A dad-of-three has revealed how he recovered almost £25,000 after being conned by scammers. Vasil Nedev, 50, and his family had sold their home and were looking to buy a new home with more space for the family of five.
To try and build their pot a little further, Vasil started looking for ways to invest some of the money they got from the sale, with the hope of being able to buy their dream home. He had just lost his job as a civil engineer and was worried the family’s finances could take a significant hit.
He said: “I turned to investing as a way of trying to keep money coming in while I secured a new job. I was searching online for forex trading and cryptocurrency investments and eventually I made deposits when I thought I had done sufficient research and felt safe handing over money.”
But it turned out Vasil was tricked into putting his money into a fake investment by scrupulous scammers. Vasil was told he was investing small amounts of money across commodities, foreign exchange trading and cryptocurrency, and at first saw success. His cash soon started to grow as the scammers convinced him to invest more money.
Vasil admitted that he got “caught up” in it all as he “wasn’t experienced with investments”. He added: “They used sophisticated software to show me how my money was supposedly growing so fast, but I began to become suspicious that it was too good to be true.”
Val became involved with the scammers in April 2020, and within a few short months, he lost £46,278.32. Vasil believed the company he was dealing with was legitimate, having done, what he thought, was thorough research. The countless amount of good reviews for the company also corroborated the lie. However, he now knows these reviews were faked.
Vasil said: “I was in a vicious circle where the fraudsters were pressuring me to invest more money and I thought that it was really working out well. However, I began to think that the growth of the investments wasn’t realistic and after doing some more research, I realised that I was right and I suspected I was being scammed.
“I asked to withdraw my money but they were using delaying tactics and making it very difficult. Eventually, I reported them to Action Fraud but it turned out they were outside the UK’s jurisdiction.”
Vasil added: “My mistake was not making sure the companies I was investing with were registered with the Financial Conduct Authority to ensure they were fully regulated.”
Vasil said he had “lost hope” at ever getting the money back, and spent the next four years having working to try and rebuild the cash pot he had lost. However, he one day he saw an advert online for CEL Solicitors. The legal firm works to help victims of all types of fraud recover their losses with the firm saying investment scams are the most common ones they see.
After putting his case to them, CEL Solicitors found that Vasil’s bank had not applied proper scrutiny to the transactions. Using this, the team managed to help Vasil get half of what he lost with his bank refunding him £24,746.35.
Vasil, although disappointed that the entirety couldn’t be recovered, was delighted to get some money back. He added: “I am very happy to get some of the money back as I had almost given up hope. I understand that I should have done better research in the beginning, so I think it is a fair amount.”
Vasil wants his story to be used as a warning to others, so no one else makes the same mistakes as him and if they chose to invest their money, they should make sure they are dealing with legitimate companies.
Paul Hampson, CEO of CEL Solicitors said: “Heartless scammers are very well-versed in tricking vulnerable people out of their hard-earned money. We are delighted to have been able to help Mr Nedev recover a large amount of his investments back and we commend his efforts to help make sure other people don’t make the same mistakes. When investing money online, it’s vital to make sure you know exactly who you are dealing with and that they are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.”
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