A convicted Australian fraudster and his son were involved in an online trading “scam” that used "professional con artists", including a fake professor and other alleged ruses, to encourage elderly and infirm clients to deposit millions of dollars that have not been returned, a court has heard.
TitanTrade, under its various websites, has run investing clubs selling complex financial instruments known as binary options. The scammers also used aggressive brokers with fancy names like ‘Bruno Gold’ who bombarded clients with multiple daily Skype calls and messages despite pleas from clients, including one local man who begged to drop out of the scheme because he would not be able to afford his spinal surgery.
The court heard clients were offered a bonus amount and pushed into taking that bonus as "free money" to make bets. Yet the terms and conditions of the bonus effectively stripped people of their rights to withdraw the money. One victim was a 42-year-old spray painter who had signed up to TitanTrade after clicking on a pop up window online. The court heard that within weeks the customer had second thoughts because of his serious back injury requiring spinal surgery and wanted to withdraw his $20,000 balance.