Pzcus01.com Scam – How I Got Back My Funds Lost To A Crypto Romance Scam

I signed up for Hellotalk where people from different countries could practice speaking with one another. I thought I would spend a few minutes each evening practicing vocabulary. I never expected to develop a friendship or lose more than $180,000.

About two weeks after creating my profile, I received a message from someone named Jin Xin. 

She wanted to improve her English because most of her clients were American. I wanted to improve my Mandarin. It seemed like a perfect arrangement.

Our first conversations were exactly what you would expect from a language exchange. She corrected my pronunciation; I helped her with common English expressions. Whenever one of us made a mistake, we would laugh and move on. There was no flirting, no discussion about money, and nothing that made me suspicious.

Our conversations soon expanded beyond language lessons. She would ask how my business was going; I would ask how her’s was going to. We talked about our cultural differences from food to music everything.

One thing led to another, we moved our conversations to WhatsApp because the language app limited voice calls. We began speaking several times each week. Sometimes we would spend an hour switching back and forth between English and Mandarin. She was patient whenever I struggled with pronunciation, and I would help her prepare presentations for work by proofreading her English. It genuinely felt like we were helping each other.

Some months after our first conversation, she told me she would be traveling to the U.S for work. We talked about finally meeting for dinner. Unfortunately, a family issue delayed her trip. She apologized repeatedly. 

At the time, I believed her disappointment was genuine. Today, I wonder whether there had ever been a business trip at all.

Our conversations became more personal, she admitted she had never married because work consumed most of her twenties. I had also neglected relationships for the sake of my career. Neither of us said we were dating, but we both acknowledged that our conversations had become the best part of our day. 

One evening, after I complained about work, she asked if i ever thought about retiring early. She explained that she invested a portion of every bonus she received into digital assets.

As we talked more cryptocurrency came up occasionally. She mentioned that she spent twenty minutes reviewing market data before work, or that she had skipped trading because conditions weren't favorable. 

Nothing sounded extraordinary. I became curious enough to ask how she learned. She said a friend who worked in Binance taught her all about it.

She walked me through buying a small amount of Ethereum on Binance before transferring it to Pzcus01.com where she claimed she invested with.

I deposited $1,500 and within two weeks, the balance had increased. To satisfy my own curiosity, I withdrew $300. The money arrived in my bank account. That withdrawal erased almost every concern I had.

My investments increased gradually. There was never one dramatic decision, just dozens of small ones. Every deposit seemed reasonable on its own. Combined, they resulted nearly $190,000. 

According to Pzcus01.com, my account balance eventually exceeded half a million dollars.

Everything collapsed the day I requested a withdrawal. Customer support informed me that my account had entered a mandatory compliance review because of the transaction size. 

To complete the process, I needed to deposit more cryptocurrency. The explanation immediately felt wrong. I asked Jin for advice, she urged me to complete the payment immediately. 

The warmth I had grown accustomed to disappeared. Every conversation became focused on sending more money.

I spent the rest of the evening searching online about Pzcus01.com. 

I discovered articles addressing them as a platform used for "pig-butchering" scams.

I sent it all to Jin but she had blocked me, I reported Jin and Pzcus01.com to the police but nothing was done. While scrolling through Reddit, I found people were discussing crypto scams and sharing what they did afterward. 

One comment mentioned CipherTrace and described how blockchain investigators analyze transaction trails.

I visited their website on - www.theciphertrace.com and submitted my information. An investigator reached out a few days later, reviewed every transaction with me, and explained the movement of the funds in a way I could actually understand. After providing all the evidence requested for during the investigation, all of my funds were recovered.