JENNIFER McADAM, 53, WANTED TO INVEST SOME OF HER FATHER’S MONEY, BUT ENDED UP INVOLVED WITH A NOTORIOUS CRIMINAL
I can’t believe it’s been ayear,” Isaid to my best friend Eileen over dinner one night. We’d been talking about my dad Bill, who had passed away. He’d worked as aminer and didn’t have much, but he’d been careful all his life, and my sister and Ihad inherited £15,000 each from the sale of his house. It was all Ihad after arough few years battling ME, and Iwanted to invest the money for me, my son and my two grandchildren. And now, Eileen had given me an idea.
“Someone on Facebook was talking about OneCoin,” she said. “It’s cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, and it’s growing in value quickly.” I’d heard of crypto –it was atype of digital currency that allowed people to exchange payments through an online system, and Iwondered if this could be the opportunity I’d been looking for. Intrigued, Ijoined awebinar and listened excitedly as people spoke about how OneCoin was going to rule the world. Then, Iwatched apresentation by OneCoin’s creator –abusinesswoman from Bulgaria called Dr Ruja Ignatova, who had been dubbed the “Cryptoqueen”. She had aPhD, was staggeringly successful, and owned mansions all over the world. There were pictures of her on the cover of Forbes magazine and avideo of her giving aspeech at aposh European economic summit. It was really impressive, so Iinvested in OneCoin’s “Tycoon” package, which cost £5,000, but was valued at £48,000. “I wish Icould afford it,”Eileen sighed when Itold her I’d activated my OneCoin account. But Ihad asurprise for her –Iwas going to buy her a £550 package. Ialso invested another £1,000. Soon, we were hooked.“I’m going to take out aloan and get acouple of £1,000 packages,” Eileen announced. “I can soon pay it back.”That was the beauty of OneCoin. You only had to wait 12 weeks and then you could withdraw your initial investment.Eileen could pay off her loan early, and she’d still be quids in. Meanwhile, Iinvested another £1,000, and we sat up for hours talking about our futures.
RED FLAG
As the months passed, there were webinars and online meetings daily. It felt really nice to be part of anetwork. We were added to aWhatsApp group and OneCoin investors were encouraged to spread the word. If anyone said anything negative, they were kicked out and labelled ahater.
Then, with my account showing nearly £50,000, Iasked one of the group leaders how to withdraw cash as Iwanted to buy anew fridge. “Why would you do that?” she asked. “We were told we could,” Ireplied. “You were told wrong,” she snapped. “This is an investment. Why put money in just to take it out again?” Ihad concerns, but Ip
