The crypto-trading con: How I lost £200,000 in a sophisticated scam after watching a 'behind-the-scenes' video of Radio 2 DJ Sara Cox in an argument with This Morning presenter Ben Shephard

Susannah Jowitt was the richest she had ever been last month - her investments coupled with cryptocurrency totaled £93,984

Last month I was the richest I'd ever been. I had investments totalling £63,372, plus cryptocurrency totalling £93,984. I was giddy with excitement thinking of paying off my mortgage with change left over for a winter sun holiday with my husband.

And all this in a few months, from an initial investment of £200 in trading cryptocurrency. How exciting to be immersed in what's described as the new 'gold rush'.

Until, of course, I realised it was a scam and it all came tumbling down. Was I an idiot? You decide.

Here's where it begins. In July 2024, I watch an Instagram 'behind the scenes' video of Radio 2 DJ Sara Cox in an argument with the This Morning presenter Ben Shephard. 'How dare you close me down on-air like that?' she demands. 'Why shouldn't I tell people about how I made £200,000 in one year if they could too?'

Ben Shephard rolls his eyes, 'Because you just can't do that, Sara, it's irresponsible...cryptocurrency isn't for ordinary people, it's for clever cowboys.'

Sara shakes her head, 'Not with these people at Victory Capital, it's not. They make it easy, they hold your hand. I couldn't believe it myself but it bloody worked!'

Things are biting financially, so I think it can't harm to check it out. I Google Victory Capital, registered in Austin, Texas, with offices in London and Singapore. I read up about artificial intelligence trading and submit a contact form to see if I'm eligible.

I undertake never to invest more than 1 pc of my assets and don't give any detail more personal than my phone number. I 'register' for the minimum investment of £200.

I am duly messaged the next day on WhatsApp by Anthony Sharpe from the London office of Victory Capital and we fix another call a few days later.

He sounds American, with a trace of an Asian, possibly Filipino, accent, and is friendly, telling me how much he likes London since relocating from Texas, how he has looked me up and read some of my articles.

I say I've looked him up too but can't find him on Instagram or LinkedIn; he explains earnestly that since his whole professional life is digital, he prefers to keep his personal identity out of his digital profile. It sounds credible.

He asks me how much return I want to make on my £200. I go large, to test him. 'I want to make £4,000 because I want to buy my daughter a car.' He laughs. 'Try ten times that – within six months, Susannah!'

It opens up possibilities that are tempting... for a second. 'Keep your head screwed on,' I warn myself sternly.

I transferred the £200 to a Victory Capital account and log on, receiving a homepage 'dashboard' full of bar charts, jargon and official-looking regulatory warnings. I don't know what they are but I feel intrepid.

In July, there is a worldwide IT outage when a botched update by security outfit Crowdstrike takes down nearly 10 million Windows devices. So when I get a server error on the URL for my 'dashboard', Anthony blames it on that and gives me a new link.

There, to my amazement, I see my new balance is the Bitcoin equivalent of £16,773. From an initial £200 stake, it had jumped up to £8,000 and then to £16,773. 'You can buy your daughter that car now,' laughs Anthony over the phone. Golly, I think, maybe this is going to work...

I decide to take some of the profits out because the crypto trading 'world' is essentially unregulated. Anthony says UK banks are nervous of Bitcoin transfers so to get the £4,000 I'm cashing in I need to set up trading accounts with a couple of halfway house apps: OKX to open a wallet of Bitcoin that can then be converted by Crypto.com into GBP and, from there, I can transfer the sterling balance into my bank.

It sounds complicated, with a whiff of tax evasion about it. Anthony reassures me it's just a tax avoidance loophole, nothing illegal.

I Google OKX and Crypto.com, both cryptocurrency exchanges which pass the sniff test of Companies House.

Anthony offers to help me through the 'very fiddly' downloading of software on to my computer. 'If you download AnyDesk (a screen-sharing app) on to your laptop, then I can do it for you,' he explains casually.

Give control over my laptop to a stranger? Alarm bells ring. 'No, that's OK,' I