Let me start out by saying I subscribe to the newsletters at Avoid Scams, Fraud, and Crime – ScamBusters.org and Scam, Fraud Alerts – Protect Your Digital Identity (aarp.org). So I am aware of scams in general. And the rule of thumb is not to send out money to anyone – sight unseen. And if you Google “Chinese Forex Scams”, you will find these entries on page 1:
- Chinese Tinder Forex Scam : Scams (reddit.com)
- (18) Chinese women are contacting me with the intention of having me invest into a Forex trading account. Is this a scam? – Quora
- Tinder Forex Scam or Honey Trap | Boccadutri
Anyway, I was contacted by this Facebook Chinese woman from Singapore. She wanted to take the conversation from Facebook messenger to Whatsapp. Well, this is normally a red flag for me. As to why folks want to chat on anything but an official platform chat app?
Well, we settled on Signal. And we chatted for six months. The next red flag is she was flaunting excessive personal wealth to me. Why do this, I wonder? As I am a total stranger and she doesn’t know my economic status?
So our total chat lasted about six months, before we quite chatting altogether. The problem she tried to build up a romance and sell me on her aunt’s Forex trading inside info. I kept asking questions like: “is this legal”? “Or can I test this on a simulation account for 12 transactions.” Well, she finally agreed to let me see 2 transactions in real time, on a simulations account. Of course, this was one on an Asian broker account. Then that’s all I got to see. Well, perhaps this all was staged. So it got me to thinking. And I shared this with her on Signal.
“But when I watch stage magicians on TV, I always ask myself how they did the magic trick. And in trading I ask the question, who operates the trading servers and how are they regulated? Now there is a site called QUORA, where on can ask questions of various field experts for free. And I used to run web servers and database servers at Motorola. And I know if I do the same transaction on 2 different servers at the same time, I should get more or less the same results. And it eliminates any magic tricks. So it Is a simple but solid test.”
“A while back, someone showed me a video on a forum. He said it proves the supernatural is real. I said no, as scientific phenomenon could explain it. Or someone could have been an expert video producer and doctored the video. So the scientist in me, tries to eliminate all the alternate possibilities.”
“Well, I think this whole Forex trading issue is really simple. And I have a simple experiment I thought up, when you get back. And we only need 2 of your Aunt’s trade picks, done in real time with you. So the hypothesis is that there should be no difference in results, due to where the trade is done and who does it. To test this, I keep the agency’s demo account you recommended for me on my phone. And I choose a US firm to host a demo account, on my Windows 10 computer. And both use MT5. So what I do is do the same trade simultaneously on both demo accounts, and view the results. Both should be the same, if my hypothesis is right – for ONLY 2 of your aunt’s picks. Then it should be a simple matter of a couple of video calls with you, to get a better feel for you overall. Then I need to only compare and contrast the two brokerage firms. The one you chose and the one I chose. And a keep is how many years, each has been in business. And what users say about them on the Internet. Delightfully simple, elegant, and brilliant. What do you think?”
Later I did a Google search for “Chinese Forex Scams. I found this on Tinder.
“Most scammed persons speak about (supposedly) beautiful Chinese women surrounded by cars and luxury items. They are probably not women nor Chinese, but evidently, in the collective imagination, a beautiful and successful Asian woman attracts attention and inspires confidence. Among other things, as businesswomen, who constantly travel, they can avoid, with plausible excuses, the logical request for video chats by the interlocutors.”
And this on Quora:
“This is the technical part of the scam. The scammers software program.. What i did, was i downloaded Metatrader 4 on my wife’s phone and opened up a new account with a reputable broker and when my robot friend had me do a trade with her and her inside information, I was also trading at the same time on both my accounts, and guess what? Totally different results, how can this be? With my account with SunPor, I made huge profits, but with the other broker I lost money..so what i figured out, is the scammers somehow with their sophisticated software have found a way to mimic a live trade and show you any results they want you to see..and this has everything to do with why they insist that you only use the “mobile version” .
“So all the money you think you made in profits was not real…The only thing that is real, is the monies you wire transferred to them through the mysterious 3rd party beneficiary’s. and then into their bank accounts. Also explains why they always use different “receiving accounts as they call it”..
Well, that’s enough for me to end things. So I did these parting words on Signal:
‘And if you aunt’s system is sound, then you and her would have no issues with me testing it on a US broker simulation account first. Before going ahead with real money on the same US broker site.
More to read: Day NetTalk Duo died – I discovered Obihai for Google Voice