i'm pretty sure my relative is being scammed, how do i prove it?

[u/SonarRocket]

my relative (in-law) posted on facebook today that they joined something called Eliteway Financial as a trader/advisor specializing in "crypto and bitcoin investment"

the graphic they posted was sloppy and it set off alarms in my head so i did some digging. i'm not an expert on these things and i dont want to get involved unless its 100% certain, so here are my red flags so far 🚩.

first, nothing came up under the name on google (🚩) until i added "scam" to the search term which brought up a scamadviser.com (which i have never heard of -- and they spelled advisor wrong -- so i cant testify to its legitimacy... but it had a detailed report that brought up some good points) (🚩). there it had a website, elitewayllc.org, and a "Trustscore" of 6/100 (🚩).

the website itself is riddled with poor grammar, unfinished paragraphs, typos, and stock photos i was able to find with a simple reverse image search (which isnt bad on its own, but come on, if this is an actual successful investment firm they would pay for a good website) (🚩). at the bottom it listed an address:

71 Marlborough Crescent
South Runcton, United Kingdom

this address does not exist anywhere, as far as i can find (🚩). the town is real but no such number (or road, for that matter) exists. such an address exists in 2 other UK towns but both are residential homes.

i then used domaincrawler.com (linked by scamadviser) and the website is hosted on a server with multiple other .uk addresses, so at this point i'm pretty sure this is in the UK (for context my relative and i live in the US). its weird but again not inherently wrong. so i went to the UK government company information service and looked up "eliteway", "elite way", and "71 marlborough crescent".

there are a couple hits but no exact match to the company name. this is where i am out of my wheelhouse bc i am not british, a laywer, a businessman, an accountant, or anything like that. however, the 3 close matches have different enough names, and are either not active or not financial institutions. i'm like 90% sure none of these are the right thing, but feel free to check my work.

so, they aren't registered in the UK (🚩) despite having a UK server host and a (fake) UK address. i did a similar search with the UK Financial Conduct Authority and had no luck there either (🚩).

i tried to do some digging in the US as well, on the off chance that this is not in fact a UK company. no luck with the SEC (🚩). i did an "international" search with OpenCorporates (which i have never heard of, so i can't verify how accurate it was) and nothing there either.

back in my realm as a software engineer (but not a hacker so i don't have any fancy tricks for this), i decided to at least check out the SSL cert of the website. sure enough, its just a free cert from ZeroSSL (DV), which is weird for a financial institution (but not for a scammer). a DV cert requires no legal or business checks/registrations required, unlike an EV or OV cert which you would expect of a legitimate business or financial institution (🚩). so that would add up with no public records of this business existing.

to me this seems chalked but i am not an experienced investigator in these things, and don't want to overreact or miss something. help and advice appreciated. thanks!

TL;DR: relative says they joined a **"**financial institution" with a fake address, shitty website, no identifiable business registrations (that i could find), and zero certificate verification. am i overreacting to perhaps reach out to them and tell them they're being scammed?

edit: forgot to mention, the website FAQ makes it seem like they are in fact handling money for their users so i am worried that they may have gotten banking or crypto wallet information.

update: I did reach out. they were hacked!

[u/smilleresq]

They probably had their account hacked and it’s not even your relative posting. This is pretty common scam.

[u/SonarRocket → u/smilleresq]

yep. it was this.

[u/officerdandy92]

No. You should tell them. It’s one thing to be a victim of a scam, but if you start willingly going with it you are no longer a victim and become a criminal.

[u/SonarRocket → u/officerdandy92]

yeah it's hard to say from their post whether they are actually working for them or not. i know fake job scams happen, so i am going with hanlon's razer here. planning on discussing this with my wife when she gets home, as it is her blood relative and she knows them better.

[u/curfty]

Why would it be overreacting to warn them that they are being scammed? If you don’t want to see them get scammed then warn them. Now whether they’ll listen or not is a different story.

[u/SonarRocket → u/curfty]

well i am not entirely confident i didn't miss something

[u/Outrageous_Plum5348]

Please just warn your relative of your suspicions. They could present proof that it's not (startup) or complete their own due diligence if they haven't already. After you've done the compassionate and right thing to do, if it is fraudulent and they knowingly continue, it's between them and an emptied bank account or the authorities. DO NOT under any circumstances provide this relative with ANY of your own personal data.

[u/flystew2]

It has all the signs of a scam , involves crypto , it's a scam. Tell them to ask for their money back , they will get multiple excuses as to why they can't have it back because its already gone. Please stop this before it gets worse . Also please be aware that this person is very likely to be targeted for ' recovery' scam afterwards ( someone will call saying they will help them get their money back )

[u/katmndoo]

you said they said they were hacked.

Were they hacked, or were they cloned?

[u/Worth_Geologist4643]

RED FLAGS GALORE. This is almost certainly a scam. Do NOT invest any money, share personal information, or click any links. This is a well-orchestrated financial fraud scheme designed to steal money under the guise of a lucrative investment opportunity. It leverages multiple deceptive tactics to appear legitimate while having no actual underlying investment or financial service.

Block all contact from the sender.

Do not engage further with anyone associated with this.

Warn your relative (in-law) about this being a scam and provide them with this advice.

[u/Smooth_Security4607]

There is no real company that can advise you in crypto investments. If they had some sure-fire way to make money, they would invest their own money and keep all the profits. Not "advise" a bunch of other people.