Morgan DF Fintoch, a project claiming to be backed by Morgan Stanley, has apparently disappeared with $32 million. The platform promised high returns but stopped communicating with investors after they complained of withdrawal problems
Morgan DF Fintoch leaves with the cash
According to an analysis by ZachXBT on 24 May, the DF Fintoch project, which boasted the backing of US bank Morgan Stanley, is said to have left with a $32 million fund and has not been heard from since.
It appears the team behind the ponzi @DFintoch has likely exit scammed with 31.6m USDT on BSC after the funds were bridged to multiple addresses on Tron/Ethereum and
people reported being unable to withdrawFintoch advertised 1% daily ROI & claimed to be owned by Morgan Stanley pic.twitter.com/UD3KKfkG97
– ZachXBT (@zachxbt) May 23, 2023
DF Fintoch’s Twitter page is still live, but the last communication was on 23 May, the day investors began complaining that they could not withdraw their assets. The funds in question were transferred from the Fintoch wallet to various addresses on Tron (TRX) and Ethereum (ETH).
The platform, whose website is still online, claims to be able to offer returns of “1% per day, 36% for 30 days and 100% for 63 days”, which is much higher than what centralised exchanges (CEX) usually offer.
Known in full as “Morgan DF Fintoch”, the scam relied on the evocative association of its name with that of Morgan Stanley. A subterfuge that worked, even though the US bank issued a statement assuring the public that it had no connection whatsoever with the project.
Please note that Fintoch is using Morgan Stanley’s trade name and/or Morgan Stanley’s registered trademark or any variation thereof without permission. We assume no responsibility for any transactions or results that may arise from the above platforms. […] Morgan Stanley does not use social media or mobile applications and does not directly trade cryptocurrency or digital currency products on behalf of its clients. “
Many things pointed to the scam
At first glance, all the elements are there to make you wary of this type of project. The site is very amateurishly produced, not to say crudely, with some links simply not working or redirecting to dubious pages. More generally, the site’s finish is far from professional
Figure 1 – Overview of the DF Fintoch site
Next, and this is information that should always be checked on little-known sites or projects, the DF Fintoch team (the one presented, at least) is completely unknown. For example, Bobby Joe Lambert, who is presented as the company’s CEO and as a serial entrepreneur, cannot be found on Google. The same goes for the entire team presented on the official website
Figure 2 – Team featured on the DF Fintoch website
Finally, though more complicated to find, the Monetary Authority of Singapore has added DF Fintoch to its “investor alert list” for deceptive sites. In any case, always be extremely vigilant about the projects you plan to invest in
