Tel Aviv Woman Loses Half a Million Shekels in Investment Scam

A resident of Tel Aviv, identified only as R., claims to have lost approximately 500,000 shekels (about $135,000 USD) in an investment fraud scheme. She alleges that she was contacted by a man named Sergey, who presented himself as a financial consultant and convinced her to invest the sum in a high-yield financial company that operated in Cyprus and the UK. R. stated that Sergey provided convincing charts and claimed to have clients from Israel and around the world, building her trust over several months.

After R. transferred the money, Sergey reportedly showed her fabricated reports indicating her investments had generated profits of around $500,000 USD. When she requested to withdraw her funds, Sergey allegedly began demanding additional money, claiming it was needed for taxes to be paid to U.S. authorities to release the profits. Shortly thereafter, Sergey ceased all communication and disappeared, leading R. to realize she had been defrauded.

R. believes she was a victim of the "Pig Butchering" scam, a method where fraudsters build relationships and trust before convincing victims to invest increasingly large sums in fake projects. It is suspected that the funds R. lost were transferred to accounts in China and Georgia.

According to estimates, numerous Israelis have recently lost millions of shekels to similar investment scams, where victims only discover the falsified profits and their fraudulent nature when attempting to withdraw their money. Lawyers Nir and Shahiv Rotenberg, specializing in international law and fraud victim assistance, have filed police complaints in Israel with supporting documents they believe can help identify those involved and have requested a criminal investigation.