A Powys grandfather has lost more than £17,000 after falling victim to a sophisticated cryptocurrency scam.

Paul Butterworth, 72, from Welshpool, was lured by a Facebook advert from criminals claiming to run Diamond Ridge Asset Management, also known as Diamond Ridge Financial Academy. He joined a WhatsApp group where supposed investors praised the platform, and was persuaded to invest his life savings.

Between January and April, his account appeared to grow to over $750,000. But when he tried to withdraw funds, his account was frozen and he was asked to repay a $25,000 “loan” to access his money.

Mr Butterworth turned to the National Fraud Helpline, which has so far recovered £5,500 from his bank. Lawyer Charlie Quail warned the scam was highly sophisticated and that thousands have been affected, leaving many victims financially devastated.

Mr Butterwoth said: “It all looked very kosher, they had a website and would put out daily reports about the stock market and crypto trading.

“They were allegedly written by a professor, and the stock market reports were very accurate so I assumed their crypto reports were accurate too.”

Mr Butterworth decided to get involved in crypto trading after dabbling on the stock market.

“It just seemed appealing and I thought I might be able to get involved and make a little bit of cash,” he said. “I’m retired and have a lot of time on my hands. I like to keep active, and thought it would give me something to do.”

After a few days in the WhatsApp group, he was messaged by people called ‘Selina’ and ‘Edward’, who encouraged him to help beta test a new quantitative trading system they had developed.

They helped him open an account on a platform called ‘Winning’, and provided him with $2,000 to invest, “which made it even more attractive”.

After four days of following trading tips in the WhatsApp group, the money in Paul’s ‘Winning’ account had seemingly increased to $3,500.

“They allowed me to withdraw 30 per cent of the profit, which made it seem genuine,” he said.

“I wish I’d walked away from it there and then, because I was in profit, but I was also hooked because I’d made money. Like an idiot, I got greedy and started to invest my own money.

“The tips came through on a daily basis, sometimes twice a day, and it was great. To be honest, I was enjoying it.”

Diamond Ridge then encouraged him to invest in new coin releases, and when his balance rose to more than $10,000 he was asked to join a partner programme if he could bring his account up to $25,000.

“They said they’d match the figure with $25,000, which they would lend me for a month,” said Paul, a grandfather of two and retired driving instructor.

“I still have the contract, which I printed and signed - it all looked very official. Once this new coin was released, the account went ballistic. They were telling people to put their life savings into it, sell your house etc. I didn’t do that, but I did put a significant amount of what was in my ‘Winning’ account into another new coin release.”

With his account showing a huge $753,855, Paul had mixed emotions.

“I thought ‘wow, I’m going on holiday’, but I also thought it was too good to be true,” he admitted.

His worst fears were realised when Diamond Ridge called in their $25,000 loan.

“I said ‘yeah, not a problem, take it out of the $750,000’,” he added.

“They said ‘you can't do that, it has to come from another source’. The ‘Winning’ account was now locked. I could get in but I couldn’t make withdrawals from it because I hadn’t paid the $25,000.”

At that point, he knew he had been scammed.

“I felt awful about it,” he said.

“I rely on the state pension, a little bit of stock market trading, and meagre savings, so it had a big impact.

“I’m 72 now, and this modern technology has opened opportunities that I’m just not familiar with. It’s like a goldmine to these scammers.”