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‘Mrs. Antonia’ Scam Preys on 1M Clients Affected by ePayments FCA Imposed Lockdown

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Mrs. Antonia

Twitter hacks, news outlet impersonations, Ponzi schemes, and now ‘Mrs. Antonia' – the world is rife with scams, perpetrated by criminals looking to prey on the naïve.

Although less publicised, the recent ‘Mrs. Antonia’ scam is being targeted towards more than 1 million clients of ePayments that lost access to their financial holdings, months ago.

Mrs. Antonia

In this new scam, it appears that bad actors are looking to prey on those that have already endured trying times.

Users of payment processing platform, ePayments, which have had their funds frozen, are being contacted by a person or group posing as ‘Mrs. Antonia’.  In these instances, ‘Mrs. Antonia' promises the affected ePayments clients that they can help ‘unfreeze’ their funds – this, however, is a lie.  The person or people behind the scam go as far as creating fake testimonials from people claiming that ‘Mrs. Antonia’ did indeed help them.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Antonia does not exist, and she cannot help.  The actions of these criminals have prompted ePayments to release a statement, informing their clients of this scam.

“PLEASE be aware – this is a scam. We are unable to release any customer funds at present and so any claims by any third parties of this nature are not true.”

Extended Lockdown

For months now, over 1 million clients of payment processor, ePayments, have had access to their funds revoked, due to a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) imposed lockdown.  To this day, the reasoning behind these measures is not fully known, aside from lapses found in ePayments anti-money laundering (AML) procedures.

With this lockdown extended for months now, it is understandable that those affected are growing impatient.  As a result, many account holders might just be swayed by the promises made by these criminals.

Upon addressing the situation, ePayments has attempted to ease the fears of its clients by stating,

“We recognise that time has elapsed since we suspended business and we are truly sorry that we have put you, our customers, in this position. We wish to assure you once again that your funds are still safeguarded as normal.”

Scams Aplenty

Sadly, we must all be vigilant, and on guard for scams.  They are increasingly prevalent, as we increase our reliance on technology, with the ePayments situation simply being one example.

The world of blockchain is no stranger to scams, and has resulted in multiple which were staggering in size.

Onecoin
  • $4 billion stolen through Ponzi scheme
 Plustoken
  • $6 billion defrauded from investors
  • Recently arrested 27 individuals connected with the scam

These two scams alone affected millions of investors, defrauding them of roughly $10 billion.  While actions have been taken in an attempt to hold the offenders accountable for their actions, the sad truth is that the vast majority of those affected will never see their funds again.

ePayments

Founded in 2010, ePayments is a global payments processor based out of the United Kingdom.  Through its services, ePayments has amassed over 1million clients, representing 100 countries.

CEO, Mikhail Rymanov, currently oversees company operations.

*Upon contacting ePayments for commentary, no response was received*

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