The FCA issued its warning about OFC Markets just a few days after Mr Dudleston's first investment of £250. Within hours a salesman was on the phone urging him to up his stake.
"Initially it was on exchange rates, which were fluctuating depending on how bad the country had been hit . In mid-July however he attempted to withdraw £10,000 to pay a tax bill, but says he was blocked by OFC Markets on the pretext that he had breached the rules of his account. In fact OFC Markets took three payments of £7,000, persuading Mr Dudleston to authorise them after claiming the first two payments had not cleared. The company then refused to return the rest of his money, telling him he owed a further £15,000 in"tax and liquidation charges".
"There are some other classic scam red flags here including the fact that the gentleman that you have spoken to started with a very small investment, but within a month he'd been hard sold into investing a lot more money, and he'd supposedly made 100% profits. Now that's a too-good-to-be-true return which is a classic sign of a scam."
"We're working to try and get social media to have stiffer due diligence requirements so that they can stop some of these sites coming in at the outset. We don't have the power to require that and social media is largely unregulated.
Bowled over by how this could he’s stumped how he got caught out.
That's a right kick in the googlies