I was scammed out of almost $300,000 and forced to abandon my retirement dreams

This recounted essay is based on a conversation with Leonid Shteyn. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Last year I started looking for ways to make more money with my retirement savings. I am 70 years old and my wife, also retired, is 68. We were worried about having enough money to cope with rising inflation. We also wanted to have something to leave to our four grandchildren, two of whom have special needs.

I researched investment options online and ended up contacting a friend. He connected me to a company he was investing in. I checked the company online and everything seemed honest. I spoke to a professional financial consultant linked to the company.

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

Things quickly got weird

After that, things started to get weird. 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 high commissions.

One day, I received an email, supposedly from a blockchain, the digital wallet where people store bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. When I looked closely, I realized that one digit in the email was wrong – it was a scam intended to look like an official blockchain communication.

That’s when I knew something was very wrong.

I trusted the big bank that the scammers used

Still, the so-called investment company called me, asking for more money. I got my own lawyer, who sought legal representation for the company. He couldn’t find any licensed attorney with the name they gave me. Then I hired a private investigator. He tracked a scammer in Bulgaria and another in the US.

My lawyer noticed that I had sent most of my funds to an account in Bank of America. As an immigrant, I intrinsically trusted Bank of America. I would never have transferred money to a small bank or international establishment, but if you can’t trust them, who can you trust?

Unfortunately, I feel like Bank of America has failed me terribly. Even after my lawyer alerted them to what was happening, they cleared a check I had written to the scammers. They ignored my bank’s requests to investigate the fraud, and after three requests, my bank backed out.

In three months, I went from having healthy retirement savings to having $20,000 in the bank. Between the lawyer’s fees and the private investigator, I lost almost $300,000.

The story continues

Older people, like me, need help to protect themselves

This whole debacle is no one’s fault but mine. The thing is, I’m a smart guy. I ran a large company for 30 years. I’m good at examining people – or so I thought.

What frustrates me is that the lack of government oversight allows scams like this to thrive. I contacted the local police department and they said they would investigate. I hadn’t heard from them so I called back. They told me they have 600 cases like this and only three investigators. When I heard this, I knew the chances of my case being resolved were slim to none.

People always ask me what advice I would give other seniors, but I think that’s the wrong question. There will always be scammers and people, especially older people, will always be vulnerable. We need to be able to trust the government and large institutions like Bank of America to stop this fraud. I don’t think so, because they make money from interest and fees on these fraudulent accounts.

My retirement looks very different now

I started a lot from scratch in my life. I immigrated to New York from the Czech Republic in 1989 and later moved from New York to Texas. But it’s difficult to start over at age 70. I have sent my resume and looked for work as a consultant, but I have not had any recommendations.

I’m lucky to have a paid off house and cars and still have some money in the bank. I abandoned my dream of helping my grandchildren or traveling in retirement. I just hope my wife and I have enough to live on.

Editor’s note: In a statement to Business Insider, Bank of America said, “We don’t want any bank’s customers to fall victim to fraud. We try to work with victims and their banks to return funds when possible, but unfortunately, that doesn’t even happen. is always possible. We encourage customers to do their due diligence to ensure they are transferring funds to legitimate companies.”

Read the original article at Business Insider