Monetio Investment Scam

Psychologist Recovers £174,776 From Monetio

We recovered £174,776 for an experienced psychologist who lost money on Monetio,

First-time investor Lynne Jackson, 68, thought she was buying legitimate shares in well-known companies like Amazon via the Monetio trading platform.

Over more than two months from October, 2024, she ploughed in hundreds of thousands of pounds from her business account with TSB Bank to try to boost her retirement fund.

But when she tried to withdraw some of her profit, the fraudsters told her she needed to invest more and more money to access her funds.

Lynne, who lives in London, said: “They kept saying ‘yes, you can withdraw but you’ll make so much more money, just put another £10,000 in’.

“And I kept doing it, until at the end I thought ‘this is really stupid, they’re not letting me take any money out’. I kept on saying ‘when will I get money back?’”

When she checked the Trustpilot website, she found countless similar stories, and realised she had been scammed.

She regularly sent payments of between £20,000 and £50,000 to Monetio via international money transfer platforms like Privalgo and Ebury Partners.

But TSB Bank did not query a single payment, despite the unusual activity.

It has since become clear that the FCA issued a warning about Monetio in August, 2024, stating: “This firm may be providing or promoting financial services or products without our permission. You should avoid dealing with this firm and beware of scams.”

Lynne’s ordeal began in October, when she received an unsolicited email from Monetio offering her investment opportunities.

“It seemed absolutely plausible,” she said. “I spoke to two people, Carl and Edward, and Switzerland is known for its banking, so there was confidence there.

“They gave me an account I could log in to, and would directly contact me to say ‘you should be investing in Amazon’, or other companies, and I followed their advice.”

She never received any share certificates, but could see her investments set out on the Monetio platform, and when her account was in profit she asked to withdraw some funds.

After being told she needed to invest more money to make a withdrawal, Monetio’s staff also told her they had invested their own money on her behalf, which she needed to pay back before taking money out.

Lynne said: “They told me it was because you need to put a certain amount of money in to take money out, and I’d never got involved in this sort of thing so I thought, ‘yeah, OK’.”

The last payment she made was £20,000 on December 23 last year, after which she knew she had fallen victim to a cruel scam.

“It was all very stressful, because I’d got illnesses and things going on at the time,” she said. “I can still log on to my Monetio account, but there’s nothing there invested in my name.”

Even afterwards, she was still receiving WhatsApp messages from the criminals asking her if she would like to withdraw money from her account.

Lynne spoke at a Parliamentary event about fraud which she was invited to by National Fraud Helpline.

She thanked us for our help and warned that if she could be duped then anyone could.

Lynne called for the Government to take more action to prevent similar scams.