Validus: an investment ponzi scheme
What happened?
Ran by Parwiz Daud and Mansour Tawafi, Validus is a cryptocurrency scam where it purports to offer returns from 9% per month alongside a matrix scheme of additional compounding rewards. Investors would be asked to deposit thousands of pounds into a cryptocurrency platform, where they would then convert their money to cryptocurrency funds and transfer this onwards to Validus.
It would appear to be legitimate to investors as they were given their own account to monitor their success, where they could physically see the rewards accumulating and also view their promised bonus schemes. Unknowingly to investors, these are faked performance figures which are unfortunately known tactics that fraudsters typically use to persuade victims to further invest more funds. Like many similar investment scams, it became apparent this was a scam when people could not withdraw their returns as they expected, and began to lose all contact with the lead faces of the organisation.
How do you get your money back?
In short, if you sent the money to or from a UK bank account or e-money account such as Revolut, it’s possible to get your money back through them. This is usually more realistic than getting the money back from the fraudsters who are often faceless, have disappeared or have already spent or laundered the money.
Industry standards for UK banks and Electronic Money Institutions dictate that they are supposed to protect you from fraud. Put simply, they should be on the lookout for unusual behaviour on your account and they should reach out to you and provide you with strong warnings if they think you are being scammed. If they fail to do this, or don’t do it to a sufficient standard, then you may be able to hold them to account and get your money back.
You do this by reporting the fraud to them and then complaining if you are unhappy with their response. If you remain unhappy, you need to take your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
What would be deemed as unusual behaviour?
This depends on your unique circumstances and how you usually manage the account you sent the money from. Things that denote unusual behaviour are things such as:
Spending/sending a lot more money than you usually would
Making payments to merchants that represent a higher risk of fraud such as cryptocurrency exchanges
Payments that are more frequent than usual
If your bank or EMI did speak to you on the phone, ask questions or provide warnings then it has deemed your behaviour as suspicious. Then you’d need to argue that the intervention wasn’t sufficient. For example, we frequently see EMIs implement poor digital interventions such as pop ups or in app chats that are often not effective at stopping scams.
How Refundee could do it for you
Firstly, it’s the right thing to acknowledge that you can do this process yourself. Of course, doing it yourself can avoid having to incur a fee.
If you would like our help, then you can Start Your Claim on our website or call us on 0204 525 4600. We will then investigate your case, let you know whether we can help, put together your case, and manage the process from beginning to end. Our fees are fair, industry-lowest, and straightforward. We only charge a fee if we’re successful, and there are no hidden or upfront costs. Our fee is between 15% and 25% plus VAT depending on how much money you get back, and we don't charge anything if we are not successful. To see your potential fee, use the fee estimate calculator on our fees page and review the fee banding and example illustrations.
How would the process work?
Refundee manages everything for you. We begin with an investigation to understand what happened in your specific circumstances. After some paperwork, we handle your case from start to finish, working with your bank through to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
These cases can take around 6-12 months, although the process can vary in terms of duration.
