Monetio Scam Help

Have you been a victim of the Monetio scam or, as they were previously known, iQHub?

My husband got involved with iQHub (investQHub) after seeing a fake review at the start of March 2024 on Facebook which contained a video of Ben Fogle extolling their virtues.  (Ben Fogle later posted messages explaining that he had been previously unaware of the video, but that it was fake. It was too late for us when we became aware of Ben Fogle's post.) Part way through our association with iQHub, they changed their name to Monetio.

Ultimately, we lost over £200,000 to this scam and we are now trying to get some money back. If you have also been a victim, this website may offer some hope.

We are using Pembridge Solicitors, Calderwood House, Montpellier Parade, Cheltenham, GL50 1UA

https://pembridgesolicitors.co.uk/

We are right at the start of the process but Prithvi has some creative solutions to getting our money back through avenues that we wouldn't have considered ourselves. It is very difficult to get money back from the big banks. One option is to take 'group action', but this obviously involves many people getting in touch with Prithvi. Through reviews that we put out on TrustPilot, we have had one or two people get in contact but we are hoping that more people will come forward after seeing this website. 

I've told our story below, so please read on if you are interested and do get in touch with our solicitor if you would like help. Ultimately, it may or may not come to anything but it's better than doing nothing.

Our story

As mentioned above, in March 2024 my husband saw an Ad on Facebook advertising Quantum AI.  He responded to it and was put through to a broker called iQHub. The employee's name was Nico and he had a manager called Noah Johnston. Nico and my husband got on very well and were in touch on a daily basis. My husband invested £200 initially and was shown how to make a little bit of money from Forex. (The trading account ran in USD so our GPB was converted into this on arriving in the account.) He was encouraged to invest a little bit more, until he had invested £10,000 whereupon he was 'trained' in how to invest in commodities. My husband could log in to his account and see his trading screen and the fluctuations in value of a whole range of investments. The value of his trading account went up and down depending on whether his trades were successful or not. On the whole, he was having a positive experience under the guidance of Nico. Although my husband traded independently on small trades, he basically followed the advice of Nico when any large trades were placed. 

Some evenings, Nico would ring and the two of them wouldn't discuss trades but Nico would tell my husband how much he had made through trading. They talked about holidays and what they spent their money on. They also talked about family and other personal pieces of information. Nico was Polish but lived in Zurich, Switzerland. Nico sounded like a very lovely, trustworthy person who knew what he was doing. Whilst on a phone call, it was possible to hear 'office noise' in the background. Nico would occasionally be interrupted 'for a signature'. It sounded like a legitimate office. In hindsight, it was obvious that through these conversations, Nico was gleaning a lot of information about the financial position of my husband and also of me.

I wasn't happy with the idea of trading, but Nico opened up a conversation about a savings account. He suggested that I could deposit my money in the savings account (which offered 7.6% interest per month) and, crucially, it would not be used for trading and it would receive a favourable interest rate. Even if our trading account crashed, Nico told us that the money in the savings account would be safe. Initially, I didn't want to but after several reassuring conversations with Nico and then his manager, I was persuaded to send over some of my own money. Through this convincing relationship we were depositing more and more money with iQHub. My husband, who had most contact with iQHub was totally convinced of their authenticity. Although I had misgivings, I ignored them because my husband was sure. By the end of March 2024, we'd transferred about £20,000, by the end of April 2024, after being persuaded to take out bank loans (something I never would have contemplated in my right mind) to the tune of £50,000 we sent a further £80,000, by May 2024 another £26,000 and so it went on.  Nico promised that the interest on the loans would be paid by iQHub and that our profits would allow us to pay off the loans in 3 months.  Nico was careful not to put too much pressure on us. We would sometimes waver and, amongst the patter and persuasion, he would reassure us that we could do as we pleased. He occasionally suggested that we take a little of our profits, say $2000, and do something nice with it. The accounts seemed to be doing well. They had duped us into believing their lies.

The interest on the loans was paid for two months but after two months of us not sending any more money, Nico stalled on the loan repayments and his daily briefings with my husband were beginning to dry up. He would miss calls that he promised to make and when my husband tried to contact him there was no reply. When they did speak, Nico complained of very bad headaches and we were genuinely worried about him. The last time my husband spoke to him, Nico was croaking and saying that he felt very ill. Then, we heard nothing from Nico. My husband tried all of the contact numbers he had for iQHub but there was no reply. 

After 6 weeks of very little contact from the company at all, we were contacted by Noah, Nico's manager. We were told that all of our investments had gone bad and it was my husband's fault. Noah was abusive towards my husband. He shouted, blamed and behaved as if my husband was the idiot who lost an account which was at one point worth $300,000. Apparently, everyone in the brokerage knew about the account - only an idiot like my husband would let something like this happen. When my husband tried to explain that he had only followed the guidance of Nico, Noah screamed at my husband that he didn't have to take the advice and that he was the owner of the account and all of the losses were his responsibility. How dare my husband try to lay any of the blame at the feet of Nico, who was now in hospital with severe brain trauma. The only way to save the account now was to put everything in the savings account into the trading account. I told my husband that I didn't want to do that as the savings account was protected but my husband explained that Noah had said that if the trading account crashed, we would lose all of the money in the savings account anyway. If we put the savings into trading we would at least have a chance of recouping our money. I asked my husband to query this. He did and was told that we were the ones who had misunderstood the agreement. I was absolutely sure that I had not misunderstood. My husband gave the go ahead for the transfer. The trading account crashed anyway.

We were distraught. We were now in debt to the banks, we were fielding the loan repayments ourselves, and had lost the majority of our savings. iQHub blamed us and made sure that we knew it was our fault. We felt awful.  We felt stupid. We felt as if we had let the brokerage down, let alone ourselves. We were reminded that poor Nico had had a serious medical emergency and because of this was no longer able to work for the company. We felt worried about Nico. After further conversations, iQHub gradually listened to our concerns and told us, as a gesture of goodwill, they would set us up with a new account using the broker's own funds of $300,000. They could do this sort of thing as they would be making money off of the trades we placed. We'd be allocated  an account recovery specialist, Mark Lewis, and we'd be able to get our money back.  As a gesture of thanks, we would have to provide £50,000 which would go into the savings account.

I was so angry at this point that I gave Mark Lewis 'what for' in the next telephone conversation we had with him. He told us that we had misunderstood Noah and that we didn't have to put our savings into the trading account. We could've left the savings in the savings account until the trading account had been sorted out (i.e. whether it made a loss or not). I told Mark that this sort of 'misunderstanding' was unacceptable and that they needed to give us back the money that was in the savings account before the crash of the trading account had occurred. Mark refused. I screamed at him about iQHub's unethical trading practices. He told me that the broker's practices allowed the company, and therefore its customers, to make BIG profits. Mixed in with his patter was constant reminders about how poor Nico had suffered. He was using a clever blend of warped logic and engendering sympathy to blur the truth - that this was a scam. I told Mark that none of his logic added up - he would say one thing and then later say something different - he shouted me down, coming back at me with more confusing information. After the conversation, my husband and I had lengthy conversations about whether this was real. We believed some of it but some of it didn't make sense. Although my thoughts hadn't fully crystallised, I was starting to believe something was not right. Mark had the answers to everything and because there was so much a stake and we wanted to believe we could get some of our money back, we were drawn in again. 

We borrowed money from my sister and I cleaned out the rest of my savings to pay the £50,000. The £50,000 was just our show of committment and it would go into the savings account. As Mark had previously explained, this money was safe. The savings account would be locked until we had made ourselves, and therefore the company, enough money. Mark was now very reassuring - we no longer had to worry because now we were trading with the company's money, not ours, so there was nothing left to lose. He'd make sure that the loan repayments were re-established and provide us with lots of guidance so we could get our money back. We'd also get GAP trades which were the profits from trades that take place after the markets have closed. He told us that he loved his job because he was always the one who was able to turn things around and his clients and the company loved him because he always made them a lot of money. He let us know that the company paid him a LOT of money to do his job and they wouldn't do that if he wasn't any good. It was at this point that iQHub became Monetio.

From then on, contact with the company was patchy. Mark's daughter was now very ill and he was taking time off to visit her in hospital. He spent all day there and then had to work during the night. £10,000 of the £50,000 didn't reach our trading account and despite the fact that my husband raised this a number of times, no one was interested. The interest payments on the loans were not re-established either. We felt bad for Mark so my husband tried not to bother him too much with any concerns but did not have any luck discussing problems with other company members. Mark's trading suggestions seemed to be mostly sensible and the account appeared stable.

My husband was only communicating with Mark on the odd occasion and mostly at night. One trading commodity that Mark had suggested as a good bet was Natural Gas. This one took a turn for the worst so my husband closed the trade. Mark got in touch to let him know that he shouldn't have done this as Natural Gas has a contract or licence associated with it and to be able to trade with Natural Gas again, we'd have to buy the licence. Natural Gas was going to go sky high so this was something we should do. It would cost £20,000. Believe it or not, my husband took this call as we sat in the car at 7pm in Tesco's car park. We were just about to do some shopping. I heard the conversation and shook my head at my husband mouthing to him, 'there's no more money'. My husband explained to Mark that we had nothing left. Mark responded by suggesting to my husband that he used his credit card. My husband stuck to his guns explaining that the bank had closed his overdraft facility and cut down his credit limit because too much money had been going out of his account. Mark told him that Natural Gas was a winner and he wouldn't want to miss the profits he would make on it. Mark would talk to my husband later.

Later meant 3am one morning a few days later. My husband acquiesced and sent the only £4000 he could get off of his credit card. Mark said it would be OK as Natural Gas was such a good deal that he, Mark, would pay the rest of the licence with his own money. The £4000 never turned up where it was meant to. According to Mark, the company found out he was using his own money which was very frowned upon and the company had sent us our £4000 back. Silence from the company again and the £4000 did not show up on my husband's credit card either.

After a period of time of my husband ringing all of the numbers he had and also customer services, we were introduced to Anton. Anton was a lively and friendly trader and we liked him. He encouraged us to put more money in, but we explained what had happened to us and told him there was no more money.  He did not put further pressure on us for more money. He gave my husband some more advice about trades and things bobbed along. Then, suddenly, there was going to be a big movement in the markets and, according to Anton, my husband needed to put on a lot of trades. Anton suggested buying large amounts of certain commodities and buying a wide range. My husband queried this, but Anton insisted. My husband felt he had to do what Anton said as he was trading with money that wasn't his. The account lost a lot of money and it was touch and go whether anyone would be able to recover it. Mark popped up briefly again to back up Anton's strategy but then he disappeared and after a period of Noah not knowing whether Mark was working for the company or not, we were told that Mark was no longer working for the company. 

Now, with no support from any trader, my husband worked tirelessly to recover the account. He did his full time job, hopping on and off the computer to monitor his trades throughout the day. At home, he combined doing jobs around the house and garden with trading. He went to bed at 9pm, woke at 11pm when markets opened and monitored trades on and off throughout the night. Markets closed on a Friday night so he had the weekends off. He reached profits of $800,000 with no trades left active.

My husband applied to Monetio to move some of this money into our savings account and to withdraw some. Monetio declined saying that my husband had been scalping so we couldn't have any money. (In actual fact, he had not been scalping. We argued with Monetio about this but they wouldn't budge.) My husband would have to use his profits to put on a set of trades, as dictated by the company, and after that he could withdraw some money. My husband did this. The account crashed.

We were passed back to Noah. Finally, my wonderful, patient husband had lost it. He was difficult and demanding with Noah. Noah was just as angry back. Noah repeatedly told us that he had much more important clients than us. My husband pointed out a number of reasons why Monetio could not be a legitimate company. Despite Noah's protestations, there were just some answers that didn't make sense, or there were simple questions, such as 'What is your registered address in Switzerland', that Noah could not answer. When my husband revisited the fact that Monetio had not deposited £14000 of our money into our savings account, Noah asked my husband to send him copies of 6 months of his bank statements to help him in his search for the money. Monetio needed proof that the money hadn't been sent back to my husband. My husband declined but raised the question why a trading company, whose fundamental business is money and who had proof that the £14000 had been received, could not tell where that £14000 had gone or indeed, whether it had been sent back to my husband. My husband told Noah outright that this was all a scam. Noah refuted this asking why the company would stick by him for such a long time if it was all a scam. This point made us doubt our reasoning as to whether this was a scam.

More arguments between Noah and my husband, who was now relentless in his pursuit of getting our money back, ensued. Shortly after Noah claimed my husband was harrassing him he decided there was no problem and that he had 'fixed it'.  He would set us up with a new account using $600,000 of the company's money. He did this and the £50,000 in our saving account disappeared. We raised this issue but I am sure you can guess that this money never reappeared. We made it clear that there would be no more money from our end. 

We were placed with yet another trader, Jake. The first thing Jake asked us was to send some more money. We explained the course of events and that we would not be sending any money. As before, Jake suggested large trades and many trades, way beyond what we were comfortable with. After some time he told us that the account wasn't in good shape and we'd have to put in more money. By this time, my husband was losing the will to continue and sometime around now I contacted a variety of solicitors. My husband told Jake that he'd go it alone. I felt so entrenched that I wasn't ready for my husband to give up. My husband continued successfully for another few weeks without a trader, before a senior manager, Donald, got in touch. Donald offered my husband three options, one of which was that if my husband could make $800,000 in profit, he could have the £204,000 that we had invested back.

We met with Prithvi at Pembridge Solicitors who told us that we had most definitely been victims of a scam and we had likely been using a 'training' screen which mimicks the markets but which can also be manipulated by the company running it.

My husband traded tirelessly for the next few months, following the same pattern as he had before. - Bed at 9pm, up at 11pm, monitor trades on and off throughout the night, get up for 7am and into work, monitor trades on and off all day until 9pm. We wanted to be absolutely sure that we'd tried everything to get our money back. Donald was in constant contact, giving us hope that this time things would work out. Donald also asked us for more money, but we declined. Finally, my husband reached the target and contacted Donald with instructions as to where our £204,000 should be sent. Hours after he made contact with Donald, a spike in the market wiped hundreds of thousands off my husband's profits. The screen in front of us did not make sense. The spike should've produced a gain in profits but instead, it produced a loss in profits. The price we bought our trades at had been altered to force a loss. It was time to give up.

To protect others, we have tried putting reviews on Trustpilot. When you put a review up, Trustpilot contact you to verify your review. Through Trustpilot, you are asked to contact Monetio to confirm your identity. My husband and I both did this but Monetio respond to Trustpilot telling them that we are not legitimate customers, and that is all it takes for Trustpilot to remove your review. So, now, I've made this website and hope it acts as a warning and perhaps offers a little bit of hope. If you have had a similar experience with Monetio, please get in touch the solicitor mentioned above - you can check him out by an independent search on the web and by contacting Companies House.