I was scammed out of nearly $300,000 and was forced to abandon my retirement dreams, Business Insider, 7/9/24

I researched investment options online and eventually reached out to a friend. He connected me to a company he was investing in. I checked the company out online, and everything seemed above board. I spoke with a professional financial planner tied to the company.

Still, I was cautious. I opened an account with just $250. Then, I transferred $10,000. When that investment began to grow, I wanted to go all in. I withdrew $100 from the account to make sure it was legit. After that withdrawal was processed, I transferred all my money: $256,470.

After that, things started to get strange. The so-called investment company asked me to take out a line of credit. They encouraged me to invest in bitcoin and started charging me steep commissions.

... I got my own lawyer, who looked up the company's legal representation. He couldn't find any licensed lawyer with the name I'd been given. ...

... My lawyer realized that I had sent most of my funds to an account at Bank of America. As an immigrant, I trusted Bank of America intrinsically.

.... Even after my lawyer alerted them to what was happening, they cleared a check I'd written to the scammers. They ignored requests from my bank to look at the fraud, and after three requests, my bank gave up.

The thing is, I'm a smart guy. I ran a major business for 30 years. I am good at vetting people—or at least I thought. ((he's 70, not 85 or 95 --p))

"Older people, like myself, need help to protect themselves"

In a statement to Business Insider, Bank of America said: "We don't want any bank's clients to become victims of scams. We try to work with victims and their banks to return the funds when feasible, but unfortunately, this is not always possible. We encourage clients to do thorough due diligence to ensure that they are transferring funds to legitimate businesses."

I transferred all my money: $256,470.