Think I've been hit by a 'clone firm' – any hope getting money back from scam brokers?
Okay, so I feel like a complete idiot right now. I was looking into investing a bit of my savings, nothing huge, just wanted to try and grow it a little. I found this broker online, seemed legit, their website looked really professional, even mentioned they were regulated by the FCA. They even gave me an account manager who called regularly. I deposited about 5k EUR back in March.
Fast forward to last week, I tried to withdraw a small amount – just to test it out, you know? And bam, all these fees suddenly pop up. 'Tax fees', 'AML compliance fees', 'transfer insurance'. They want another 1.5k EUR before I can even touch my money. My gut said no way, so I did some digging. Turns out, the *actual* FCA-regulated firm they claimed to be has a warning on their site about a 'clone firm' mirroring their details, even using similar domain names. I think I fell for it.
Has anyone dealt with these clone scams before? Is there *any* way to claw back funds deposited by bank transfer from Ireland to some random Eastern European bank account? I'm honestly so stressed out.
asked by Jack Burke· 1d ago
