‘They now say I need to pony up $150,000 — 15% of my “profit” — to pay taxes. The company said this would be reimbursed’ Dear Quentin,

Over the past six months, I was crypto scammed. I just retired and lost $243,000 that I don’t think I will ever see again. I have reported the company to the FBI, Federal Trade Commission, and a few others. Some of the money was from a SEP IRA. Is there something I can do at tax time so I don’t have to pay taxes on it?

When I first started “investing,” the person helping showed how easy it was to get money back out which we did. This operation got “interesting” when I was informed that if I put in a total of $150,000 I would start the VIP treatment and would get tax-avoidance help, among other things. The company will not allow me to withdraw the money I have put in.

I was helped by this individual to invest in crypto futures. The person “helped” me by adding $40,000 here and $40,000 there to boost my money-making ability. The last time I added another $100,000. It’s a long story but in a nutshell that is the “help” I received. I tried to pull money out and the crypto company said the government thinks that I am laundering money.

They now say I need to pony up $150,000 — 15% of my “profit” — to pay taxes. The company said this would be reimbursed so I would not lose any money.  I stopped right there and contacted the FBI and FTC. Now the crypto company is saying if I don’t pay the money soon my account will be frozen! I have not written back.

The website looked legitimate

​​I met this “friend” via Instagram META, +2.48%. We switched from Instagram to Whatsapp, which I now see is also a no-no. I needed some photography help, and after a few weeks, the conversation turned to investing. Initially, the money went to what appeared to be a real site, and was sent to an external account called Cryptonex.com.

I should have done my homework as the real company is actually Cryptonex.org. The fake website looked legit to me. It also looked great on the phone which is where all the transactions were done. (On the computer, the header was all screwed up. (I have done HTML and SQL programming and that would have been a simple fix.) The rest of the page looked quite good.  

The company seems to have kept a very good track record of my installments. I still can’t be sure if it’s a scam or not. I have not yet received any communication from the FBI website for cybercrime. I filed a case for both elder fraud (I’m 62) and also for cybercrime. It is very unfortunate that these people prey on the older folks.

It’s not like we want to go back to work for minimum wage the rest of our lives just to put food on the table. I am especially upset as I think I am a pretty educated guy. My financial adviser said one of her clients lost $2.7 million in one of these types of scams. I’ve read that they can trace the wallets, and there are all sorts of “companies” that will help for a fee.