‘Bulgarian “crypto firm” stole £5,680 from my account’: TONY HETHERINGTON investigates

Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday’s ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below.

M.F. writes: I was contacted by investment company Xtraderfx and told that it would transfer my frozen credit balance of £680 to my NatWest credit card. I agreed and gave my card details, but as a precaution I also asked NatWest if a credit was pending. 

I was told that in fact two debits were in the pipeline, one for £680 and a second for £5,000. I had authorised neither, but the bank said they could not be stopped, and the money was taken.

Xtraderfx was a cryptocurrency scam that hid behind Gpay Limited, a Bulgarian-owned business based in Slough, Berkshire. The Financial Conduct Authority put a warning on its website in 2018, saying that it was unauthorised, so operating illegally.

You told me you invested £6,000 followed by a further £2,000, but by early 2019 there was only £680 left. Last September, you were suddenly contacted again by Xtraderfx, which offered to return the cash to your NatWest card, but instead it helped itself to a further £680 and then £5,000. When you tele-phoned the bank and explained that you were expecting a credit, not two debits, NatWest allowed the funds to be charged to your card.

However, when you received your monthly statement, it showed that the total of £5,680 had been handed over to a company called Cauri. This is a real payments firm, authorised by the FCA, but it is also a firm you had never heard of, and which you had certainly not authorised to collect a penny.

Unravelling this has taken several months. NatWest told me the payments had already left your account when you called, and it produced recordings of some of your conversations with the bank but admitted that others, including your very first call when you say you tried to stop the payments, had not been recorded.

I argued that even if you had authorised payments to Xtraderfx, it was not acceptable to see the cash go to a different firm with which you had absolutely no relationship, even if it said that it was collecting the money on behalf of Xtraderfx.

Eventually, NatWest agreed to try to claim a chargeback – not because you had been cheated by Xtraderfx, but because an intended credit might have ‘accidentally’ turned into two debits. But even then, things did not go smoothly. The bank asked you for your password for Cauri, despite being told you had never heard of it. Chargeback rules allow 45 days for objections to be raised, and just as the 45 days came to an end, Cauri raised an objection and clung on to your cash.

But by this stage, even NatWest had grown suspicious. The bank told me: ‘Cauri rejected our attempt at a chargeback, claiming that a cryptocurrency account had been credited. We believe the cryptocurrency account belongs to a scammer and have shared our concern with the merchant acquirer.’

A NatWest spokesperson explained: ‘We sympathise with Mr F, who has been the victim of a scam, and appreciate that this has been a very distressing experience for him.’

In light of this, despite not being able to snatch back your money, NatWest itself is refunding it to your card as a gesture of goodwill.

As for Xtraderfx, it was really run from Sofia in Bulgaria, not from Slough. Its alleged boss, Israeli businessman Gal Barak, has been arrested and held for extradition to Austria, where police have been investigating a network of crooked investment companies said to be linked to him.

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email [email protected]. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.