Athens man conned out of $440,000 in a fast-time investment scam

An Athens man lost $440,000 in an investment scam that was introduced to him by a person on LinkedIn, a website where people post their professional and work backgrounds, according to an Athens-Clarke police report.

The 70-year-old man, a University of Georgia employee with a degree from Yale University, alerted police to the scam on Dec. 30, according to a recently released report.

The scam involved investing with what was termed a high-frequency trading website.

The website Investopedia says high-frequency trading uses “powerful computer programs to transact a large number of orders in fractions of a second.” And that traders with fast execution speeds are generally more profitable.

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The Athens man reported he was introduced to the site on LinkedIn by a woman who said she was the vice president of a furniture company.

From August through November, the man told police he completed 27 transactions for an investment of about $440,000.

When he reached $1.4 million in returns on his investment, he decided to withdraw the money, he told police.

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However, the company told him he would have to pay $484,000 in taxes up front to get the money.

The man told police at that point he realized he was the victim of a sophisticated fraud scheme.

The victim was able to provide police with a flash drive containing images of the offending website and his deposit history with the fake investment site.

Police issued a statement urging people to invest with individuals they know and trust and reject unsolicited emails or telephone calls.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Athens man loses $440,000 in sophisticated investments fraud scheme