How Absgbl.com Turned My $79,000 Retirement into a Frozen Nightmare

Disclaimer: This is an authentic and verified first-person account based on real events. Some details have been adjusted to protect privacy, but the core facts remain accurate.

Last updated: April 7, 2026

Table of Contents

• How I got pulled in

• What I should have seen

• How I clawed back part of my loss

• Answers to common questions

I’m fifty-six years old. For thirty-two years, I’ve worked as a shop foreman at a custom fabrication plant in Nashville, Tennessee. I oversee the welders, the machinists, the guys who turn raw steel into parts for tractors and trucks. I’m not a wealthy man, but I’ve always been careful. My wife, Darlene, works as a receptionist at a dental clinic. We have two grown daughters and three grandkids.

Two years ago, Darlene was diagnosed with a degenerative condition in her spine. The surgeries weren’t fully covered by insurance. Between the hospital bills, the physical therapy, and the medications, we burned through nearly $40,000 of our savings in eighteen months. I started taking every overtime shift I could. I stopped buying new work boots. I patched the same jeans until the knees were more thread than denim.
That’s when Mona found me.

She sent me a WhatsApp message in January 2025. Her profile picture showed a friendly-looking woman in her fifties, someone who could have been a neighbor or a coworker. She said she was part of an investment group that helped “working-class families build wealth.” She mentioned a platform called ABSGLOBAL Investment Ltd, operating through absgbl.com and absgbl.cc. She said the platform used an AI trading system that generated guaranteed returns of 15–20% per month.

I ignored her at first. I’ve been around long enough to know that “too good to be true” usually is. But she was patient. She messaged me every day. She sent screenshots of her own “profits.” She talked about her own father, a retired factory worker, who had used the platform to pay off his medical bills. She never pushed. She just planted the seed and watered it.
After two weeks, I replied. I told her about Darlene’s condition. She said she understood — her own mother had gone through something similar. She introduced me to her “colleague,” Victor, who was the senior trading advisor for ABSGLOBAL.

Victor was different from Mona. He was all business. He walked me through the process of setting up a crypto wallet and transferring funds to the platform. He explained that ABSGLOBAL was a “licensed trading service” that used proprietary algorithms to exploit market inefficiencies. He offered me a demo: he would deposit $1,000 of the firm’s money into my account to prove their system worked.

I deposited $500 of my own money into the platform on absgbl.com. Within a week, my dashboard showed my balance had grown to $1,200. I requested a withdrawal of $500 — it landed in my bank account the next day. That single success erased every doubt.
Over the next month, Victor encouraged me to “scale up.” He said the AI system worked best with larger capital. I added $5,000 from our remaining savings. Then $10,000 from a personal loan. Then $15,000 from a home equity line of credit. Each time, my dashboard balance climbed. Victor even introduced me to a “lending partner” who deposited another $20,000 directly into my account as a “credit.” My dashboard showed my total value soaring past $300,000.

I started planning Darlene’s next surgery. I called my daughters and told them not to worry about their dad’s finances. I felt like I’d finally caught a break after two years of drowning.
Then I tried to withdraw $100,000 to pay off the home equity loan.
The platform returned an error: “Withdrawal blocked — compliance verification required.” Victor introduced me to a “compliance officer” named “Sarah.” Sarah said I needed to pay a “license activation fee” of $15,000 to unlock my funds. “It’s standard for high-value accounts,” she said. “You’ll get it back with your profits.”
I scraped together the money and sent it.
Then another $12,000 for “network processing.” I paid.
Then another $10,000 for “smart contract audit.” I paid.
Each payment was supposed to be the last. Each time, my account stayed frozen. When I finally refused to send more, my account was locked. Victor stopped responding. Mona’s profile picture disappeared from WhatsApp. The websites — absgbl.com, absgbl.cc — became inaccessible.

$79,000 — my savings, my home equity, my wife’s surgery fund — was gone.
I didn’t tell Darlene for weeks. I couldn’t. I stopped going to work. I just sat in my truck in the driveway, staring at the shop keys in my hand.
My youngest daughter came to check on me. She found me there. She listened. Then she told me about a friend who had recovered money from a similar scam through a firm called AYRLP. She made the call for me.
Within a few hours, I was on the phone with an AYRLP blockchain analyst in London. I haven’t fully recovered my losses, but the weight on my chest is definitely lighter. Through AYRLP, I’ve secured a 60% return. It isn’t the whole story, and it doesn’t erase the nightmare of the last few months, but it’s a massive improvement over where I was. After the constant stress and the fear, I’m finally able to get some rest. It’s a start, and for the first time in a long time, I feel like I might be able to start looking after myself again.

Red Flags I Missed (And You Shouldn’t)

* The California DFPI warning. The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation confirmed that ABSGBL was reported by at least one victim who lost money after being lured in by someone named Mona through a WhatsApp trading group. The scammers instructed victims to transfer funds, only to repeatedly pressure them for more deposits. When the victim attempted to withdraw, they never received their money. I should have checked the DFPI’s Crypto Scam Tracker before I invested.

* The domain was brand new and hidden. ScamAdviser gave absgbl.cc a relatively low trust score, noting that the website owner was using a service to hide their identity on WHOIS — a major red flag for any financial platform. The domain was registered on July 16, 2024, just months before I was contacted.

• Gridinsoft flagged the site as suspicious. Security analysis gave absgbl.cc a trust score of 1/100, classifying it as a suspicious website with several risk indicators, including hidden ownership details and limited popularity. Gridinsoft Anti-malware blocked the site because it was classified as suspicious.
• * The “compliance officer” was fake. The California DFPI warning describes a similar pattern: after victims tried to withdraw funds, scammers demanded taxes and fees, using a fake contact named Tina to convince them to pay. The platform then demanded additional fines. This is identical to what Victor and Sarah did to me.
• * A small withdrawal that worked — that’s the bait. The $500 I successfully withdrew was designed to build trust before they stole the rest.
• * Fake “loans” introduced through the same chat. The “lending partner” was part of the scam. They never lent real money — they just added fake credits to my dashboard.
• * Fees that multiply. “License activation,” “network processing,” “smart contract audit” — no legitimate financial service charges you to access your own money.

Steps I Took to Get Money Back
1. I stopped paying immediately. No “unfreeze” fee is real.
2. I preserved every piece of evidence. Screenshots of WhatsApp chats, transaction hashes, wallet addresses, and the website URLs.
3. I reported the scam. In the US, I filed with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI).
4. I contacted AYRLP. Their blockchain analysts traced my funds across multiple exchanges and worked with international authorities to freeze a portion of the stolen assets.

Frequently Asked Questions
Was ABSGLOBAL Investment Ltd a real trading platform? No. The California DFPI confirmed that ABSGBL was reported by at least one victim who lost money after being lured in by someone named Mona through a WhatsApp trading group. The platform posed as a legitimate trading service but never allowed withdrawals.
Who were Mona and Victor? Fictional personas. The California DFPI warning describes a similar pattern where a “Tina” lured victims into a fraudulent platform, then later demanded taxes and fees. Reverse image searches of their profile pictures would likely trace them to stock photo websites.
What is the “Pig Butchering” scam pattern? A long-term fraud where scammers build trust through messaging apps, show fake profits, allow small withdrawals, then drain your account and demand endless fees.
Can I really get my money back? It’s possible but not guaranteed. Firms like AYRLP have successfully recovered 50–60% for many victims by following the money through the blockchain and pressuring exchanges to freeze assets. In my case, I got back 60% of what I lost.
How can I protect myself? Never trust an investment platform recommended through WhatsApp. Always check the California DFPI’s Crypto Scam Tracker before investing. Verify a domain’s age using WHOIS — legitimate financial platforms have established histories. Be skeptical of any platform that offers “demo money” or charges fees to withdraw your own funds. And remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

How Absgbl.com Turned My $79,000 Retirement into a Frozen Nightmare was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.