these people are idiots
Well done to the journalist and the German prosecutors. Shame on the British who refused to investigate.
no surprise there,
they still hold julian assange without a trial
You have to wonder why. The UK is known to launder money for the Russians.
Wtf? The source if the crime is abroad. What exactly can our police do? There is a special unit that you report to, anonymous if required. Scams are highlighted and bank's ask if you make unusual large withdrawals. Get grief from customers too. Greed drives this. I actually feel sorry for anyone with an Indian accent. Not likely to succeed in sales in the UK 😂😂😂😂
@@deborahosborne9426bet you voted brexit.
Lies again? Anti Scam SAF SPF
I thank God every day for my mother, a former deputy. I was raised to trust no one. She used to say “a dumb criminal uses a gun to steal your money but a smart criminal will simply ask for it”
Wow..the one line that summarise a lot of things 😊
Trusting no one isn't the way to go either, it is important to exercise discernment.
Bravo, *ExposeGadgets* ! I'm so glad you're out there fighting these scumbags. We must do everything in our power to protect the elderly and the general public from these despicable scammers. You're a true hero, my brother!
The most important lesson you'll ever learn, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is"
When it comes to money, absolutely
One may sound clever and bright but before you know it you got scammed.
These football clubs should be held accountable for taking sponsors and promoting them without checking their backgrounds.
KYC regs should be applied to these clubs. There's just so much shady money going into these institutions.
A lot of these clubs are already owned by dirty money, so they can clean that money
@@carrioncrow8191 WE HAVE A BINGO!
There are networks of lodges.
They are a part of the racket.
@@tombirmingham7033 yay, what do I win?
The amount of bravery this took was INSANE. These people all had their lives in danger, but still decided to go through with the recovery for the sake of busting bad scammers. True respect *Strong widget on the internet!*
If the FBI was half as dedicated and ingenious (and honest) as you guys are, the USA would be a much safer country.
Amazing work!
i think you missed the part where they did not scam anyone from the usa, she said she had to pretend to be Canadian to get scammed.
@@ScottDieken I would imagine they would be coached to say they were canadian, etc. Look at FTC and how that got around the American thing.
Have a look at the fbi, they are the primary investigator of crimes all over the world.
@@benjaminfphillips OP is a bot FYI
Great documentary!
I do feel sorry for those who have been scammed but also quite frustrated how many people are still falling for these scams. There's definitely an element of greed and stupidity that the scammers are all to willing to exploit.
Investigative journalists are my heroes! 👏👏👏 Thankyou for your hard work to warn us
Honestly it's just another biast smear piece to bash unregulated services - while promoting those that wrote the regulations..
While German authorities are continuously working to bring the perpetrators to justice, British authorities are not even aware of this scam. Amazing!! Kudos to this kind of journalism.
If you take the time to look at the history of Britain,
You'll understand why they tend to ignore such deplorable practice's.
The greed of the hustle is real...
Well a lot of the scammers live in parliament.
If the British were that great then u think all those Pakistani politicians would be living out there. The shareef family, ishaq dar, altaf Hussain. It's a haven for them till they are paying the British bribe they are safe out there
The British authorities do know. They just cannot be bothered stopping it because they are corrupt themselves and it's too much work for them.
We are the privileged ones leave us alone
This needs to be shared worldwide to protect the innocent future investors because they aren't going to stop their scamming
You see its against the powers that be to have an informed public so such information is suppressed
Nomad capitalist another scammer!
American hypocrisy democracy freedom and greed
Wow! You are brave investigators and law enforcement groups! Thank you for your efforts on behalf of the rest of society who are likely to be the targets of such scams.
As a Georgian and a journalist, I would love to thank you for this investigation! These call centers have been rotting the youth for quite some time already! I am happy you went after them!
The EU must pass a law against scammers and victims must be compensated
rotting you mean rolling in cash
Georgia should set up Vigilante police to hit back hard at these scam centers
Please let them know that the Georgian politicians/police are part of the scam scheme.
@@agnescraig2912
Ha! The EU probably has any number of people involved. Itself is corrupt.
I worked for a similar company in Kyiv for one month when I was a student in Ukraine. I resigned when I knew it was a scam because I can't use that money to feed my family and pay my bills as a god-fearing person.
I,m don,t understand why they didn’t shut you up for leaving them so soon
Good. Unfortunately they often use people who have no choice, but it's easy to be corrupted with nice things (always a car waiting, food delivered, etc)
An absurd situation,and outrageous. Once again we can see the ineptitude of many governments.
Awesome work, Team *ExposeGadgets on the internet* ! It's so satisfying to see you putting in the effort to stop those shady characters. Protecting the public, especially the elderly, from those despicable con artists is crucial.
You truly deserve recognition and appreciation for keeping us secure. I'm thrilled for you because you're my sibling. Your accomplishments definitely make you a strong contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. Keep up the outstanding performance!
This is journalism. Thank God it still exists. Good job.
BBC IS SHIT
yeah great, now they know who she is, they will go deeper.
@@kerrybarnes7289 yeah good work but does seem perhaps a bit naive of her to be so public about her role in this; given she's an experienced reporter one can assume that she must have by now perhaps passed the buck on to someone else, a colleague or new entrant to investigative journalism to build a career from, something of that nature.
@@J3diMindTrix Or maybe she is wearing a mask even in this one. She is not that dumb
Her voice is annoying asf, why does she speak like that?
Good journalism, very impressed. As a Brit I am disgusted the reporter had to ask a German policeman if he could assist British victims. His answer was spot on ... where are the UK police in all this. I am not anti police inspite of all their short falls, sadly we still need cops ... but the total absance of UK police leaves me thinking - simple incompetance or worse protection of local intitutional financial collusion. Please keep digging.
There's something definitely wrong with the police force in UK.
I'm British, I had a boss a few years ago who got scammed between £1 mil - £1.5 mil. From an private equity investment scam.
He told me when he reported the crime, British police already knew and simply weren't interested in resolving it - because it was an international scam.
More than that, there were no reports publicising the scam on the gov.uk website, or anywhere online, verified by the British state/police/govt.
My impression has been that London specifically has been very important hub for money laundering between Saudi and Russian national operations. The amount of money which is transferred is mind blowing. Hundreds of billions. Reason it has been able to go like that is due the extraordinary challenges to prove it is blood money. What need to be understood is the money laundering is only a symptom for the real disease: natinonally supported organized crime.
Every country has it but some thrive from it like Saudis and Russians (and many ex Soviet nations). It all boils down of complete disregard and even hate towards other ”systems”. Religion and lack of it at both extremes create the disrespect towards other people. I’d count in as a religion also greediness. The overwhelming desire to own things with zero empathy. This is why beheading is normal tactics with Saudis, Russians and other ISIS-alike regimes.
Only thing we can do (I believe) is to break ”the money loop”. Make the money worthless.
"As a Brit I am disgusted the reporter had to ask a German policeman if he could assist"
WTF do you think SBF was? And it directly fed into the Biden Midterm Campaign.
These eastern EU types are just copy cats to the main game.
Build Back Better.
The City of London launders all the black money in the world.
I'm worried for your safety Simona!!! It's so brave of you to reveal your identity but you should not have done that.
To do that for us, is just amazing. Thank you very much. Thank you to the other gentleman.❤
It wasnt brave.
A surprisingly good piece of journalism from the BBC who have lost the plot in almost every other way. Well done to the team who made this.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I don't mind their local investigations. But their investigations on politics of non westernised countries are nothing but 80% lies, projection, spin and outright propaganda.
These scammers deserve a special place in hell.
I'm sure it will be reserved, right next to TV licence enforcement goons.
Relax
Well that's usually the tradeoff
True 😊
@Donkey, you're a disappointment
In simple words UK is responsible for protecting the main scammer.
(the BBC)
@@louiswilliamterminator2887 So very true!
Not just one. Almost every Forex/commodities trading company is a scam; it's not just the 'Milton Group' - City of London is the mother of them all which BBC conveniently fails to mention.
I used to work for one at the highest level. Know the scam inside-out. Anyone can start such a company for under $100,000 dollars. You can buy the white-label software, rent the servers to install it, buy the feeds, register the company in Malta (or another British tax haven) and off you go. And it is all legal.
The blame SHOULD be directed onto the company or companies. A country cannot be held responsible for what individuals are planning and carrying out.
My parents unfortunately fell victim to same type of scammers, they were based in Nepal!. Does this mean the Nepalese country is responsible, no.
They allowed these scammers to register the business there. UK government is a sham
that was crazy and such great work by you and Alex. I was scammed out of $800 to an advertising company for my small business and I felt like such a fool and didn't know who to turn to for help. I just called myself stupid. thanks again for your hard work
That company didn't advertise your business?
@@fatemad4012 no they had a fake website and everything. Was supposed to do Facebook and google ads for me. I paid them through Venmo and one week later the phones didn’t work, the email bounced back and the website was gone.
Warren Buffet has good advice: Do not put money in a business you don't understand. It's that simple.
I love how your "advisor" called you Darling twice in a short call
Impressive work! These people need to not just be held accountable, but made examples of.
Yeah punched in the throat
They have a great example to follow if the largest financial frauds are anything to go by. Get enough money and you’re untouchable. Go to a territory with no extradition policy and you’re safe. TH-cam pushes these schemes at every opportunity because they pay advertising fees and look like credible financial systems. The education pushers are telling you the truth because they sold you their education product so their system works and your purchase added to the revenue returns they proclaim are the potential you’ll have after buying their product, which increases their appeal, and so on, indefinitely, making their claims of a self perpetuating income with little actual effort, true. Caveat emptor. If it’s too good to be true it’s probably a scam.
Shot
Banks now have serious warnings on clients online account pages. Clients should seriously take notice of these, and block unknown unsolicited emails and phone calls.
When I hear huge returns. My first question is "Why do you need my money?"
As a Georgian national I am beyond ashamed and do apologies for the harm caused and thank BBC for helping to bring the awareness. These people do not represent Georgia and they’ve robbed Georgian people too.
englands got them as well, dont worry about it. regulators dont do their job
You should do what we do and give them jobs in banking and politics.
Dont worry we dont blame you
Tbh even the stereotype of Nigerian scammers is not true - less then 1% of Nigerians do that so its unfair to stereotype
They were based in your country but they are Israeli
@@hunter5369 And when they run back to Israel with the stolen millions they're protected from extradition by the state.
Outstanding job, *ExposeGadgets Team On the Internet* I'm so glad you're out there battling these vile con artists. We must take every precaution to protect the general people and the elderlv from these vile con artists. Bravo to vou! You ought to be awarded the Nobel Prize for protecting us. Big up, brother...🏅
Admirable job, *Adroitkey* I'm glad to see you actively combating these individuals who lack integrity. We must prioritize the protection of the elderly and the wider public from these reprehensible scammers! Well done, my friend!! You deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for your commitment to keeping us safe 👍
The truth is, if they wanted to trace it - they would. If they wanted to get them arrested, they would. It will never end.
It took decades for anyone to even notice what Bernie Madoff was doing. Even when people were trying to sound the alarm on him.
@@enviritas9498 Bernie M He also holds the world record at the full distance💸
Please tell your compatriots that Chinese immigrants, especially Chinese political asylum smugglers, are Trojan horses planted by the Communist Party in the democratic world. They will carry out suicide attacks in your country in the future. They all know how to make suicide attack weapons and how to Carry out suicide terrorist attacks because they find out that they are ultimately dictator slave owners and slaves, genetically unable to integrate into the democratic world, please don't forget the human disasters and social disasters they have caused you in the past with their bottomless morality and beliefs
When you say something they say you are jealous or poor, youtube is filled with ADs from scammers google does nothing because they also make money from it, city of london is full of russian oligards.
There’s an old saying “The law is an ass”. Except in trivial matters it’s barely fit for purpose.
If a criminal agency could derive part of its funding from the proceeds of criminals it busted there might be some justice.
I thought I was very smart before I was scammed. Those guys are very smart. Thanks for this video
He defrauded so many British people .., just to buy a property in London 😬
The best way to stop it is to educate people on how these crimes work, and not to believe anything that is too good to be true.
Excellent work. We need more like this. Give this journalist a HUGE raise.
If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. It doesn't get much worse than this.
Not usually...always.
governments have been scaming its peoples for Centuries
Exceptional work, *Briskdeft* I'm glad you're battling these jerks out there. We must take every precaution to safeguard the elderly and the general public from these disgusting scam artists!
You've earned it!! You deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for keeping us safe, brother 😊✍️
very interesting, great work you're doing. Never been a victim personally of fraud but sad seeing people fall for it and lose money
It's always a wonder that every TH-cam video, I watch here in the USA, has at least one comment regarding financial investment (scam), and yet TH-cam fails to take action!
I am in the U.K and I see the same crypto scam comments.
Same here in Germany. I constantly report these comments, and yet they alway pop up again.
Some of the you tube's paid advertisements look like scams , you tube is just as complicit as these football clubs .
TH-cam is busy pushing the new world lgbt left wing ideologies and, deleting pro Right groups
Excellent job "Jeni". This is award-winning investigative journalism. I was scammed by "First Financial Banc", invested 250€ which "grew" to 1000€ in two weeks. I wanted to withdraw my 250€ investment as a precaution and that is when I met with insults, abuse and racial attacks including "I wish you had been the one who died instead of George Floyd". Next, my login was disabled and access to their website was blocked. They have morphed. These days they call from "Norway", "Burundi" and "Austria". Take care good people
Be glad you only lost 250€. I know this guy who lost $250,000....
Please tell your compatriots that Chinese immigrants, especially Chinese political asylum smugglers, are Trojan horses planted by the Communist Party in the democratic world. They will carry out suicide attacks in your country in the future. They all know how to make suicide attack weapons and how to Carry out suicide terrorist attacks because they find out that they are ultimately dictator slave owners and slaves, genetically unable to integrate into the democratic world, please don't forget the human disasters and social disasters they have caused you in the past with their bottomless morality and beliefs
The classic Ponzi scheme. Show high returns and select numbers who withdrew riches to build the pyramid.
@@eleghari was he liquidated?
@@21Blockboy No need...law is on the side of perpetrators of these scams...nothing that was done was "illegal"
The world needs more *Strong widget* . This is the start of recovering something huge. Probably much larger than anyone could imagine. Congradulations to all involved.
Scammers
I can't imagine how hard it would be to decide to take on a re-coveryagent role of an scammed persons. The history needs to be remembered though and the help that was born through such pain and suffering.
Mad respect to these *ExposeGadgets* on the internet that take on these roless!
Love your work Simona Wineglass! Fighting the good fight. I love seeing justice against these evil people.
You mean against the Israelis that were behind the scam? Wineglass didn't mention that, did she? Good work, truly!
Her voice is adorable too
winona sineglass
British give asylum and safe heaven to financial frauds from all across the globe each year. I am still waiting for BBC to make a documentary on that!
Please tell your compatriots that Chinese immigrants, especially Chinese political asylum smugglers, are Trojan horses planted by the Communist Party in the democratic world. They will carry out suicide attacks in your country in the future. They all know how to make suicide attack weapons and how to Carry out suicide terrorist attacks because they find out that they are ultimately dictator slave owners and slaves, genetically unable to integrate into the democratic world, please don't forget the human disasters and social disasters they have caused you in the past with their bottomless morality and beliefs
"If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is." If everyone lived by this statement, then there would be a lot less of these types of scams.
I made an initial enquiry with a 'trade' company several years ago. I decided not to go ahead and advised the caller accordingly. I was then harassed for about 3 years by this company, which had a Birmingham phone number.
It was only when I changed my approach from distressed to proactive enquiring about their company i.e. I sounded very keen to get as much information about the Trading Company that they stopped calling me. The line I took was that if they were going to persist in calling me then I needed as much information about the company as possible so that I could then do due diligence regarding verifying the company is legitimate. Starting with the street address and the name.of the CEO.
Hello how are you doing?
@@drakehonest2 Who are you?
@@drakehonest2 Bot
Keep up the excellent work. It's a disgrace that governments are not willing to investigate to the level you have and bring these scammers to justice.
Money "talks" to too many government officials.
The governments are run by crooks... crooks are not going to turn on each other. They need each other.
If it looks too good to be true it’s probably a scam. Those buying in fit into three categories: 1. Avarice. 2. Laziness. 3. Desperation. The sales pitch focuses on these three and is designed to hone in on them to elicit a sale. If you’re fortunate to not fit these categories you have nothing to worry about.
@@brynleytalbot778 It's no different from the boiler rooms of the 80s and early 90s nor the average stock broker from about 1905 to present day.
The fact that they refused to name the top bosses indicate the possibility of govt officials' involvement.
Someone from my family got scammed pretty badly from a similar company years ago, it never got enough attention for investigation and the local police wouldn’t even bother, no wonder people don’t report it, knowing that reporting won’t change anything…such a shame…
I’m glad that BBC shedding light on those thieves and hopefully no one will have to go through what these people went through.
some people commit suicide as a result of making such huge losses from these kind of scams
@@fidelcatsro6948 I see a or hear zero accountability here......if you take someone's word that you will get a 90% return o your money you are either biblically naive or most of the time I suspect are greedy and lazy thinking there's a short cut to making money.
@@mark8544 Banks pay between 0.5 & 2 % interest ON YOUR MONEY
what sort of noggin would believe that theres a 90 % profit system ? even bank robbery is not a guaranteed return in that figure , you have to be mental to fall for this
Please tell your compatriots that Chinese immigrants, especially Chinese political asylum smugglers, are Trojan horses planted by the Communist Party in the democratic world. They will carry out suicide attacks in your country in the future. They all know how to make suicide attack weapons and how to Carry out suicide terrorist attacks because they find out that they are ultimately dictator slave owners and slaves, genetically unable to integrate into the democratic world, please don't forget the human disasters and social disasters they have caused you in the past with their bottomless morality and beliefs，
@@mark8544 Couldn't agree more. The banks are forever warning us about scams, before every bank transfer. The privileged minority who can make these sort of returns with their insider knowledge aren't sharing that with joe public.
the clubs should know better after Barcelona FC had a Cypriot FX firm that disappeared with clients money
Great work, *Vortextrace* - I’m thrilled that you’re actively combatting these scammers. It’s crucial to prioritize the safety of the elderly and the public by taking every necessary measure to protect them. You truly deserve recognition for your efforts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sponsorship Deals and Endorsements sporting clubs and celebs/influencers must be scrutinised and apply heavy penalties to at least limit the social engineering for Scams like these Milton, SamTrade, and many more.
How?
If w could just get back to where we were before...Everything up until
Cough cough... FTX
@@funguy101986cough cough Matt Damon
I am in South Africa and my niece was scammed for the equalivant of 30k dollars. The bank refuses to information on who withdrew the money. According to our law even scammers have a right to privacy. So the police can not do anything because they have no access to information. As long as banks are not losing their money, they allow excessive overseas transfers even without otherong to check.
Pricks😢, of course the laws are sound... what weird reality this is , I wonder why we chose to live in this era.
I dont know i got scammmed 2 years ago and i puth my Id card and after my Bank blockekd my cardd
That’s why I ALWAYS use credit card and never my own money. Ever!
@@BakangPrivv that’s a lot of money. Sorry
If they had checks for all transfers it would hold up many legitimate transfers. There's no protection to gullible fools without inconveniencing everyone else.
Why is it TH-cam allows them to place advertisements on their platform ? Are they receiving kick backs?
This woman and her associates are incredibly brave souls. Amazing work!
These scammers are shameless disgraceful people destroying the lives of hardworking innocent people - they all need to go to jail 😮
Scammer only get greedy people, if you have 300K£ why do you need more, and if that was true you have to also thing if I get 90% of profit someone else has to lost it but you would not care about that.
However everything was scam and you've lost 100% due to greed.
jail cost more tax money, a hole 6 feet would be cheaper
death penalty!
@@AIgirls365 I couldn’t really understand what you were saying… But I did get the gist that you said, why would anyone want more than £300,000? Because they don’t live where you live, and the cost of living where they live is way more expensive. That $300,000 will only last them just a few short years when rent is £50,000 a year, not to mention food, clothing, medical, transport, etc. These days that is not a lot of money to have to live on for the next 30 or 40 years until you die.
Before you make nasty comments about other people, do some homework first.
@@AIgirls365 😂 I just saw your flawed logic! Sounds like you know. Nothing about economics. Just because someone makes 90% profit, does not mean that someone else has lost 90%. It is not a zero sum game. I’m guessing you said such a ridiculously ignorant comment, because you have no money or else you are just a child just starting out in the world and know nothing about being an adult.
When it comes to your personal finances, do not trust anyone.
For real but beyond that financial literacy is needed
How are these big players on top not put in jail .. Also scams only work on those ppl with greed or fear, since they are easily manipulated.
Some time ago I watched a Tamil movie called 'Sathuranga Vettai" (Chess poaching literally translated) about scammers. One famous dialogue in this movie goes this way: If you want to defraud someone, you need to first instill greed in the intended victim. How true it sounds after watching this!!
Awesome movie 👍🏾
It is partly true. However, the only people who really have a little money to invest are elderly who have saved all their lives and want to make that money last longer. That is not necessarily greed. More valuable to teach that "if it sounds too good to be true, it is probably not true, but a scam."
This is the kind of investigator we need more of! Good job!
Amazing documentary! Congratulations to everyone involved in producing this. I noticed in recent years a huge increase in the offering of stock trading apps’ ads on TH-cam and in the web in general.
The more I know about life, the more confident I am that when facing two alternatives to get to something - an easy path and another difficult -, I should always pick the difficult route. Nothing in life comes easily. You go for shortcuts and sooner or later you will get a reality check!
Kudos to the team for bringing this up and making people aware of it.
Keep it up!!!!!! Scammers need to be brought to justice
I will never understands how governments handle these issues . I believe that high profile officials are involved in this scamming bussiness.
Do they? If so, why do they keep popping up 😊
The government agents and prosecutors and judges all benefit from scaring the public while not actually doing anything productive to stop scamming. The reality is they can't stop it, but they can bilk the public out of millions through taxes and fraudulent claims they're doing something. The government can't do anything, but you can. There are potential cheap technical solutions to these scams. First we need to teach people to be skeptical. 2nd people need to research investments before they take the risk as all investments involve risk. Third the technical solution to minimizing the ability of scammers to scan vulnerable and elderly folks is education AND accounts that restrict but do not stop people from accessing their money and investments. An alert could be sent to a loved one or financial advisor anytime an amount of money is being sent/withdrawn/wired that puts a person over by a percentage what they'd normally spend on a monthly basis. This would provide an opportunity for people who are in the process of being victimized to stop the transfer of larger amounts of money. As it stands banks have to do something called KYC. KYC however is a scam. It's called know your customer, but it doesn't stop scams. It's mostly just used to to go after people the government doesn't like and minimize competition in the marketplace for financial services and products. The government likes being able to abuse the financial system to target those it or some people don't like. Did you go to a protest against the guy in power? Don't be surprised when your bank account is frozen. That happened recently in Canada to tens of thousands of people. The US does something similar to certain groups of people. Ever work in the sex industry (legally that is)... expect to have your bank account closed. There is no law, but the regulators sent every financial institution a letter threatening to suspend banking licenses if they didn't suspend the accounts of "sex traffickers" and that is code for anyone in the sex industry. It was already illegal for the banks to knowingly do business with criminals after all. The officials got away with that and they're getting away with this sort of thing to oppress political opposition regularly now. The democrats utilized the IRS to go after conservatives at some point here in the past 5 - 10 years. It was a bit of a scandal. You don't think they stopped doing that did you? I'm not a conservative, but I do speak out because what they can do the conservatives and socialists they can do to me.
@@maggiecalos4101 how do drug dealers make peoples live miserable?
@@toma58uenaventur By being dickheads who dilute their product with unknown and dangerous research chemicals imported from China
Highly educative BBC, thanks so much for this Documentary. The investigator has taken a risk to save our money from this scammers. Kudos❤
Brilliant! Simply brilliant! The establishment of the connections between those involved is investigative journalism at its best.
It’s crazy how they’re not able to prosecute any of the big fish so to speak, but a few employees? That’ll work for now.. what a shame, after such a brilliant investigation. Great job:) Please stay safe💕
They are able.... they won't... because they are all in the big club. Lunatics run the asylum.
money buys immunity
@@milo-qh7cv Money talks and buys political solutions. The financial sector depends on this. PPI, endowments, pensions, etc. All miss sold en masse. All exposed. And they were legal manipulations of the rules by the institutions clever clogs crunching the opportunity into numbers.
This is exactly what Sam Bankman-Fried set as the standard for his FTX fraud. Even to joining up with sports venues.
Probably where he got the idea.
That guy went even further and got into the halls of the political elite.
@@cryptowealthonyt he was already the elite
All these people have properties worth millions, probably cost many thousands to maintain and never had to explain where the money came from???
Brilliant initiative, *VortexTrace* It's encouraging to see that you are actively opposing these dishonest individuals. It is imperative that the safeguarding of the general public and the elderly from these abhorrent con artists be a top priority.
Excellent job, my companion! Because of your dedication to ensuring our safety, you merit the Nobel Peace Prize.
The fact that a reporter could find out so much and law enforcement with all their resources are so timid and powerless... Makes me think maybe whoever is directing the law has a cut in all these billions.
i know right am ashamed to be living in England we always knew london was a shithole but this takes the piss
It’s hardly reassuring when the public has to rely on investigative journalists to fight major crime, is it. Especially with how so many networks and media companies opting more for sensationalist ‘journalism’ rather than investing money on real journalism that takes a long time and a lot of resources, but yields monumental results.
@@lilmissjoodypoody agreed. We should just get rid of all protocols for law enforcement.
That's exactly right...the corruption is from the the top down, that's way it continues to exist...look at Germany, they are actively catching the scammers.
Oh you mean "hushmoney"? Bribe money? "Scratch my back ,I"ll scratch yours?Yes there's a lot of that bullshit out there and that's why scammers get away with crime! Money talks and bullshit walks!
This is proper journalism. Instead of 90% of the nonsense the media puts out.
You need to use this story to slam other journalists. Which journalism is a waste? Do you lose money on cat stories?
It is so very worrying that scammers can rent hotel event rooms for celebrations while those exposing them have to live in hiding. It should be vice versa.
Fantastic investigative journalism, kudos for the whole team and BBC for providing the resources
Thank You BBC for going after these scammers awareness is the first line of defence against these scammers. To all the people who who were victims never feel ashamed it could have been anyone of us no one is immune.
They tried to get me invest $250. I told them am poor.
No remorse for anyone falling for get rich quick schemes. Their motives are every bit as scummy as the scammers themselves
The crowvid jab is safe and effective - the BBC says so
BBC is the biggest scam agency , next to the church
About the UK police re financial scams or frauds investigations being non existent, I can vouch for that. In the early eights I used to bore anyone who would listen to death "the city of London is home to all the world's criminals" was my mantra
Salute to this journalist and Alex , the current World need people like them more to fix those scammers out there.
I had the same here in Switzerland, I reported to the police on two occasions. Well, you can guess the outcome. The State prosecutor did not want to investigate. Most likely because he/she did not want his/her reputation to be linked with a failure to close out a result. As long as the police/justice does not take responsibility this will never stop
@Patrick Abas individuals are not always helpless into being scammed. Continue to educate yourself on scams: educate your friends and family, be over vigilant while in email or speaking on the phone, spread the word about scams. We ALL have to help each other fight these criminals.
looks like we need German police to train both British and Swiss police as well 🐱👍🏿
The thing that can stop it is if people stop being greedy
Scammed people do not go to the police because they feel ashamed that they were cheated and they just did not realize it…shame makes them stay silent..but it can happen to anyone, they are professional they know how to create confidence in clients…you did a great investigating job, it can help protect many people in the future, thank you
Well Done dear journalist. You have done a great job. Really appriciatable!
Thanks for the great work! I myself a victim of this scam in the UK back in 2019. Deposited £250 initially and they showed screen profits for 2 weeks and after that asked me to deposit more money. By then I investigated more and found out that I was scammed and asked them to refund money but never got it.
Lucky you!
It was not a company called Tron Digital was it? they scammed me for about the same amount,
Very easy to show simulated returns from historical data. It’s like buying the winning Euromillions ticket after the draw. If only life was that easy we’d all be rich but wouldn’t be because rich would no longer exist and we’d invent another differentiation.
I’m a victim of this as well.. in February/2023
Adimo company
They also have adecco
I was deposited 200$ in UK 🇬🇧 company they can't withdrawal
Can you tell me how to recovery?
Thank you, Ms. Weinglass! Well done! Scams flourish in desperate times.
wineglass, a glass of wine - what a name
Scams flourish in Ll times.
Scams always flourisj.
Scams or get rich quick or easy income schemes will proliferate more in recessionary times. Desperate times call for desperate measures. These desperados fill a need for hope. To many it’s a religion they never escape, their residual incomes pushed into scheme after scheme. But then I buy lottery tickets with no return but the occasional ‘Win’ that never covers my losses.
The first question should be...."Are you registered with the FCA".
Wow have I missed Tyler explaining the episodes? Will search for more. Absolutely loved how he explains the history etc. By far my favourite “BTS” of The Chosen. Would love to hear Tyler discus every episode, he’s so easy to listen to and explains everything so well 🙏🏻
Absolutely love this. We need way more investigative journalism now, more than ever! Great work, Simona. Thanks BBC for giving her the $500 so she could get scammed on purpose lol. I'd love to hear how that convo went.
It wasn’t easy!
@@yfelwulf racist much? Be a better person, it's not even hard to not hate.
Legend has it that BBC is still crying over the 500 hard earned dollars lost...
Great job on the reporting. The German prosecutor is Awesome. Keep up the great job!. He is very intelligent.
@@ImahSillyGirl Where is the racism?
I feel the pain of all of those poor souls who were victimized. Awesome investigative reporting!
Greedy fools
Unlike anything reported by the right wing press like the Daily mail, Telegraph, Sun etc. ie, this is real journalism.
The couple from the midlands are like a parody of pretentious rubes. Not really 'poor souls', they're motivated by hubristic greed. If you believe that somebody will turn your 1,000 quid into a million you're kind of asking for it.
The pressure they put on the person is immense. I lost $8000. I'm still embarrassed, angry and stupid.
I'm sorry for what happened to you but it's never too late to get your money back. You will highly appreciate him for his tremendous help getting your lost funds back from ur scammer,
Spyoptron8 can help you
On instagram
He helped recover everything I lost
Hiding the informer's identity?? The guy is literally fully exposed !!
Legendary investigative journalism! Kudos!
Phenomenal effort on the reporting. Hope you finally bring these criminals down.
How is it that people fall for this in the first place, expecting easy money is plain dumb!
The work of journalists is grossly underrated! Look what she has accomplished. Bravo! But wow, people do NOT invest your money like this. It is robbery, not real investment.
Outstanding documentary. Congratulations, and thank you for bringing awareness to prevent more scammed people.
How pathetic or apathetic are the UK Govt and FCA in allowing these "businesses" to get a licence.
Then not doing anything to assist its citizens and catch the scammers. This type of fraud will only get bigger and more frequent.
Great job BBC and investigative journalist. People need to be careful.
Yeah 👍👍👍👍
Too bad greed and ignorance create such suckers. If it sounds too good to be true…
Go have a lawsuit against the companies that excepted the advertising money… complacent fraudsters.
I was a victim of SamTradeFX, basically the same setup but in Singapore, many users from Indonesia too. They were the official shirt sponsor of Valencia FC. Fortunately, the Singaporean police and monetary authority of Singapore have made an investigation and is currently in court. But the chances of money returning is basically 0. The founder, doesn't look like he will be charged either. It's a mess. I lost $100k USD in this scam.
You are right. Law will not touch the guy because law is what allows the scam.
Get a class action lawyer and go after the FC with others. They added legitimacy to the scammers organization and should be liable for not doing the proper due diligence before exposing their fans to this nonsense.
I work in the financial services industry and have seen a rise in scams and fraud companies targeting inexperienced retail customers over the past few years. Economic policies favoring corporations and the richest 10% over working and middle class citizens that are desperate and struggle to make ends meet create the perfect enviroment for scammers and fraudsters.
Touché.
Especially when the government itself consists of fraudsters and idiots in a 50:50 proportion. Police are demoralised, their funding cut. UK is a paradise for scammers nowadays. To be expected in a country that elected a professional con man as a PM in 2019.
So true, middle class and lower earning people are suffering more than ever and in trying to improve their situation get lured into such scams.
If your dumb enough to get scammed ... you deserve to be
Yes i also work in FS and fraud is on the increase!
You and vour team and vour associates are absolute legends. Thanks so much for the Work that vou've all been doing *ExposeGadgets* .Keep up with the great work, you've been doing!! Thank you for saving and protecting millions of European FROM this heartless People...What comes around, goes around!!!!! Let them have it ! God bless your heart for helping us the victims...💗
Mant blessings on people like you that expose these corrupt people.
Hello how are you doing?
Uk authorities must be able to do something about this. The fact that they don't must mean they are being paid off.
Quality investigative journalism, one of the best pieces I've seen in recent memory. Also the courage of the reporter is commendable, these people are likely violent sociopaths who would not be above killing to protect their evil operation, a fact I'm sure must be difficult to cope with.
Yeah you'd think so..
But my friends use one of the trading platforms mentioned in this report - and they never had a problem with it. I can barely find any negative reviews about it.
Comparing that platform to an obvious call centre scam site with nobody heard of.. that's quality?
Another propaganda piece to smear unregulated services in favor of the companies that wrote the regulations.