A single mum caught up in a global ‘pump-and-dump’ share scam has described its “hellish” consequences after losing more than £30,000.
The 41-year-old, who does not want to be named, lost most of her savings after she was lured into investing in Chinese-based Ostin Technology Group (OST) by criminals operating on social media.
She was one of tens of thousands of investors across the world manipulated to artificially “pump” up the OST share price, allowing the fraudsters to “dump” their stock at a huge profit.
After the share price slumped catastrophically, the remaining shares became almost worthless overnight.
The fraud is now subject to an FBI investigation.
“It put a bit of a strain on my sobriety, but fortunately I didn’t do anything I didn’t want to do,” she added. “But I was not sleeping well. Then you wake up and remember it all over again, and it’s just hellish.”
She has now enlisted the help of National Fraud Helpline solicitors, a trading name of Richardson Hartley Law, to try to recover her money from her bank, NatWest. Banks have obligations from regulators to help protect their customers from fraud.
The no win, no fee law firm has already successfully claimed back money for other UK victims of the OST share scam.
Skye Stockings, a lawyer at National Fraud Helpline, said: “Our client was vulnerable and taken advantage of by the scammers.
“The fact that the shares were listed on the US stock exchange, the NASDAQ, gave tens of thousands of investors confidence that this was a genuine opportunity.
“It was one of the most sophisticated ‘pump and dump’ schemes ever seen. The fraudsters have walked off with millions of pounds.
“As with other OST clients, we are determined to recover money for our client.”
The single mum-of-one decided to invest after seeing an advert on Facebook as she wanted extra money to help pay for her £3,000 a month rental flat in Chiswick, London.
She joined a WhatsApp group run by the fraudsters, and was encouraged to invest in OST, which is quoted on the Nasdaq exchange.
She said: “They made this big song and dance about going to investment fairs and said they’d met the Ostin Technology Group management.
“They said the company was soon to announce a strategic link up with a company that was bigger than them.”
Her investment started small, with £4,000 of shares bought via legitimate broker Hargreaves Lansdown when the share price was at about $3.11.
Towards the end of June, the share price had steadily increased, and the fraudsters urged her to invest a considerable amount, £20,000, for one last push.
“On WhatsApp loads of other people were saying ‘I’ve just invested £30,000’, or this and that, and I got so wrapped up in it because I’d already made about £8,000,” she said. “If I could make a bit more, that would be another three months’ rent. They were quite wily, ‘look, you’ve got these gains, carry on’.
“They weren’t promising the world, saying you’d get another 10 to 20%, which is a lot but it wasn’t like ‘your stock will double’, and it all felt realistic rather than some of these other scams you see.”
All her investments were made via Hargreaves Lansdown, and she could therefore not see how this could be a scam.
She added: “I worked in finance years ago, and I would not have just transferred my money to some random person. It all seemed above board. I thought ‘what could they possibly be doing to me? What can they gain from me?’
“But obviously they knew when they were going to pull out their shares and they were ramping it up. I’d never heard of ‘pump-and-dump’ schemes before. I never realised that someone could manipulate the market like this.”
The share price hit a high of $9.40, at which point the criminals dumped their holding, causing the share price to crash.
“I was in a complete panic,” she said. “Even then it didn’t cross my mind it was a scam – I thought I had just been unlucky. I kept thinking ‘ this can’t happen’, and the share price would go back up.
“They made up something about evil short sellers affecting the share price. Now I feel very stupid, obviously.”
When she found articles online about the worldwide OST share scam, she realised she was part of a global fraud.
She said getting her money back would “mean a lot of peace of mind”.
“It is about whether I have to move my child out of this flat I’m renting, where she’s just got settled after a long custody battle, which would be hellish,” she added.
Find out more: How we help Ostin Technology share scam victims.
See our article about this global scam in the Sunday Times newspapers: How investors watched their money grow 1,075% — then lost it all | The Times and The Sunday Times
Have you lost money to the Ostin Technology scam? Contact National Fraud Helpline. Call 0333 0033218 or fill out our Claim Form.
