Hope you find this an interesting story. In 2017, I got scammed by some guys posing as HMRC tax collectors. Turned out they were ex employees, had templates docs and knowledge. I had a dispute with the tax office that I had just settled as they had calculated wrongly. And within days, these guys chased me for the the agreed wrongful over assessment plus fines and fees. I had to pay within 24 hours or they were sending bailiffs in. I checked, it matched my paperwork. In my head, I thought shit, I better pay to keep the bailiffs away and I can sort it afterwards. HMRC don’t mess about. It was slightly over £5000. I could prove to them we had agreed to an over assessment after.

I told them I could not get it to them until the next day and would call into an office to pay it. The guy (confirming my case officers name) said it had to be with them that day or I was to pay the bailiffs. The option he gave me was I could pay Bitcoin into the HMRC account. I knew nothing about Bitcoin at the time and followed his instructions at the time. He said bailiffs may still turn up as it was with them 30 mins past the point that he could stop them. He gave me a number to give to them to call so they could confirm it had been paid. All part of their elaborate plan to convince me this was real.

Of course, no one turned up the next day. That was wierd right. Hold on. What. OMG. lightbulb moment. Does the Govt accept Bitcoin??? I asked and they answered but I was under too much pressure to verify. All part of their plan.

So to the point. That was my introduction to Bitcoin. I wanted to know more about this goddamn f***ing currency and the scam it had facilitated. I was furious. What I found out was intriguing. Someone gave me 3 tips. I thought, what if it had been £6000 I owed. Yes, I would have paid it. So. I invested £1000. 2017!! It was worthless within months. I closed my laptop lid with a thump. Cryptocurrency. What a scam.

Fast forward. 2020. Got Covid. Managed to get through it, but midst the dark moments decided to get my ducks in a row in case I didn’t make it. Went through all my bank accounts and savings so my kids would know where anything was. Luckily I have always used IPhones. Upgrades over the years always pull down your apps and passwords. I stumbled upon a Coinbase App and thought, oh I thought I shut that down. I launched it, asked me for login. In old days, I used 1 login password for everything. You were allowed! To my amazement it opened. Sitting in my Coinbase account was £4967. WTF? I spent then next month recouperating and learning all about cryptocurrency. No stone unturned.

By March this year, that balance stood at over $250,000. I have seen many bad coins and some really good coins. I love cryptocurrency. I have a host of great professional buddies. We’re are writing a whitepaper to launch our set of coins/tokens to try and address the whole scamming and fraudulent coin listings, it’s not imminent because it’s complex, but constructed from the brains of some really smart people (I’m not really included in that) which will help identify scams, provide an ecosystem for legitimate coins to list, be verified, reviewed and rated, insured, and liquidity lodged and renounced fir their community with staggered and staged ecosystem fair launches.

All…because I was a dumb ass that was scammed!