The Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) in Washington State has released a consumer protection warning concerning the "supposed cryptocurrency exchange" called Eucoinotrade.

According to the statement, at least one person may have fallen victim to what appears to be “advanced fee fraud”. DFI received a complaint from a Washington resident regarding Eucoinotrade.com (“Eucoinotrade”), a website claiming to be “a private, legally registered online investment company with the goal of earning the greatest profit possible from Binary Options trading.” The Eucoinotrade website claims that users can make “150% daily profit” trading binary options.

"After investing 5 or 6 times, for a total of nearly $50,000, the investor’s Eucoinotrade account purportedly grew to over $414,000. In one day, the account purportedly grew by $30,000 or $40,000. When the investor requested to withdraw funds from their account, Eucoinotrade “customer service” claimed that due to the large returns the investor was making, they were considered part of an elite group and demanded the investor pay for a $40,000 software upgrade in order to continue to trade binary options. " DFI explained in the statement.

"Eucoinotrade “customer service” waived the upgrade fee and demanded the investor pay a $14,000 processing fee. After paying the fee, Eucoinotrade “customer service” demanded the investor pay another fee, an IRS compulsory fee of $9,400. After refusing to pay the fee, the investor’s Eucoinotrade account stopped increasing in profit and when the investor logged into their account, the account only showed the balance of the fee that Eucoinotrade demanded the investor pay." DFI added.

DFI says this appears to be what is commonly called “Advance Fee Fraud”.

The alert also highlights several red flags about Eucoinotrade: it claims to be registered in Ireland, but the business ID seems to belong to a different company; its FAQ mentions accepting Payza, a service closed in 2018 after founders' guilty pleas for money laundering and running an unlicensed money service business; and the website uses a template common to hundreds of other dubious sites.